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Miguel: Don't Put Me in a Box

"Coffee" singer talks Wildheart album with Rolling Stone magazine

With an album called Wildheart on the way, it makes sense that Miguel doesn’t want to be put in the a box. The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter talks not conforming to a genre, and pushing boundaries in a Rolling Stone interview for the June 2015 issue. 

"I do this s**t because I love it," Miguel said ahead of explaining how the new album differs from 2012’s Kaleidoscope Dream. “This time it was like I finally want to have an identity as a taste-maker, as someone who's ahead of the curve, someone who's intellectual, someone who's striving to push the boundaries, someone who's ever-growing and evolving, someone who's open-minded.”

| CLICK FOR MIGUEL STRIPS NAKED ON WILDHEART COVER |

Miguel started recording Wildheart last January with a “clear vision” of what he wanted to say. The L.A. native’s project, due out next month, is inspired by his hometown, a place he calls both “beautiful and helpless,” elements of which are found on Wildheart. "I just wanted this album to look and feel and taste like twilight in L.A.,” he said. “Just light enough to see the beauty, but then dark enough for all of the sketchy s*** to happen.”

Being raised in L.A. offered challenges for the half-Black and half-Mexican singer as tension between both communities flared in the ’80s and ‘90s. “I was just trying to figure out where I belong or who I am, which directly affects how I create my music and why I create the way I do," he explained. "I'm rooted in soul, but I'm in love with rock & roll and I'm not gonna conform to any of their expectations because I do what the f**k I want, you know? There's no box for me. There was never any box for me."  

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(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Michael Kors)

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