It’s safe to say the experience has been a whirlwind. “I felt like I was chained to the back of an insane, 150-miles-an-hour party bus going down a river. It was a really fun time, but I had no idea what the f— was going on,” Cameron tells PEOPLE. “It was one of the best years of my life, but it was also a serious crash course where I had to learn everything on the fly.”
“It’s kind of crazy to me,” says Cameron of the fanfare surrounding the track, initially recorded around 3 a.m., toward the end of a 15-hour-long studio session. “It was this magical moment where it was the middle of the night, dead silent and pitch black outside, and it was the witching hour. They played me this song for the first time, and I was swooning, head over heels. It just felt so special.”
Dove Cameron and Khalid.ASHLEY OSBORN/COURTESY OF COLUMBIA RECORDS
“We Go Down Together” marks her fifth single since launching into this new era with the romantic “Boyfriend” last year. After following up the hit song with"anti-man anthem" “Breakfast"and the charmingly sensual banger “Girl Like Me,” among other tracks, her debut album is finally on the horizon. “It’ll be out this year, no questions asked. I’ve been promising that for way too f—ing long,” quips Cameron of the upcoming record, which she describes as “stream-of-consciousness sad girl music.”
“I’m talking about heartache, but also things like losing a parent at a young age, losing two of my best friends to really intense, middle-of-the-night-phone-call kind of deaths, eating disorders and all of this stuff that I’ve never really been able to put to melody,” she continues. “I’m finally finding a way to talk about those things in a much more honest way.”
“Before this year, I had been mostly playing 250-seat venues. It was a crazy jump,” she says of singing for upwards of 20,000 people every night on the tour. “I really learned a lot. Going forward, I’m planning on touring in the fall, but I literally just need to get more music out there. I don’t want half of the set to be covers.”
Cameron’s most looking forward to connecting with fans at her concerts. Her relationship with listeners has strengthened over the past few years, as she’s let them into her personal life, candidly opening up about mental health struggles and her queer identity, which has played a major role in the subject matter of many of her recent singles. Coming out has also contributed to her performance style, which is now more authentic than ever before.
“I’m allowing myself to be more human on stage rather than having it be the place that I feel the least safe, and really all of that is down to the amount of support I’ve gotten from fans and other women in the queer community,” she details, noting that despite embracing her own queerness, she doesn’t want to alienate any listeners or potential concert attendees. “You don’t have to be a part of the queer community to come and enjoy my music. It’s my aspiration to make music that everybody can enjoy — except for straight men.”
“I think I’m not allowed to comment on it, but what I will say is I had so much f—ing fun filming it, and playing a superhero was just the best,” she says. “All I know is that they would have to wig me, because I think if I went blonde again I would fall into a deep, dark depression. Or maybe all my hair would fall out. One of the two.”
source: people.com
