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Generation Z star Noah Cyrus is ready to talk about everything — including the "tampys" and beloved Pax Pen in her purse — with Refinery29.
At just 18, Noah Cyrus is making major moves. Following a 2017 stint opening for Katy Perry's Witness stadium tour, Cyrus is now headlining her very own. The Good Cry Tour will take the "Stay Together" singer all across America, bringing her self-proclaimed "emo" music to the masses, with her Instagram-made friend Maty Noyes as a very special guest.
The card-carrying member of Generation Z is ready to do things on her own terms, and those terms include speaking with a refreshing and frank honesty. It is, perhaps, why her 4.5 million Instagram followers love her so much: She is unafraid to talk about what's real, be it hilarious moments with her famous family, her ongoing battle with anxiety, or breakup drama. (She and Soundcloud rapper Lil Xan, whom she shares the single "Live or Die" with, recently ended things, and Cyrus' Instagram documented a great deal of the split.)
Over the phone, Refinery29 spoke with Cyrus about her new music, her relationship with social media, and why she's over the negativity.
Refinery29: You're headlining your very first tour. What are you most excited about?
Noah Cyrus: "Just to finally be able to say I can headline my first tour and then also to be able to go and experience a room full of my true fans, who can finally experience me at my own show. But I'm mostly excited about my opener, because [Matey Noyes] is my best friend in the whole entire world! We are going to have a month-long slumber party. [It's funny, because] I first reached out to her on Instagram just saying, 'I’m your biggest fan! Will you open up for me tour?' And she was like, 'Yeah, also do you want to come with me to Joshua Tree this weekend for my birthday?' We hung out and just instantly became best friends."
You previously spoke about turning off your Instagram comments to block out the negativity. What's your relationship with social media like now that you have the comments on?
"I’m looking at Instagram [comments], but I just ignore the negativity. If it’s negative, I ignore it. That’s how I’m looking at a lot of things in life. If you’re negative, I can’t be around you. No negative energy."
You've been very open about your mental health struggles in the past. Why is it important for you to be honest about that aspect of your life?
"I know that a lot of people can relate. There's a lot of people that feel what I feel, and go through what I do every day. And, there’s a lot of people who think maybe because of where I come from, that I’m not real and I don’t have real feelings — but I do. My feelings hurt a lot of the time. I have a lot of anxiety. I have a lot of depression. I’m a normal person and I deal with normal person issues. I want to be able to talk about that. I know that there’s a lot of other kids [out there also going through that], because I communicate. I talk to my fans, I DM my fans, and we have a lot of ongoing conversations all the time. I know that there’s a lot of people who understand the way I’m feeling, and need to hear that [someone else feels the same way they do]."
Your fans were really there for you when you went through a public breakup.
"Honestly, my fans are my family. I love them so much. They definitely were there for me through a really, really hard time. I owe the world to my fans."
Do you think there’s any pressure when you do have so many fans who maybe have opinions about the person you’re in a relationship with?
"You know, you obviously don’t want to let anyone down. I know there are some fans who disagree, as there are fans that [support certain relationships], but you don’t want to let anyone down. At the end of the day though, you have to remember that it is your happiness. You have to do what makes you happy."
What is it that makes you happy?
"I take me time. [If] I’m having a lot of anxiety, I have to chill out and breathe, and maybe have some alone time. Learning to be alone is very important. I’ve started doing meditation actually — that was really helpful with my happiness."
What's the craziest rumor you've heard about yourself?
"Nothing really [too crazy]. Besides that [my relationship with] Lil Xan was set up by Columbia, which of course was a rumor."
Can you talk about the inspiration behind "Mad At You"?
"I wrote 'Mad At You' a year ago with Sarah Aarons and it’s a really personal record that I wrote when I was going through a really tough break up and didn’t know what to do. And I wanted to get Sarah comfortable because I knew we were both going to hurt. And I basically just wrote down all of the truth of how it feels when you love somebody more than you can imagine and sometimes it just doesn’t work out for the best. That’s something that you have to come to terms with."
What do you think has changed between "Stay Together" and "Mad At You" for you as an artist?
"That I believe in this music I’m putting out. This music I believe in. My older music, besides 'Make Me Cry' and 'Again,' my older music I just feel like I didn’t completely believe myself. What was that MTV performance when I did 'Stay Together'? I saw that on Instagram the other day and was like, 'Oh god, why did I do that?'
What advice would you give a young artist embarking on their own musical journey?
"Keep experimenting with different sounds and different types of songs and different ways to write. Find out who you are as a person. I can’t tell anybody how to figure themselves out, but you know once I figured out who I was as a person, it really helped for me musically. It helped me decide what I want to do and what I want to stand for."
Editor's note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.