The Barbie the Album producer breaks down how he made Ryan Gosling's iconic solo
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00:00 It was so crazy when Greta was starting to send us storyboards of Ryan sitting on the bed.
00:05 It was really exciting and then it was also like
00:08 holy shit, I hope we're not fucking up their movie if this song doesn't land.
00:12 Hi, I'm Mark Bronson and this is 'The Breakdown.'
00:15 This is my studio in New York.
00:27 I actually had this studio from 2004 to about 2008
00:31 and in 2020 I was walking by and it was actually on Amy Winehouse's birthday.
00:36 We recorded so much of Amy's stuff here, all the demos for 'Back to Black.'
00:40 And I hadn't been here in 10 years.
00:42 I had just moved back to New York and I said, wouldn't it be great to rent this place again?
00:46 I do believe in energy and juju, so I do think that coming in here
00:50 and people like Nora Jones and Amy Winehouse being fairly unknown
00:54 and making these records that mean so much to people.
00:57 I feel like there's a good energy in this space.
01:00 And now I've been back here for three years and this is where
01:03 me and my partner Andrew wrote all the songs for Barbie and we wrote the score.
01:07 So I read this script and I just was so in love with it.
01:10 I just thought it was the funniest thing. It was so warm.
01:13 Beneath all the obvious brilliant comedy, there were these stories of these two
01:17 totally misunderstood people searching for their thing.
01:20 And I told Greta, I was like, I would love to do anything on this film.
01:23 And she said, there are two songs.
01:26 We need this song for Barbie for this big dance party.
01:28 And we need a Ken song.
01:31 And Ken wasn't originally going to sing in the film.
01:33 They didn't even know what that meant.
01:34 They just knew that both of their stories were important.
01:36 So they needed a song for both.
01:38 I started working on the track that became 'Dance the Night' right away
01:41 because they were starting dance rehearsals in two weeks.
01:44 They were like, we need something to start choreography.
01:46 And we didn't know Dua Lipa was going to be on it and write the song yet.
01:49 And then I started to think about this Ken song.
01:52 And I was walking to the studio one morning and I just had that line,
01:56 like, I'm just Ken. Anywhere else I'd be a tent.
01:59 Because obviously I knew Ryan Gosling was playing it.
02:01 You knew Ken was going to be hot.
02:02 But there's this idea that he's in the wrong place.
02:05 He's not in his right time.
02:06 He's not appreciated.
02:08 And I just went to the piano with that line.
02:10 And I was just like looking for chords, like something that was like emotive and moving.
02:15 So like it balanced maybe the slight humor in the lyric.
02:19 Because you know, the whole thing about Greta in this movie is like,
02:23 we're laughing but we're never laughing at these people.
02:25 You know, we're there with them on this journey.
02:27 And I just had that chorus.
02:29 That's sort of how the song was born.
02:31 Cause I'm just Ken.
02:33 Anywhere else I'd be a tent.
02:36 Loving the dark, seeing the light.
02:40 Love, love, fragility.
02:45 Cause I'm just Ken.
02:47 Anywhere else I'd be a tent.
02:50 Loving the dark, seeing the light.
02:51 I didn't really have words for this part.
02:54 I just knew that blonde fragility was like going to be in there somewhere.
02:57 But I mumbled it as well because Greta and Noah, they're so clever and so funny in their script.
03:03 And I didn't want them to think that like I was trying to be funny too.
03:07 Like they just asked me to write a song not to provide more humor.
03:10 So I kind of mumbled that line and I sent it to Greta.
03:13 They were in England.
03:14 She sent back these really exciting texts.
03:15 This is amazing.
03:16 What is this in this chorus?
03:17 And like this feels like it's from a movie.
03:19 And I want to see the movie that this song was from.
03:21 And then she was like, are you saying something about blonde fragility in there?
03:25 And I was like, yeah, yeah.
03:27 I mean, it was just an idea.
03:28 And she's like, I love it.
03:29 So that was it.
03:30 So they were excited about the demo.
03:31 And then I called Andrew White, who's one of my closest friends, one of my favorite
03:36 people to write with and one of the most talented songwriters and singers I know.
03:41 And he came up with the verse.
03:43 Doesn't seem to matter what I do.
03:48 I'm always number two.
03:51 No one knows how hard I tried.
03:55 Oh, I.
03:57 Yeah, he's just he's doesn't seem to matter what I do.
04:00 And I was instantly like, oh, that's great.
04:02 That's that's our verse.
04:03 And then we got a little bit of writer's block.
04:06 We're trying to mess with some next lines.
04:08 And Noah and Greta had sent us this little one page sheet that was like very cheekily
04:13 titled Barbie and Ken hit songs, you know, like no pressure.
04:17 Just write us two smashes for Barbie and Ken.
04:20 And it was like kind of really ridiculous, eccentric things like Barbie.
04:25 Everything is perfect because in Barbie Land there are seven sons, so there are never shadows.
04:29 Just all these kind of like funny, very Greta Gerwig like ramblings.
