Full Transcript:

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John Kennedy: This episode is brought to you by Amazon.

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John Kennedy: Shop early holiday deals now.

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John Kennedy: Hello and welcome to Tape Notes, the podcast that looks behind the scenes at the magic of recording and producing music.

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John Kennedy: Every episode, we’ll be reuniting an artist and producer and talking through some of the highlights from their collaboration in the studio.

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John Kennedy: So join us as we lift the lid on the creative process and the inner workings of music production to see what lies beneath.

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John Kennedy: Hello, I’m John Kennedy, and welcome to this special episode of Tape Notes, part two of our conversation with Clean Bandit.

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John Kennedy: In part one, we looked back over how the band wrote, recorded, and produced some of their early tracks, the global hits Rather Be featuring Jess Glynne, and Miss You with Julia Michaels.

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John Kennedy: If you haven’t heard that episode yet, then I definitely recommend having a listen before digging into this one.

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John Kennedy: But today, I’m back at Strong Room Studios in Shoreditch with Jack and Grace, and what better way to rejoin our conversation than by hearing the next track we’re going to explore.

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John Kennedy: This is Symphony featuring Zara Larsson.

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John Kennedy: It is Symphony by Clean Bandit featuring Zara Larsson.

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John Kennedy: And I’m very pleased to say that I am in the company of Jack and Grace from Clean Bandit for part two of our Tape Notes podcast.

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John Kennedy: Hello.

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Jack Patterson: Hello.

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Jack Patterson: Hello.

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Grace Chatto: Hello.

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John Kennedy: Thanks very much for coming back.

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John Kennedy: I’m glad it wasn’t too painful last time.

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John Kennedy: But there was more conversation to be had, more music to examine.

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John Kennedy: And we’re going to talk about the latest single in just a moment, Cry Baby.

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John Kennedy: But before that, we’re going to look at Symphony, 1.5 billion streams and counting.

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John Kennedy: Clearly one of the most popular songs in the world.

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John Kennedy: How and when and why did this all start?

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Jack Patterson: Gosh.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah.

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Jack Patterson: Well, Symphony’s kind of come back into the public consciousness in quite a big way recently.

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Jack Patterson: Because of TikTok, it’s become this new meme, which has really been quite interesting to see unfold.

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Jack Patterson: And yeah, we did it.

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Grace Chatto: Seven years ago.

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Jack Patterson: Seven years ago.

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John Kennedy: So March 2017, I think was when it was released, was it?

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John Kennedy: So, but this is the great thing about being a songwriter and a musician, and your recordings can last forever, and they come back into people’s consciousness, and then maybe evaporate for a while, and then come back again.

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John Kennedy: And this is going through one of those moments, which is really exciting.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah, it’s really exciting.

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Jack Patterson: Kind of terrifying as well.

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Jack Patterson: It just reminds you, yeah, these things do, they live on.

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Jack Patterson: But I think people somehow, it seems like this Gen Z, I don’t know, I’ve got this theory that the Gen Z audience has read the actual original meaning of the song, because we rewrote it in quite a big way, and it feels like they’ve felt the kind of the original despair that was in the song before it became a very positive love song.

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Jack Patterson: It was a very negative song about breaking up, and now the memes that are being generated are all about kind of, they’re these like, how do you describe it?

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Grace Chatto: Kind of unfortunate phrases.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah.

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Grace Chatto: Written over images of dolphins flying.

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John Kennedy: With a soundtrack of…

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Grace Chatto: With a soundtrack, yeah.

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Jack Patterson: So it’s always something negative that’s happening in their lives, and it’s like using this joyful kind of epic chorus in a kind of ironic way.

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Jack Patterson: And that’s kind of what we did originally.

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Jack Patterson: I’ll find this version I’m talking about, but when we first wrote it, it was actually called Music Sounds Better Without You.

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John Kennedy: Wow.

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Jack Patterson: And it had like an empty drop, so it was like this big build, and then it was just like a kind of 808.

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Jack Patterson: And it’s hard to explain, I’ll play it to you.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: So somehow without ever hearing the original version, somehow they tapped into an essence of the meaning and the drive behind the original creation.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah, but still lives in the chords and the melodies.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: That’s kind of spooky.

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John Kennedy: In a way, if that is the case.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah, it might not be that-

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John Kennedy: I mean, they might just like the tune.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah, they might just like the tune.

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Jack Patterson: And they, you know, for them, it’s got obviously that people only know the version that exists, you know, so that’s, we’re just reading into it, you know, with hindsight.

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Jack Patterson: But it was just really interesting seeing that kind of juxtaposition of meaning.

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John Kennedy: So what should we hear first?

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Jack Patterson: Um, yeah, let me hear it.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah, you can hear the original lyrics.

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Grace Chatto: They still had all the musical terminologies and kind of plays on musical words, but it was, yeah, a breakup song, kind of vengeful breakups.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah, I can’t remember the original demo was me and Steve Mack again and Amar Malik, who’s an amazing writer and genius melodic, not melodic, a melodist.

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Grace Chatto: He’s a melody king.

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Jack Patterson: Melody king.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah.

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Grace Chatto: He wrote that moves like Jagger.

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John Kennedy: Right.

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Grace Chatto: Melody.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah.

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Grace Chatto: Amongst other things.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah.

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Jack Patterson: But the hate of the distances.

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John Kennedy: It sounds great.

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John Kennedy: I love the negativity of it.

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Grace Chatto: It really is perfect for the dolphin meme.

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Jack Patterson: That one didn’t have the anti-drop though.

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Jack Patterson: That was a hype.

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Grace Chatto: It was a hyped one, yeah.

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Jack Patterson: Hyped one, yeah.

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Jack Patterson: But yeah, so it’s kind of quite a weird process because I think we played that version to our label, and they were like, yeah, we love it, but it’s too negative.

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Jack Patterson: And they said, can you have a go at flipping it?

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Jack Patterson: And we were like, no way.

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Grace Chatto: We were really cross because we were like, this is perfect.

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Grace Chatto: But then we asked our friend, Ina Rolston, who we did Rockabye with, to have a look at it and try flipping the chorus.

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Grace Chatto: And then she came up with that symphony, melody and chorus.

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John Kennedy: Right.

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John Kennedy: Wow.

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John Kennedy: So you were resistant to this suggestion.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah, livid.

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John Kennedy: But pragmatically thought, well, okay, no.

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John Kennedy: Try it.

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Grace Chatto: And then we were like, okay.

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John Kennedy: Wow.

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John Kennedy: And was that a joint writing session with her or did she just kind of take it away?

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Jack Patterson: I think it was remote.

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Jack Patterson: I think she, yeah, I was just, because I was looking for that.

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Jack Patterson: I was just digging up some old emails and just sent her that demo.

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Jack Patterson: And then she just sent it back just kind of as it is now.

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Jack Patterson: And I was like, wow.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah, she was in Norway.

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John Kennedy: Wow, yeah.

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John Kennedy: So was this over a short period of time, this evolution of the song?

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Grace Chatto: I think so, yeah.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah, because they loved all the melodies and everything.

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Grace Chatto: They were just like, we need to change the lyrics.

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Jack Patterson: It’s also because it was, obviously, it’s an existing song.

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Jack Patterson: Music sounds better with you.

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John Kennedy: Yes.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: Well, it’s a reference to.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: That’s the whole point.

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Grace Chatto: Oh, yeah.

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Grace Chatto: They didn’t like that.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: Okay.

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Jack Patterson: But we thought that it’s not that though, it’s the opposite of that.

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Jack Patterson: But maybe it’s still too close from a copyright standpoint, I don’t know.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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Grace Chatto: We’re going to write a musical though, and we’re going to include both versions.

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John Kennedy: This is a great idea.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: I’m into this.

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Grace Chatto: One story has one and one story has the other.

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Jack Patterson: We can’t tell you what the musical is.

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Grace Chatto: What it is.

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Grace Chatto: We can’t say what it is.

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Jack Patterson: But that device is quite important in the film that the musical is of.

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John Kennedy: Right.

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John Kennedy: Wow.

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John Kennedy: This is intriguing.

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John Kennedy: This is what you do.

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John Kennedy: This is what happened on part one, wasn’t it?

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John Kennedy: You told us all these things to reference them, and it’s like, I bet we can’t go into that yet.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: But that’s exciting.

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John Kennedy: There’s all these other things bubbling away.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah.

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Grace Chatto: This original can live.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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Grace Chatto: Which I’m happy about.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: That is really good.

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John Kennedy: I mean, what should we hear?

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John Kennedy: Where does Zara come in?

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Grace Chatto: Zara came in later.

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Grace Chatto: We heard that Lush Life song.

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Grace Chatto: Actually heard her performing it at the Capitol sometime and we were like, wow, who’s that?

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Grace Chatto: Sent it to her after that and she jumped on it immediately.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: It ends up being a really beautiful sentiment.

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John Kennedy: I just want to be part of your symphony.

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John Kennedy: It couldn’t be more positive.

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John Kennedy: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: It couldn’t contrast with that original version anymore, really.

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John Kennedy: It’s brilliant in that way.

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Grace Chatto: Yeah.

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Grace Chatto: The melody is so cool, that ascending row up, down, up.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah.

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Jack Patterson: I’ve been hearing my wife trying to sing that melody just because she’s obsessed with TikTok.

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Jack Patterson: So she’s just constantly singing symphony just for the last month, pretty much all the time.

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John Kennedy: Wow.

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Jack Patterson: Then I finally just said two nights ago, I was like, you’ve actually been doing it wrong.

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Jack Patterson: Then we sat down and just went through that exact melody, and now she’s nailed it.

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John Kennedy: Wow.

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John Kennedy: What a strange, unusual situation that seems to be.

00:12:03.934 –> 00:12:05.334
John Kennedy: Yeah.

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John Kennedy: What else should we hear?

00:12:06.394 –> 00:12:08.934
John Kennedy: I feel that there’s more to be heard.

00:12:08.934 –> 00:12:10.034
John Kennedy: It’s an amazing story.

