Ariana Grande Sent Her New Music to Fans Before Her Label

Ariana Grande looks stunning on the cover of The Fader‘s Summer Music issue, on stands in June.

Here’s what the 24-year-old songstress had to share with the mag:

On her new music having a message: “I’ve always just been like a shiny, singing, 5-6-7- 8, sexy-dance…sexy thing. But now it’s like, ‘OK…issa bop – but issa message. Issa bop but also has chunks of my soul in it. Here you go. Also, I cried 10 hundred times in the session writing it for you. Here is my bleeding heart, and here is a trap beat behind it.’ There’s definitely some crying-on the-dancefloor stuff on this one.”

On her relationship with her fans: “The thing that makes me feel OK with opening up and finally allowing myself to be vulnerable is that I know [my fans] feel the same feelings. I’ve talked to them about it. I have fans that have become friends of mine. I have their numbers, and we talk all the time. I played [the song] for them before I played it for my label. They were like, ‘Thank you,’ when they heard that one. It was so scary to do that, but to see them be like, ‘I get it, I feel that too…’”

On this generation: “We’re in such a trying time and people have been responding with acceptance, love, inclusion, and passion. This generation, they’re standing up and they’re not going to take no for an answer.”

For more from Ariana, visit TheFader.com.