04:33 And then for Ken, it was like he loves horses.
04:38 He longs for the touch of Barbie.
04:40 He has no genitals.
04:41 And then it was like he has feelings he can't explain.
04:45 And we were just kind of like, that one looks good.
04:46 Yeah.
04:47 So then we were just kind of then that's how we sort of just went straight to this next
04:50 part.
04:51 I have feelings that I can't explain.
04:56 They're driving me insane.
05:00 The parts that we started to come up with here.
05:03 And behind the tent, they fall for me.
05:07 Which changed to fight for me.
05:09 Yeah.
05:10 So there were just a lot of the parts were there.
05:12 We just wrote this two and a half minute song and that's all it was without the Kennergy
05:17 part, without the crazy shred solos from Wolf.
05:20 And we went to the edit suite where Greta was starting to assemble the movie.
05:24 And because she had taken a two and a half minute song but made it this 11 minute sequence,
05:29 she had just looped parts over and over again of the song.
05:33 And it was like so hard to listen to and so repetitive and horrible that we were me and
05:37 Andrew were just like, we can't let you listen to this like for the next six months or two
05:41 whenever you get your composer to do your score or whatever.
05:44 Like, do you want to just give us this and we'll just at least write you an 11 minute
05:49 piece of music.
05:50 You don't have to use it but at least while you're editing.
05:52 So we started to write these other movements like the thing that became the crazy Wolf
05:57 guitar solo.
05:58 And then when it goes back to the Barbies, it goes back to this kind of more like triumphant
06:02 orchestral part.
06:03 Me and Andrew were just playing all the instruments.
06:05 We're using, you know, our orchestral libraries to do all these different string parts.
06:11 And Greta just really dug it.
06:13 And so she basically said, OK, cool, this scene is yours.
06:16 And Greta called to say, I'm going to shoot this dream ballet sequence.
06:20 Can you give me one more section of the song?
06:23 Because it already had like kind of three or four sections already kind of a little
06:26 weird and we're like, yeah, sure.
06:28 Like, what do you want?
06:29 Do you want it to be even like more?
06:31 Because it's already doing a lot.
06:32 She's like, I need the most maximalist thing you've ever written.
06:35 She's like, it's this dream ballet and they're going to have a dance off and I want tempo
06:38 and pace.
06:40 So that's when we wrote the music for the Kennedy part.
06:43 But we hadn't written any words.
07:00 We sent that to Greta just like as an instrumental passage.
07:03 Two months later, when we saw what it looked like and that amazing thing and Simu and Ryan
07:08 and all the choreography, we had been playing with the word Kennedy.
07:12 It was like maybe in another part of the song, but we hadn't put anything.
07:15 And as soon as we saw that, we're like, what is this?
07:18 But Kennedy, there is no other word to describe what we're seeing on the screen.
07:21 So that's when Andrew and I came up with the Can You Feel Kennedy part.
07:25 And I truly believe that if we had enough come up with that word, someone definitely
07:29 would have come up with it by now.
07:38 And then when we knew that it was finally done and it was finally in a good place, that's
07:42 when we started to record the real instrumentation.
07:45 So that's when we got in the studio with Josh Freese, this incredible drummer, you know,
07:48 played in Nine Inch Nails and Foo Fighters and just one of the best drummers around.
07:52 Roger Manning played the synths from Beck's band and tons of records.
07:57 There's this scene in the film when Ryan like rips open the mink and it's like that big
08:02 moment where he's about to battle Simu, which has like a whole different movement and some
08:06 different stuff that's actually not in the soundtrack version, which has these like crazy,
08:11 crazy guitar solos.
08:13 This solo was played by Wolfgang Van Halen.
08:26 And
08:53 it's the Barbies in pink plotting, you know, the downfall and they have the binoculars.
08:57 So that was actually this guitar solo.
08:59 Because I can't play anywhere near that fast, I actually recorded it when I wrote it in
09:04 half time.
09:05 So it sounded like this.
09:21 But obviously I can't play the regular tempo because it's insane.
09:25 But then when we asked Wolf to play, he just heard it and was like, oh yeah, I can play
09:28 that.
09:36 And give you like all the little juicy bits.
09:39 And then Slash is playing through the whole song, but really his solo moments are just
09:42 like the classic, classic like Slash stuff.
10:04 And Slash was like one of those ideas that just sounded like such a pie in the sky, like
10:24 dream.
10:25 Like I remember asking George Cicullius, the music supervisor, I was like, somebody like
10:28 Slash and he's like, why don't you ask Slash?
10:30 I was like, Slash isn't going to play on this.
10:31 He's like, you never know.
10:32 Just ask.
10:33 And then I sent him the song.
10:34 He's like, this is actually really good.
10:35 Ryan Gosling is a really good singer.
10:36 He said, it's a cool arranger.
10:37 And he's like, yeah, I'll play on it.
10:40 So he sent it and he just did these like his amazing Slash's tone and his playing.
