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The Making Of Justin Bieber's Purpose: Growing Up, Reconnecting And Loving Yourself

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59th GRAMMY nominees Justin Bieber, Josh Gudwin, Steve James, Randy Merrill, and others tell the inside story of the Album Of The Year-nominated Purpose
Bill Forman
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am
GRAMMY.com

It's tempting to play the numbers game with Justin Bieber's Purpose. More than two years in the making. His fifth million-plus selling album. Three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits, and a spot atop the Billboard 200. Certified triple platinum by the RIAA.

But beyond sheer numbers, the album speaks to Bieber's ability to beat the odds in an industry where the half-life of most teen pop stars can be measured in months rather than years. 

It's worth remembering, after all, that Bieber was just 15 when he scored his first Top 10 record. Now an industry veteran at the age of 22, Bieber is a top GRAMMY contender with four nominations: Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Purpose, and Song Of The Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for his No. 1 hit "Love Yourself."

Following, key participants give the inside story behind Bieber's Purpose.

Randy Merrill (mastering engineer): A project doesn't make it to this level without having good songwriting, production, recording, mixing, and mastering. Purpose feels like a very personal album for Justin. The lyrics seem to come from his heart, expressing honest sentiments. So they don't come across as contrived or manufactured, just real and honest, delivered with his signature voice.

*Skrillex (featured artist/producer): His album is so honest to who he is right now. He's still a pop star making pop music, but at the same time, all the stuff I worked on with him had a sense of honesty about it. I'm not saying he wasn't honest before, but when you listen to his lyrics, you can tell he is becoming an adult.

ü ri now

A photo posted by SKRILLEX (@skrillex) on Jun 25, 2015 at 7:59pm PDT

Josh Gudwin (producer/engineer/mixer): Initially we were just expanding on the style of music Justin was making at the time, but during the last six months of the process things really evolved and took shape. Every day in the studio we talked about the music and Justin strived to improve constantly. When it was go time, the direction set its own course naturally and we embraced that all the way. 

Steve James (co-writer/producer): As an electronic producer, I was really excited to work on more fleshed out and rhythmic productions. But the more we sat with the song "Purpose" — and once Justin sang it — it was obvious that it would be best communicated stripped down, letting the lyrics and message really speak. Ballads usually work best either as acoustic or massive anthemic productions. And for "Purpose," the former was the obvious choice.

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Chris "Tek" O'Ryan (engineer/mixer): The vocals for this album were really focused on a strong lead and not a lot of background vocals like previous records. This presents the challenge of making sure that lead vocal is "the one." It has to be perfect in every way — feel, emotion, timing, groove, and pitch — as there's not a lot of backgrounds and tricks to hide any flaws. This was especially true for "Love Yourself," and the result speaks for itself. 

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O'Ryan: I think this is the album where Justin really found his best tonal sweet spot, and I think that came naturally from him writing so much of it. He also was producing his own vocals, so he did what felt natural and I think that really comes across to the audience. 

**Justin Bieber (artist): You never know what people are going to like. I've just got to the point where [I accept] what I feel and [go] with my gut.

Gudwin: A lot of writing took place in the studio. Some days Justin would come in to write by himself, and other times he collaborated with [producer Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd]. When he really liked a fully composed song that came in but felt there were parts lyrically or melodically that could change to suit him better, he would rewrite them on the spot.

Tom Coyne (mastering engineer): One thing that really helped is the fact that the vocals were so well recorded and produced. This made it easier to pull all the songs together into a consistent sound across the album. For a vocally driven album such as this, it's always important for the vocals to be consistent throughout the album in order to tie the whole thing together. 

Gudwin: All the way up to mixing, it wasn't unusual for Justin to recut certain parts. Over the course of the project Justin's voice reached a very stable point tonally, and his delivery was dialed in. He was very conscious of where his voice was sitting within the album and we worked hard to achieve consistency throughout the entire body of work.

