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MusicTranscript
00:00 Hey, I'm Dua Lipa and this is The Breakdown.
00:02 ♪ They say I come and I go ♪
00:04 ♪ Tell me all the ways you need me ♪
00:06 ♪ I'm not here for long ♪
00:08 ♪ Catch me or I go ♪
00:10 ♪ Houdini, I come and I go ♪
00:13 Houdini is a song that I wrote last November
00:16 and last year while I was on tour,
00:19 intermittently in between each leg of the tour,
00:23 I would go to the studio
00:25 and that's when I was doing like most of my writing.
00:28 Yeah, I had just finished like my Australian leg of the tour
00:31 and I flew straight to LA to work with Kevin
00:34 and Caroline and Tobias.
00:35 And we had a couple of days,
00:37 I had some like promos, some other bits and stuff.
00:40 And a few days before we'd gone into
00:44 kind of like a big studio in LA
00:47 and I'd been so used to working in here in London
00:50 and this whole room,
00:51 it's got like a much more cozy feeling
00:53 with like beams and windows and you can see outside
00:55 and in LA, which should really be the place
00:59 where you'd have like windows and you can see outside
01:01 and it was actually a very like dark room.
01:06 And we were writing for a day
01:07 and I just wasn't getting anything.
01:09 And I was just like, I feel like in this room,
01:13 my ideas just can't, don't have like space to breathe
01:16 or I feel like I need to be able to move around
01:19 and look out the window and that kind of thing.
01:21 And then Kevin said, oh, well, I've got, you know,
01:25 a small little studio in my house.
01:27 Like, why don't we just move there and see how we go?
01:30 And so we went there and we started working on a song
01:35 and it went really, really well.
01:39 Kevin was on the computer and he was trying,
01:44 he was kind of like working on the monitors and the sound
01:48 and just to make sure that he can like hear properly.
01:50 And he just played a track that he'd made
01:53 and he was playing some stuff.
01:54 And I was like, wait a second.
01:55 I was like, what is that sound?
01:58 And it was the da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da
02:01 in the beginning of Houdini.
02:02 (upbeat music)
02:05 And I was just, I was immediately hooked.
02:08 I was like, no, no, no, you have to pull that file up.
02:11 Like, I need to listen to it.
02:12 He's like, oh, it's just an idea that I kind of started
02:15 but it needs a lot of work.
02:16 Like we can build it if you really like it.
02:18 But I was so, I was instantly inspired by it.
02:22 And I was like, all right, let's work on this track.
02:25 It felt good.
02:26 And the whole essence of the song really kind of,
02:28 I guess, came together in the first two hours of writing.
02:32 And the first thing that came was the chorus.
02:35 And the chorus, which to me,
02:37 I think is more of a chant, I guess.
02:41 Just, it was like,
02:45 (vocalizing)
02:47 ♪ I come and I go, I come and I prove ♪
02:51 ♪ You got the right to please me ♪
02:52 ♪ Everybody knows ♪
02:54 ♪ Catch me or I go ♪
02:56 But the little inflection kind of came a little later.
03:00 It was much more linear.
03:01 And then we developed it.
03:03 And then Caroline said, "Catch me or I go."
03:07 And the second Caroline said that,
03:08 we were off to the races.
03:10 Like me, Caroline, and Tobias,
03:12 we just got in and we just started doing the lyrics.
03:14 And Kevin was getting really into the production.
03:19 And yeah, we just wanted it to be this like,
03:23 dark, clubby, after hours record.
03:27 So anyway, I lived with the song for a little while.
03:33 And then we came back to,
03:35 well, I was in London 'cause it was like,
03:37 I'd finished my tour.
03:38 And then towards like the end of January,
03:40 we all got back here in this room to finish off "Houdini."
03:45 That day, Kevin had woken up.
03:47 I guess it was really like he had rolled out of bed,
03:49 jumped in the shower,
03:50 and he had just made like a voice note
03:51 and he sent it to me.
03:53 And he was like, "Oh, I've got an idea
03:55 "for like a middle eight."
03:56 Like, what if it goes like,
03:57 ♪ Da, na, na, da, da, da, da ♪
04:00 (upbeat music)
04:02 And I was just immediately like,
04:09 I was like, "Oh, this sounds really cool,
04:11 "but I think I'd have to hear it."
04:12 'Cause I, you know,
04:13 it felt like a little bit of a departure in a way,
04:18 but it gave the song just the exact amount of lightness
04:21 that it needed to just help it grow
04:25 into like a fully formed song.
04:27 It gives it that really like euphoric feeling.