00:12:10.694 –> 00:12:11.514
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

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Jack Patterson: I’m slightly unprepared on the symphony one, because do you remember I had that stack of laptops?

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John Kennedy: But there are crossovers.

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John Kennedy: In terms of your approach to other recordings at the time, other projects, so there are sounds that I think are clean bandit type sounds in there.

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Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:12:30.094 –> 00:12:31.694
John Kennedy: They’re almost signature.

00:12:31.694 –> 00:12:32.874
Jack Patterson: Yes.

00:12:32.874 –> 00:12:34.914
John Kennedy: That was maybe covered in part one a little bit.

00:12:34.914 –> 00:12:35.854
Jack Patterson: It probably was, yeah.

00:12:36.554 –> 00:12:44.194
Jack Patterson: It’s the same kind of sound that we used in Rather Be and Rockabye a bit.

00:12:44.194 –> 00:12:53.974
Grace Chatto: But this is the most exposed pure incarnation of it, because it opens with just the operator on its own.

00:12:53.974 –> 00:12:55.134
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:12:55.134 –> 00:12:59.034
Jack Patterson: But I feel like I did a tutorial on making that sound a rough word.

00:13:01.474 –> 00:13:01.674
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:13:01.714 –> 00:13:03.914
Jack Patterson: I could refer to it, but.

00:13:04.074 –> 00:13:19.854
John Kennedy: But it’s interesting that idea though, I think, because in terms of signature sounds for artists, because they’re both a really positive, strong thing that can really help readily identify you amongst the sea of music that’s out there.

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John Kennedy: But then they can also become a straight jacket, and something that you try and break out of, or want to ditch that sound because you’re sick of it.

00:13:31.294 –> 00:13:33.734
John Kennedy: It’s tricky getting that balance right.

00:13:33.734 –> 00:13:42.854
John Kennedy: That’s why it’s always interesting to watch bands like yourself and say Coldplay evolve their sound and how they can embrace change, but somehow still be themselves.

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Grace Chatto: I love that new Coldplay song.

00:13:44.994 –> 00:13:45.954
Grace Chatto: Oh my God.

00:13:45.954 –> 00:13:47.514
Grace Chatto: With Eliana.

00:13:47.514 –> 00:13:50.274
Grace Chatto: We’ve just made a song with Eliana as well.

00:13:50.274 –> 00:13:51.094
John Kennedy: Brilliant.

00:13:51.094 –> 00:13:57.294
Jack Patterson: It’s slightly more difficult for us because Chris Martin ties, you could have a voice.

00:13:57.294 –> 00:13:57.474
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:13:57.474 –> 00:13:59.074
Jack Patterson: It could just be bagpipes and Chris Martin.

00:13:59.074 –> 00:14:02.114
Jack Patterson: It’s still like a Coldplay song.

00:14:02.114 –> 00:14:14.154
Jack Patterson: But I think there was more of a pressure for us to lean into a sound design aesthetic that we’ve so few since we leaned on quite heavily.

00:14:14.294 –> 00:14:17.334
Jack Patterson: Like Polysix is in a lot.

00:14:17.334 –> 00:14:20.674
Jack Patterson: That’s the kind of in the build of Symphony.

00:14:20.674 –> 00:14:30.334
Jack Patterson: And in the second verse, that kind of stabby pluck, that’s just a Polysix on like a default setting with the filter opening up.

00:14:30.334 –> 00:14:32.794
Jack Patterson: And then what else?

00:14:32.814 –> 00:14:34.234
Grace Chatto: Or violin and cello.

00:14:34.234 –> 00:14:35.514
Jack Patterson: Of course the strings.

00:14:35.514 –> 00:14:35.994
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:14:35.994 –> 00:14:38.174
John Kennedy: I mean, that is the other aspect of your-

00:14:38.254 –> 00:14:39.754
Jack Patterson: Martin of the-

00:14:39.754 –> 00:14:39.994
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:14:39.994 –> 00:14:43.554
John Kennedy: Well, they know it’s a fundamental part of Clean Bandit.

00:14:43.594 –> 00:14:46.214
John Kennedy: It’s one of the things that really sets you apart, which is really exciting.

00:14:46.214 –> 00:14:52.454
John Kennedy: I’m just thinking, when Zara came on board, where did you record her and how was that process?

00:14:52.454 –> 00:14:54.134
John Kennedy: Did you do it together?

00:14:54.134 –> 00:14:54.414
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:14:55.134 –> 00:15:05.414
Jack Patterson: So we wrote the song with Steve, Mac and Ammar Malik and Ina, and then worked on the production with Mark Ralph quite a lot.

00:15:05.414 –> 00:15:08.834
Jack Patterson: So we recorded Zara in Mark’s studio.

00:15:08.834 –> 00:15:14.454
Grace Chatto: Because we had a room in the same building, we’d just be running up and down.

00:15:14.454 –> 00:15:14.754
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:15:14.754 –> 00:15:16.494
Jack Patterson: We recorded her there.

00:15:17.574 –> 00:15:19.194
Jack Patterson: Did we tour with her after that?

00:15:19.194 –> 00:15:19.894
Grace Chatto: No, after that.

00:15:21.274 –> 00:15:25.734
Grace Chatto: Yeah, we did a five-week tour across America with her.

00:15:25.734 –> 00:15:26.994
Grace Chatto: It was really cool.

00:15:26.994 –> 00:15:28.614
John Kennedy: And Symphony was already out there at that point.

00:15:28.614 –> 00:15:29.454
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:15:29.454 –> 00:15:34.394
Grace Chatto: So she did her set and then we’d do our set, and then she’d come on at the end, do Symphony.

00:15:34.434 –> 00:15:35.714
Grace Chatto: Really cool.

00:15:35.714 –> 00:15:38.994
Jack Patterson: I think she’s got blow up dolphins in her show now.

00:15:38.994 –> 00:15:40.694
Grace Chatto: Yeah, and dolphin visuals.

00:15:40.694 –> 00:15:41.234
John Kennedy: Oh, right.

00:15:41.234 –> 00:15:42.854
John Kennedy: So maybe it’s interlinked somehow.

00:15:42.854 –> 00:15:44.234
John Kennedy: No, it clearly is.

00:15:46.714 –> 00:15:52.614
John Kennedy: And in terms of recording her, was it different to recording Julia Michaels who you worked with before?

00:15:53.934 –> 00:15:55.394
Jack Patterson: I’m trying to think.

00:15:55.394 –> 00:16:04.754
Jack Patterson: So we’ve learned a huge amount about recording from Mark, who’s an amazing, very inspirational producer.

00:16:04.754 –> 00:16:05.454
John Kennedy: This is Mark Ralph.

00:16:06.034 –> 00:16:08.154
John Kennedy: Yeah, who’s been on Tape Notes a couple of times.

00:16:08.154 –> 00:16:08.914
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:16:08.914 –> 00:16:15.234
Jack Patterson: So we’ve worked on a lot of our biggest records with him.

00:16:15.234 –> 00:16:21.874
Jack Patterson: And I’ve learned a huge amount in terms of recording and mixing and producing from him.

00:16:22.274 –> 00:16:34.514
Jack Patterson: And his, yeah, I think it would have been, like I know for a fact it would have been like a U87 going into a Neve, then going into an 1176.

00:16:34.514 –> 00:16:37.574
Jack Patterson: And that’s his classic chain.

00:16:37.574 –> 00:16:39.734
Grace Chatto: I remember it being very quick.

00:16:39.734 –> 00:16:41.334
Grace Chatto: Like she was in and out.

00:16:41.334 –> 00:16:43.894
Grace Chatto: She’s very pro, Zara.

00:16:43.894 –> 00:16:44.554
John Kennedy: Right.

00:16:44.554 –> 00:16:46.414
John Kennedy: And you had all the new words for her then.

00:16:47.214 –> 00:16:48.754
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:16:48.754 –> 00:16:50.934
John Kennedy: Did she ever know that there was another version?

00:16:50.934 –> 00:16:53.294
Grace Chatto: Probably not actually.

00:16:53.294 –> 00:16:53.474
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:16:53.474 –> 00:16:54.474
Jack Patterson: Maybe not.

00:16:54.474 –> 00:16:55.754
Grace Chatto: No, I don’t think she would have.

00:16:56.234 –> 00:16:58.094
Jack Patterson: Yeah, it was all super quick.

00:16:59.154 –> 00:17:03.514
Jack Patterson: Maybe we should get her to cut this one, see if she’s into the alternate version.

00:17:03.514 –> 00:17:05.734
Grace Chatto: Yes, that’s such a good idea.

00:17:07.334 –> 00:17:10.094
John Kennedy: So I think before we move on, we should hear some more music.

00:17:10.094 –> 00:17:14.034
John Kennedy: So maybe play a bit of the master and talk us through the evolution of the song.

00:17:14.434 –> 00:17:15.894
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:17:15.894 –> 00:17:23.654
Jack Patterson: So this is that Ableton stock operator, just sine wave with a bit of Ableton reverb.

00:17:36.114 –> 00:17:54.794
Jack Patterson: And this is Contact Piano, Alesha’s Keys.

00:17:54.794 –> 00:17:58.474
Jack Patterson: I think that’s an MS-20, doing the bass, that’s just that sub.

00:19:41.614 –> 00:19:44.454
John Kennedy: And so, did Ina come up with the whole of the new lyric?

00:19:44.454 –> 00:19:45.814
Grace Chatto: She did, yeah.

00:19:45.814 –> 00:19:47.014
Grace Chatto: She was in Norway.

00:19:47.014 –> 00:19:48.834
Grace Chatto: We just sent it to her.

00:19:49.754 –> 00:19:55.174
Grace Chatto: Because we had done Rockabye together already, so we were…

00:19:55.174 –> 00:19:55.774
Jack Patterson: Confident.

00:19:55.774 –> 00:19:57.834
Grace Chatto: Confident in our abilities.

00:19:58.334 –> 00:19:59.054
Grace Chatto: No, she was amazing.

00:19:59.054 –> 00:20:00.514
John Kennedy: She obviously had a great relationship.