James: I'm immensely grateful for this opportunity. In the third week of my first summer in Los Angeles — when I was 17 — we wrote ["Purpose"] together. And as a result of that, I left school and moved across the country and have been working on music every day since. This song opened so many doors for me.

**Bieber: I named the album Purpose. And the reason why I named it Purpose was because for a while there I feel like I lost my purpose and I feel like I found my purpose again. So just … that message to say no matter how far you feel like you are away from yourself or you feel like you don't have your purpose or you don't know what your purpose is, or you feel like you lost your purpose, there's always room to find that purpose again.

*As told to NME

** As told to BBC Radio 1

Bill Forman is a writer and music editor for the Colorado Springs Independent and the former publications director for The Recording Academy.

Tune into the 59th GRAMMY Awards live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS.

Lorde's Album Of The Year-nominated 'Melodrama'
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Lorde, Jack Antonoff & More On Making 'Melodrama' | Album Of The Year

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Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Lorde's acclaimed second album, and its journey towards an Album Of The Year nomination
Julian Ring
GRAMMYs
Jan 25, 2018 - 2:03 pm

Arriving in New York to record her sophomore album, Lorde faced what seemed like an impossible task: to somehow create a musical statement as honest as her first. The New Zealand native — real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor — was just 16 when she released Pure Heroine, a widely acclaimed pop culture critique and snapshot of suburban youth. But after a dizzying rise to fame and a painful breakup, she knew her next album had to come from closer to the heart.

With the help of producer Jack Antonoff and a team of studio veterans, Lorde channeled heartbreak and loneliness into the deeply personal LP Melodrama. The album earned Lorde her fifth GRAMMY nomination and her first for Album Of The Year.

Here, Lorde and key collaborators recount the making of Melodrama.

*Lorde (artist): It kind of takes a second, I learned, to write your way out of the record you just made. There was a real hit of, like, "I just don't have another one. It could never be good enough."

** It wasn't until I went through heartbreak, and moved out of [my parents'] home into my own house and spent a lot of time totally alone, that I realized I do have very serious, vivid feelings I needed to get out. Working with [producer Jack Antonoff] opened me up to feeling a lot; he was the perfect person to help me do that.

*Jack Antonoff (producer): I was like, "Let's just gather around a piano and see how you're feeling, and see what has happened to you since your last album that's really worth sharing." That was very important. It opened up a big space, which was, "OK, there's a way that you can talk about all of these things that have changed, and it's not going to put you on an island."

***Lorde: The first record was "we" and "us." And this record is "I." The focus does close in. I think that was necessary to get to the level of frankness that’s in there.

*Antonoff: [On Pure Heroine], Ella had these electronic sensibilities. But there are guitars on this album, there are all these analog-based instruments. It's not about minimalism anymore; it's this bigger, broader thing. It's a very different album in terms of the palette of sounds. I think that started by the fact that we wrote the album sitting around a piano.

"It wasn't until I went through heartbreak, and moved out of [my parents'] home into my own house and spent a lot of time totally alone, that I realized I do have very serious, vivid feelings I needed to get out."

Tom Elmhirst (mixing): It's my piano. I bought it from an NYU professor. … It's a really beautiful upright that was made here in New York.

Because they were working literally next door to me — upstairs at [Electric Lady Studios] — the proximity was obviously really close. … [They were in] a really nice live room with plenty of daylight, and it’s got the piano and a few other instruments set up for vocals.

They would set up a Pro Tools setup in there, and [mixer/engineer Laura Sisk], Jack and Ella would be in there doing their thing all day, all night.

****Laura Sisk (mixer/engineer): One of the coolest parts of working on this album was watching the songs come into existence. Jack and Ella are both super creative and very honest songwriters and it was thrilling to watch stories or conversations turn into songs that I absolutely love.

*****Lorde: ["Sober II (Melodrama)" is] the second part of one of the first songs that we wrote where I really started to understand what the album would be, which was "Sober." The two of them kind of came around the same time, this was April [2016] — I remember Jack and I went out to Coachella and we got a studio in Palm Springs.

