conrad

When Conrad visited the M office, we had a blast catching up with him! We got to know him back in October and were thrilled when he came to the office for a visit! He dished exclusive deets about his new single, "Young Again" (which he even played for us!), waffles, a pet mouse, his Christmas tree from the 1970's, and if he's ever had a New Year's kiss!

Check out our first interview with Conrad here!

I heard you'll be on MTV soon!

I don't know the exact date, but my next song...That video will probably be the premiere on there!

Neat! What's your next single called?

It's called "Young Again."

Do you have any music video ideas for your next single?

It's gonna be really intense and over the top. I like to put on a spectacle! I want things to blow up and all sorts of stuff.

What's your favorite part of shooting music videos?

It's fun, but it's a lot of work and a lot of stress. When you do shoot, everyone else kind of takes over. It's weird because the first one I shot, "Namedropper," was just weird because I'd never done one before. The director kind of took me aside and he was like "okay, you kind of have to step it up a notch." He said, "I've never been on that side of the camera; I'm always on this side, so I don't know what it's like -- I imagine it's kind of weird, but you gotta step it up a notch!" I was like "okay." After that I needed to not be so scared and feel so awkward! We were walking down this public street that was closed off and I was kind of singing to the camera. It's just weird having people watch from the other side!

What can you tell us about the new music you've been working on? Does it sound the same as "Takeoff"?

I mean it has elements from the old stuff, but I recorded the "Takeoff" album three years ago and so in those three years, I've been through more stuff and learned a bunch as an artist and as a musician. I get to incorporate that into my music, so it's taking a more rock element with some dubstep on one of the songs!

Do you have any wacky holiday traditions?

I come from a very interesting family in a very interesting part of California, so of course! So my mom has allergies, so we always have a fake tree. My mom had one, they just got a new one, but before that one, when I was growing up, we had one from 1970! It had fake snow all over it and it was the grossest thing to put together! Our cats used to climb the Christmas tree and just sit at the top and hit the angel! The fake snow would just fall everywhere and every day my mom would be complaining about it and vacuuming it up!

Check out the vid of him talking about it here:


Was it powdered stuff that just got stuck on the branches?

I think it came like that originally, but from 1970 till now - that's a long time! It kind of just became this gross dust!

What is your favorite Christmas movie and song?

I love all the old Christmas cartoons. I love, what's the new one. It's called Prep & Landing. I love that one. My favorite is probably Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. Can't get rid of that one!

What was your favorite Christmas present you've gotten?

You know when you're younger and you're a kid and you get those Jeep things where you can push the pedals and drive around?

YES!

I got one of those and it was the coolest thing ever! I'm from the country, so I would drive it down the street to the neighbor's house and it would die halfway there, so my dad would have to come get me and carry it home.

Have you ever had a New Year's Eve kiss?

I don't think so. Should I say yes?

No!

I feel like my mom kissed me once on New Year's when I was like six, but that's kind of awkward.

Do you have a New Year's Resolutions?

Yeah. I'm gonna get a pet mouse probably this year. I want a pet mouse, I just decided that recently.

What are you gonna name it?

Probably Fivel, like Fievel Goes West. I have a dog.

Isn't your dog going to eat the mouse?

No, that's cats. I should get a cat too and they can be friends, like all three of them, just really good friends. They can have tea in the morning together. Mice are cute! I was in the pet store and I was like "I should get one." And they spin on the wheel! What's not funny about that?!

What do you want for Christmas this year?

a Yonana maker!

(*it's like an ice cream maker, except you only use frozen fruit - like bananas!)

Can you tell us a random fact?

I just ate the biggest waffle ever. And it was good, covered in butter, but they didn't have peanut butter. Is that weird out here to put peanut butter on waffles?

No, I have a lot of friends who do that!

The lady was like "that's weird." I was like "maybe it's a west coast thing."

I feel like that's something people pick up in college. We put ice cream on waffles here!

I've never seen that before and that was on the menu here! I was like "wow, you can get ice cream on waffles!"

Before he left, he wanted to give M Girls a shoutout! Check it out!:

Thanks for chatting with us, Conrad! Check out his music videos on his Youtube channel, OfficialConrad, and he loves tweeting fans, so follow him @ThatKidConrad !

So let's dish:
-Are you excited to hear his new single? Do you have any wacky holiday traditions like Conrad?

Hey M Girls,

It's M intern Christie here giving you an exclusive look at my chat with Conrad! He's a 22 year-old emerging artist who has two really catchy singles out -- and I can't get them out of my head!

We chatted about starting his own record label, his super embarrassing music moments, and his celeb connections! Check it out below!

M: How would you describe your sound?