00:20:00.514 –> 00:20:00.694
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:20:00.694 –> 00:20:00.954
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:20:04.414 –> 00:20:05.514
Jack Patterson: There’s actually, it’s a lot…

00:20:09.174 –> 00:20:13.314
Jack Patterson: In my head, it feels a lot more layered, but it’s actually fairly…

00:20:16.814 –> 00:20:19.814
Jack Patterson: I think in the drop, there are quite a few extra little hidden layers of synths.

00:20:19.814 –> 00:20:22.094
Jack Patterson: There’s like a few little weird nexus patches.

00:20:22.754 –> 00:20:23.094
Jack Patterson: Adding…

00:20:24.974 –> 00:20:25.874
Jack Patterson: Doing all those counter…

00:20:44.994 –> 00:20:47.034
Jack Patterson: Where did we record the strings?

00:20:47.034 –> 00:20:49.334
Grace Chatto: In Crouch End.

00:20:49.334 –> 00:20:53.454
Grace Chatto: It’s fairly unusual for us now to record in a string quartet.

00:20:53.454 –> 00:21:00.354
Grace Chatto: We’d normally layer up the parts, starting with cello, then rising up viola, violin.

00:21:00.354 –> 00:21:06.314
Grace Chatto: But this, we recorded as an ensemble, which gives quite a different sound, doesn’t it?

00:21:07.234 –> 00:21:07.854
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:21:07.854 –> 00:21:15.554
Grace Chatto: It was with Brian McKenna and Mason, and Beatrice Phillips, and yeah.

00:21:15.554 –> 00:21:19.754
Grace Chatto: I think we also recorded Rockabye on the same day.

00:21:19.754 –> 00:21:20.054
Jack Patterson: Really?

00:21:20.054 –> 00:21:20.914
Grace Chatto: Strings.

00:21:20.914 –> 00:21:22.934
Jack Patterson: In what studio?

00:21:22.934 –> 00:21:27.794
Grace Chatto: In the crypt in Crouch End, which is at the end of our road.

00:21:27.794 –> 00:21:28.614
Grace Chatto: So we go there a lot.

00:21:29.014 –> 00:21:29.594
John Kennedy: Excellent.

00:21:29.594 –> 00:21:30.474
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:21:30.474 –> 00:21:33.774
Jack Patterson: It’s in the same building as the church.

00:21:34.694 –> 00:21:35.614
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:21:35.614 –> 00:21:39.974
John Kennedy: We’ve been to the church a few times now for Tape Notes, which is an amazing building.

00:21:39.974 –> 00:21:43.394
John Kennedy: So the crypt is in the same building, but presumably underneath the church or?

00:21:43.394 –> 00:21:44.854
Grace Chatto: It’s kind of around the back.

00:21:44.854 –> 00:21:45.114
John Kennedy: Right.

00:21:45.114 –> 00:21:45.694
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:21:45.694 –> 00:21:50.674
Grace Chatto: You can’t record there on Sundays because the church is actually operational.

00:21:50.674 –> 00:21:51.694
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:21:51.694 –> 00:21:53.034
Jack Patterson: They get pissed off.

00:21:53.034 –> 00:21:54.014
John Kennedy: Well, understandably.

00:21:57.374 –> 00:21:58.214
John Kennedy: That’s brilliant.

00:21:58.214 –> 00:22:07.274
John Kennedy: I mean, it’s interesting, isn’t it, to revisit a song that in your minds is quite old, but it’s being given a new lease of life thanks to TikTok.

00:22:07.274 –> 00:22:11.614
John Kennedy: But it’s great that songs have that ability to keep coming back.

00:22:11.914 –> 00:22:14.034
Jack Patterson: Yeah, definitely.

00:22:14.034 –> 00:22:19.534
John Kennedy: So that’s one of the reasons why we were looking at Symphony in part two of our conversation with Clean Band.

00:22:19.534 –> 00:22:23.254
John Kennedy: It’s the next song we’re going to look at is the latest single Cry Baby.

00:22:23.694 –> 00:22:27.274
John Kennedy: We’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be back in just a moment.

00:22:29.434 –> 00:22:32.654
Jack Patterson: 75% of all the sounds in every song I make will be recorded on my phone.

00:22:32.654 –> 00:22:35.134
John Kennedy: I make voice memos like throughout the whole writing process.

00:22:35.134 –> 00:22:36.694
Jack Patterson: Trumpet impression on a voice note.

00:22:36.694 –> 00:22:37.994
Grace Chatto: I record on my phone.

00:22:37.994 –> 00:22:38.794
John Kennedy: On my iPhone.

00:22:38.794 –> 00:22:41.374
John Kennedy: The phone really is like key.

00:22:41.374 –> 00:22:48.334
John Kennedy: The voices of past Tape Notes guests who rely on voice memos to capture ideas, rehearsals and on-the-go recordings.

00:22:48.334 –> 00:22:58.094
John Kennedy: If you find Apple’s voice memos a bit of a mess, maybe even slightly frustrating to manage, try Tape It, the ultimate iPhone voice note app designed specifically for musicians.

00:22:58.094 –> 00:23:11.214
John Kennedy: Tape It is free and offers features you won’t find in voice memos, including automatic instrument detection, easy marker tools, long form scrolling, and collaborative mixtapes to share sounds with bandmates or co-writers.

00:23:11.214 –> 00:23:17.394
John Kennedy: Among the many other features, you can record directly from your lock screen and attach text or photo notes to your recordings.

00:23:17.394 –> 00:23:19.074
John Kennedy: Worried about losing old voice memos?

00:23:19.374 –> 00:23:24.214
John Kennedy: Tape It allows easy importing, cloud syncing, and direct transfers to your DAW.

00:23:24.214 –> 00:23:28.514
John Kennedy: So head to tape.it forward slash tape notes to install the app now.

00:23:28.514 –> 00:23:34.234
John Kennedy: And for even more, check out Tape It Pro and use promo code Tapenotes for 50% off.

00:23:34.234 –> 00:23:36.334
John Kennedy: And now on with the show.

00:23:39.294 –> 00:23:44.754
John Kennedy: The next song we’re going to look at by Clean Bandit is the latest single Cry Baby featuring Anne-Marie and David Guetta.

00:23:45.394 –> 00:23:47.774
John Kennedy: If you can play the original for us, that would be fantastic.

00:24:47.509 –> 00:24:51.089
John Kennedy: It is Cry Baby by Clean Bandit, and Grace, you’re laughing.

00:24:54.329 –> 00:24:58.709
Grace Chatto: I don’t know, it’s quite a playful number, this one.

00:24:59.809 –> 00:25:04.289
Grace Chatto: I haven’t listened to it in a while, but yeah, this was written four years ago.

00:25:04.289 –> 00:25:04.709
John Kennedy: Right.

00:25:04.709 –> 00:25:10.109
Grace Chatto: And we’ve been trying to get it out since, and finally, it’s out, which is amazing.

00:25:10.109 –> 00:25:12.189
John Kennedy: And so what delayed it?

00:25:12.189 –> 00:25:14.529
John Kennedy: What were the missing pieces?

00:25:14.529 –> 00:25:20.149
John Kennedy: Maybe we should start the story at the beginning, and do you have an original demo or anything?

00:25:20.649 –> 00:25:21.749
Jack Patterson: Ah, yes.

00:25:21.749 –> 00:25:28.489
Grace Chatto: So the original demo was using that same operator synth in the verse.

00:25:28.489 –> 00:25:30.309
John Kennedy: So we’re going back to 2020?

00:25:30.309 –> 00:25:31.069
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:25:31.069 –> 00:25:36.829
John Kennedy: When the pandemic was kicking in, maybe, or were you in isolation?

00:25:36.829 –> 00:25:39.189
Grace Chatto: It was towards the end of-

00:25:39.189 –> 00:25:41.509
Grace Chatto: actually, it might be 21.

00:25:41.509 –> 00:25:42.489
Jack Patterson: I think it is 21.

00:25:42.489 –> 00:25:44.429
Jack Patterson: Look, there’s March 21.

00:25:44.429 –> 00:25:48.409
Jack Patterson: There’s just an Ableton project called Just Cry Baby.

00:25:48.809 –> 00:26:02.069
Grace Chatto: Yeah, because we weren’t in isolation, because the session was Jack with Camille, Purcell, Anne-Marie, and Steve Mac Studio for the writing.

00:26:02.069 –> 00:26:03.729
Jack Patterson: What the hell is this?

00:26:03.729 –> 00:26:06.589
Grace Chatto: But it had a country feel from the beginning.

00:26:16.023 –> 00:26:17.383
Grace Chatto: The main melody.

00:26:17.383 –> 00:26:19.123
John Kennedy: What is that played on?

00:26:19.123 –> 00:26:23.963
Jack Patterson: That is a preset on Serum called Lead Power.

00:26:31.401 –> 00:26:34.841
Jack Patterson: Yeah, it’s quite a kind of major, laser-y lead sound.

00:26:37.841 –> 00:26:39.661
Jack Patterson: Um, yeah, and then…

00:26:48.168 –> 00:26:54.188
Jack Patterson: So this is probably one of the Ableton sessions from the writing session.

00:26:54.188 –> 00:27:00.668
Jack Patterson: In Steve’s studio, he’s got loads of synths set up on the wall, and we kind of play stuff on those.

00:27:00.668 –> 00:27:04.728
Jack Patterson: And then he has an engineer that’s just capturing everything on a big SSL desk.

00:27:04.728 –> 00:27:07.488
Jack Patterson: And then I also have my laptop running into that.

00:27:07.488 –> 00:27:12.568
Jack Patterson: So I think I was messing around, making some sounds here.

00:27:12.568 –> 00:27:18.748
Jack Patterson: And then we put the demo together on his, like a very loose demo, together on his system.

00:27:18.748 –> 00:27:19.788
Jack Patterson: Let’s see.

00:27:19.788 –> 00:27:22.908
Jack Patterson: There’s about a thousand Ableton…

00:27:22.908 –> 00:27:24.268
John Kennedy: Look at all these.

00:27:25.608 –> 00:27:30.268
Jack Patterson: And this is just like one folder of Ableton sessions, and then there’s all these other…

00:27:30.308 –> 00:27:31.728
Jack Patterson: It was just such a mess.