In the first part, it's very much like the party's in full swing, and maybe sort of tipping over into that area where it might be a little too much, and then ["Sober II (Melodrama)"] is sort of singing from the perspective of the deflated room. There's such a sadness to the lights being on after a party, you know, this whole room has sort of been washed in this dark, and to see the corners of the room again can always be a little bit heartbreaking.

Elmhirst: The title song is really simple. It's not complex, and it wasn't a huge mixing process. But the clarity of the vocals and the simplicity of the track — you need a great artist to do that. I think [Lorde] did it really well.

******Antonoff: "Green Light" became a very important song to the album. It was a big moment.

*Lorde: [“Green Light” is] me shouting at the universe, wanting to let go, wanting to go forward, to get the green light from life.

******Antonoff: There was a night that we really cracked the code on "Green Light." We had these parts. We went and saw someone play at the Barclays Center, and there was all this jangly piano going on. It sounded like someone banging on a piano. We went home and started to put that in, and that's when it started to make sense.

****Sisk: [Jack and I] often work on different aspects of the same song in separate rooms and that ability to tag-team the work lets us move at a very fast pace, which is super important given the amount of projects we collaborate on.

Randy Merrill (mastering engineer): The album was mixed by a few different engineers, all with very different styles, so tying it all together to feel like an album was a bit challenging.

Elmhirst: There was a lot of forwards and backwards on the album. I would finish mixes, and then productions would change. So it was a tricky balance of being flexible while remaining creative.

***Lorde: We labored over every little sound, every word. To a level that I think people would never even pick up on.

Merrill: On the mastering side, it was all about tapering the sounds of each of the songs to that they felt cohesive as an album, with one song flowing into another with a feeling of consistency.

*Antonoff: It was a hard album to make. If you change a breath on a vocal take, [Lorde will] notice, and she'll like it or she'll hate it. It's a meticulous process with her, and this particular album was an intense journey. I think that's what it had to be.

***Lorde: [Melodrama is] about contrast: really big and grand, and really tiny and intimate. Going from the personal, emotional stuff to the headlines and the web. It goes from the world to my bedroom.

We finished it… and I said to Jack, "You realize, I can go anywhere I want now."

* As told to Rolling Stone
** As told to Vanity Fair
*** As told to NME
**** As told to Vice
***** As told to NPR
****** As told to Billboard

Catching Up On The GRAMMY Awards Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? Just Say "Talk To GRAMMYs"

(Julian Ring is a music journalist and critic. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, NPR Music, The Wall Street Journal, and Consequence of Sound, and he has written for The Recording Academy since 2010. As a curator at Pandora, Ring reviews independent music, programs blues stations and produces creative editorial.  The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pandora Media, Inc., nor was the article written on Pandora Media, Inc.'s behalf.)

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Beyoncé's Lemonade: Jack White, James Blake And Others Detail The Album's Key Ingredients

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59th GRAMMY nominees Beyoncé, Mike Will Made-It and others tell the inside story of the Album Of The Year-nominated Lemonade
Andreas Hale
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am
GRAMMY.com

On the evening of April 23, 2016, Beyoncé turned the entire entertainment industry on its head with the surprise release of Lemonade. With its Best Music Film GRAMMY-nominated companion celebrating African-American culture, and lyrics that had everyone speculating about her relationship with Jay Z and the identity of "Becky with the good hair," Lemonade successfully quenched her fans' thirst.  

The leading 59th GRAMMY nominee's sixth studio album is arguably more nuanced than her previous projects. While Beyoncé has tackled women's empowerment and relationship topics before, Lemonade is more personal, representing a shift for an artist who manages to be omnipresent and mysterious. For the first time, Beyoncé appeared vulnerable, but still Queen Bey — demonstrated with songs celebrating her womanhood and heritage in the midst of racial turmoil.

The album has since become a pop-culture phenomenon — discussed everywhere from daytime talk shows to university classrooms — garnering Beyoncé nine GRAMMY nominations in six Fields, including Rock, R&B and Rap, and upping her career nomination total to 62. Following is the inside story of Lemonade.

