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2 on the Hot 100.
Thats all still the case onSpecial, because thats what drew Reed to Lizzo in the first place.
Always on the lookout for anybody who doesnt do what is expected of them, he says.
She has consistently tried to challenge the box around her since the beginning.
You know, we worked on the album since before COVID, right?
And I have never personally poured so much love and hard work into an album in my life.
What was on her mind?Before we were talking about Whats the story?
I was like, Wait, explain.
She was like, I just want the drums on a Lizzo album to be leading the conversation.
As a producer and human, that is like catnip for me.
So the early stages were a lot of musical experimentation, trying different tempos, different rhythmic pockets.
Thats kind of our collective sweet spot.
Then were going to do what Lizzo does and attempt to lift people up.
We really start getting into heavy songwriting and lyrical material in fall/winter of 2020, right?
I mean, I made awhole album myselfthat was more explicitly about that moment.
But with her, we knew that this is going to be a long-game thing.
Shed say this over and over: Im an artist, I have to reflect the times.
So we would always check that, at every turn, that we were going to reflect the times.
We cant do that in the last few years without talking about whats been going on.
I know she wanted the takeaway of the whole project to feel like its loving.
And for her, About Damn Time was a core song about love.
So whats the opposite of fear?
Its the only other option in these times.
She thought thats what the world needed at that exact moment.
She put a lot of thought into it.
But a lot of the music underneath it its based on this towering, dense, minor jazz chord.
It started as like an E-minor nine or an E-minor 11 sort of thing.
I think we ended up changing the key down to E-flat minor.
We wanted it to also be something that felt grounded and powerful and had a lot of weight.
That song also has a lot of retro influences on it.
Its recalling Diana Rosss disco era, and it has that little reference to Im Coming Out.
I think the best ones are both exultant and reaching for the sky.
We just really wanted to match that joy with that seriousness.
How would those come up?
Pop Wansel brought a great sample on Naked.
Its the right mood.
Its the right movement, the swing of the drums.
If this is something that you guys would be interested in working together on, let me know.
And they were awesome.
Helped me put the whole thing together.
Then, have you heard the story of how she wrote that?
I havent heard the full story.
I was going to ask you.
Let me just go in and freestyle.
But she did something that shes never done.
And there was nothing to play music on, but we were dancing in silence.
I was blown away by it.
But I was like,I cant really figure out how to put together a 45-minute spoken word track.
She went into the booth and just cut it in like two hours, and it was a wrap.
So right before I played it for her, I was like,Theres that part about Coldplay.
Hmm.I played the track and I tried singing.
But it slotted in perfectly.
My favorite song on the album is Everybodys Gay.
The lyric and melody was mostly fully cooked by the time it got to me.
I was like,Wow, this is really cool.It was strangely a lot faster than it is today.
You could sit in the groove a little more.
Vocally, youre going to be able to have a more soulful performance thats not going to feel rushed.
We put a human drummer on it, this guy Victor Indrizzo, whos incredible.
Let me play a live bass on it.
Then I brought in my horn section.
Nate Mercereau did another pass on guitar with the crazy solo in the bridge.
Were there touchpoints coming up for that song, as far as artists?Not particularly for me.
Obviously were dabbling with retro styles.
Sometimes its really subtle things.
Or, Were actually going to intentionally use a cheesy laser sound here.
To verify that we are carving out a moment in 2022, 2023 for this song.
So the conversations, those are ones where Lizzo herself is really helpful.
How do we zig when they zag, so to speak?
Its like, Okay, were going to do mariachi and lets sing in English.
We wrote a song in a bolero [style] in Spanish.
Lets make the music like indie-pop-disco.
Trying to always have the vocal and the music be these unexpected partners.
Do you feel like it stretched you?Oh yeah.
Stretched me, and also made me so happy.
I get to hear their stories like, oh man, touring with Gloria Estefan.
Its literally my favorite thing about making albums, getting to meet new people.