00:27:45.803 –> 00:27:47.683
Jack Patterson: Ah, that’s annoying, that vocal’s offline.

00:28:02.158 –> 00:28:09.218
John Kennedy: But at this stage, it’s clearly an exploration of sounds, trying to bring things together.

00:28:09.218 –> 00:28:10.778
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:28:10.778 –> 00:28:12.158
Jack Patterson: I wonder if there’s a balance from there.

00:28:12.158 –> 00:28:13.378
Jack Patterson: Let’s see.

00:28:14.398 –> 00:28:17.998
Jack Patterson: So this, because we were working on this for four years.

00:28:18.018 –> 00:28:22.858
Jack Patterson: It’s just this project was the bane of my life.

00:28:22.858 –> 00:28:24.318
Jack Patterson: And I can’t just-

00:28:24.318 –> 00:28:26.398
John Kennedy: But Anne-Marie was there from the beginning.

00:28:26.738 –> 00:28:26.818
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:28:27.278 –> 00:28:29.478
John Kennedy: So in that very first session, and that’s quite interesting.

00:28:29.478 –> 00:28:33.118
John Kennedy: So was she offering lyrical ideas or melody ideas?

00:28:33.118 –> 00:28:33.638
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:28:33.638 –> 00:28:34.498
Jack Patterson: Absolutely.

00:28:34.498 –> 00:28:36.898
Grace Chatto: It’s her story, really.

00:28:36.898 –> 00:28:41.198
Grace Chatto: I think a lot of her songs are about her ex-boyfriend and this.

00:28:41.198 –> 00:28:44.138
Grace Chatto: Yeah, it’s one of them, which is amazing.

00:28:44.138 –> 00:28:56.938
Grace Chatto: I think, yeah, it’s probably been about half and half of our songs have been written with the vocalist or without and it always feels better with.

00:28:56.938 –> 00:28:57.518
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:28:57.518 –> 00:29:05.798
Grace Chatto: Of course, because then they’re singing their own stories, like the Julia Michaels, I Miss You.

00:29:05.798 –> 00:29:06.778
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:29:06.778 –> 00:29:13.558
Grace Chatto: Anne-Marie, and us, and David Guetta have all wanted to release it since the beginning.

00:29:13.558 –> 00:29:14.638
Grace Chatto: Right.

00:29:14.638 –> 00:29:16.658
John Kennedy: Was David in that first session though?

00:29:16.758 –> 00:29:17.398
John Kennedy: He wasn’t in the first session.

00:29:17.398 –> 00:29:22.118
Grace Chatto: Not in the first, but he came on board quite soon after we sent it to him.

00:29:22.118 –> 00:29:24.838
Grace Chatto: Anne-Marie actually introduced us.

00:29:24.838 –> 00:29:25.798
John Kennedy: Right.

00:29:25.798 –> 00:29:26.878
John Kennedy: Had you not met before?

00:29:26.878 –> 00:29:27.358
Grace Chatto: No.

00:29:27.358 –> 00:29:33.018
John Kennedy: That seems amazing because I’d have thought, surely your paths would have crossed at some point.

00:29:33.338 –> 00:29:42.878
Grace Chatto: No, now we’re good friends because we had a great time filming the music video with him as well in Ibiza.

00:29:43.678 –> 00:29:50.298
Grace Chatto: But yeah, all the actual music making with him was more remote because he’s all around the world all the time.

00:29:50.858 –> 00:29:57.258
John Kennedy: Because, well, it’s a really interesting hybrid of different musics all brought together.

00:29:57.258 –> 00:30:05.598
John Kennedy: It’s interesting, Grace, you say it had a country feel from the start, but it’s many different kinds of country in a way, from different parts of the world.

00:30:05.598 –> 00:30:07.838
John Kennedy: That’s the way it sounds to me.

00:30:07.838 –> 00:30:08.578
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:30:08.578 –> 00:30:12.818
Grace Chatto: And that’s exactly what we’re interested in doing.

00:30:12.818 –> 00:30:17.578
Grace Chatto: It’s like, yeah, juxtaposing random sound worlds together.

00:30:19.338 –> 00:30:33.038
Grace Chatto: For me, the essence of the vocal melodies and that drop melody, it’s very country, even though none of the production was country from that first session.

00:30:33.038 –> 00:30:40.418
Grace Chatto: But then because of that, we tried some guitars and it’s actually a MIDI guitar on there.

00:30:40.418 –> 00:30:41.578
Grace Chatto: The Russian.

00:30:41.578 –> 00:30:42.438
Jack Patterson: Russian MIDI guitar.

00:30:44.178 –> 00:30:46.478
John Kennedy: Was that in the first session as well or did that come later?

00:30:46.478 –> 00:30:47.798
Grace Chatto: No, that was later.

00:30:47.798 –> 00:30:52.778
Grace Chatto: So those sounds, what you just heard with the operator and everything, that was in the first session.

00:30:52.778 –> 00:31:00.498
Grace Chatto: But because of the country vibe in the melodies, we tried to introduce it into the production as well.

00:31:00.498 –> 00:31:03.698
Grace Chatto: So we tried these guitars with the-

00:31:03.698 –> 00:31:12.218
Grace Chatto: just played on a keyboard, on a midi keyboard, and then later we tried to record the guitars properly.

00:31:12.218 –> 00:31:23.178
Grace Chatto: But we ended up going back to the midi, which has become actually a bit of a new staple sound, that Russian guitar.

00:31:23.178 –> 00:31:24.038
Jack Patterson: Yeah, that’s my-

00:31:24.038 –> 00:31:31.858
Jack Patterson: actually someone, you were asking earlier, one of the team about favorite plugins.

00:31:31.858 –> 00:31:32.578
Jack Patterson: I think that would be-

00:31:33.338 –> 00:31:34.358
John Kennedy: This new Russian-

00:31:34.358 –> 00:31:36.058
Jack Patterson: Russian midi guitar.

00:31:36.058 –> 00:31:36.778
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:31:36.778 –> 00:31:38.678
Jack Patterson: It’s like a jazz guitar.

00:31:38.678 –> 00:31:40.438
Jack Patterson: I don’t know if it is Russian.

00:31:40.438 –> 00:31:42.358
Grace Chatto: Why do we call it Russian then?

00:31:42.358 –> 00:31:47.958
Jack Patterson: The sample libraries buy someone called Ilya Efimov, so it sounds kind of Russian.

00:31:49.398 –> 00:31:51.018
Jack Patterson: But yeah.

00:31:51.018 –> 00:31:53.858
Grace Chatto: And is it the same one that’s in solo?

00:31:53.858 –> 00:31:54.758
Jack Patterson: No.

00:31:54.758 –> 00:31:55.898
Grace Chatto: That’s another midi guitar.

00:31:55.898 –> 00:31:57.118
Jack Patterson: That’s another midi guitar.

00:31:57.118 –> 00:31:59.218
Jack Patterson: That’s ample sound.

00:31:59.958 –> 00:32:06.898
Grace Chatto: But it’s a similar story to rather be actually like the way Jack composed a guitar part.

00:32:06.898 –> 00:32:12.178
Grace Chatto: Because it was on a keyboard, it’s very different to how you would play it on a guitar.

00:32:12.178 –> 00:32:17.958
Grace Chatto: So then when we came to record it on a guitar, it felt very unnatural.

00:32:19.118 –> 00:32:21.718
Grace Chatto: And now Jack has to play it live on an actual guitar.

00:32:21.878 –> 00:32:22.838
John Kennedy: Oh, no.

00:32:22.918 –> 00:32:24.338
John Kennedy: Wow.

00:32:24.338 –> 00:32:29.698
John Kennedy: In terms of Anne-Marie’s input right at the beginning, is there anything that we could hear from that first session?

00:32:31.138 –> 00:32:33.778
Jack Patterson: It should probably kill me for doing this.

00:32:33.778 –> 00:32:37.098
Jack Patterson: Knowing Steve, they probably sound amazing anyway.

00:32:37.098 –> 00:32:39.698
Jack Patterson: Let me just see if I’ve got the original.

00:32:39.898 –> 00:32:40.698
Jack Patterson: I think that’s it.

00:32:40.698 –> 00:32:43.438
Grace Chatto: I know what you did last night.

00:32:44.658 –> 00:32:46.878
Grace Chatto: I called you up and you declined.

00:32:58.258 –> 00:32:59.978
Grace Chatto: Is that the synth bleeding in?

00:32:59.978 –> 00:33:00.878
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:33:00.998 –> 00:33:04.238
Jack Patterson: That’s the bleed from her headphones, I think.

00:33:04.698 –> 00:33:05.458
John Kennedy: That’s amazing.

00:33:05.458 –> 00:33:11.118
John Kennedy: That’s in the first session, writing this song and a lot of the ingredients are already there.

00:33:11.698 –> 00:33:17.258
Grace Chatto: Yeah, the vocal didn’t change at all except that we raised the key.

00:33:17.258 –> 00:33:23.958
Grace Chatto: So she sang it again earlier this year, but nothing changed about the vocal.

00:33:23.958 –> 00:33:24.558
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:33:24.558 –> 00:33:25.558
John Kennedy: Amazing.

00:33:26.218 –> 00:33:36.378
John Kennedy: So the idea of the song linked in very much with her vocal, then trying to work out what the other musical elements were going to be, the final.

00:33:36.378 –> 00:33:38.538
John Kennedy: So that’s what the three years has been spent doing.

00:33:38.578 –> 00:33:39.218
Grace Chatto: Basically, yeah.

00:33:39.218 –> 00:33:46.498
Grace Chatto: And the vibe, like we went in various different tempos and different styles.

00:33:46.498 –> 00:33:47.038
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:33:47.038 –> 00:33:48.978
Jack Patterson: That’s like an Amapiano version.

00:33:48.978 –> 00:33:49.238
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:33:49.238 –> 00:33:50.338
Grace Chatto: I love that one.

00:33:50.338 –> 00:33:53.338
Jack Patterson: But then we kind of went back to the original vibe.

00:33:55.338 –> 00:33:56.758
John Kennedy: Are we able to hear any of these?