1James Blake (featured artist/producer): Beyoncé came to the studio and I was sitting at the piano when I met her. She was just lovely. I came up with something to go with an idea she had. I just embellished her melody. I think the idea was to use some of her lyrics, but I didn't realize that — I misunderstood and did something entirely different from what she wanted. But it didn't matter, because she really liked it. Blue Ivy was there too, which was nice. She was singing along to the song, which was a huge compliment because kids just don't have any pretense whatsoever.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my song came in at the point that it did, and that she harmonizes with me for a brief moment. The first time I heard that, I got chills.

2MNEK (co-writer): I met her publisher, "Big" Jon [Platt, CEO of Warner/Chappell Music]. He was saying, "I love your stuff, I'd love to get you in with Beyoncé." I was like, "Yeah, of course." I met her with him. She played me the chorus of "Hold Up," and she was just like, "Do your thing, do what you got to do."

Her process is, she's a writer, but she has an ear for music. And she'll hear what an artist does, she'll hear what a writer does, and she'll interpret it and make it her own, blend it with her vibe.

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3Jack White (featured artist/producer): She took just sort of a sketch of a lyrical outline and turned it into this most bodacious, vicious, incredible song. I don't even know what you'd classify it as — soul, rock and roll, whatever it is. "Don't Hurt Yourself" is incredibly intense. I'm so amazed at what she did with it.

4MeLo-X (producer): I heard a lot of the music and the subject matter of the music and we spoke about direction and the theme and the ideas behind some of the stuff. I was able to write from a different perspective. And I think that she used a lot of what I did and pieced it together. She's a master of finding raw talent and including them in her projects.

["Sorry"] was kind of like creating a vibe in the studio. We were just working on a lot of stuff and the idea came up pretty simple. It was just some cool keys, drum patterns, and we started putting down vocal ideas and lyric ideas. … We created that vibe together. It plays a key part in the record because I think it's at a vital point in the record. It's all these different emotions and different sounds and different layers.

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5Diana Gordon (producer): I feel like the songs we worked on were specifically for her. I didn't have a dad growing up, so "Daddy Lessons," that was more of a fantasy for me. I felt like I was very strong in helping to raise my brothers and sisters but that really was her story.

When I played it for her, I was like, "This is one of my favorite songs." She was like, "This is my life." I told her, "You know what, take it, do what you want with it." She went and re-produced it, she changed some words, added the bridge. It's hers.

6Ingrid Burley (co-writer): Beyoncé doesn't even know this but I wrote "Love Drought" [when] I was frustrated with the label two years ago and I was very new. Two of the people who were running the label at the time had lied to me and told me that Beyoncé wasn't currently listening to any new music. Then I got to the studio to go to her writing camp — literally four days later — in L.A. and they started playing me new music. And [engineer/mixer] Mike Dean was there from Houston. I'm like, "They just told me that she's not listening to any music." ... I was so pissed.  

I wrote the song in like 30 minutes. As I'm looping this beat, I couldn't get out of my head the fact that they just lied to me and I [wrote the lyrics], "Ten times out of nine, I know you lying" and I was like, "Ingrid, too much." So I [added] "But nine times out of ten, I know you trying." … The only way that I could really get over it was kind of like, "She's gonna sing the song I wrote about her label one day."

7Mike Dean (engineer/mixer): We were in the studio together. Just writing sessions. Lotta producers, lotta singers. We'd just have them all collaborate. "Love Drought" was one of the songs that we made. I was just lucky enough for it to make the album. It didn't change from the day we recorded it. It's been the same for a couple years.

8Just Blaze (producer): [The creative process for "Freedom" featuring Kendrick Lamar] was pretty organic and quick. She had a demo already started, and she called me and said something like, "This record has to be produced by you." … She had the basic arrangement and the sample, and some vocals. I took all of those elements back home and worked on them for a few days, tried a few things out.

