Grimes Says She Is Not Releasing Songs About Elon Musk on Upcoming Album Psy Opera Yet

Grimes stated that her next album contains no songs about her former partner Elon Musk, though her personal life will feature heavily on a planned second part of the project.

During an appearance on the Sunday, Oct. 11, episode of Swiftologist’s Proto Pop podcast, the alternative pop singer-songwriter discussed her upcoming LP Psy Opera, her first full-length album in six years. She revealed that the first installment is entirely conceptual and inspired by artificial intelligence.

“The second album is 100% personal,” Grimes said. “But I really didn’t want any of this [first album] to be about Elon. Not at all.”

She explained that the personal material could not come first because she wanted to lead with technology themes in the opening half of the Psy Opera era. She also noted that her only regret is not blending the biographical and conceptual elements more evenly across both discs.

“I sort of wish I had a bit more of the emotions on this side and a bit more computer on the other side,” she said. “Overall, though, it’s about being even more traumatized by the late-stage empire than I am about other things.”

Grimes previously mentioned Psy Opera in an April interview with Interview. Days before her podcast appearance, she shared a social media video trailer combining futuristic visuals with a voice-over stating, “In the beginning was the word. And the word was God … Artificial light rivaled the sun, and God said: ‘Conquer the heavens.’”

On Proto Pop, the artist noted that she used generative AI on only one track for Psy Opera to explore the technology’s complexities rather than endorse it. “I wanted to bring everyone through my journey of getting so dark and nihilistic … I was going through the trial in my personal life, and I was also kind of going through a trial in public,” she said. “For literal years, I just woke up in abject terror every morning. It was like, ‘I’m guilty of some new thing outside and inside at every point in my life every day for years.’”

Psy Opera follows her 2020 album Miss Anthropocene, which debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard 200. It is her first LP since her separation from Musk, with whom she shares three children.

Grimes has previously spoken about custody disputes with Musk and criticized him for bringing their oldest child to meet President Donald Trump in February 2025.

During the podcast, she compared her situation to historical women whose reputations were linked to powerful men.

“Everyone’s like, ‘Are you so sad that you are now so defined by a man?’” she said. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know, I feel like I’m one of the first women in history who can transmute this into art in a way.’ I welcome the situation.”

Grimes’ interview with Swiftologist and her video introduction to Psy Opera are available below.