Saturday Nine: The Love Club (2013)

This week's Saturday Nine:

1. Lorde has said this song is about a time when she fell into "a bad crowd." Her high-maintenance new friends were all about their romantic dramas and it overwhelmed her. Have you ever had a friend who was just too much work? Oh, for sure. When I was in my early 20s, I had this one friend who was always negative, always starting drama, and ended up being a two-faced backstabber. Needless to say, I cut her off. I haven't talked to or seen her since. (If I cut you off, you don't exist to me. Yes, I'm that bitch.)
   
   
2. She sings that she longs to be alone. Where do you go when you want peace and quiet? My bathroom. It's the one place where no one can bother me and I can avoid the outside world.
   
   
3. Lorde credits her mother for encouraging her verbal skills. "Mum" let her join a theatre class when she was just 5 and was always giving her books. Tell us about an encouraging, understanding adult who assisted you when you were growing up. My mom. She kinda let me choose my own path, which is a big deal if you're Chinese. My dad was busy being the breadwinner, so my mom made most of the day-to-day decisions for me and my brother. In retrospect, she gave me a lot of freedom when I was younger; I started taking the subway by myself in Grade 7, and I was allowed to go downtown every weekend in high school, and she let me go to rock concerts on school nights. (I told her about this recently, and she was like, "Why did I let you do that? I gave you too much freedom.") And when I was deciding on university, she didn't care what I studied so long as I enjoyed it. She didn't give me a hard time with grades. And when I hated what I was studying in university, she asked me what I really wanted to do with my life. And I said makeup artistry. And she said, "Fine, then go to school for it, get your diploma, and be a makeup artist." She didn't even hesitate.
   
   
4. Lorde is not the only celebrity from her class at Belmont School in Auckland, New Zealand. Olympian Eliza McCartney was a classmate who went on to win a bronze medal in Rio for the pole vault. Did you participate in any sports in high school? Dear god, no.
   
   
5. Lorde wrote music for one of the Hunger Games soundtracks. Have you seen any of the Hunger Games movies, or read any of the books? I read all the books when they first came out, and watched the first movie. I do think if I hadn't read the books, I would've enjoyed the movies. But the thing about book-to-film adaptations is that if I've already read the book, I have this vision of how everything is supposed to be (from how the characters look to the setting of every scene to the soundtrack of important moments), so if the movie deviates from that vision or leaves out significant parts of the book, I'm left sad and disappointed. Which is how Hunger Games was for me. The worst, however, was the Divergent series. That book series was so dear to my heart, and the movie franchise really fucked it up.
   
   
6. Her favourite candy is Peanut M&M's. Do you prefer Milk Chocolate, Peanut, Almond, Mint or Crispy M&M's? I like both Peanut and Almond. These nut options are actually why I've always preferred M&M's to Smarties.
   
   
7. When Lorde was on stage at Lollapalooza, a sudden storm interrupted her set. The music festival was evacuated and her performance was cancelled. Can you think of a time when the weather had a major impact on your plans? There was an ice storm in 2015 that impacted almost everyone living in Southern Ontario. Businesses and malls were closed, half the city had no power, trees had fallen down in the middle of main roads causing a clusterfuck of traffic... Suffice it to say, it impacted my plans.
   
   
8. Random question: Please complete this sentence — Before I leave the house, I always ______________. Remember to check that I have my phone, wallet, and cigarettes in my purse.