Sabrina Carpenter talks 'Nonsense', Paranormal Hunting, Update On Acting Career & More

All right guys, let's do this. What's up? It's Jojo on the radio. This is the iHeartRadio countdown and I haven't seen her in I don't know how long. Sabrina Carpenter, where are you at and how you been? I'm at home, which is like the rarest sentence to come out of my mouth, but I've been good. How are you? I'm doing awesome. Is home LA or New York? I've heard kind of both. Where are you? No, we just don't really know anymore. Home is where the heart is. Sabrina, when did you realize that nonsense was, oh my God, this thing is taken off. Did you have an, oh my God, holy crap kind of moment? That's funny. I don't know if I even know still. I like to just be very much like out of it sometimes, but I feel like when I was on tour, there was something really special happening where it's really rare that like track number nine on an album gets people that excited during a live show and they knew every single word. And, you know, I was, I was kind of switching up the song every single night. And I think it just really excited them because it gave them something to look forward to. And especially the people that couldn't be at the shows, they were excited to see what, you know, the outro was going to be every night and made them feel like they were there. So I think that was like the moment that I just went, oh, this is so cool when a song can like really connect with people, even if they're not with you physically in that room. So, yeah, it's been really fun. I've never heard anyone refer to a track order before, and I've done a thousand interviews. Do you think that is like you put the ones you want them to notice up top and then you think that like the eight, nine, ten get less attention? No, but I will say that I think just this is something in the past that I've noticed that like, you know, the more songs you have, the easier it is, I'm sorry, for songs to kind of get lost in the mix, especially when it is track number nine, as opposed to like one, two or three. I think it's just it really showed me that this was like their choice of the song that they wanted, you know, to listen to, as opposed to like me being like, this is the single, you know, let me shove it in front of your face. Like they really chose this song, which thank God, like take some of it off of my hands. I do not. You know what I mean? Like I'd so much rather them just tell me what to do. That sounds awful. Like I definitely it's one of those things where I love having the control, but I also really like letting it go and and giving some of it to them. Well, as opposed to, you know, guessing which one they're going to like, they just tell you it makes life so much easier when you really think so much easier. Yeah. And it's awesome, too, because it's one of the one of the only kind of fun songs on a very sad album. So if anything, it also excited me because I was like, wow, like people want to have fun right now. They're in their they're in their fun girl era. So it's been a good time for people who don't know the album yet. You know, the hardcore fans, obviously, they're all over. Talk about this album. What are they missing if they haven't checked it out? Oh, they're missing so much. They're missing. Honestly, they're missing like a really, really deep dive, maybe maybe too much personal information on my life. But then also, hopefully the goal is like, you know, I think in the last couple of years, I really wanted and I set out sort of to make at least for me my most personal album that I've ever made. And I think within those stories and all these songs came to life, the thing that like my the fans, especially at the shows, have like shared with me the most is just how they've gone through a lot of these situations themselves, you know, with different people at different times, whether that be family members, whether that be relationships or friendships. And I think I've just been really overwhelmed by how not alone I am in a lot of the situations I was writing about. So Emails I Can't Send is for the sad girls. It's for the happy girls. It's for the insecure girls. It's for the confident girls and boys and whoever wants to listen even. But yeah, so it's been it's been really special. I'll tell you what, aside from Nonsense, the song I keep going back to is Fast Times. I can't get enough of that song. That's my jam. You have such good taste, Jojo. That's one of my favorites on the whole record. Final question about the album Emails I Can't Send. Your favorite song, aside from Nonsense, and a song that almost didn't make the album but kind of surprised you. Or if there is such a track. My favorite song on the album is probably Tornado Warnings. It's the one I always go back to for whatever reason. I think because it's I can be in any mood and I listen to that song because it just feels super nostalgic. And then the song that almost didn't make the album that surprised me was Nonsense. Nonsense was was definitely like the day before I was supposed to turn it in. I was like, I don't know, it's either this song or this song. And I just feel like Nonsense might not fit