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00:00Hi everybody, it's Alesso here.
00:12And it's Nate Smith.
00:13We're going to take you behind the song of I Like It.
00:24You really want to get your night going, have a good time, you know.
00:28You put this on.
00:29You do.
00:30It just feels like there's no way you can listen to it and not want to party.
00:32I've been missing kind of like when you go to a club, you hear a song that's more upbeat.
00:37That's what I've been missing.
00:38And it's my favorite style too of pop music, I think.
00:42It's just where I feel like I belong in making that music.
00:45And it's got a little bit of that nostalgic 2000s kind of dance thing about it.
00:50And I think that's what's so refreshing because we've been missing that, I think, again.
00:54I don't know why it's changed.
00:55But to hear that come back again, it gives me those Derulo, all that world of those kind
00:59of songs I loved so much during that era back in a fresh and modern way with country music
01:05mixed in.
01:06I think it's amazing.
01:07I think people are going to really freak out over this one.
01:08We set out to make this song this summer, man, and I can't believe you're willing to
01:10do it.
01:11So, yeah.
01:12It's been the easiest process.
01:13It's been so much fun, you know, going back and forth with working on the record too has
01:17been just joy.
01:18I think it's one of the fastest songs I've ever worked on, like from the start of an
01:24idea to sitting here today and having the song within like two months, I think, you
01:28know.
01:29I cut a vocal on it within a week.
01:30Yeah.
01:31Once we had it out.
01:32It was just like, oh, it sounds perfect.
01:34I didn't have barely had any notes, you know, I was like, I don't think I even had, it was
01:38just sounded amazing.
01:40Build everything around the vocal, right?
01:41So I went in and laid all my vocals down and have a kind of specific process with doing
01:47that and everything.
01:48I want every word and every line to be special.
01:51So it's really a line by line kind of a process until it feels right.
01:55Like you hear it and then you just kind of go like, ah, it sounds like a record, you
01:58know.
01:59For sure.
02:00And you know, when you write the lyrics on a dance record, you kind of want to, in my
02:03world, I want to keep it simple.
02:04I want it to be very direct, very like global as well.
02:08You know, I feel like people from all over the world are going to understand this song.
02:12It's not that complicated, but it's a lot of fun and it's like, like I said, straight
02:16to the point.
02:17The combination also of dance music and country and big vocal performance really works well.
02:24It feels like an anthem.
02:25So and that's, that was the goal.
02:27I've always been a fan of country combined with dance music.
02:31You know, Avicii was definitely one of the first ones to do it.
02:34And since then, you know, everyone realized, oh my God, this is such a good combination.
02:38I was missing that kind of record in my sets.
02:42And also right now on the radio, we feel like we need some bangers.
02:47I'm not saying there's not out there, but I'm just that specific one that has the high
02:51energy, higher BPM, straight to the point, guitar, the humming part and all that stuff
02:58combining that country dance.
03:01It works.
03:08The song started off at first just the guitar and that was to kind of like set the tone
03:15of the record.
03:16Oh, without the thing.
03:17Yeah.
03:18Yeah.
03:19So the first time it was just the guitars and then the chorus came in, but we changed
03:21that later.
03:22But so, yeah, it was these guitars.
03:32Just sets the tone right away.
03:33We're here to have a good time.
03:35That's what it sounds like.
03:38And then later into the making of the song, I pull up to his trailer in, where were we?
03:44Minneapolis?
03:46And I said, I think we should start the song differently.
03:49I think we should start with his, we call it humming part.
03:53Game changer.
03:54It was a game changer.
03:55Because you were on the fence about it.
03:56Yeah.
03:57We're going back and forth because the guitars are really, really dope and they're through
04:00the entire song.
04:01But you know, when you play the song, you want to instantly be like, oh, what is that?
04:06And I felt we got a better reaction to that by using Nate's vocal right away in the beginning.
04:12So no brainer.
04:13So here we go.
04:15Yeah, it was so obvious that that was the right decision because like he said, it was
04:27good with just the guitars, but now it's special and it reinforces that hook because that hook
04:32is really catchy and really amazing.
04:34And so you have it early on like that because we're going into the chorus right away pretty
04:36much.
04:37But to hear that hook, you recognize it again later in the song and you can sing along with
04:41it.
04:42So I think it was really smart on your end to do that.
04:43You should never wait too long for one of the best parts of the song, you know.
04:58To keep building it up without adding too much before the drop or the chorus with everything
05:04on, I added this tom and intro kick, I call it.
05:08So smart.
05:09I love that for vibe.
05:14It just fit perfectly with the guitar too.
05:23I try to balance your world with my world and I feel like this intro kick is kind of
05:29like your world and then when we go into the drop, we go into more of the dance elements.
05:43We got a lot of stuff going on.
05:45We got the low kick, the top kick, very important in pop music, I think, that you hear the top
05:56kick.
