Q&A: No Baddies Left Behind! Amelia Moore Doubles Down on B-Side EP “He’s Still Just Not That Into You!”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY TIFFANY LE ☆
LOOKS LIKE WE’RE PRE-GAMING “HOT GIRL SUMMER” WITH SOME HARD TRUTHS — Amelia Moore, aka the people’s left-field Pop princess, had her breakthrough last year when her song “see through” off the prequel EP he’s just not that into you! made its rounds on TikTok, the breeding grounds of many hits we know today. The song did so well that Moore gifted us with an all-star remix featuring Absolutely, Coco Jones, and Samara Cyn.
Coming off of the high of a huge hit and remix, her first ever headline tour and festival appearance at Camp Flog Gnaw, she now presents a fresh record under a new contract with Republic Records. Her first project under a label since releasing teaching a robot to love under Capitol Records back in 2022, he’s still just not that into you! is a nod to the beloved rom-com and serves as a second installation to last year’s project by an (almost) identical name, a bluntly quirky reminder to save yourself the embarrassment of breaking no-contact.
Read our conversation with Amelia Moore below to pick her brain on the inner workings of the double-sided EPs, its sickenly talented collaborators, and all the reasons you should probably stay away from that man.
LUNA: Before we get into the project, I just wanted to check in and see how you’ve been! What’s been bringing you joy lately? I heard you’re a new auntie!
MOORE: I am an auntie! That has been bringing me a lot of joy. Anytime my sister sends me pictures of my niece, it's like the best part of my day. What else is bringing me joy? I just moved apartments, so unpacking and buying a bunch of new knick knacks to organize everywhere has been really fun, redecorating.
LUNA: This is like a whole new chapter for you!
MOORE: Yeah, I know! New project, new place.
LUNA: Also, congratulations on signing with Republic Records!
MOORE: Thank you! Yeah, new label [too].
LUNA: How excited are you for what’s next? You’ve already accomplished so much independently.
MOORE: I wasn't even really expecting to sign to another label that soon. I'm so grateful and excited that it's all come together with how soon that it did. It's been great, the whole team is amazing. I'm so proud of this project and all of the content that we've been able to shoot. I've had all of these ideas for so long, so to be able to execute them and have them look the way that I envisioned is really exciting.
LUNA: You’ve been making music for so long, almost ten years! Did you always believe that you were going to get this big break, all before your frontal lobe has even developed?
MOORE: Somehow, yeah! For some reason, girl, I was fifteen or sixteen and just delusional as hell. Which will get you really far, clearly. I’m here right now!
LUNA: That’s so sick that you’ve always had that premonition.
I want to talk more about your music and genre a bit; I feel like a lot of upcoming artists, especially those around your age, are blurring the lines between genres in the best way possible. How have you been navigating where you fall in those intersections as someone who has the vocals and soul of R&B but the visuals and spirit of a pop star?
MOORE: I think a lot of it is just expanding who I work with. I feel like for a really long time, I had a really tiny, close knit group of friends that I would do my whole entire project with. Since opening that circle up a little bit more, I've been able to experiment more and try stuff that doesn't work, or find stuff that ends up being perfect. I feel like the best that I can do is trust my gut when I know that something is cool or feels like me. To just run with that and not listen to anybody else's opinion, having the right people around to support me and also believe in those ideas, it all just ends up fitting together and working out.
LUNA: How have you been fighting the sassy man apocalypse this season?
MOORE: Oh my god, the sassy man apocalypse? Girl, sit down.
LUNA: I’m sat.
MOORE: I think the sassy men need to take a sec, take a beat. Why? Let's ask ourselves why. There's this one song I have on the project about this guy that has a blog, and he's writing about me in this blog. You're 27 years old. Why do you have a blog? You're a man. What do you have to say? What do you, a sassy man, have to say in a blog?
LUNA: We might actually have to start taking away the podcast microphones from men.
MOORE: Yeah, because why? Just stop. I feel like I’m always going to be the sassiest person in the room, there can’t be another. You know what I mean?
LUNA: Absolutely. I feel like we might have to let them have that for a second because they might tell on themselves. Like, let them go sass for sass until they expose themselves.
MOORE: It’ll come around, you’re right.
LUNA: In light of that, I think that your music is perfect to have playing while fighting said-apocalypse. Let’s talk about your newest and first project under Republic Records, he’s still just not that into you!