When she sets up shop and goes into the studio, it's like a situation room. There are plans posted everywhere, and she's got her visual inspirations all on one wall. When you see "Visuals Produced By Beyoncé," she's not an artist who slaps her name on something because she can. She really is there from beginning to end, going over every detail of the vision that she wants to get across.

9Mike Will Made-It (producer): I had run into her one night. We were just chopping it up, and she was like, "You know what? I really like the idea of 'Formation' that you sent." I was like, "That's dope, man … when I was with Sremm [hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd], we were just talking about it like, 'That could be a big song for the females. Get in formation about the dudes that you're messing with or get in line. … It could be a good women's empowerment song. … The next thing you know, she takes it and makes it a culture empowerment thing — bigger than just females.

Trying to be great #Formation #EardrummerRecords

A photo posted by Mike Will (@mikewillmadeit) on Feb 8, 2016 at 12:09pm PST

10Beyoncé (artist): I'm an artist and I think the most powerful art is usually misunderstood. But anyone who perceives my message [in "Formation"] as anti-police is completely mistaken. … But let's be clear: I am against police brutality and injustice. Those are two separate things. If celebrating my roots and culture during Black History Month made anyone uncomfortable, those feelings were there long before a video and long before me. I'm proud of what we created and I'm proud to be a part of a conversation that is pushing things forward in a positive way.

I hope I can create art that helps people heal. Art that makes people feel proud of their struggle. Everyone experiences pain, but sometimes you need to be uncomfortable to transform.

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1. As told to Pitchfork
2. As told to Pitchfork
3. As told to NPR
4. As told to Pitchfork
5. As told to Entertainment Weekly
6. As told to Genius
7. As told to Billboard
8. As told to Fuse TV
9. As told to Red Bull Music Academy
10. As told to Elle
Edited and condensed for continuity and clarity

Andreas Hale is the editorial content director of 2DopeBoyz.com and senior editor of Champions.co. He has contributed to outlets such as Billboard, The Undefeated, MTV, Ozy, and a host of others.

Tune into the 59th GRAMMY Awards live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS.

News

Drake's Views Is A Love Letter To Toronto

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59th GRAMMY nominees Drake, Noah "40" Shebib, Nineteen85, Kyla, and others tell the inside story of the Album Of The Year-nominated Views
Nick Krewen
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am
GRAMMY.com

If there's been a more exuberant ambassador for the city of Toronto than Aubrey "Drake" Graham, you won't find them on this planet. While the ever-prolific Drake continues to churn out rhyme after rhyme, rising to the summit of hip-hop's elite with his signature —  and inimitable — sing-rap flow, Drizzy's love of the Six (his affectionate nickname for Toronto) has been riding along in the passenger seat.

Initially titled Views From The Six, Views is a 20-track love letter to the city Drake holds dear, reflecting his views on relationships and the music industry, among other topics. He worked nearly two years on the album with more than 70 collaborators before he deemed it worthy of release, mixing in hip-hop, pop, dancehall, reggae, and almost everything in between.

Views, the top album in the United States. in 2016, selling 4.14 million album equivalent units according to Nielsen Music, spawned the smash 10-weeks-at-No. 1 hit "One Dance" (featuring Wizkid and Kyla) and offered Drake and his right-hand man, producer/engineer Noah "40" Shebib, a new benchmark to surpass.

Following is the inside story of Views, which was largely recorded in Shebib's Toronto studio. The cover of the album features Drake sitting on the edge of Toronto's 1,815.5-foot-tall CN Tower, fitting for a man who notched eight 59th GRAMMY nominations, including Album Of The Year.

1Drake (artist): The album is based around the change of the seasons in our city. So, it starts out in the wintertime and starts out with a song called "Keep The Family Close" and that was basically what I used to tie it all together — winter to summer and then back to winter again. It's just to show you the two extreme moods that we have, because we're very grateful for our summers, but we also make our winters work, and they're harsh. … You start to value your days a lot more when seven months of them are spent in icy cold.