05:57I feel like if you don't really have a top kick, it could drown in the mix.
06:02So I always feel like I always add a top kick even if it barely needs it, just a little
06:08bit.
06:14And then we got some snares.
06:19It's combined with a clap here.
06:27And gives that heavy hit, heavy snare.
06:29Like I said, it's a lot of stuff going on here so you really have to balance, you know,
06:34these elements and so nothing drowns.
06:38Some basic hi-hats.
06:45And of course, the electronic bass that drives the song.
06:49In the beginning, the bass wasn't going like this.
06:51It was following this rhythm.
06:56So it would go...
06:58In the first demo.
06:59But I noticed that having the bass just going on the one all the time gave it a nicer flow.
07:08So...
07:11It almost hits harder.
07:12Yeah.
07:15Instead of...
07:17A lot of sidechaining.
07:18You know, in dance music, we love that stuff.
07:21We sidechain everything almost to get that pump.
07:32Those little uh-huhs.
07:33Yeah.
07:34Those are dope.
07:37They're really dope.
07:38Yeah.
07:39Yeah.
07:41Those little uh-huhs.
07:42Yeah.
07:43Those are dope.
07:46They're important.
07:47They're like the smallest little thing but...
07:48Yeah.
07:49They definitely fill out the verse part.
07:53I try to fill out small gaps and make it more fun.
07:57And we've done some here.
07:59Oops.
08:02So together with the vocals, it kind of fills out those small gaps to keep the energy going.
08:08The more we listen to the song, we never want to lose momentum and building and building.
08:13So with Nate's vocal here...
08:21I mean, I'm always moving around quite a bit during my own shows and everything.
08:24But this one's just like...
08:25In country music, you don't see a lot of the...
08:29And I love that.
08:30I'm like, why are we doing that?
08:31In country, because it's a party.
08:32But seeing that happen, it's pretty amazing to see a whole sea of people just going, what the fuck?
08:37Vocal production is so interesting to me.
08:39Yeah.
08:40How it goes together, like the throws versus the doubles versus the harmony versus just a verb throw.
08:44I'll just go through the second time the chorus comes in.
08:47So we've obviously got the main lead here.
08:55We've got some doubles.
08:56I like it like that.
08:58She pour another shot and now we're going back to back.
09:01Her answer is she wanted to dance.
09:04She like it.
09:05I love this one.
09:06Oh yeah, dude, the high one.
09:07Tomorrow's gonna hurt, baby.
09:09I ain't even mad.
09:11I like it, I like it, I like it like that.
09:14What really makes the chorus strong are these layers.
09:18If I would mute all this, you would feel like something was missing, specifically for the second time it comes in.
09:23Because there's so much going on, so you need a lot to push everything up through the mix.
09:28The gangs also make this thing.
09:30Yeah, for sure.
09:31They sound so sick.
09:32I like it like that.
09:34She pour another shot and now we're going back to back.
09:38Her answer is she wanted to dance.
09:40She like it.
09:41It's that football stadium feeling that everyone is singing it together.
09:46You know what part I love so much that you did on here too?
09:50Because there's a part where I was like, the violin is really cool.
09:52And he's like, no, they're horns.
09:54This part?
10:01The way that sounds on the track is insane.
10:08Yeah, and it's the same thing there.
10:10Adding stuff to a song where a lot of stuff is happening.
10:13It's high energy, fast BPM, everything going.
10:17There's certain things you don't want to add because it could just make it sound terrible or just too much.
10:34There's a line that stood out to me that was really country.
10:37It was, now she got her hands up on my Levi's.
10:39That's not a pop lyric at all.
10:42So that really connected and resonated with me.
10:44Are you wearing Levi's now?
10:45I'm actually not wearing Levi's.
10:46I'd say nine out of ten days I'm wearing Levi's.
10:49I never wear Levi's, I don't know.
10:51You can go into the second verse.
11:04Well, I guess we kind of have a little pre-chorus right here.
11:07I forgot about this part.
11:09You really want to try not to make people sick of the chorus until the song is finished.
11:15So you always got to play a little bit of math here and there.
11:19How do we bring back the chorus again without it not being too obvious?
11:23I kind of knew that this was coming in again.
11:26We stripped everything down, added a pre-chorus that's very simple.
11:31Give that last, I would call it arena feeling.
11:35With the chorus, just the guitar, one of the guitars to give it the final moment.
11:45I like it, I like it, I like it like that.
11:49Not to the chorus, to the hook thing.
11:51Exactly.
11:52I love that you did that.
11:54Because you think chorus right there for sure.
11:55Exactly.
11:56I have a little theory.
11:58If you're going to bring back the chorus one last time, it needs to feel like it really belongs there.
12:04Not just do it because it's the obvious thing to do.
12:07And it ends on that hooky thing.
12:09So then when it starts again, it's like...
12:11Yeah, it could go on loop forever.
12:14I like it like that
12:21I like it like that