the album for specific reasons that are stupid now. Obviously, I know nothing. But there's something inside me that was like, I think trust Nonsense. The other thing I always loved about it was it was really my sense of humor to a T. I think it's really hard to capture your personality and sense of humor sometimes in songs. And so when you do and it just feels really special, then I was like, I think it goes on the album. I've heard that story so many times. The song that almost didn't make it becomes the biggest thing ever. I hate to be such a cliche. I really hate it. Sabrina, of course, emails I can't send. The album's been out since July of last year. I assume you're working on a new, well, you're always working on new music in some way, shape, fashion or form. Are we working on a new album? Are you recording on the road? I mean, give me the whole what's happening now. You're right. I'm always writing, but I am. I'm back in the zone, if that makes any sense. I think I'm writing zone or like I'm back in the creating zone. And for me, that means everything from like going out and living a lot of life and experiencing a lot of things, because that always leads me to the most inspiration. And it also goes into like physical, like I've just been at the piano a lot. So, yeah, a lot of my songs start there. A lot of those ideas, they also come from conversation. So the more I talk to people like we are doing right now, you know, the more ideas I kind of find in that. And yeah, but I am I am taking a moment to just like enjoy that. I spent the last like two years making this one. So it's been a it's been a balance. Yeah. Nonsense, which I'll play later on in the countdown. Obviously, fans, like you mentioned earlier, they they become a fan favorite. You change the outro pretty much every show or every show. Do you do this spontaneous like something hit you in the moment or do you kind of prep that or maybe that secret? I don't know the secret. I can't give away all my secrets. But it started it started so innocent. It was really like I had all of these extra outros from the actual recording of the song that never made the actual record that I thought for the first show only it would be really fun to like, you know, call out the city and add a few of those lines that I didn't use in the record. And then what I didn't realize was that, you know, when you're on tour, cities get really greedy and they like to be like the best city and the most loud city and the most special city on the tour. And so I was like, oh, no, I can't just be Atlanta now. And so I started to kind of turn it into a thing. And I'm going to be a hundred and I'm going to be doing nonsense outros until I die, I think. I didn't think about you'll be you'll be not just this tour. I mean, we're talking tours to come. We'll see. The pressure of recreating these are. Oh, my God. Second leg of the tour kicks off soon. So follow her socials for all that good stuff. Do you like life on the road? Is it fun? Because I've talked to a lot of artists and here's the two things I get when you're on the road. You want to be home when you're at home. You want to be on the road. Are you battling with that as well, or do you just love road? I just buy. I don't know. I just I'm where I have to be. And I try not to think about being somewhere else when I am on the road because I think it'll drive you crazy. I also I think thankfully, like we all got a little bit of a hiatus, maybe longer than we wanted. So I'm really I'm really excited to be back on the road and I love traveling. I also love the bus. I am one of those people that really enjoys. Yeah, I love a little rocking me to sleep, but you know what I mean? Totally. It put me in the back seat of a car. You know, I will knock out plus the rush of me. So go ahead. I was going to say, are you like do you fall asleep easily in transpo like airplanes, cars? Yes, 100 percent. I sleep a lot. Exactly. Not on a cruise, though. Don't put me on a cruise. I get seasick so easily. I'm not doing a cruise tour anytime soon, but man, I did a I did a cruise over like the last couple of months and it was wild to be on a giant ship in the middle of the ocean. And it was like a floating city. But the ocean's so big you get lost. It was just it was a lot. It was that scares me. I'm glad you made it back. Oh, my gosh. For months, that'd be scary. Talking about road life and touring and all that good stuff. Sabrina, I love crazy road stories because crazy things, you know, happen on the road. I've talked to, you know, groups where they've, you know, left a band member in another city. You know, the septic tank breaks on the tour bus. You know, that was one Republican told me that story. I believe. Yeah. Right. Give me a crazy road story, Sabrina. Do you have one? You know, we've definitely dealt with the septic problems. We've dealt with we've dealt with crossing the border problems, you know, because you got to get Canada. And so then you have to wake up at like two in the morning. Everyone gets off the bus to go through customs. They just like think you're shady for no reason. And, you know, there's a lot of investigation. We're like, we just