00:33:56.758 –> 00:33:56.958
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:33:57.218 –> 00:33:58.958
John Kennedy: These versions as you’ve-

00:34:01.198 –> 00:34:03.238
Jack Patterson: That was like a more country version.

00:34:07.798 –> 00:34:10.198
Jack Patterson: And then there’s-

00:34:10.198 –> 00:34:12.818
Grace Chatto: You could play the country version that we will release.

00:34:12.818 –> 00:34:14.878
Jack Patterson: Oh yeah.

00:34:14.878 –> 00:34:17.318
John Kennedy: Because you’ve done an acoustic version, haven’t you?

00:34:17.318 –> 00:34:17.778
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:34:17.778 –> 00:34:19.918
John Kennedy: But that’s less country, isn’t it?

00:34:19.918 –> 00:34:20.738
John Kennedy: It’s more piano.

00:34:21.618 –> 00:34:23.718
Grace Chatto: Yeah, more piano.

00:34:23.718 –> 00:34:25.618
John Kennedy: It’s not a great description, I apologize.

00:34:25.618 –> 00:34:32.038
Grace Chatto: That was so amazing recording that with Anne-Marie, just being so close to her singing.

00:34:32.038 –> 00:34:33.818
Grace Chatto: It’s just incredible.

00:34:33.818 –> 00:34:37.958
Grace Chatto: And we just did that randomly backstage at a show.

00:34:37.958 –> 00:34:42.178
Grace Chatto: But the country version is about to come out.

00:34:42.178 –> 00:34:46.058
Grace Chatto: Yeah, it’s with a country singer called Tana Adele.

00:34:46.058 –> 00:34:49.838
Grace Chatto: And we did more midi guitar on this one.

00:34:50.538 –> 00:34:53.058
Jack Patterson: Actually, no, this is real guitar, isn’t it?

00:34:53.058 –> 00:34:55.118
Grace Chatto: The one in the drop.

00:34:55.118 –> 00:34:56.438
Jack Patterson: Oh yeah, no, that’s midi.

00:34:56.438 –> 00:34:57.858
Jack Patterson: Yeah, midi slide guitar.

00:34:57.858 –> 00:34:58.638
Grace Chatto: Slide.

00:34:58.638 –> 00:34:58.898
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:34:58.898 –> 00:35:01.038
John Kennedy: Are we getting ahead of ourselves?

00:35:01.038 –> 00:35:02.278
Jack Patterson: Maybe, yeah.

00:35:02.278 –> 00:35:04.438
John Kennedy: So we should maybe get to that.

00:35:04.438 –> 00:35:10.158
John Kennedy: But in the meantime, we’ve got to, well, I’m hoping that we can hear some of these different versions.

00:35:10.158 –> 00:35:11.418
Jack Patterson: Okay.

00:35:11.418 –> 00:35:14.658
Jack Patterson: I don’t know if it did evolve that much.

00:35:14.658 –> 00:35:16.218
Grace Chatto: It was three wasted years.

00:35:17.458 –> 00:35:23.558
Jack Patterson: It seems to me the only difference was that we replaced the operator sense with this.

00:35:30.318 –> 00:35:31.338
John Kennedy: So is that the MIDI guitar?

00:35:31.378 –> 00:35:31.618
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:35:40.260 –> 00:36:03.220
Grace Chatto: My favorite version of Cry Baby, though, which we’ve just released, is with Ruga, the Nigerian singer who, he came into our studio just after we’ve finished the original version, and we were just playing him loads of stuff, and he was obsessed with Cry Baby, and he only wanted to do that.

00:36:03.380 –> 00:36:16.920
Grace Chatto: So he did a second verse that’s kind of in response to Anne-Marie’s story, and then he played the lead character in the music video, which was amazing.

00:36:16.920 –> 00:36:25.100
Grace Chatto: He had to kind of ride a horse, chasing the train that Anne-Marie was on, which we built.

00:36:25.100 –> 00:36:30.100
John Kennedy: Well, I mean, you are perfectionists and ambitious.

00:36:30.100 –> 00:36:35.100
John Kennedy: So you direct and create all your own videos, and literally make the props.

00:36:35.100 –> 00:36:37.380
John Kennedy: You get your family involved, Grace.

00:36:37.380 –> 00:36:38.280
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:36:38.280 –> 00:36:38.540
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:36:38.540 –> 00:36:44.540
Grace Chatto: My dad built the train, two train carriages, which we’ve got in our studio now.

00:36:44.540 –> 00:36:52.840
Grace Chatto: We’ve got the sleeper carriage that you see Anne-Marie performing in in the music video, is now the vocal booth in our studio.

00:36:52.840 –> 00:36:54.060
John Kennedy: Wow, that sounds great.

00:36:54.060 –> 00:36:54.860
Grace Chatto: It’s really cool.

00:36:54.860 –> 00:36:56.520
John Kennedy: Yeah, that sounds amazing.

00:36:56.520 –> 00:37:00.860
Grace Chatto: Because you can lie down in bed and watch TV, which is in the window of the train.

00:37:02.020 –> 00:37:04.460
Grace Chatto: So you feel like you’re on a train.

00:37:04.460 –> 00:37:12.580
Grace Chatto: But yeah, we really try to make the music video and the song, it comes together as one thing.

00:37:13.220 –> 00:37:22.640
Grace Chatto: And I think Symphony and Cry Baby are actually the best examples of that having happened perfectly, I think.

00:37:22.640 –> 00:37:27.420
Grace Chatto: And it’s amazing with Cry Baby because we haven’t made a proper music video for years.

00:37:27.420 –> 00:37:30.920
Grace Chatto: So this has felt very perfect.

00:37:30.920 –> 00:37:37.960
Jack Patterson: This is one of the latest projects for Cry Baby before we sent.

00:37:37.960 –> 00:37:50.380
Jack Patterson: It was so difficult because we were going back and forth with David and there was kind of, because it was over so many years, there’s so many different versions of the song.

00:37:50.380 –> 00:37:57.060
Jack Patterson: And we’d kind of find one bounce from like a couple of years ago that we liked this bit.

00:37:57.060 –> 00:37:58.360
Jack Patterson: And we’re like, this is cool.

00:37:58.360 –> 00:38:02.480
Jack Patterson: Let’s go have this pre and this mix of the drop sounds good.

00:38:02.940 –> 00:38:03.920
Jack Patterson: Let’s try and get that.

00:38:03.920 –> 00:38:09.500
Jack Patterson: But then trying to integrate it all at the end was just too much for my laptop.

00:38:09.500 –> 00:38:13.880
Jack Patterson: And it kind of, it’s become this very vertical project.

00:38:13.880 –> 00:38:19.680
Jack Patterson: You can see when it’s taller than it is wide, you know, that’s like not fun.

00:38:19.680 –> 00:38:25.620
Jack Patterson: And you can see the various different sections of the song kind of spreading out.

00:38:25.620 –> 00:38:28.240
Grace Chatto: And the whistle that you hear at the start.

00:38:28.240 –> 00:38:29.160
John Kennedy: Who is that?

00:38:29.160 –> 00:38:29.780
John Kennedy: Is that real?

00:38:30.240 –> 00:38:40.120
Grace Chatto: It’s real, but it’s one of my best friends from childhood, who’s also a violinist and we recorded the string parts together.

00:38:40.120 –> 00:38:46.320
Grace Chatto: And then Jack was suddenly like, do you want to try whistling that melody?

00:38:46.320 –> 00:38:51.340
Grace Chatto: And there’s a bit of a war in our area because we’ve got some other friends who are really good at whistling as well.

00:38:51.340 –> 00:38:55.480
Grace Chatto: And they’ve always said, if you ever need a whistle, and so on.

00:38:55.480 –> 00:38:56.720
John Kennedy: Oh, no.

00:38:56.720 –> 00:39:00.880
Grace Chatto: But B is incredible at whistling.

00:39:18.606 –> 00:39:25.166
John Kennedy: See, for me, the whistling helps take it to both the Spaghetti Western and also to South America.

00:39:25.166 –> 00:39:25.886
Grace Chatto: It does make it.

00:39:25.886 –> 00:39:27.346
John Kennedy: Because then, of course, you have the beats.

00:39:27.346 –> 00:39:31.846
John Kennedy: So when the beats come in, then we’re a bit of reggaeton.

00:39:31.846 –> 00:39:35.206
John Kennedy: I mean, it’s not really reggaeton, but it touches all these different worlds.

00:39:35.206 –> 00:39:37.966
Grace Chatto: Yeah, there’s almost an Afrobeat.

00:39:55.812 –> 00:39:56.372
Jack Patterson: Yeah, what is it?

00:39:56.732 –> 00:40:00.132
Jack Patterson: There’s like a tops loop that’s kind of adding that.

00:40:00.132 –> 00:40:01.692
Jack Patterson: Oh no, it’s not in this, is it?

00:40:07.904 –> 00:40:11.284
John Kennedy: So, what element did David Guetta bring?

00:40:11.284 –> 00:40:28.904
Jack Patterson: He’s kind of tightened up all the electronics and replaced a lot of the kind of, like that kick bass group, for example, we sent him that as a kind of, as to, he just kind of brought his own kicks and his own hard, much harder kind of sounds.

00:40:28.904 –> 00:40:33.724
Jack Patterson: And it just kind of tightened it up and made it more clubby from the original, which is a bit lighter.

00:40:34.484 –> 00:40:34.764
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:40:34.764 –> 00:40:40.404
Grace Chatto: And some other magical things on the, that melody in the drop.

00:40:40.404 –> 00:40:43.084
Grace Chatto: But we don’t really know what he did.

00:40:43.084 –> 00:40:44.184
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:40:44.184 –> 00:40:50.264
Grace Chatto: And he’s also done an amazing remix that’s very 2 AM.

00:40:50.264 –> 00:40:52.604
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:40:52.604 –> 00:40:53.824
Grace Chatto: And he loves it.

00:40:53.824 –> 00:40:57.024
Grace Chatto: He’s playing it every week at ushuaia.

00:40:57.024 –> 00:40:59.584
Grace Chatto: So we get regular video updates.