It creates a different type of atmosphere; a different sound in the music. It creates a different type of person, even. And I thought it was really important to make the album here during the winter. I didn't run away from it. I didn't go to Miami or L.A. just because I can. I came here and made the album and witnessed it happen. … There's a lot of elements for us that are very unique to [Toronto], and I try to capture them not only in the actual music, but the layout of it as well.

2Noah "40" Shebib (producer/engineer): I wanted people to walk [into my studio] and be overwhelmed. I wanted the city to feel a part of this place. I want it to be a very creative atmosphere so when you walk through those doors, immediately you feel comfortable being free [and] that creativity is accepted in this space. 

S.O.T.A.

A video posted by Noah Shebib (@ovo40) on Apr 11, 2016 at 12:16am PDT

1Drake: This album is probably my highest level of vocal performance. I was listening to Stevie Wonder "All I Do" and Alabama Shakes' "Gimme All Your Love" — these songs that really connected with me. I'd come off those two mixtapes [2015's If You're Reading This You're Too Late and What A Time To Be Alive] and it was about being in a club, about having the hottest joints. And this was more like, "What is a cohesive, incredible listening experience? What can I do for this generation to just take and create distance between myself and anyone else and do something that maybe no one else could achieve or accomplish?"                                                                

3DJ Dahi (producer): I made that beat [for "U With Me?"] maybe two years ago. [Ricci Riera and Axlfoliethc of production trio THC] gave me the beat, and I kinda finished it, gave it more texture, and just completed the idea. I think it's dope. I'm happy with it. When you make a beat and somebody could make it sound better, that's a plus.

4Murda Beatz (producer): I made the beat [for "With You"] in the studio with Party [featured artist/producer PARTYNEXTDOOR]. … It was one of the nights where we were just going crazy and I think we made like 12 beats that night and we banged out 10 records. I honestly just heard Drake's bars on the track when it came out. It's a good record. … Not to be biased, but I think it's one of the most fun, energetic songs on the album.

5Nineteen85 (producer): We were in London a couple of years ago for Wireless Festival and we kept playing "Do You Mind?" by Kyla, which I sampled on "One Dance." I wanted to figure out how to create that I-don't-care-who's-looking vibe, the vibe of those parties. "One Dance" makes you feel not embarrassed to dance, no matter who you're in front of. There's a void when it comes to that type of feel-good record nowadays — the songs that the Michael Jacksons of the world used to make. Drake always knows how to make people feel.

6Kyla (featured artist): I had a really good run with "Do You Mind?" and then Drake called.  When they got in contact, they were originally contacting me for the song for clearance. I didn't hear the track at the time and it was like, Drake's camp has been afraid of leaks, so they said, we'll play it over the phone — tell me if you like it. … We listened to the track and I was all over it. I asked them if they wanted me to rerecord it and they said, "Nope, this is out as soon as you give us the yes." They gave me four days to decide. Literally, as soon as I signed the paperwork, it was out the next day. It was so crazy.

1Drake: ["Too Good" featuring Rihanna] came to fruition after we did "Work." … She got in the studio and just bodied it. It was like flawless victory when she sent it back — every nuance, every cadence, everything was perfect. It's just another piece to add to our catalogue, which I'm very proud of. I think we do great music together. It's tough to do guy/girl collabs. … I think that's what makes those records better, though, because there's something genuine there. We're not forcing some story on people.

5Nineteen85: I was in my car, listening to a satellite station that plays a lot of smooth-rock deep cuts, and the original song ["Why Can't We Live Together" by Timmy Thomas] came on. By the time I got home, I had basically made the ["Hotline Bling"] beat in my head. 

1Drake: I recorded it in a hotel room in London … and I remember my cameraman, Theo [Skudra] … he was just like, "Yo, you were recording it and I didn't get it." But that's almost an emotion I search for. I don't want you to get it right away. If you get it right away, there's no risk being taken. … Great music takes a little work on your part. It takes you almost maybe elevating your listening level, becoming a bit more of a sophisticated listener, because of a song, or because of an album.