10:45 And then the orchestra, we worked on the whole score with our arranger, orchestrator, Matt
10:49 Dunkley, who's awesome.
10:51 We had done a lot of the stuff, me and Andrew, he had added some really nice bits.
10:55 And then at the end, we went into Abbey Road and did the orchestra with the proper whole
10:59 60 piece orchestra that was playing on the rest of the score.
11:02 So I mean, even just listening to like.
11:04 I'm just kidding.
11:05 Anywhere else I be attending.
11:06 Is it my destiny to live and die a life of black fragility?
11:07 I'm just kidding.
11:08 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:09 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:10 And fight for me?
11:11 I'm just kidding.
11:12 Anywhere else I be attending.
11:13 Is it my destiny to live and die a life of black fragility?
11:14 I'm just kidding.
11:15 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:16 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:17 And fight for me?
11:18 I'm just kidding.
11:19 Anywhere else I be attending.
11:20 Is it my destiny to live and die a life of black fragility?
11:21 I'm just kidding.
11:22 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:23 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:24 And fight for me?
11:25 I'm just kidding.
11:26 And I'm brave enough to stop.
11:27 So hey, check me out.
11:28 Yeah, I'm just kidding.
11:29 My name's K and so am I.
11:30 But I'm barely here, baby, my.
11:31 So hey, check me out.
11:32 Yeah, I'm just kidding.
11:33 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:34 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:35 And fight for me?
11:36 I'm just kidding.
11:37 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:38 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:39 And fight for me?
11:40 I'm just kidding.
11:41 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:42 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:43 And fight for me?
11:44 I'm just kidding.
11:45 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:46 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:47 And fight for me?
11:48 I'm just kidding.
11:49 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:50 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:51 And fight for me?
11:52 I'm just kidding.
11:53 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:54 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:55 And fight for me?
11:56 I'm just kidding.
11:57 Where else in love she sees a friend?
11:58 What will it take for her to see the reality?
11:59 And fight for me?
12:00 I'm just kidding.
12:01 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:02 What will it take for her to see the reality?
12:03 And fight for me?
12:04 I'm just kidding.
12:05 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:06 What will it take for her to see the reality?
12:07 And fight for me?
12:08 I'm just kidding.
12:09 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:10 And fight for me?
12:11 I'm just kidding.
12:12 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:13 What will it take for her to see the reality?
12:14 And fight for me?
12:15 I'm just kidding.
12:16 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:17 What will it take for her to see the reality?
12:18 And fight for me?
12:19 I'm just kidding.
12:20 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:21 What will it take for her to see the reality?
12:22 And fight for me?
12:23 I'm just kidding.
12:24 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:25 What will it take for her to see the reality?
12:26 And fight for me?
12:27 I'm just kidding.
12:28 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:29 What will it take for her to see the reality?
12:30 And fight for me?
12:31 I'm just kidding.
12:32 Where else in love she sees a friend?
12:33 What will it take for her to see the reality?
13:02 And fight for me?
13:03 I'm just kidding.
13:04 Where else in love she sees a friend?
13:05 What will it take for her to see the reality?
13:06 And fight for me?
13:07 I'm just kidding.
13:08 Where else in love she sees a friend?
13:09 What will it take for her to see the reality?
13:10 And fight for me?
13:11 I'm just kidding.
13:12 Where else in love she sees a friend?
13:13 What will it take for her to see the reality?
13:14 And fight for me?
13:15 I'm just kidding.
13:16 Where else in love she sees a friend?
13:17 What will it take for her to see the reality?
13:18 And fight for me?
13:19 I'm just kidding.
13:20 Where else in love she sees a friend?
13:21 What will it take for her to see the reality?
13:22 And fight for me?
13:23 I'm just kidding.
13:24 Where else in love she sees a friend?
13:25 What will it take for her to see the reality?
13:54 And fight for me?
13:55 I'm just kidding.
13:56 Where else in love she sees a friend?
13:57 What will it take for her to see the reality?
13:58 And fight for me?
13:59 I'm just kidding.
14:00 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:01 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:02 And fight for me?
14:03 I'm just kidding.
14:04 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:05 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:06 And fight for me?
14:07 I'm just kidding.
14:08 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:09 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:10 And fight for me?
14:11 I'm just kidding.
14:12 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:13 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:14 And fight for me?
14:15 I'm just kidding.
14:16 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:17 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:24 And fight for me?
14:25 I'm just kidding.
14:26 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:27 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:28 And fight for me?
14:29 I'm just kidding.
14:30 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:31 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:32 And fight for me?
14:33 I'm just kidding.
14:34 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:35 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:36 And fight for me?
14:37 I'm just kidding.
14:38 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:39 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:40 And fight for me?
14:41 I'm just kidding.
14:42 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:43 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:44 And fight for me?
14:45 I'm just kidding.
14:46 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:47 What will it take for her to see the reality?
14:48 And fight for me?
14:49 I'm just kidding.
14:50 Where else in love she sees a friend?
14:51 What will it take for her to see the reality?