First of all, the name alone is such a wake up call for you to hit us with that twice. Tell us the story behind wanting to do a sequel to last year’s EP he’s just not that into you!
MOORE: Totally. It’s inspired by the romantic comedy, He's Just Not That Into You, one of my favorite movies ever. At the beginning of the movie, Jennifer Goodwin's character is talking about how, as little girls, when a boy is being mean to us, we're told that means he has a crush on us, and that's so fucked up. That has totally fucked with all of our perceptions of what a guy is or isn't interested in. The whole movie is about five or six different women in their relationships and navigating the difficulties of how complex and different all of them are, how common these problems are in our relationships, and how to go about it.
I grew up super sheltered, homeschooled, and religious in Georgia. I had no idea that I would even be able to have these experiences that would inspire these songs. When I moved out here and started to navigate dating and my love life and who I was. How chaotic, how terrifying, how scary, Through all of those experiences that I started to have, I just started to collect these songs. When I started building a track list, I didn't really have a clear vision of what the title of the project was going to be or how it all was going to come together. I just knew that I had all of these songs and stories that I loved. I was flying home to meet my niece for the first time, and I watched [the movie] on the plane. Light bulbs went off [in my head] and I was like, “This is it; these are just all of my chaotic stories told in a similar way. I love this movie so much and it is clear to me now.”
So, we made this first project, and I think in the back of my mind, there was always gonna be a part two coming. I had put out this first mix tape, and didn't wanna keep my audience waiting for too long, because “see through” started to do so well, and I wanted to continue to put out music consistently and not make everybody wait. I still had a bunch of songs and stories and crazy love life experiences to tell, so it all just like, very naturally came together in the he’s just not that into you universe!
LUNA: Was there anything specific that inspired the visuals? The cover art sets up the idea of being a B-side to the last EP.
MOORE: I think I just wanted to be really straightforward and visually, give people this mixtape. For me, I was making the mixtape that I needed to hear. I needed somebody to send these songs to me to say, “He’s just not that into you girl. You got to put the mic down, give it a rest.” Having the actual cassettes be the cover art, just furthers that message along, like you're just sending your girl a little mixtape of songs that she needs [to hear].
LUNA: As a vocalist, songwriter, and producer, do you tend to lean more into one thing or another when it comes to making your own body of work? Or would you say it’s pretty well balanced?
MOORE: I think I'm trying to lean more into my instincts as a producer. There are a couple of records on this project where I did have a larger hand in producing, which was so exciting and really fun. The majority of the time, I'm writing the lyrics and the melodies first, that is what comes the most naturally to me. Because I'm so lucky to work with amazing producers who also understand my sound and my instincts, they know what to do naturally. When I'm writing something that I really love, they'll just know what to do on the production side. I'm just there to have crazy, silly ideas that will either work or not, and to try literally 500 harmonies if they'll let me, which a majority of the time they do.
LUNA: Speaking of collaborations and production, what was it like working with Teezo Touchdown and Julia Michaels on “spelling bee”?
MOORE: Are you kidding me? Even that sentence is just so fierce. How insane is that? Julia has been my songwriting hero since I was fifteen. She's what made me fall in love with pop music, and to be able to work with her now, even just to call her one of my friends, is a really, really big, full circle moment for fifteen-year-old Amelia.
Going into our first couple sessions together, I was expecting to make something more emotional and vulnerable, because it's Julia Michaels, and I love her music so much. I wanted to be able to connect with her and my vulnerable, emotional side, and we just ended up writing some fun, horny shit – not overthinking it and having fun. I feel like I hear it every time I listen to [“spelling bee”]. You can just hear that we were having fun and not taking ourselves too seriously in our session.
I've been a fan of Teezo for a long time, too. I think I first saw him open for Tyler, The Creator on the Call Me If You Get Lost tour, and I've seen him perform at Camp Flog Gnaw. He's also an artist with a universe, and those types of artists are the ones that inspire me the most. To have been in the studio with him and hear him freestyle melodies, hear his ideas, was super surreal. He's so talented. I think he was a perfect feature for this song, too.
LUNA: Are there any other cool collaborations you did on this project?