04:30 It like, it's that moment that when you're dancing,
04:33 when it's like, oh,
04:34 I'm like releasing everything in that moment.
04:36 And I just, I love going out to dance
04:40 and like really going out to dance.
04:42 And I felt like I needed a song
04:44 that mirrored my experience that I was like going through
04:47 and what I was doing.
04:48 And I needed a song like that.
04:52 And so he came into the studio really early in the morning
04:54 and he was here with our engineer, Cam,
04:57 and with Danny as well.
05:00 And he just, he was like,
05:01 "All right, turn all the instruments on, do the thing."
05:04 And he just played it.
05:05 When I came into the studio,
05:07 also like fairly early,
05:08 he'd already like worked on the middle eight.
05:11 And I was just so obsessed with it.
05:12 I was like, okay,
05:13 now this has taken the song to a completely another level.
05:16 And so that day we sat down and I was like, all right,
05:20 we need to get into the lyrics
05:25 and really kind of clean up every line
05:27 and make sure that it's good.
05:29 And we actually, like there was a moment where I was like,
05:31 oh, maybe like the verse melody
05:33 isn't what it's supposed to be.
05:34 But then I kind of realized that it was the lyrics
05:36 that needed a little bit of work.
05:39 And so we actually went through like four different versions
05:43 of verse one and verse two
05:46 until we landed onto the final one and what it was.
05:49 There is kind of like, almost like a third verse,
05:54 which is completely different to what's on the record now.
06:00 But we have this dream of making an extended club,
06:08 deep club mix that we want to have.
06:11 So working on that and actually we held that part back
06:15 for now, so I've not said goodbye to that part forever.
06:18 It just felt like it didn't fit in with the,
06:20 I guess with the layout that it's in right now.
06:25 So it's also fun to have like more new parts
06:29 and keep developing a song
06:31 and keep releasing other versions of songs as well,
06:34 which I think, yeah, it's going to be really fun.
06:37 So that will be a extended version to come.
06:41 Houdini, what I loved about it was it was such a play
06:44 on words in the sense of that.
06:49 I think the song and its meaning is about knowing
06:53 your worth, knowing when it's the right time to stay
06:57 and also knowing when it's a good time to leave.
06:59 And I think a lot of that comes from knowing yourself,
07:03 understanding what you like, what you deserve,
07:05 what you need, what you, you know,
07:08 the way that you want to, I don't know,
07:12 be loved, I guess, or whatever that is for each person.
07:17 And Houdini is kind of that metaphor of like
07:22 having the confidence to be like,
07:24 actually this doesn't suit me anymore,
07:26 so I'm just going to bounce and that's okay.
07:29 And having kind of a real kind of gentleness
07:35 in a way towards yourself to be able to make that decision.
07:38 So that was Houdini and the concept and the idea behind it.
07:43 And I think especially after spending so much time
07:45 on the road and I think so much of my whole career
07:47 was based on doing so many live shows and touring nonstop
07:51 that I always, after an album's out,
07:55 I end up falling in love so much more with the live element
07:58 of the songs and how they develop to the studio version.
08:03 And so my goal for this album as a whole
08:07 was to really have the, you know,
08:10 the music be really organic.
08:13 And as much as you have electronic elements to it,
08:17 there's a real musicality and a lot of live instruments.
08:21 And I just wanted to capture the essence of us
08:25 essentially working like a band.
08:26 And the amount of time that I've spent in the studio
08:28 and worked with different people and honed in on my craft
08:32 and written so many songs that I've also come into a place
08:36 where I feel really, really confident in who I am
08:39 and what I want.
08:41 Being able to like write about my stories
08:44 in a really vulnerable way.
08:45 And I felt like my voice got stronger because of touring.
08:49 I felt like there were so many different layers
08:53 to the way I've progressed as an artist
08:56 that it was very easy for me to be able to
09:00 not be deviated by, you know,
09:04 all these other incredible artists.
09:06 Like we all work together
09:07 to create something really special.
09:09 And the reason why I chose to put out Houdini first
09:12 is 'cause it's the first song in like chronological order
09:16 in a series of songs about the most fun parts
09:19 of like singledom.
09:21 And so it just felt like I kept going into the studio
09:26 with lots of ammo and lots of fun stories to like
09:29 write about.
09:30 And I think how you feel 24 hours
09:34 after something has happened changes a lot,
09:37 you know, two weeks later or a month later
09:40 when you listen to it and you're like,
09:41 actually that's not really the way I want to express myself.
09:43 So I want to tweak it a little bit
09:44 or I want to change this lyric
09:46 or I want to maybe work on that melody a bit more.
09:50 Here in my notebook,
09:51 which I've written every song of this record,
09:53 I have 97 songs.
09:55 And usually while I'm writing,
09:59 I have like little like fold out pages
10:02 somewhere here in my notebook,
10:03 where basically after a while of writing,
10:06 I sit down and I write like a little like ideas page
10:10 to always have somewhere in here,
10:12 I'll try and find it.
10:13 But where I just write down different like titles
10:16 or things that I thought about here,
10:18 it's like this,
10:19 it's like a little foldy page inside.
10:22 And in this,
10:23 oh,
10:24 and in this foldy page,
10:26 I had Houdini written down
10:29 and I would show you this,
10:30 but there's just too much tea.
10:31 Yeah, I mean this notebook,
10:33 it's kind of just like a random notebook from CBS,
10:36 to be honest,
10:37 I didn't expect it was going to be as special
10:39 as it ended up being.
10:41 I wanted a notebook because I just wanted to
10:44 kind of stop writing all my lyrics on a phone
10:46 and I wanted to have something really like tangible
10:49 and something that I felt like I could feel
10:51 and I could see and I could kind of go back to
10:54 and then also it just kind of became
10:56 somehow like my most prized possession
10:59 to have every single song that I've written
11:01 over the past three years in one place.
11:04 Yeah, on the very first page,
11:06 I mean, when the time comes,
11:07 I'll show you some time,
11:08 but like I have like the album title
11:10 and I kind of went off the back of that
11:13 and just to see how everything grew and evolved.
11:18 And I always feel like I have to
11:20 write myself into a good idea.
11:22 I think I have to kind of declutter
11:24 and get out all the shit ideas first,
11:27 write a few bad songs to get to the really good ones.
11:31 And that's just always been my process,
11:37 but this one has been much more particular
11:40 in the sense that every song on the record,
11:42 I've gone back and like really finessed every single part.
11:46 I never wanted to let anything that I felt
11:49 was even a little bit special,
11:53 like I didn't want to let it go.
11:54 Before I felt like I never had the confidence
11:57 to go in and dig even deeper.
12:00 I felt like when I went into the studio,
12:02 the song that I got that day,
12:04 if it was there, that was like what was,
12:07 that's what it was meant to be.
12:08 Whereas now I'm like, oh, this chorus is so good.
12:11 How do we build up the verse to be as good as the chorus?
12:14 Or how do we make this part?
12:16 Like every section of the song
12:18 had to be just as good to do it like justice, I guess.
12:22 And I don't think I would have had the confidence
12:24 to do something like that earlier in my career or whatever.
12:27 Like I had to learn and grow
12:29 and spend so much time around incredible songwriters
12:33 to feel like I can take the lead and be like,
12:36 no, this is what we're saying.
12:38 And this is how it's supposed to be.
12:39 And this, you know,
12:41 and that feels like really, really liberating.
12:44 It's so sassy, the whole song of just like,
12:47 let's see what you've got,
12:49 if you can keep up kind of thing.
12:52 And maybe you could be the one to make me stay
12:55 feels like an unexpected line,
12:57 but also the idea that you never really know
12:59 what's gonna happen.
13:00 And I love to have a little twist of something positive
13:06 in all the songs.
13:08 I feel like songs, no matter what,
13:10 like I end up manifesting them in one way or another.
13:14 Like they become a part of my life,
13:15 regardless of how I feel in the moment,
13:17 later down the line,
13:18 there's always some kind of like payoff in a way.
13:22 'Cause it never feels right for it to be a song
13:26 that's gonna be out there
13:27 that maybe lots of people are gonna sing
13:28 or that I'm gonna sing on stage every night.
13:31 And for it to like not have some kind of payoff
13:35 or some kind of happy ending
13:37 or some kind of feeling that, you know,
13:40 you can get through whatever, you know,
13:42 is happening in your life.
13:44 - Well, Houdini, I think is definitely the vibiest track
13:49 on the record in the sense of,
13:52 it just immediately gets you dancing.
13:54 It transports you somewhere visually.
13:57 I think it's quite like an instant.
14:01 I also feel like it's quite a departure sonically.
14:06 So I really wanted that to be the main point
14:11 of where I'm heading next.
14:13 I think it also has all those psychedelic elements.
14:18 It's got the electronic moments,
14:21 but also at the same time, it's,
14:23 yeah, it got so much instrumentation
14:27 and that live element in it.
14:29 So it really felt like it encapsulated
14:32 a lot of what's to come,
14:33 even though everything that's to come is also so different,
14:37 but I feel like there's a through line that connects them.
14:41 So it just felt like a fun, fun way to start.
14:44 (whooshing)