You’ve experimented with a lot of other genres on your past few albums. What has it been like to switch back more towards R&B again on Non-Fiction?

Ne-Yo: It feels like home. This is the reason that Ne-Yo exists. I was hearing people say, “Ne-Yo doesn’t do R&B music anymore,” and, “he’s abandoning R&B.” That bothered me. So, I decided to do this album as a reminder to the R&B fans. I’m never going to abandon R&B.

What was it like to be so detailed with some of your own personal issues in your love life on this album? 

Ne-Yo: I’ve always told people that the most reliable source of information about me is my music. I can’t tell people that and then not give them the truth, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ve always kind of prided myself on being a regular person, so as a regular person, and just human being, we make mistakes. If me discussing my mistakes can help somebody else to not make the same mistakes, then I served my purpose.

You reached out to some fans for stories for the some of the project’s tracks. Was there any particular one that touched you the most?

Ne-Yo: There’s a song on the album called “Religious,” and this is a song that’s based off of a story given to me by a guy. We had a pretty good, long conversation about his wife, and how he says she saved his life. They had been together something like 20+ years or so, and the part that got me was when he said “me being with her lets me know for a fact that God exists. Her existence proves to me that God is real, because only a being like God can bring somebody like her to somebody like me.” Love like that almost doesn’t even exist anymore.

How do you gauge your growth from In My Own Words to Non-Fiction?

Ne-Yo: From my first album to now, I’m just as curious as I’ve always been, but I’m less afraid to actually step out and try to see where that curiosity can take me. The first album was very much R&B, with a slight pop feel to it, and that’s because I didn’t think I would be accepted doing any other genre at the time. At this point, I feel like I could do any genre. I could do a polka record if I wanted to.