00:41:17.890 –> 00:41:19.610
John Kennedy: So, what are we hearing now once this section?

00:41:19.610 –> 00:41:23.330
Jack Patterson: So, you’re hearing, yeah, the pianos on this are all keyscape.

00:41:23.330 –> 00:41:31.330
Jack Patterson: There were no, yeah, they’re all this VST here, which is my new favorite piano.

00:41:31.330 –> 00:41:34.450
Jack Patterson: We moved on from the Kontakt Alicia’s Keys.

00:41:39.150 –> 00:41:40.850
Grace Chatto: This is a chorus.

00:41:40.850 –> 00:41:50.670
Jack Patterson: Yeah, with a bit of RC-20 on it to make it a bit kind of wobbly, you know, this kind of tape effect.

00:41:50.670 –> 00:41:53.770
Jack Patterson: And then, wow, so we’ve got Grace’s cello in the build up there.

00:42:03.462 –> 00:42:07.722
Jack Patterson: Apart from the guitar, there’s a lot of, like I was saying, very similar elements.

00:42:11.782 –> 00:42:14.142
Jack Patterson: This is that same kind of…

00:42:16.122 –> 00:42:22.622
Jack Patterson: That’s the same sound that we used in the verses in the symphony, which is this guy, Korg.

00:42:26.422 –> 00:42:27.562
Jack Patterson: You just take out the top end.

00:42:33.035 –> 00:42:35.255
Jack Patterson: Yeah, that’s that.

00:42:35.255 –> 00:42:38.635
Jack Patterson: Didn’t sound anything like the other ones.

00:42:38.635 –> 00:42:42.375
Jack Patterson: I promise you, it is a polysix, it needs a bit more fiddling with that one.

00:42:42.375 –> 00:42:48.395
Jack Patterson: It’s less, that one needs a bit more work compared to The Operator, which is just, that’s what it says.

00:42:48.395 –> 00:42:49.255
Grace Chatto: Top secret.

00:42:49.255 –> 00:42:50.675
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:42:50.675 –> 00:42:56.015
John Kennedy: It’s an interesting combination of collaborative experiences.

00:42:56.015 –> 00:43:18.455
John Kennedy: So you’ve got Anne-Marie in the same room as you, singing beside you as you start working on the song, and then you’ve got David Guetta coming into the later stage, but doing it from a distance and you’re trusting him and sending him your stems to play with and finesse, and then he sends them back and you’re not quite sure what he’s done, but you like it.

00:43:18.455 –> 00:43:21.895
John Kennedy: There’s a lot of trust in there, isn’t there?

00:43:21.895 –> 00:43:23.855
John Kennedy: It’s a leap in the dark.

00:43:23.855 –> 00:43:25.095
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:43:25.095 –> 00:43:35.435
Grace Chatto: But his energy as well was so infectious, just talking to him about the song and how much he adored it was very encouraging, wasn’t it?

00:43:35.435 –> 00:43:37.715
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:43:37.715 –> 00:43:41.795
John Kennedy: I’ve not met him, but he seems like a really enthusiastic man.

00:43:41.835 –> 00:43:46.035
John Kennedy: He gets very excited about things, which is fantastic.

00:43:46.035 –> 00:43:46.375
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:43:46.375 –> 00:43:50.355
Grace Chatto: He has a kind of aura about him, doesn’t he?

00:43:50.355 –> 00:43:53.655
Grace Chatto: He just loves music so much.

00:43:53.655 –> 00:43:55.895
Grace Chatto: It was good for us to be around that energy.

00:43:56.635 –> 00:43:58.055
Jack Patterson: Yeah, definitely.

00:43:58.055 –> 00:44:05.755
Grace Chatto: Anne-Marie working with her again after doing Rockabye, and her voice is just insane.

00:44:07.235 –> 00:44:17.655
Grace Chatto: As a performer as well, she started performing this song earlier in the summer before it came out, and we were just crying watching the performances.

00:44:17.655 –> 00:44:19.615
John Kennedy: That’s great.

00:44:19.615 –> 00:44:21.755
John Kennedy: Should we hear anything else from this session?

00:44:21.755 –> 00:44:22.115
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:44:22.115 –> 00:44:25.135
Jack Patterson: I’m trying to think what would be good.

00:44:26.275 –> 00:44:29.095
Grace Chatto: We could play some other versions like-

00:44:29.095 –> 00:44:30.295
John Kennedy: Oh, well, we were going to-

00:44:30.295 –> 00:44:31.235
John Kennedy: what was the-

00:44:31.235 –> 00:44:32.715
John Kennedy: you mentioned the Ruger version.

00:44:32.715 –> 00:44:35.015
Grace Chatto: The Ruger version, yeah, definitely.

00:44:35.015 –> 00:44:35.875
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:44:35.875 –> 00:44:42.255
John Kennedy: So Ruger was brought in to just work on some material, but he was in love with Cry Baby.

00:44:42.255 –> 00:44:42.775
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:44:42.775 –> 00:44:43.595
John Kennedy: So he had to be-

00:44:43.595 –> 00:44:44.275
John Kennedy: he insisted.

00:44:45.115 –> 00:44:45.755
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:44:45.755 –> 00:44:51.275
Grace Chatto: He insisted because we were trying to play him all our best beats offerings.

00:44:51.275 –> 00:44:56.355
Grace Chatto: But when he heard this, he was like, I need to be on that song.

00:44:56.355 –> 00:45:01.115
Grace Chatto: The way him and his whole team just left up when it started as well.

00:45:01.115 –> 00:45:01.435
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:45:01.455 –> 00:45:02.795
Grace Chatto: It was so cool.

00:45:02.795 –> 00:45:08.675
Jack Patterson: Because we’ve finished it at that point, but we were like, well, we could do a version.

00:45:08.675 –> 00:45:10.035
Jack Patterson: Let’s do a remix.

00:45:10.035 –> 00:45:11.795
Jack Patterson: So we did that.

00:45:11.795 –> 00:45:18.435
Jack Patterson: Then when we were casting the video, we were thinking, who’s going to play Anne-Marie’s asshole boyfriend?

00:45:19.435 –> 00:45:27.235
Jack Patterson: We had lots of ideas of people that we knew, who we thought we could rope into it, who was on the list.

00:45:27.235 –> 00:45:28.035
Jack Patterson: Chris Eubank Jr.

00:45:28.035 –> 00:45:30.655
Jack Patterson: Chris Eubank Jr., Diplo.

00:45:32.115 –> 00:45:35.155
Grace Chatto: Because I’ve seen him riding horses before.

00:45:35.155 –> 00:45:41.275
Grace Chatto: But Ruger was the first choice, but we thought he wouldn’t be able to do it because he’s literally in a different country every day.

00:45:41.535 –> 00:45:43.555
Grace Chatto: His tour is so crazy.

00:45:43.555 –> 00:45:48.495
Grace Chatto: But he came and we did like four or five days filming with him.

00:45:48.495 –> 00:45:52.235
Grace Chatto: It was the most epic music video we’ve ever done.

00:45:52.235 –> 00:45:52.935
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:45:52.935 –> 00:45:59.715
Grace Chatto: He had to leap through a window, the window of the moving train.

00:45:59.715 –> 00:46:01.135
Grace Chatto: It was like sugar glass.

00:46:02.395 –> 00:46:03.355
John Kennedy: So you’ve got the video.

00:46:52.102 –> 00:46:57.602
Jack Patterson: We performed that together the other day at his London show, his first ever London show.

00:46:57.622 –> 00:46:58.662
Grace Chatto: It was quite wild.

00:46:58.662 –> 00:46:59.862
Jack Patterson: It was very wild.

00:46:59.862 –> 00:47:00.342
John Kennedy: Fantastic.

00:47:00.342 –> 00:47:01.282
John Kennedy: Where was that?

00:47:01.282 –> 00:47:04.442
Grace Chatto: I was at the Altonet in Tottenham Court Road.

00:47:04.442 –> 00:47:06.002
John Kennedy: Amazing space.

00:47:06.002 –> 00:47:06.522
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:47:06.522 –> 00:47:07.602
John Kennedy: That’s so exciting.

00:47:07.822 –> 00:47:12.062
John Kennedy: But you still have in your mind that you want to develop this song further.

00:47:12.062 –> 00:47:17.242
John Kennedy: So you’ve come up with a new version, a more country version.

00:47:17.722 –> 00:47:18.062
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:47:18.062 –> 00:47:23.262
John Kennedy: So despite having worked on the song for three years, nearly four years, you’re still not sick of it.

00:47:23.262 –> 00:47:28.162
John Kennedy: You’re still searching for a new version.

00:47:28.162 –> 00:47:28.642
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:47:28.642 –> 00:47:44.722
Jack Patterson: I think maybe because we did this acoustic version, and because we’ve been messing around with the song in such a clinical digital way for so long, it just felt so nice actually just sitting down and playing it with Anne-Marie.

00:47:45.342 –> 00:47:45.782
Jack Patterson: We did it.

00:47:45.782 –> 00:47:52.722
Jack Patterson: We were doing a TV show and we just got our instruments in the green room and just recorded it there.

00:47:52.722 –> 00:47:52.962
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:47:52.982 –> 00:47:55.742
Grace Chatto: Just before we had to run out onto the TV show.

00:47:55.742 –> 00:47:58.222
John Kennedy: That’s amazing because that version is out there.

00:47:58.222 –> 00:47:59.282
Grace Chatto: Yeah, that’s out.

00:47:59.282 –> 00:48:02.602
John Kennedy: It’s really popular and people really love it and it sounds fantastic.

00:48:02.602 –> 00:48:05.862
John Kennedy: But to think that you just did that in such an impromptu manner.

00:48:05.862 –> 00:48:06.202
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:48:06.202 –> 00:48:08.062
Grace Chatto: It’s probably the best version.

00:48:08.062 –> 00:48:13.822
Grace Chatto: It’s like, yeah, again, the three years were wasted messing around digitally.

00:48:14.482 –> 00:48:18.882
Jack Patterson: There were some comments there because it’s an acoustic version and someone, what did they say?

