Melanie Martinez sits down with Billboard to talk about her boldest era yet. From killing off Cry Baby after a decade to introducing her new character Circle, Melanie opens up about the making of Hades, a raw, dystopian record tackling everything from abusive relationships and performative allyship to billionaires, the houselessness crisis, and AI beauty standards. She also teases the Hades film she’s been writing alongside the music.
Hannah Dailey: Hi everyone, I’m Hannah Dailey. Today we’re joined by Melanie Martinez, and we’re so excited to have you here and to talk about your new album. At the beginning of this era, to kind of kick it off, you released a statement that was “Cry Baby is dead.” Why did you feel it was important to distinctly separate your past work from this new era?
Melanie Martinez: Just because it’s a new character. I’ve been working under and creating under that character for the last 10 years, so, you know, it just feels like an appropriate time to start fresh. And the last time I started fresh was when I was, you know, 18 or 19 when I first started with Cry Baby, so it was a huge shift for me to now have to embody this whole other energy, and it’s exciting. It’s really exciting to start new and to transform and to grow.
So was there any connection story-wise from the Cry Baby universe to Hades?
Melanie: No, nothing.
Do you miss her?
Um, yeah, of course I miss her. She’s always gonna be a part of me, but I’m excited for Circle’s journey.
You really build these intricate, visual, detailed worlds around all of your albums. How does that process start for you? Does it look different every time? And how did you begin constructing this world for ‘Hades?’
Well, I kind of just started with this concept of wanting to make a dystopian record and a utopian record. That was like the first idea and kind of thought that was seeded.
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