Many things come to mind when I think of The Weeknd: vocals… iconic hair… elusive… Canadian! I don’t, however, think of him as somebody who’d want to talk for hours. But apparently, I am mistaken.
The singer recently spoke to Variety for a piece they called The Weeknd Talks ‘American Dad,’ and What Most People Don’t Know About Him. I told you… elusive. He could do a year’s worth of magazine profiles with pull quotes on what we don’t know about him. But it’s Emmy nominations season and Variety wanted to speak about Abel’s work co-writing and appearing on an episode of American Dad, and why he’s showing off his humorous side.
“I’ve been doing [music] for a decade now and everyone thinks I have this dark, shadowy aura. I wanted to show people that I don’t take myself too seriously.”
I get that. I’ve seen him on SNL. He can be funny. In fact, I think most celebs who can create art at his level are more than likely gifted in a multitude of areas. But I wasn’t at all expecting his answer to Variety’s follow up: What’s another aspect of your personality or persona that maybe isn’t well known?
“I’m very approachable and people don’t really know that about me. It might be surprising to some to learn how inquisitive I am and how much I love talking to people and going deep into conversation.”
Have you ever gotten that impression? He’s so soft-spoken and he rarely does interviews. At the beginning of his career it was virtually no interviews. It’s been interesting to watch him open up as his profile has risen. If it’s strategy, it’s a good one. There was definitely an effort to maintain a mystery in his early image. Now that he’s a global superstar fans are getting more glimpses into his personality than ever, through interviews, but also social media interaction. But in the glimpses, I still as took him to be a man of few words.
I can understand Abel going deep into conversation with creative collaborators and close friends, but is he saying if we were in an elevator together and I asked him just the right opening question we may end up exchanging numbers by the end of it?
I mean, he did say approachable.
