As he prepares for the Friday (Could 31) launch of Honeymind — his third studio album (and first on Interscope) — and settles into his just-opened, 18-date run of live shows reopening Broadway‘s iconic Palace Theatre, singer-songwriter and actor Ben Platt lately sat down with Billboard Information to debate creating his new music, the relationships and artists inspiring him now, and his upcoming initiatives.
The Honeymind creation course of occurred in Nashville, throughout what Platt calls a “level of transition personally and career-wise, reinvestigating my causes for being an artist, relearning the significance of following ardour and doing issues that really feel authentically fulfilling and never essentially checking packing containers.” It was additionally a cheerful time, Platt says, of settling into the consolation of his relationship along with his now-fiancée, fellow actor Noah Galvin — and he discovered himself exploring, via songwriting, “that crossroads between what it feels wish to arrive in your actual relationship and have a accomplice who you’re feeling actually understands you holistically, and the way do you’ll want to work on your self as an individual to be prepared for a relationship like that?”
His Honeymind collaborators embody beloved Nashville writers Natalie Hemby and Hillary Lindsey, in addition to govt producer Dave Cobb, who labored with Platt at his house studio in Savannah, Ga. Platt praises Cobb’s “barometer for honesty and authenticity … he’s very a lot no bulls–t. If one thing feels put-on, or like a bell or whistle, he has no drawback being very forthright about that.”
Platt opens up as nicely in regards to the singular expertise of filming the very private music video for single “Cherry on Prime,” by which he enjoys a day trip round Los Angeles with Galvin. “I used to be apprehensive at first — I like to preserve some issues sacred and personal,” he explains. However he finally realized that, since tune was written particularly about his expertise with Galvin, “nothing felt as true because the precise relationship itself that brings that pleasure about.”
An unabashed fan of pop, Platt additionally gushes about his personal favourite music proper now, mentioning perennial favorites Maggie Rogers and Chappell Roan (he’s a vocal longtime fan: “I’ve recognized she was a celebrity the entire time!”). He’s additionally large on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Properly (Musgraves made a shock look at Platt’s opening night time on the Palace to duet with him on her “Rainbow”), and Ariana Grande’s Everlasting Sunshine (“Ari is likely one of the biggest pop voices of this technology, and it’s such a pointy, scrumptious bubblegum album that’s like, harkening again to Mariah….it’s all the time in my head”).
Moreover, Platt shares the inspiration he takes from seeing two of the largest excursions of the previous 12 months: Beyoncé’s Renaissance trek and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Swift “shares her personal experiences and makes us really feel like we’re in her lounge … in a manner that feels very off the cuff however is clearly very thought out and well-crafted,” he says; Beyoncé is “an unbelievable reside singer … and on high of that the extent to which she exerts and provides of herself it doesn’t matter what present she’s doing? You’ve by no means seen her half-ass a efficiency in her life!”
Platt can be occupied selling Honeymind for a while — after his Palace residency, he’ll embark on a tour of the U.S. and Canada (with album collaborator Brandy Clark supporting) via late July. In the meantime, he reveals to Billboard that Richard Linklater’s twenty-years-in-the-making movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Merrily We Roll Alongside — introduced in 2019, by which Platt stars alongside shut good friend Beanie Feldstein and Paul Mescal — is progressing.
Platt says two of “eight or 9” sequences have been filmed with, he provides with fun, simply “one other 16 or so years to go.” Linklater, he says, “places a variety of emphasis on not wanting too far forward … it turns into too daunting, so I simply deal with it as this present of attending to have little checkpoints in my life to test again in with Sondheim, with Paul, and clearly Beanie.” Platt praises Mescal, who makes his main musical onscreen debut in Merrily, as a “attractive, variety, superb actor, stunning voice — he’s the actual deal.”
See what else Platt needed to say within the video above.
