Ashley Tisdale Opens Up About Deeply Personal Album Symptoms

What's going on guys, hanging with me right now I have the Ashley Tisdale.

Hi.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

I love your suit by the way

Thanks.

You look like a boss babe. You know, you just feel like such a boss in a suit. You really do. Yeah. I love it. And I do wanna talk about, you have been a boss especially with your new music. Your new album Symptoms. It's very personal and close to your heart.

Yes it is. My personal journey through anxiety and depression.

I do wanna tell you, I wanna share a little piece of my own little heart with you. Yeah. When I was watching you do other interviews, you were making me emotional. You were so brave and you're just so open and I think that's so important especially when you're promoting a project like this so I think it's so cool.

Yeah it's definitely like, I think, the most authentic thing I've ever done, and so it's obviously sometimes hard to be vulnerable and then there's sometimes moments where you just get caught off-guard and so you do get emotional talking about it. But thank you for the support.

For sure! Why do you think it is so hard for people to be vulnerable these days?

I'm a very private person, even though I'm on social media and I share my life with everybody, but I think that for this one it was something that I've struggled with and I just thought, there's so many people out there that go through the same thing that I'm going through and they don't even know I'm going through them, so I think for me it was just like I wanted to make people feel less alone in their journey and just, you know, kind of be open about that.

Yeah. And I do want to touch on symptoms I love that name, honestly, I think it's really cool.

I was talking to my co-writer about all the symptoms I was having and then I also talked about, you know, when I first met my husband and how I had such commitment issues because I'd been in really bad relationships in the past. And so that whole song is just about, like, all these symptoms you feel, that you're like, I can't let this happen because it's the right person. So it's a really fun song and that's pretty much a through line through the album, is that even though each song is a different symptom of anxiety or depression, it's really about having fun and acknowledging those feelings but still being like, okay, this is what we have, let's just like, you know, have fun and don't dwell on the feelings of those things.

I love that. Do you feel like it's kind of once the doors have been opened you're kind of more willing to open up about things?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I've definitely gotten a lot more comfortable in interviews, for sure, like I ...

How are you feeling right now?

I feel great.

Okay, I was like, I hope you're not getting too anxious, okay, good, good.

No, I feel great in this moment and this time I just felt like it was important to talk about these things and important for my fans to really get to know me for who I am, and this was something that no one really kind of knew.

Again, it's just so cool that you're so open.

Aw, thanks.

You know, talk about this. But I do want to talk about your latest single.

Yes, Love Me & Let Me Go is basically me ... It's kind of interesting, it's like, the best part about the album is that you can relate to it in so many different ways, and so someone who might not even have anxiety might not understand, but they will relate to it because it could be about a guy, but really it's me talking to my anxiety and it's just like, I've got to love myself and I've got to let myself just go and like, it's really just kind of this like, moment of I've got to do this for myself and so that's what that song is about.

You posted this picture, I like this part specifically: "Saying no to people."

Oh, yeah, I just feel like it's important to be able to say that and to be like, "Nope, I'm going to do that later" or "I'm going to do this" and kind of, you know, choose you first.

Right, and feeling confident that, you know, the people around you when you say no, they'll probably still love you anyway. And if they do love you they should understand, right?

For sure, for sure. I mean, they always do.

And they always do, exactly. I do want to talk about your fans because, you know, I'm sure you've seen the response has just been so overwhelming and just so emotional.

I have to say, like, one of the most surprising is actually having friends of mine that I had no idea suffered from the same thing and they text me. I guess there was maybe one, one specific thing where I feel like there was like a class and they were showing, think they were doing a class in like, Brazil or something and they had the lyrics of "Voices in my Head" and they were like talking and discussing it and I was like, "Oh my gosh!" like that is so insane.

Did you cry after that? I would've.

I did, well that's in one of the interviews when I cried because it caught me off-guard because they asked me about it and I had just seen it and I was like, "Oh my gosh." You also have to remember too that this, I co-wrote every single song on the album so this is like, everything is like a piece of me so just to see the complete positive response, it's been overwhelming.

You're so amazing, I mean, Young Hollywood here, we've respected you for years but just honestly after this, you are seriously boss babe.

You're so sweet. Well thank you so much.

Thank you! Wish we could talk to you for hours but,

Oh my god, yes.

But you're probably busy doing other things. (laughing) Thank you again for coming by, you're welcome anytime.

Thank you.

(electronic music)