I’ve always loved his style and his flow. I think he’s really talented. I just met him at the Billboard Awards and asked him, “Do you want to sing a song with me?” And he was like, “Send it over and I’ll listen.” He really liked it, and he was like, “I’ll fuck with this.”

We met in the studio in L.A. and smoked some weed out of an apple bong that we made together. Then he did his thing. He’s like me—he has his pen and paper, writing. I was like, “Whatever you’re feeling—I don’t want to like ‘Well what are you really saying there?’” I wanted him to do his take on it.

I think it adds that last piece of energy that it really needs. I also love that he sings part of the last chorus, like some harmonies. He just nailed it. I think it was great.

I listened a lot to the Weeknd before I got into the studio and was making this record. I loved his whole album. He is very sensual, obviously, but he’s not dirty in his lyrics. It still has a lot of depth. I love that, and that inspired me to go in that direction a little bit.

I wrote “Influence” after my vocal chord surgery, which was in January last year. As a singer, I don’t think I realize how much I need this until that happened to me. It was after two months of going out of my mind at home, ‘cause you can barely speak. You can’t be in loud environments. So basically, I was locked in my apartment for a few months. But once I got back out and I could sing again, it was he most amazing feeling, and my voice was so light and bright. I could hit any note. It was amazing, but I didn’t really have that much control of it.