A bit of face time
R&B singer’s music has fans longing to connect — IRL, that is
KIDS today — all they want to do is stare at their phones and text, Snapchat, Snaptext and Textchat, right?
Well, not exactly. As rising R&B star Khalid explains, the painting of his generation as online introverts who rarely want to meet in person isn’t wholly true. The proof is in his biggest hit to date: the gorgeous “Location,” which captures the longing of wanting to connect face-to-face.
“I was so used to talking to this person I knew on text and social media, but I wanted to understand more about them and where their head was at,” Khalid tells The Post ahead of his shows at Terminal 5 on Sunday and Monday. “There’s only so much you can pick up and interpret through text messages. You can’t interpret facial expressions or tone. They’re vital.”
As for the portrayal of his generation as screen-happy zombies, the 19-year-old admits that it can be trying.
“Millennials do get a lot of s - - t, but I feel like if the old generation had a conversation with someone who’s 18 or 19, they’d realize that their form of love or affection isn’t too much different from ours.”
Released almost exactly a year ago, “Location” has crept to a peak of No. 16 on the Hot 100 — helped in no small way by Kylie Jenner, who gave the song a bump by posting a video of herself grooving to the tune last year. Even now, “Location” is holding steady in the Top 30 and Khalid’s debut album, “American Teen,” hit the Top 10 back in March.
Now based in Los Angeles, Khalid (not to be confused with DJ Khaled) spent time in Germany, El Paso, Texas, and even upstate New York as a youth, because his mother, Linda Wolfe, spent more than 10 years serving in the Army at different bases. She also instilled in him a love of music (she sang in an Army band), and Khalid is unabashed in calling her his “biggest influence.”
As his profile rises, Khalid is now also in the orbit of even bigger stars — most notably Lorde, who invited him to open on her upcoming tour of Europe. It represents a full circle for Khalid, who remembers listening to the New Zealander’s breakout hit “Royals” incessantly in 2013.
“It introduced me to teenage rebellion,” he says. “It gave me the courage to start writing my own music because she was writing about herself, and her own experiences. So it made me think, ‘Maybe I should write about mine.’ ”
As the success of “Location” and “American Teen” shows, it’s a good thing he did.