00:48:18.882 –> 00:48:29.282
Grace Chatto: Because Jack’s playing like an electric, it’s a stage piano but it’s like a keyboard and someone commented I need to get me one of those acoustic synths.

00:48:30.422 –> 00:48:31.062
Jack Patterson: Give me a break.

00:48:34.162 –> 00:48:38.562
John Kennedy: But there is still another evolution, Cry Baby.

00:48:38.562 –> 00:48:41.562
John Kennedy: So you’re actually going to share that with us now.

00:48:42.042 –> 00:48:42.562
Jack Patterson: Shall I?

00:48:42.562 –> 00:48:42.962
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:48:42.962 –> 00:48:44.662
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:48:44.662 –> 00:48:45.702
Jack Patterson: Tana.

00:48:45.702 –> 00:48:46.382
John Kennedy: Tana Adele.

00:48:46.382 –> 00:48:47.242
Jack Patterson: Tana Adele.

00:48:47.242 –> 00:48:48.502
John Kennedy: Where’s Tana from?

00:48:48.502 –> 00:48:50.602
Grace Chatto: She’s from Nashville.

00:48:50.602 –> 00:48:51.342
Jack Patterson: Nashville.

00:48:51.342 –> 00:48:57.282
Grace Chatto: She’s a proper country singer and we heard her, she was actually on Beyonce’s album.

00:48:57.282 –> 00:49:17.002
Grace Chatto: That’s how we first heard her and she came over to London to do her first live show here actually recently, and she came into our studio and again, we played her Cry Baby and she just went crazy for it, and she actually had a tattoo on her thigh that said Cry Baby.

00:49:17.002 –> 00:49:18.202
John Kennedy: Wow.

00:49:18.202 –> 00:49:21.962
John Kennedy: Not anything to do with the song at that point, but this is destiny.

00:49:21.962 –> 00:49:23.262
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:49:23.282 –> 00:49:42.042
Grace Chatto: It just felt so perfect and she rewrote, she’s written a whole new verse from her perspective, the first verse and the second verse, and Jack’s done a new country guitar part.

00:49:42.042 –> 00:49:45.302
Grace Chatto: I think this is probably my favorite version.

00:49:45.302 –> 00:49:46.242
Jack Patterson: Where would that be though?

00:49:48.222 –> 00:49:50.622
John Kennedy: You’re trying to find it on your laptop.

00:49:51.642 –> 00:49:56.422
Jack Patterson: I can’t wait to just upload this whole folder to the Cloud and then just delete it from my laptop.

00:49:56.422 –> 00:49:57.902
Jack Patterson: It’s going to feel so cleansing.

00:50:59.716 –> 00:51:06.216
John Kennedy: So that’s where it veers away from the country side, as it were.

00:51:06.216 –> 00:51:09.916
John Kennedy: But that new MIDI guitar part again, yeah.

00:51:09.916 –> 00:51:16.356
John Kennedy: But have you, I mean, you say Grace, that Jack’s now playing that live as well on a guitar.

00:51:16.356 –> 00:51:17.716
Jack Patterson: Try my best, yeah.

00:51:18.076 –> 00:51:24.036
John Kennedy: Do you have a bit of the MIDI guitar on track as well, or was it all the pressure on you at the moment?

00:51:24.036 –> 00:51:25.796
Jack Patterson: When we play live, yeah.

00:51:25.796 –> 00:51:27.156
Jack Patterson: No, there’s a fair bit of track.

00:51:27.596 –> 00:51:28.216
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:51:28.236 –> 00:51:29.876
John Kennedy: That’s good.

00:51:29.876 –> 00:51:34.916
Jack Patterson: I’m not a very strong guitarist, but yeah, I try my best.

00:51:34.916 –> 00:51:36.476
Jack Patterson: I’m more of a bass player actually.

00:51:36.476 –> 00:51:36.916
John Kennedy: Right.

00:51:36.916 –> 00:51:39.136
Jack Patterson: Sax is my main instrument, which I never get to play.

00:51:39.136 –> 00:51:39.716
John Kennedy: Right.

00:51:39.716 –> 00:51:41.336
John Kennedy: You need to change.

00:51:41.336 –> 00:51:43.196
Grace Chatto: Yeah, you definitely need to rip that up.

00:51:44.976 –> 00:51:47.016
John Kennedy: So that Tanner Adele version is sounding great.

00:51:47.016 –> 00:51:48.016
John Kennedy: So that’s the latest.

00:51:48.016 –> 00:51:50.956
John Kennedy: Do you think there are any more to come of Cry Baby?

00:51:50.956 –> 00:51:56.796
Grace Chatto: There’s the Clean Bandit VIP remix, which Luke has made.

00:51:56.796 –> 00:51:57.916
John Kennedy: Right.

00:51:57.936 –> 00:51:59.036
Grace Chatto: It’s really cool.

00:51:59.036 –> 00:51:59.376
John Kennedy: Right.

00:51:59.396 –> 00:52:00.616
John Kennedy: When is that going to see the live?

00:52:00.616 –> 00:52:02.356
Grace Chatto: That is it after that.

00:52:02.376 –> 00:52:04.116
John Kennedy: So before the end of the year?

00:52:04.116 –> 00:52:07.776
Grace Chatto: Yeah, that will probably come out first week of November, I think.

00:52:08.356 –> 00:52:09.176
John Kennedy: Right.

00:52:09.176 –> 00:52:16.336
Grace Chatto: Yeah, and then we’re hoping our next singer will come out this year as well, but we’re just tying up a few ends.

00:52:16.336 –> 00:52:17.436
John Kennedy: Yeah, very exciting.

00:52:17.436 –> 00:52:23.556
John Kennedy: But we’re going to hold you here just for a few more minutes to ask a few questions from our patrons on Patreon.

00:52:23.556 –> 00:52:28.496
John Kennedy: So if you just hold with us, we’re going to take a quick break and we’ve got more from Clean Bandit on the way.

00:52:29.936 –> 00:52:31.896
John Kennedy: Time for a quick Tape It feature highlight.

00:52:31.896 –> 00:52:36.236
John Kennedy: Among the various ways Tape It helps you organize your voice notes, you can create mixtapes.

00:52:36.536 –> 00:52:41.456
John Kennedy: If you’re working on a particular song or want to group specific ideas, you can add them to a mixtape.

00:52:41.456 –> 00:52:48.536
John Kennedy: And the best thing is you can invite bandmates or writing partners to collaborate on them so they can add their ideas to the mixtape as well.

00:52:48.536 –> 00:52:55.656
John Kennedy: To find out more, head to the link in a recent episode Show Notes or use the promo code Tape Notes for 50% off Tape It Pro.

00:52:57.436 –> 00:53:08.636
John Kennedy: So you’re listening to part two of our Clean Bandit episode with Jack and Grace, back by popular demand, but also because there was so much to talk about and you’re constantly evolving and changing and moving.

00:53:08.636 –> 00:53:18.036
John Kennedy: So we’ve covered some of the questions that we always ask people about, advice and experience and favorite tech, and maybe routine and that kind of stuff.

00:53:18.036 –> 00:53:24.236
John Kennedy: But we do have some more questions that have come via Patreon, and Matt and Ricardo kind of crossover in a way.

00:53:24.236 –> 00:53:27.136
John Kennedy: Matt wonders, what are your top three VSTs?

00:53:27.136 –> 00:53:30.976
John Kennedy: Ricardo wonders, what are your top five favorite plug-ins?

00:53:30.976 –> 00:53:33.976
John Kennedy: Ricardo would like a rank from five to one, if possible.

00:53:34.076 –> 00:53:35.396
John Kennedy: Gosh.

00:53:35.396 –> 00:53:40.536
John Kennedy: Do you think in these terms, do you have a top five or a top three?

00:53:40.536 –> 00:53:45.236
Jack Patterson: I think we’ve got plug-ins that we just use on it all the time.

00:53:45.236 –> 00:53:53.796
Jack Patterson: So I’ve got my vocal preset, vocal chain preset that I kind of drop on everything.

00:53:53.796 –> 00:54:04.256
Jack Patterson: I’ve got an incarnation of it in Ableton and in Pro Tools, because I reuse Pro Tools to mix and record vocals and record real instruments.

00:54:04.256 –> 00:54:08.196
Jack Patterson: But we use Ableton to make beats, make sequence stuff.

00:54:08.196 –> 00:54:10.476
Jack Patterson: But yeah, user library.

00:54:10.476 –> 00:54:11.276
Jack Patterson: Here we go.

00:54:11.276 –> 00:54:12.856
Jack Patterson: Here’s Jack Vox 2.

00:54:12.856 –> 00:54:17.236
Jack Patterson: So this is like a preset, like a load of the plug-ins that I will use.

00:54:17.236 –> 00:54:18.516
Jack Patterson: Let’s see if they open.

00:54:18.656 –> 00:54:21.476
Jack Patterson: This laptop has not been kind to me today.

00:54:21.476 –> 00:54:24.876
John Kennedy: But doing it this way will reveal what you’ve been using.

00:54:24.996 –> 00:54:26.836
Jack Patterson: And they all open in a stack like that.

00:54:26.836 –> 00:54:29.656
Jack Patterson: So that’s probably my most.

00:54:30.016 –> 00:54:35.556
Jack Patterson: This is very, there are memes about how like bait this is, that you use this reverb.

00:54:35.556 –> 00:54:40.136
Jack Patterson: But yeah, Valhalla, the vintage verb.

00:54:40.136 –> 00:54:42.876
Jack Patterson: Make sure you take a bit of the low end out here.

00:54:42.876 –> 00:54:44.056
Jack Patterson: And that’s set up as a send.

00:54:44.876 –> 00:54:47.296
Jack Patterson: So that’s why the mix is on 100 percent.

00:54:47.296 –> 00:54:55.856
Jack Patterson: And then, yeah, an 1176, an LA2A, and a Pultec EQP1A.

00:54:58.316 –> 00:55:00.156
Jack Patterson: And of course, autotune.

00:55:00.156 –> 00:55:02.236
Jack Patterson: And that’s all set up here.

00:55:02.236 –> 00:55:04.896
Jack Patterson: So you go, you got the autotune there first.