7Timmy Thomas (singer/songwriter): I appreciate the fact that [Drake] used my first original track. … I heard some of the comments [of Nineteen85 saying] we used Timmy Thomas's version and everybody in the room said, "Man, that's it, that's the one." Then they listened to a lot of other beats, so that made me feel good to be able to talk to artists that were not even born that can relate to that type of feel from 1973.

8Chris Athens (mastering engineer): I didn't find out [about mastering Views] until about the week before [it was released]. It's very last minute. I think that's partially intentional. They'll tell me a week in advance, "Hey, man, sorry to do this to you, but we need you this weekend." [Editor's Note: Athens previously mastered Drake's If You're Reading This … and 2013's Nothing Was The Same] So I'm like, "OK, here we go, Drake record! It's gonna be a barn burner." Because it has a hard release date.

We got the music maybe 48 hours before it was supposed to be released, and we ended up changing everything about 12 hours before it was supposed to be released. Things changed right up until literally the last minute. I was sending the masters to the label and the label was like, "Come on, we're waiting." It was as late as you could possibly get.

2Shebib: It was just me and Drake wanting to do something different and to make a sound that we felt like was unique and it really resonated with people. But that's also the co-production of Drake on that level because he is a producer, by any means. And he's also responsible for that simplicity. He's also responsible for a lot of the sound that I'm heralded as creating, but we created together. 

@ovo40

A photo posted by champagnepapi (@champagnepapi) on Jan 21, 2016 at 7:45pm PST

1Drake: I hope [Views] brings joy to peoples' lives. I hope that it opens peoples' minds to new things. I've always had this dream of a new set of music that just creates this rhythm like what "One Dance" was — just bringing joy to people is pretty much my goal with this album. 

1. As told to Beats 1 Radio
2. As told to Native Instruments
3. As told to Genius.com
4. As told to XXL
5. As told to Billboard
6. As told to Billboard's "Pop Shop" podcast
7. As told Nardwuar The Human Serviette
8. As told to MTV.com
Edited and condensed for continuity and clarity

Nick Krewen is a Toronto-based journalist and frequent contributor to the Toronto Star and SOCAN’s Words And Music. He is also a co-author of Music From Far And Wide and a contributor to The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook. He’s a former associate editor of Country Music and was a consultant for the National Film Board's music industry documentary Dream Machine.

Tune into the 59th GRAMMY Awards live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS.

Feature

Sturgill Simpson's unlikely Nirvana cover in a country world

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Discover how the key players navigated their way to an Album Of The Year nomination
Lisa Zhito
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am
GRAMMY.com

Sturgill Simpson's A Sailor's Guide To Earth is not your typical major label debut. It's a concept album conceived, written, produced, and performed by a country music heterodox with a unique vision.

Crafted as a letter to his infant son, A Sailor's Guide … chronicles Simpson's life, loves and lessons learned. The backdrop for this narrative is a panorama of American music: rock, R&B, jazz, blues, electronica, and synth pop plus horns provided by funk/soul band the Dap-Kings and a cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom." Indeed, the most country thing about it are Simpson's soulful vocals, which have been likened to Waylon Jennings. Tying it all together is a nautical theme, evoking Simpson's years in the U.S. Navy.

Simpson says he entered the studio with a clear vision of what he wanted. His challenge as a first-time producer was thus twofold: "Getting what was in my head realized, and not being open to suggestions or input," he says. "Those were the only things I was concerned about, just because I could already hear it in my head." 

Most of A Sailor's Guide … was recorded over five days in early August 2015 at The Butcher Shoppe Recording Stuio, the Nashville, Tenn., facility owned by GRAMMY-winning engineer David "Ferg" Ferguson.

Following, Sturgill Simpson and other key players offer an inside look at the making of A Sailor's Guide To Earth.

David "Ferg" Ferguson (mixer/engineer): Sturgill and I met at a card game at [the Black Keys'] Dan Auerbach's house.

