Grimes Says New Song ‘Delete Forever’ Was Inspired by Lil Peep’s Death

Grimes linked up with Apple Beats 1 on Wednesday to discuss “Delete Forever,” her latest single from her forthcoming album Miss Anthropocene, out February 21st.

“It’s a pretty bummer song,” she told Zane Lowe. “I’m so bad at talking about this song. I guess it’s kind of about the opioid epidemic…I’ve had quite a few friends pass away, in particular, one friend when I was 18 passed away from complications related to opioid addiction. Artists keep dying and stuff so I wrote this song on the night Lil Peep died.”

In contrast to most of Grimes’ other output, “Delete Forever” is a semi-acoustic ballad, built around guitar chords. “It’s funny because the finished product is basically almost the demo,” she said, explaining how she cut out most everything she added to the track in the final phases.

She continued, “When I was making this song I was trying to be more like Patsy Cline or something, like I was trying to be country or something, but I feel like it’s more like…when you go to a punk show and they play some acoustic shit, but it’s super aggro.”

Lowe agreed, comparing the song to Oasis’s “Wonderwall.”

Grimes previously released the tracks “We Appreciate Power,” “Violence,” “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth,” “4AEM” and “My Name Is Dark.”