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Halsey

Halsey explains why kids from the suburbs make the best music

Maeve McDermott
USATODAY
Halsey performs at UMG's 2016 Artist Showcase on Feb. 14.

The suburbs of Jersey may not have been the world's most thrilling place to grow up. But for Halsey, that's the point.

"There was this urge to constantly escape," she told USA TODAY before performing at a Universal Music Group showcase on Sunday, Feb. 14. And while shopping malls and cookie-cutter developments don't necessarily seem like captivating musical inspiration, the 21-year-old singer shared her insights on how her own suburban upbringing made her a more interesting artist.

"I think escapism is something artists write about pretty frequently — it's something everyone can relate to, the concept of wanting something more, wanting to find solace, wanting to have something better. I was always running off to the city, whether it was Philly or New York, going somewhere where there was something more for me.

It's interesting: I think kids who grow up in the suburbs make for the best artists, because you almost develop two personalities. You've got this one that's really calm and reserved, a small-town kind of person. And then whenever you're somewhere greater, whenever you do run off and escape to the city, you get to be that person you wish that you were, that bigger personality.

In a city, there's more room to be, where in a small town you have to squish yourself down a little bit. And it's exciting for me to be pursuing a career where I don't have to be small.

Like a true child of the suburbs, she rebelled by listening to music that the cool kids at her high school didn't like. (Think less 'Biggie and Nirvana,' more 'Brand New.') And like a true child of the internet age, she found it all on MySpace and Limewire.

"Growing up in the suburbs, I used to listen to punk rock, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday. And no one from my high school listened to it. No one. So that's something that I sought out online, found on MySpace, downloaded, put it on Limewire. And we drove around in my friend's car and would just bang these records and smoke cigarettes we stole from our parents. That's my nostalgia, those records."

When the quintessential high school movie about growing up in a mid-2000s suburb finally made, this scene needs to be included.

Watch Halsey's video for New Americana:

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