Sturgill Simpson (artist): Yeah, I met Ferg at a poker game. Obviously, his reputation precedes him but honestly, he's a Tennessee boy and I'm from Eastern Kentucky and I just felt an immediate comfort and familiarity with him. And the aesthetic of The Butcher Shoppe reminded me a lot of the basement den at my grandparents' old house. Nothing flashy; unpretentious.

Sean Sullivan (engineer/mixer): The only person who really knew what was going to happen was Sturgill. There was no pre-production in the traditional sense of sitting down with the producer and going over the songs.

Simpson: There was none of that! I guess in an effort to make the label and my manager feel a little bit less nervous I just told everybody we were going to record some demos. But I knew I was going to make a record. When recording my songs, I think it's better if the band's never heard them. There's a nervous energy, a danger that you get that isn't there when everybody comes in with worked out parts because they had demos to live with for a week.

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Miles Miller (drummer): "In Bloom" was the first song that we cut. We all just showed up at the studio to set up for the next day and Sturgill said that he wanted to do that song. Us being musicians, we wanted to take a crack at it, so we got in there. We'd never even played it until then.

Simpson: With "In Bloom," I knew within the narrative of the album that this was going to be the centerpiece. It was about getting the essence of that song so I had a touchstone or beacon to go in and frame things around.

Gavin Lurssen (mastering engineer): Very few records these days have the kind of narrative arc that this record had. It was very noticeable and it struck me when I was working on it. 

Ferguson: I remember standing outside the studio in the parking lot, talking about getting the strings and horns. I said, "Well, you can do whatever you want. We can go to New York and get those, we can get the Dap-Kings if you want."

Simpson: I guess it being the first time I ever recorded on a major label, I had to be reminded of the toolbox that was now available. I said to Ferg, "Man, it would be cool if we could get someone like the Dap-Kings," and he just said, "Well, you know Sturgill, you can do that. That's what Atlantic Records is for." So I called my A&R guy and said, "I want to get the Dap-Kings." A couple hours later he had some stuff lined up. They probably shouldn't have told me all I had to do was ask!

Miller: On "Brace For Impact [Live A Little]," Joe [Laur Joamets] our guitar player  was plugged in and ready to go. He basically just tore it up. What you hear on the record was the first take. We were all just freaking out because it had the bite, the growl that song needed. That was an exciting moment.

Simpson: We cut the record and then I had to go back on the road for a month or two, which gave me time to live with it. In hindsight, that was probably the best learning experience in all of this: being able to step away and analyze it. "Welcome To Earth [Pollywag]" was originally two songs. There was another verse that I ended up cutting. Hearing it with everything else, it just didn't serve the narrative. I realized that it was like a page needed to turn, so why not do an old "Sly-Stone-tape-splice" and go boom! right into the next song?

Ferguson: Sturgill wanted to open "Call To Arms" with bagpipes. He wanted bagpipes bad. There's really not any bagpipes around Nashville that we know of, so he recorded that intro in Scotland.

Simpson: I knew I wanted that "coming ashore battle-cry feel" and I thought, "Screw it, what better place to get these sounds?"

Sullivan: A lot of the ocean sounds and seagulls were recorded by Sturgill when he was on tour.

Jeff Steinberg (arranger): He wanted some whale sounds, and as opposed to putting in a sound effect, we did it on the strings. That was on "The Breakers Roar." I think it wound up in a couple different places on the album

Simpson: The front of the record is the Atlantic Ocean and the back … is the Pacific Ocean.

Lurssen: Sturgill flew [to L.A.] from Nashville for our mastering session. It was all in his hands. And he just said, "Look, I know your work. I want you to do what you do and see what you make of this thing." As I was going through it, I started to feel what it was about. And I started to ask him questions. He didn't volunteer anything. It was all me prompting him and I completely got it. I understood the project. That's probably why it's doing so well because it comes alive.

Lisa Zhito is a Nashville-based writer and teacher. She last interviewed Amy Lee on Evanescence's GRAMMY for Best New Artist for 2003.

Tune in to the 59th GRAMMY Awards live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS.