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00:00Why is it there? No one knows. What is this?
00:08What's up? I'm Chris Scriotti.
00:09I'm Willow Smith, and we're going to take you behind the song, Big Feelings.
00:20This idea of having big feelings, I knew that I wanted that lyric to be kind of like the
00:25guiding light of the whole song, and it was weeks that I had this idea in my head, and
00:32I had had other sessions and done other things where I was like, oh, maybe this is the time
00:36to make this song, and it wasn't.
00:40The song was like, not yet, not yet, this is not the right energy, this is not the right
00:45time.
00:46Then we brought it to the lovely Chris Scriotti and our really good friend, Zach Tenorio,
00:51who played the piano on it.
00:52I knew that that day, I was like, this is the day that Big Feelings wants to be born.
00:58The trust that I have with Chris is just beyond any other collaboration I have done, and he's
01:06just so talented, and I was like, no, together we're going to be able to accurately push
01:11across this sound and this message that was just in my head for so long.
01:16I love that there's no plan, because I feel like when there's no plan, we just get to
01:23do whatever it's going to be.
01:24As soon as I heard those chords, I was like, perfect level of dissonance, perfect level
01:30of discomfort.
01:31That's the face.
01:35I wanted those chords to kind of feel like the inside of the mind, like in that kind
01:41of state where we all know what it feels like to be in a slightly emotionally unstable place.
01:48I wanted the music to personify that mental state, and those chords in the beginning were
01:54just so important to starting that story.
01:57The arrangement and what we wanted the time signatures to be and how we wanted it to feel
02:03was the first thing that we started with.
02:06I had never started a song like that before.
02:08Working with time signatures is challenging.
02:11Trying to make it sound natural.
02:14Most music, one, two, three, four, so this has got seven beats per bar.
02:18It's very naturally unsettling to have an odd number there.
02:22Tenorio, the piano player, is just a total wizard.
02:26It's second nature to him to play like that.
02:29I think the number seven was just said, and maybe that happened before he touched the
02:33lick, because it was just...
02:37And he just went right into it.
02:39We gave him a couple prompts, time signature, and just kind of the feeling that I wanted
02:45the chords to have, and he just went right into it.
02:48Before we go into the production, I just want to state that nothing was even recorded for
02:54hours.
02:55Before we started talking numbers.
02:56Before we started talking...
02:57Get the abacus out.
02:58Get the calculator out.
02:59You have the TI-83.
03:00Yeah.
03:02I love it.
03:05The new piano that he had gotten right before we recorded this.
03:23You can hear the texture.
03:27It's from 1910.
03:30So, like, it doesn't sound as clean as a regular piano would sound.
03:35That adds to, like, the kind of, like, snarly nature of the song.
03:40It's like, you know, we're going inside of the mind where everything is textured.
03:44That's the cool thing about using anything vintage that's seen tons and tons of hands
03:49and years and dust is that it just has all these, like, stories built into it.
03:55It's got a soul.
03:56Usually when we work together, I'm, like, I'm writing as we're producing together because
04:01I feel like we have to do it while it's happening.
04:04It gives that give and take that's, like, makes it feel like the lyrics and the production
04:10are one.
04:11One of the very first things was that the vocal switch up at the start of V1.5 was,
04:19was, like, one of your first bits there.
04:32This part right here was really inspired by Cornflake Girl by Tori Amos when she hits
04:40that unison with the piano and it kind of, everything just kind of cuts out.
04:45The intensity with which she's playing the piano and just how abrupt it is when it's
04:50just like, oh, no, just new part, like, so much confidence there.
05:05The micro shift mix, that's a, that's a crazy thing to do.
05:08Wow.
05:09Yes, I say, I have said it.
05:15And the way it, the hard cuts.
05:16It's the only way to live.
05:17Oh, my goodness.
05:19That's talking about that, like, momentum, like, and those dynamics.
05:23Something as simple as cutting off, like, a delay tail, like, right on the one when
05:29a new part comes in just really makes it feel like, OK, like, even in just your body, like,
05:34your mind doesn't really register it, but in your body, you're like, you have that feeling
05:39of like, OK, next part.
05:40There's another really fun, sneaky one that I always forget about.
05:43These guys, these drum things in the first chorus are very fun.
05:52Why is it there?
05:53No one knows.
05:54Bro.
05:55What is this?
06:02Wow.
06:03There's four layers on the solo.
06:06Whoa.
06:08But it's all with different textures.
06:09Yeah.
06:10Like, he played this.
06:11He played.
06:12Hey, guys.
06:13And that sounds like MIDI, but weirdly enough, it's actually not MIDI.
06:17And everything on this song is played with a human hand.
06:20Oh, yeah.
06:21And that's also a really, really important part of not only this song, but the whole
06:26record.
06:32Yes.
06:37The interplay between the bass and the drums was so important to kind of drive home and
06:48make these weird time signatures and these weird changes feel good.
06:53The natural inclination is to, like, match the piano or the kick drum or something.
06:59And so the fun challenge that I got into with that was, what shouldn't I play, you know?
07:08And so there's a lot of spots where the bass cuts.
07:11So in order to keep the dynamic, you know, staying interesting throughout this four and
07:16a half minute.
07:17And to feel that momentum.
07:18It's like, how do you come back without a crash cymbal?
07:21It's like, pull stuff out.
07:22Exactly.
07:23And letting Tenorio really take the main pocket.
07:26Yo.
07:27That crazy synth solo that he did, like, that was so new for me.
07:32This is like midway through the first chorus.
07:35So it's like, why did we do that?
07:38Felt good.
07:39Felt right.
07:40Felt like the right move.
07:41Who's to say?
07:51Super spacey for such an earthy song.
07:55Super spacey.
07:56That's one of my favorite parts of the song.
07:57It's nuts.
07:58It takes you.
07:59It takes you to a completely different place.
08:03Like he's singing with the synth.
08:06Never have I ever thought that something like that in one of my songs sounded good until
08:13this moment.
08:26Let's be honest.
08:27I feel like I'm just obsessed with harmony.
08:30And you're just like a harmony wizard.
08:34We be obsessed.
08:35What the hell.
08:36There's just nothing better than the sound of layered, amazing singers.
08:41You just add more willow and it's just like, oh, that's better.
08:45That just got better.
08:46Oh.
08:47Oh, yeah.
08:48That's better now.
08:49Like, that's the one way.
08:50Literally it is.
08:51And then.
08:52And then.
08:54Literally it is.
08:55And then.
08:56And then.
08:59That dyna- like, the dynamics of that.
09:02Yeah, we love it.
09:03It's like, oh, no, we're deep in the heart of discomfort.
09:06And then it's like, wait.
09:08But acceptance, like, acceptance is the key.
09:11Like, I can't get out of this.
09:12Really, really good music.
09:13I feel like if you just listen to the music without the lyrics, like, it tells the story.
09:18It's like a personification of the emotions that are happening in the song.
09:23That moment with those chords.
09:24I remember we were literally cracking up.
09:27Like, how much more psychotic can we get?
09:30What's the scariest, scariest chord?
09:33Tenorio busted out that first one, which was like the B flat.
09:36Like, just a dominant seven.
09:38Oh, yeah.
09:39In the key of E minor.
09:40Just satanic.
09:41Nasty.
09:42Just horrible.
09:43Nasty.
09:44And then I was like, what about, what about an F sharp major?
09:47Which has the B flat in it still, what you're singing.
09:49Oh, my God.
09:50And then it's just, you know, the breath of fresh air afterwards.
09:54That human touch.
09:58Okay, when I first heard that, when we walked in here, I was like, I don't think I remember that part being in there.
10:04Let's hear it with everything, though.
10:06I know I got, I know you got problems, problems.
10:12Hearing that one synth part, that staccato synth part soloed, and then you hear it with everything.
10:17And it's like, you can't hear it, but you can feel it.
10:20And if it were to be gone, like, you would feel like it was missing something.
10:24Yes, I have so many problems, problems, problems.
10:30This song is such a beautiful representation of the attention to detail.
10:35It takes to make something sound human.
10:37That acceptance is key part to me is just really important because not only does the music have this, like, uplifting feeling where it's like, it brings you with it.
10:47It doesn't just tell you what it wants you to feel.
10:49It, like, brings you on that emotional journey with the actual progression.
10:53And I feel like that's just something that I feel like we just need more of.
10:57It's like, no, we can accept our human parts.
10:59We can accept the parts of us that aren't perfect.
11:02It would have been really easy to make it sound very cut and, like, copy-pasted cut because it's so syncopated.
11:09But to have him play all the way through, just really, like, that through line is just priceless.
11:14If you can, do it.
11:16Thank you, Tenorio. We love you.
11:18Woo!