want to play a show. We're just we're just trying to play a show. No, I think I've been really lucky in a sense. I've definitely had a couple bus breakdowns, but nothing that's too out of the ordinary. You know, my favorite thing to do when I'm on the road is like I've played some really old theaters in the past, and they're like definitely haunted. And so I will try to like go ghost hunting in some of these theaters. And by ghost hunting, I really mean like I'm using an app on my phone that probably doesn't work. But in my mind, it does. You know, OK, we'll get into that in a minute, because, you know, my paranormal obsession or if you don't know, yeah, nonsense, Sabrina, this song. I mean, it's it's doing it's doing it. You know, what what else do people give me? Tell me everything we should know about nonsense. Oh, my goodness. I think what we kind of said earlier, too, is like it was just a song that I that I always loved, but it truly was a dark horse in the sense of I never, ever, ever, ever expected, you know, people to enjoy it and like embrace it the way that they have. Also, because I think when I was writing it, I was I threw so much logic out the window because I never really intended on releasing it. So I go, oh, the lyrics can be so silly and they don't have to make any sense because it's nonsense. And and I think it's just it's turned into this like really beautiful thing that I've been able to like almost bring the song to life in a new way every time I perform it. And I think it's very rare that you get to do that with songs like they get kind of repetitive and you get tired of them. And this song, I just I'm I hope no one else is, but I'm not tired of it yet, which is great. It's kind of rare. So, yeah, I've been having a lot of fun with it. Two part question. First part, what is the what do you consider your best live performance ever? I mean, everything was just about perfect. Then the complete flip of that. What do you consider your worst performance? I mean, everything went straight to hell. Oh, geez. Best live performance. Honestly, it's probably just like a random tour date. It's like it's going to be like Idaho. You know what I mean? Because when there's no pressure and I just feel like, you know, it's not like a bunch of friends or their family are at the show or it's not like Jimmy Fallon's like two inches away from me, then I I feel so much more comfortable and at ease. So I feel like some of my best performances are just like random cities on tour. And then worst performance where everything went wrong. Actually, it was the last it was the last show on my tour that you know, I can't send tour in Orlando. So I have like this inside joke about Florida, like I just something always goes wrong when I'm in Florida. And this show, everything went wrong from like lighting cues didn't happen. There were so many things that just like went wrong. And I was just like, you know what, we're just going to roll with it. And we're just going to keep smiling and singing. But yeah, I hope no one noticed as much as I did. I was freaking out. Now I'm picturing somebody pushing the balloon button. And you know, nothing's coming out. You're like, Oh, I pictured it and I lived it. It was I don't know if this is true or not. But something about I read this story. And I find it you know, it's just a, you know, something simple, but you love to hang out on your New York City fire escape and just chill. Is that you know, is that what does that what does that mean? It's in my prep sheet. Is that a thing? I mean, she just loves to sit on her fire escape and chill. She's just a normal girl. I don't live in New York. So I don't know if that's a New York thing or I don't. I would think a fire escape is to escape from a fire, you know, but you know, when you're a young 23 year old romantic, it becomes like a place to ponder your entire existence. And yeah, I think when I moved to New York, the thing I wanted the most was was a fire escape. And thankfully came across one. And yeah, there would be nights where I would like go out on it with my friends. And we'd be like singing and performing for people on the street. And then there'd be other nights where we just we'd go out there and talk for hours. And then winter came. So then I didn't do that anymore. Because you know, it gets freezing in New York. It's like not okay. So yeah, I do love to just go out there and chill. You're totally right. It's the place that I keep in mind, you know, National Canada, and I'm based in Los Angeles, but I picture, you know, either escaping from a fire or yelling curse words at neighbors from the fire escape. That's that's what I picture New York being being like, that's how they portrayed in the movies, I guess, maybe. Probably where I got it from. Yeah. Clearly, I do not know New York City. I'm not escaping to make fires. If it makes you feel any better. I've never used a fire escape to escape from a fire. So we'll get there. Sabrina, I am obsessed. As you I think, you know, with the paranormal ghost. Yes. UFOs. I've got a podcast called paranormal. I'm just off the deep end. What is this you you like to on tour, investigate or roam around