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On the Spotify exclusive “Enhanced Album” for Manic, Halsey talks about the ‘Three Face Theory’ in which everyone has three faces, the first one is what you show the world, the second one is what you show to people close to you, and the third one is never seen by anyone. She then elaborates saying, Halsey is the one she shows the world, and Ashley (her real name), is the second. Through Manic it was Halsey’s goal to represent her third face because it lives “in the cracks between the two.”

The vision she refers to here, is Halsey. With her first two records, Badlands and hopeless fountain kingdom, Halsey designed universes for her albums, and used merch, character twitter accounts, and other forms to help expand the universes within the music she wrote.

Although Badlands and hopeless fountain kingdom were both based on real life experiences, Halsey eventually realised that she wasn’t being 100% honest. In an interview talking about the release of “Without Me,” Manic’s lead single and #1 hit, she said: “It’s not protected by some character or some subplot. It’s like this is really me talking about my life. It kind of gave me like an existential crisis as an artist a little bit, because I’ve prided myself on being an artist who’s authentic.”

HALSEY.