00:55:04.896 –> 00:55:09.036
Jack Patterson: And then like a little Ableton EQ just doing.

00:55:09.036 –> 00:55:10.236
Jack Patterson: And that’s kind of automated here.

00:55:10.236 –> 00:55:19.716
Jack Patterson: So you can take, you know, you’ve got, you’ve basically got control of all the most important aspects of all of these plugins in the strip here.

00:55:19.716 –> 00:55:27.856
Jack Patterson: So low cut bit of source, which is the parallel compression, and the glue, which is just the normal compression, and then your reverb level there.

00:55:27.856 –> 00:55:35.076
John Kennedy: And do you tweak as you go, or do you rely on kind of setting it the way you think you like it, and leaving it at that?

00:55:35.076 –> 00:55:37.636
Jack Patterson: I mean, yeah, you tweak as you go.

00:55:38.436 –> 00:55:50.896
Jack Patterson: But I know this works with the mic and the preamp, and I’ll compress stuff on the way in as well, the CL-1B and the Neve preamp 1073.

00:55:50.896 –> 00:55:53.616
Jack Patterson: So I know that this all kind of sounds pretty good.

00:55:53.616 –> 00:56:05.236
Jack Patterson: So I can just, you know, I could just drop that onto a channel, and if we’re writing and you need to get a good vocal sound quick in Ableton, then that will just suddenly just sound amazing.

00:56:05.556 –> 00:56:06.316
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:56:06.316 –> 00:56:21.436
John Kennedy: And that in itself can encourage a moment, you know, because it helps create a vibe and a feel so that the singer can kind of get involved and it feels like, yeah, we’re in the zone, which is quite exciting and keeps momentum.

00:56:21.436 –> 00:56:21.896
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:56:21.896 –> 00:56:24.156
Jack Patterson: And it was Camille Purcell who made me really aware.

00:56:24.156 –> 00:56:30.196
Jack Patterson: She was, because sometimes you’re working with people who are a bit shy and they don’t, or they don’t necessarily, they’re not very technical necessarily.

00:56:30.196 –> 00:56:33.916
Jack Patterson: They don’t know how they want their vocal to be sculpted.

00:56:34.056 –> 00:56:40.356
Jack Patterson: But Camille just like really helped me dial that in so that she just felt excited by her vocal sound.

00:56:40.356 –> 00:56:43.936
Jack Patterson: And then because she could describe, she may produce it as well.

00:56:43.936 –> 00:56:48.656
Jack Patterson: So she could really describe that and get it sounding good.

00:56:48.656 –> 00:56:57.816
John Kennedy: On a different tangent, Dina has gone in touch and wonders, because you collaborate with so many people, who would be the dream collaboration?

00:57:01.536 –> 00:57:02.796
John Kennedy: Disclosure for me.

00:57:03.256 –> 00:57:05.376
Grace Chatto: Yeah, that would be so cool.

00:57:05.376 –> 00:57:06.656
Jack Patterson: Rihanna.

00:57:06.776 –> 00:57:08.056
Grace Chatto: Rihanna, yeah.

00:57:08.056 –> 00:57:09.036
Grace Chatto: Miley Cyrus.

00:57:09.036 –> 00:57:09.416
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:57:09.416 –> 00:57:10.636
Jack Patterson: James Blake.

00:57:10.636 –> 00:57:11.996
Grace Chatto: Olivia Rodrigo.

00:57:11.996 –> 00:57:12.776
Grace Chatto: I like.

00:57:12.776 –> 00:57:13.836
John Kennedy: Yeah.

00:57:13.836 –> 00:57:14.896
Jack Patterson: Shakira.

00:57:14.896 –> 00:57:15.516
Grace Chatto: Shakira.

00:57:15.516 –> 00:57:16.316
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:57:16.316 –> 00:57:17.776
John Kennedy: And it seems amazing.

00:57:17.776 –> 00:57:20.396
John Kennedy: Have you encountered any of these people before?

00:57:21.596 –> 00:57:34.596
John Kennedy: In my foolish fan world, every pop star lives in one big massive place together and are constantly walking down the corridor, bumping into each other and say, yo, yeah, how’s it going?

00:57:34.596 –> 00:57:40.916
John Kennedy: And then you go into a room and make an amazing track together and go out, walk down the corridor, go into another room with somebody else.

00:57:40.916 –> 00:57:41.976
John Kennedy: But it’s not quite like that.

00:57:41.976 –> 00:57:47.216
Jack Patterson: Well, that may be true, but we don’t have access to them.

00:57:47.216 –> 00:57:56.676
Grace Chatto: Disclosure and James Blake, we know we supported Disclosure on our first tour, actually it was, when their album just came out.

00:57:56.676 –> 00:57:58.196
Grace Chatto: It was amazing.

00:57:58.196 –> 00:58:14.896
Grace Chatto: And then James Blake, when we first started, we ran a club night in Cambridge that was like kind of early dubstep era, like before he started singing on his records and he came and DJ’d.

00:58:14.916 –> 00:58:16.356
Grace Chatto: And yeah.

00:58:17.516 –> 00:58:18.896
John Kennedy: Yeah, that’s true.

00:58:18.896 –> 00:58:23.936
John Kennedy: But I mean, another thing that you do really well is discover people really.

00:58:23.936 –> 00:58:29.416
John Kennedy: You’ve been brilliant talent scouts and have worked with some emerging artists.

00:58:29.416 –> 00:58:34.176
John Kennedy: And you’ve got a really great ear for potential, I think.

00:58:34.176 –> 00:58:39.596
John Kennedy: Because from the very start, you always had interesting vocalists and then they’ve changed over the years.

00:58:39.596 –> 00:58:44.416
John Kennedy: But that’s something that you have got an ear for and they’re keen on, I think.

00:58:44.416 –> 00:58:44.796
John Kennedy: Yes.

00:58:45.456 –> 00:58:46.236
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

00:58:46.236 –> 00:58:48.496
Jack Patterson: That’s something we want to get back into.

00:58:48.496 –> 00:58:59.496
Jack Patterson: I think, I don’t know if this is, it feels like that Cry Baby record is a record from that period we were in.

00:58:59.496 –> 00:59:04.996
Jack Patterson: It was like an end stop of a series of records that we made and it had to come out.

00:59:04.996 –> 00:59:05.876
Jack Patterson: We had to get it out.

00:59:05.876 –> 00:59:07.156
Jack Patterson: It was like a-

00:59:07.156 –> 00:59:13.076
Grace Chatto: It was kind of the reason we left our record label, actually, because they wouldn’t release it.

00:59:13.616 –> 00:59:19.216
Grace Chatto: They made us release all these other songs that weren’t what we wanted to be doing.

00:59:19.216 –> 00:59:23.596
Grace Chatto: So it was a very symbolic song for us.

00:59:23.596 –> 00:59:24.756
Grace Chatto: Yeah.

00:59:24.756 –> 00:59:26.556
Jack Patterson: But going after these big-

00:59:26.556 –> 00:59:35.756
Jack Patterson: I don’t know, trying to have these blockbuster moments with big artists and big collabs, it’s really fun and it’s very exciting.

00:59:35.756 –> 00:59:51.476
Jack Patterson: But I think, yeah, I would quite like to go back to the early days where it’s much more organic, and you’re just writing with people and building things up in a more chilled way.

00:59:51.476 –> 00:59:55.956
Jack Patterson: That’s what we’re now doing again, which is really exciting, I think.

00:59:55.956 –> 00:59:56.736
John Kennedy: Yeah, that’s great.

00:59:56.736 –> 01:00:17.656
John Kennedy: Well, you’ve already described various different situations that sound really exciting, no impromptu acoustic versions of songs that you’ve been working on for three years, and then just happened to nail it in 15 minutes or something, no backstage at a TV studio, and then constantly evolving things and having other ideas and approaching other people about things, no.

01:00:17.656 –> 01:00:21.196
John Kennedy: So it’s exciting to hear what happens next for Clean Bandit.

01:00:21.196 –> 01:00:28.176
John Kennedy: And I hope maybe there’ll be a part three that we can look at and listen to some of the other work that you’re doing.

01:00:28.176 –> 01:00:28.656
Jack Patterson: Yeah.

01:00:28.656 –> 01:00:34.276
Jack Patterson: Well, some of the previous secret conversations that we were having, maybe we’ll have some resolve.

01:00:34.556 –> 01:00:35.596
Grace Chatto: Yes, and results.

01:00:35.596 –> 01:00:36.896
Jack Patterson: Results.

01:00:36.896 –> 01:00:37.856
Grace Chatto: To report.

01:00:37.856 –> 01:00:52.516
John Kennedy: It’s a tricky business though in the world that you work in because you’re juggling so many different ideas all the time and working on them all the time and years can pass before you get to a point where you’re happy and everybody’s happy.

01:00:52.516 –> 01:00:54.816
John Kennedy: And that’s an interesting thing.

01:00:54.816 –> 01:00:57.576
John Kennedy: Thank you for coming back and looking at these songs.

01:00:57.596 –> 01:01:04.976
John Kennedy: I think maybe we should have another blast of the Tanner Adele version of Cry Baby to kind of round things off because that is the latest incarnation.

01:01:04.976 –> 01:01:05.876
Grace Chatto: The latest.

01:01:05.876 –> 01:01:09.096
Grace Chatto: Yeah, maybe from the second verse because then she sings the chorus.

01:01:22.367 –> 01:01:27.707
John Kennedy: Thank you for listening, and in particular, thanks to all of you who have signed up to support us on Patreon.

01:01:27.707 –> 01:01:32.227
John Kennedy: I’m just one part of the team that brings you Tape Notes, and it relies on your support.

01:01:32.227 –> 01:01:40.227
John Kennedy: Access to Patreon includes the full-length videos of new episodes where possible, ad-free episodes, and detailed gear lists, among many other things.

01:01:40.227 –> 01:01:44.007
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01:01:44.007 –> 01:01:49.147
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01:01:49.147 –> 01:01:52.707
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01:01:52.707 –> 01:01:54.227
John Kennedy: Once again, thank you for listening.

01:01:54.227 –> 01:01:55.567
John Kennedy: Until next time, goodbye.