haunted theaters and whatnot, right? Yeah, I mean, they're so scary. There, there was a few there was a few I remember Indianapolis, I think was the most haunted one that I've been in. Do you know much about ghosts in Indianapolis? Because I probably met a couple. Please fill me in. What did you encounter? What's the name of this place? If you can recall all that, all that stuff? I don't remember what it was called. It was some some theater. I'll find it. I'll send it to you. But yeah, it was a few years ago. And I just from the second I walked in, you know, and like, I mean, I'm one of those people, like, I feel energy shifts really intensely. And so when I walked into the theater, I could like automatically sense that it was quite spooky. And after the show, me and my friends that were opening for me, we all went down to like the basement of this theater and just were exploring and like, it was all the like, maybe cliche things like lights flickering. And then like, we lost my friend in the dark. And then we were freaking out because we were like, my God, my friend was stolen, wasn't stolen, just got lost because we were in the dark. But I don't know if I've encountered like, the ghost of my dreams yet. But I'm still searching. What about you? What's your like, best experience? I've had some doors. I've never seen anything like wow, that's a ghost. But I've had some doors unexplainably slam on me. That's a no from me. And that was kind of kind of freaky. Well, if you see anything on this next tour, if you stay in some haunted rooms, please let me know. New Orleans, I'm going to be in New Orleans. And I'll make sure because that's the, you know, pinnacle of haunted. Amen. Sabrina, of course, Nonsense is out, the emails, the album Emails I Can't Send is out. Anything acting wise in the works? Or just, you know, putting acting on pause for the moment? There's a lot of things in the works, but definitely, I'm going to be touring so much this year. So there's there's a lot happening. And, you know, I, I started my production company in the middle of the pandemic. And that was something that I did and have wanted to do for a really long time. And so there's a lot of projects in the works there. But I can't really say too much right now. And that's why I kind of have, it's it is a bit top secret, if I'm completely honest, and all I all I try to tell, you know, the people that have followed me for years, they know that I, I really don't like to tell them things until I'm properly allowed to, I'm such a good girl in that sense. But they'll know stuff soon. And until then, I hope they listen to this album and come to the tour, because we'll have a lot to talk about there. Sabrina, family, friends, your inner circle that's been with you for a while, what's their reaction to this success you've had so far? And granted, we got, you know, you know, the world is your oyster, long way to go, I get it, you know, but you've done a lot of cool things. What's their reaction? Oh, that's very sweet. I think they're probably confused and excited. To be honest, it's not something that you can really explain to people quite easily. You know, I think what was so great is like, my mom is, she's like aware of things, but she also doesn't know how exciting certain things are. So I'll tell her and she's like, Oh, cool. Is that is that? Is that good? Like, is that like a big thing? Yeah, no, it's a really big deal. But also, I'm the baby of three sisters. So I have been humbled my whole life. And I think that's what's kept me maybe somewhat sane somewhat is underlined. But um, but yeah, so my sisters are good at humbling me, but they're excited. We have a lot of fun together. Do they come to your shows every every so often? They come to every show, they can't miss a show. That's that's the one rule I think we have, especially if it's like a home show. Nonsense is out. Obviously, it's killing the the album emails I can't send. It's been out new music, we think coming soon. Everything's top secret. What else do people need to know? Sabrina, you're going to do you're going to go ghost hunting for me. We need to do that together at some point. I mean, definitely need to do that. Yes, I just I just announced my international tour dates, which I've never like, never done a show, a headline show like in London, lots of cities, which I just announced the other day. So I'm really excited about that. And what else? I'm probably gonna eat lunch later today. There's so much going on. It is a pleasure to see you. You're the best. Yeah, we definitely have to go. We definitely have to go go something that'd be really fun. What I'm gonna do is when you when you get all the dates, I'll look at your the you know, the dates where you're going and the cities and locations. I'm gonna find a few haunted locations and email them to you. And see if you know, you don't have to go obviously, but see if you wouldn't mind checking one of these places out. That'd be that'd be sick. I mean, I'm gonna bring friends. I'm not going by myself. But there we go. At the end of every interview, Sabrina Carpenter fist bump to make it official. Tap that cam, please give me a little BAM.