Writing a hit song with Lizzo
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- Опубліковано 6 лис 2023
- Ricky Reed and Blake Slatkin deconstruct the writing and production of "About Damn Time", the Grammy-winning single taken from Lizzo's 2022 album, "Special".
Full video available exclusively on mwtm.com/itt93
After years of hard work, Lizzo and her team felt that the second album was finally complete. But something kept producers Ricky Reed and Blake Slatkin in the studio working on a promising idea for one more single. The bet paid off, leading to the creation of the album’s Grammy-winning song, “About Damn Time”.
As a close friend and collaborator of Lizzo, Ricky Reed has played an integral part in her musical universe since 2016. After crossing paths with Blake Slatkin during the production of ‘Special’, the two forged an instant connection over their love of old-school funk and disco. What came next is history.
This 4-part series begins at the piano, where Blake and Ricky talk through the harmonic foundations of the song. Bouncing ideas off one another, they slowly reconstruct the track and demonstrate how a simple yet potent groove lured Lizzo back into the studio to join them on their mission.
The duo are accompanied in the control room by recording engineer Bill Malina, who reveals some of the technical decisions that brought their creative ideas to life. He discusses his approach to creating sonic consistency throughout the recording process, using careful equipment selection, mic placement and session management.
Eventually, all attention turns towards Lizzo as we learn how she penned the song’s unforgettable hooks and wordplay. Written in real-time as she freestyled over the track, her spectacular talent and presence perfectly tie the song together and demonstrate the power of an outstanding performance.
I came here hoping that Ricky would talk about the fantastic bass line (which I believe he played), but he didn't even mention it!
Great Song, Great Production!!!
HIT!
0:33 This is incorrect. The third is what makes the chord major or minor. You can choose not to play it, but a minor 9 does not omit the 3rd.
Also, the chord in this song is an E Flat min9 - not an Emin9. 🤔
1. They could have started at E & transposed to Eb for vocal range or to mix better. There's also varispeed but probably not a factor here.
2. They're not talking about the standard chord. They're talking about how they constructed the chord we hear from the piano in this song. The bass & guitar are playing the minor third. A lot of pop artists try & make the piano pierce through the mix, & sometimes too many notes will prevent that. They wanted a wider, emptier chord.
@@avoqado89i get it. The music teacher in me is a little obsessive about theory and the falsehoods perpetuated online. I totally get that he was attempting to describe the way he voiced the chord in the song (which is helpful). That doesn't change the fact that his statement is also theoretically incorrect.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I always welcome the chance to talk music with people. :)
@@n.oneimportant5 Sure but you could say "technically" rather than "this is incorrect" to the literal producers of this track. He says at 0:41 "So you have this chord, the third is usually the thing that tells you, do I feel happy? Or do I feel sad?" Not only is he accepting that the third is 'what makes the chord major or minor,' but he's actually describing the creative process & the mix rather than talk music theory.
In reality, the piano chord with the bass is playing is Bb minor over Eb most of the time, with the first turn around briefly hitting GbΔ7 just by comping Bb, Db, & F on the piano. However, they are describing their creative process of creating this piano chord from the original music theory of the sick bassline that is covering Gb (minor third) & F (the 9) plenty in the Eb Minor Scale. Do you want your piano to add to that, or do you want to give it some room up there? It could sound muddy or overly sad if the piano is also playing the minor third. The bass just touches on it, the piano would be comping every. single. chord. with. sad. sad. sad. sad. That's not what they wanted in the piano's tone or role of supporting the rest of the instruments. They wanted it to have a balanced mood without just using power chords.
They are clients of the artist & it's their job to give her a platform where she can excel. It could be Cbmin9 but it's all arbitrary. The point of the video is to describe how they want the piano to sound with & against all of the elements of the mix. It's important for your students to know that while music theory is very helpful, it can also be a narrow view of the entire world of music, especially how heavy of a Western lense it has to it. You have to balance the creative process, the mood of a song, the preferences of a singer, & all the frequency charts & wave shapes properly to actually produce a banger. You can't tear them down when they don't describe it with perfect music theory.
Did you feel like I tore them down? Hmm. I didn't feel like I did that. Oh well. To each their own, I guess. Have a nice evening.
These guys are smooth brains and they work with Lizzo what would u expect she is awful
sounds like a talk box and not a vocoder.
Nope it’s definitely vocoder.
Lot of DF influences here.. too much maybe
Nothing interesting in this video ...Mix with the Masters ?? nothing about the mixing approach ,no track breakdown, nothing !!
Yeah, and don't hold your breath because they're all basically useless for anything technical. That's actually how the paid service is as well. I recently watched several different classes at a friend's place using their account. It only took a few videos to realize that they all just either boast about themselves and/or summarize obvious things without ever going in-depth about anything technical. If you're going to call it Mix With The Masters I would hope to be educated with deep technical breakdowns. But instead we just get professionals talking about that thing they did that one time.