MOORE: On the first half of this mixtape Timbaland was on “back to him”. He produced his own section, which was insane. I went on his live stream on Tiktok and sent in three songs, and he played “back to him” literally 14 times in a row and wanted the stems for it the next day, so that was really cool. The majority of these songs are just with my friends, though, which is honestly my favorite way to make my music. I feel like all of my favorite songs are made by people who are best friends with each other.
LUNA: I can really feel that in the energy of the project, it feels very real and not too serious.
MOORE: I think I was really excited to put the first half of this mixtape out, and just this whole universe and era for me, because my first project teaching robot to love was so serious and so heavy and emotional – and that's not who I am, girl. I'm not like a sad, heart broken bitch all the time. I'm funny and bubbly and witty, and I love silly, clever lyrics. I think just having a body of work where I feel like my personality is really shining through feels really good, because I feel like my fans are just getting to know me better.
LUNA: What has been the hardest and the best parts of the entire rollout?
MOORE: Ooh, I think the hardest part for the first half was getting creative, because we didn't have a lot of money. Getting thrifty and scrappy with it, while still making content that I loved and was proud of. I think the best part of the first half of this mixtape was believing in myself enough to self-fund my first headline tour, even though it was literally draining my entire bank account. My business manager called me before we went on the road, and he was like, “Hey, just so you know, you're about to spend thousands of dollars on this tour, and when you get back, this is how much time you're gonna have left to live in LA with how you're spending money.” I was like, “Wow, okay.” It's crazy how shit happened – while I was on the tour that’s draining my bank account is when “see through” started to take off on Tiktok and have its moment, which led to me being in the position to have my second record deal.
I think the most challenging part of the second half… there have been so many different shoots that we've done for this project; we did the “fuck, marry, kill” video, we shot my first magazine cover, we did another video with Teezo for “spelling bee”, a bunch of like content shoots in between to shoot verticals for my social media, I went to Australia to do some press release stuff and I feel like I've been to New York four times this year already. Being in rollout mode while trying to stay on top of everything else has been a challenge to figure out, but it's also very pop star to be very busy and have a lot of things to be on top of, anyways. I think adjusting to how busy and exciting everything is has been a challenge, but I'm ready for more.
LUNA: What’s your favorite song on this EP, sonically or to produce, and which song would you put it neck and neck with from the last EP?
MOORE: I think sonically, he's just not that into you! (the title track) is my favorite. The sounds are just so crazy. I remember being at my buddy's studio that day. I was with three of my really good friends, Inverness, Alex, and Rence, and I was referencing this 100 gecs song, “Dumbest Girl Alive”. It's so weird, and it switches to so many different parts and sounds. I wanted to challenge our pop brains and structure to just say, “Fuck it,” and try some weird shit, and we had the best time doing that. So I think sonically, [he's just not that into you!] is my favorite. I think it's cheeky to put “see through” and “see through it” up against each other, because they're two sides of the same coin. Making “see through it” was also a little songwriting challenge to myself to see if I could write what the opposite of “see through” would be, andI love how that turned out.
LUNA: I noticed that you do love to sneak subtle references into your songs, obviously with “see through it” flipping “see through” and referencing “back to him”, “spelling bee” using a little bit of those melodies, and most obvious, “that’s all they really want” being a twist on “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper.
MOORE: Yep, yep! In the outro of “he's just not that into you”, we took melodies and motifs from songs in the first EP and put them in the outro. If you listen really closely, you can hear them. I love, like, when my favorite artists will reference an older song of theirs, or repeat another lyric, I think that's furthering the [artist’s] universe. For me as a fan, when I hear one of the same lyrics or bars in a song that's already been out, I love being able to recognize that and know that they're doing that intentionally. I think that's really fun, so I wanted to bring that into my project too.
LUNA: A last message for everyone streaming the EP: how do you think they should be spending the upcoming summer now that we know he’s STILL just not that into you?
MOORE: Girl, you gotta get outside! You gotta get outside and do whatever you have to do to have the Lorde album speak to you. That's how I'm about to go about my summer. This Lorde album is about to do something to me, I already know.
LUNA: Are we going to be seeing YOU outside as summer approaches?
MOORE: I hope so, girl! I'm getting ready to do my first headline shows in Europe, I'm playing my second festival in San Francisco at Outside Lands that I'm really excited about. But yeah, you'll see me outside, girl. You'll see me outside, I'll be right there with you!