Conrad: All my songs from "Takeoff" are each a little different taste of me. Some are more R&B stuff or more rock stuff, but it's all very pop with a rock and a little bit of an electric twist.

M: Who is your musical inspiration?

Conrad: I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm like "who inspires me?" I don't know. Everyone does. I feel like you can listen to anyone and then everyone has one songs you go to and say "that's really cool" and it'll send you off on imagination tangents. "Romeo" definitely took over a Maroon 5 vibe.

M: What's the most personal song you've ever written?

Conrad: Most personal song? Probably "Safe Here Now", a song on my record. It's about my friend who lost her father to cancer, so I wrote that for her.

M: Which of your songs is your favorite to perform?

Conrad: I'm gonna say "Romeo." I always bring someone up on stage and sing to them. It's always fun!

M: If you could collaborate with anyone in the music business, who would you work with?

Conrad: I'd really like to work with Orianthi who played guitar for Michael Jackson. She is the most amazing guitar player and I would love to work on a song with her!

(Sure enough, he ran into Orianthi at CVS last week and they've been tweeting back and forth, so maybe they'll get to collab on a song!)

M: Do you have any celebrity connections?

Conrad: When I was first starting out, I had some friends who were with the Jonas Brothers and they helped with their merch and stuff, so I got to meet them a couple times when I was first starting recording my album.

M: If you could go on tour with anyone, who would you pick?

Conrad: Hmmm. Let's see. I think it'd be cool, actually, to tour with the Jonas Brothers. They have such a loyal fan base and they're such great guys and I think I could learn a lot from their stuff.

M: Cool! Have you ever been star struck by anybody?

Conrad: This is gonna sound really weird, but I've never been star struck by anybody except this one time. Back when I was in high school, I was volunteering at a MercyMe concert and I turned around and walked right into this guy and it was one of the guitarists from the band. I just froze and was like "woooow." And everyone's like "really, out of everyone, that's the one person?" and I'm like "yeah."

M: Your music videos are awesome -- how did you come up with the concepts for them?

Conrad: Well "Namedropper" just kind of came out of my head. "Namedropper" I had this whole idea for. I live in Hollywood and I'm always running into people who are very into themselves. Like you go to the grocery store at like 9:00 at night and they have their sunglasses on and they're ready to walk the runway and it's just a bit much! I feel like there should be a secret agency that is taking over Hollywood and brainwashing everyone to being these namedropping people and I should save them.

Then the "Romeo" video, I have friends who are girls who dated celebrity guys and a lot of times, the girl kind of gets thrown under the bus by the media and the people, you know? So I kind of wanted to do a video based around that idea. So pretty much my character in that video is between the choice of staying with the girl he loves and leaving music to keep her away from everything that's going on or to pursue music and leave her.

M: I saw that you wanted to get your friends from home involved in your "Romeo" video. Have a lot of your childhood friends supported you?

Conrad: Yeah. I'm really lucky to have my family and my friends, they've always been behind me and they know this is what I love to do. They've always been there. It was cool because I shot the "Romeo" video up in my hometown, so I got to have a bunch of my friends in it and I brought my friend Amelia up to Fresno to shoot it with me. I went to school with the guys that shot the video, so it was a big collaboration with me and my friends and stuff. It was a lot of fun!

M: Did you have any bloopers while you were filming?

Conrad: It's great when you're filming and you totally forget the lyrics to your own song or trip! For the "Romeo" video, I had to slide across the stage on my knees towards the camera, which there was like something jabbing into my legs and I was like "Ow! Ow!" and they were like "don't worry, we can edit that!"

M: Have you had any embarrassing moments while you're in the studio recording?
Conrad: I was recording a song recently, and in part of it, the words are "I'm running because I didn't start the fire." Well it was one of those days where everything just gets jumbled up together and there were all these producers in the studio that I didn't know and they were my producer's friends and they're like "this is great, this is great." And I sang the lyrics "I'm running because I didn't fart the fire". I was like "oh my gosh." Then my producer comes on and presses the little button and I can just hear them ALL cracking up and I'm like "oh man." I was like "nice to meet you everybody!"

M: So if people wanted to follow in your footsteps, what advice would you give them?

Conrad: Practice non-stop! Any shows you can do, do them, and just practice, practice, and keep going at it. No one can really give you advice on HOW to do it because everyone has their own path and challenges along the way, but as long as you know what you want to do and go for it, you can do anything.

I had a blast chatting with Conrad! Check out his music on his Youtube channel: OfficialConrad or follow @ThatKidConrad on Twitter!

Let's dish:
-What do you think of "Romeo" and "Namedropper"? Are you a fan of Conrad?