rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-weeknd-after-hours-grammys-interview-1061041

Some interesting snippets,Id recommend reading the full one tho,pretty nice stuff

HE F***ING OWNS HIS MASTERS LETS GOOOO

As for other ways the industry can better support black artists, Tesfaye has only one piece of advice he stands by. “It’s not about the upfront money,” he says. “Make sure you own your music. That’s your soul, so make sure you own it. That’s all I can really say about that.”
He was smart enough to own his masters from the start, and through his XO label, which he founded in 2010 with his creative director, La Mar Taylor, he has also been able to uplift friends like Nav, Belly, and Black Atlass. If and when he makes his long-dreamed-of movie, that will be an XO project as well.

New music videos

He has treatments lined up for at least three more videos (“Too Late,” “Escape from LA,” and “Faith”), though it’s unclear when he’ll be able to film them.

Ronas influence on the industry

That hasn’t left him much time to listen to new music. Asked what he’s been listening to this year, he draws a blank. He’s rooting for Roddy Ricch and Megan Thee Stallion, though, and he empathizes with the countless artists who have struggled to get their careers off the ground this year.
“A lot of new artists, they need touring,” Tesfaye says, speaking as a pop elder. “My touring is what made me the Weeknd. It was hard to show to the execs — or just to the game — that the Weeknd is more than an underground sensation. You have to bring them to the f***ing shows. You have to show 15,000 people singing every single word that’s not on the radio.”

This one for the fickle trilogy stans

“I’ve always been vocal about me being a pop star,” he adds. “I thought House of Balloons was pop.”

NEW MUSIC ALERT

“I might have another album ready to go by the time this quarantine is over,” he says with the slightest smirk implied in his voice, as if threatening another inescapable hit. He still finds himself feeling hungry as an artist. It’s a drive he never wants to lose, which is why he’s spent his months at home doing songwriting exercises while marathoning Korean horror films.

NEW SOUND ALERT

Accordingly, he promises, the music he’s writing is in a whole different world from After Hours — a brand-new planet in the Weeknd Cinematic Universe. “I’m trying to find a perfect balance with the film and the music, and so far it’s going really well,” he says. “I think I might have cracked the code.”

Faith video

“...among other Netflix and Hulu shows he’s been bingeing to pass the time. Sometimes he writes songs to the scenes and characters onscreen. “I’ll write about their relationship or something in a song,” he says. “It might never see the light of day. That’s an exercise. I love doing that.”

“ It might not be my best album,” he says. “It might not be what people gravitate towards the most in the future. Hopefully it is. But to me, it’s definitely my most perfect album. I could go back and listen to it and be like, ‘I’ve got no notes for this, really.’ ” YES SIR

“Instead of continuing work on the LP he’d started writing, he detoured and wrote a secretive screenplay that he refuses to discuss in detail — just one of several such projects he’s begun dreaming up since. “I can’t talk about it too much yet,” he says. “I really want it to be official.”

Yoooo we’re getting videos for TOO LATE ESCAPE FROM LA AND FAITH LETS GOOOO

That mf was with us last week on ktt film club.
We watched "I saw the devil" and i DMd him on ig to come and peep it

Lmfaoooo honestly wouldn’t be too surprised. Sometimes I forget that if Abel is actually on KTT he realistically wouldn’t stay entirely in his own section

“Putting an album like Starboy and putting an album like Beauty Behind the Madness in the same category as some other artists, it’s not fair.” Both of those albums were, proudly, pop projects that ended up winning Grammys against artists as different from one another as Childish Gambino, Lianne La Havas, and SZA.“

Cant be a coincidence if he says that its his fave rn

Grammys are pretty pointless nowadays but for the sake of this albums success I hope he sweeps

man F*** COVID

we would’ve had the faith music video by now

also a new album in talks ALREADY?

I really thought he wouldn't release another album because the tour didn't happened yet

I mean he says that he has these lined up but none of them have been filmed I think

he talking bout the album not the music videos

OH duh I can't read

BROOOOO

Lol no @tetris ' post was about an album

Abel is such a real one

would love for him to take AOTY even though Grammys are irrelevant imo

legendary

too late I cant wait for
and escape should be a nod to escape from LA/NY movie series

Not a lot of crazy new info

Kinda ridiculous that as someone who’s just become a popstar titan, he already owns his masters. But at the same time it’s not super surprising cause even when he first signed with Republic the label credits would always read XO first.

I just wonder how he had so much bargaining power when negotiating. Or maybe he re-negotiated his deal already, I feel like I remember briefly reading that. Who knows

I guess he and his team had those calculations on lock.
He had a cult following back then off two tapes,they surely knew even going solo was gonna pay off.

Cant these interviewers ask better questions? I feel like his past few interviews have been the same.

Absolute mad man