YDE‘s debut EP, Send Help, finally arrived on Friday (Sept. 9), three years after it was written. Ahead of its release, the former Nickelodeon star spoke Billboard News‘ Tetris Kelly about the EP’s touching single “People Can Change,” how the collection came to be, and working with pop powerhouse Justin Tranter.
“This one was really meaningful for me because when I wrote it, it was the moment where I realized that I’m human ad you’re human, and we’re all human and that is the thing that’s going to bring us to light,” the 19-year-old said of “People Can Change,” noting that it was inspired by 2019 Amazon rainforest fires. “I remember coming into the studio and there was this feeling of hopelessness, but at the same time, we were feeling extremely hopeful about the state of the world and that we know that there is potential. We have potential, and that potential comes from our humanity.”
YDE revealed that she “wrote the whole thing [Send Help] literally three years ago,” and has spent the time in between “honing in on the production and making sure that musically it’s all aligned with what I’m saying lyrically. So this whole EP is really just about stripping back.”
Part of bringing the collection of tracks together included mentor Tranter — a songwriter who has worked with Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Selena Gomez and more — who helped her craft the EP.
“The reason why the whole project is called Send Help originally is because the very first session Justin and I did, we wrote a song called ‘Send Help.’ And at that moment, it all clicked as to what I was doing as an artist and what I wanted to talk about,” the actress-singer explained. “Justin has really been — especially as a songwriter — Justin has given me the confidence to speak about topics most people wouldn’t talk about.”
