- [Jonas] If you listen
to any of my songs
they always start with a riff.
(Naked by Jonas Blue and MAX)
The melody is always
a consistent thing.
I was kinda picturing
what sounds I would use.
'Cause I kinda
heard it in my head.
(guitar enters song)
This guitar riff.
The bass.
Big, big kick drum.
Disco claps.
Big horn section.
Late 70's, early 80's sonics.
Sitting there,
just kind of going
over the whole thing.
I heard one of them
kinda mutter naked,
and I was like that!
- Hang on everyone
stop, what was that?
♪ You only say you love
me when we're naked ♪
♪ When you're banging
on my bedroom door ♪
♪ You only say you love
me when you want me ♪
♪ And we're naked ♪
- [Jonas] I was literally
just kinda sitting here,
at the keyboard
kinda fiddling around
like oh my God we've had
such a terrible session,
and then I was kinda...
(starts playing piano)
And I was like "Ooh."
We were planning to get
my next single ready.
This is myself, Ed, and Sam.
These are the guys
that I have written
my biggest hits with.
And we've done these
couple of days,
and I remember
they went terrible.
(record scratch)
- We spent hours
and hours and hours
throwing around,
10-15 different ideas
and none of them stuck.
- Sam and Ed are great
'cause they just
get me, you know?
If I say something's
not too good
you can just say it,
and we start again.
- It's always
kinda high pressure
when you've got a bit of
a track record together,
and the expectation
is we have to come out
with another banger.
- We're in like, the last
five minutes of the session
'cause they're
getting ready to go.
- I think we were just
chatting by the door,
and he just played this
little bit of magic
like he always does.
We kinda stopped.
- And Sam's got his backpack on
he was like "What is that?"
(piano playing)
And I was like "I have no idea."
- You know, you can always tell
when there's a
feeling in the room,
there's just this like,
electric like energy.
- It was all very
much on the spot.
I mean we had the hook
within 15 minutes,
and I live for those moments.
I like the kinda spark
on the day or in the moment,
and then you're all vibing
off each others energy.
- And then this was the
first thing that I sang.
That bass line is (beep) cool.
- [Jonas] They were singing it,
and we were jumping
in this room.
(scat singing over
"Naked" bassline)
So (indistinct) this loop,
I think it was Ed
who came up with the
"You only say you love
me when we're naked"
and it was just like oh my God!
What is this? What is
happening right now?
- The most exciting
part for me in any song
is that initial concept moment.
That level of excitement
is like, the drug.
- We just knew we were
on to something special
when we got those
few elements together
at that point.
- And that was
kind of it really.
Then we were like okay
cool, we're staying.
We found something.
- [Jonas] That's how
it kinda started.
Everyone of my
tracks always calls
to have the Jonas Blue,
(snap)
finger snap.
Which is this.
(guitar and snapping)
Next port of call was
adding the bassline.
(bass comes in)
So they both go,
the bass goes lower
and the guitar goes higher.
And then of course
you need the groove,
so I then would have
started with the drums.
Big, big, kick drum.
Three kicks!
( kick drum playing)
Second one.
Its kinda got a bit of air,
a bit of grit to it.
Then you'll have the top one.
You're instantly in
the groove there.
We just looped around
that for a very long time.
We wrote the verses,
we wrote the chorus
Now there's something really
cool in here actually.
There's this stem here
called "FX WOAH YEAH"
So I just got my phone
and I just recorded
on voicemail, I was,
Woo! Yeah! Woo! Yeah!
And they're the ones
that we ended up using
on the record, and if
I'm right they're here.
(Woo!)
(Yeah!)
(music continues)
The hand claps.
So I kinda love
things like that.
You know? It adds to it.
The way I wanted
to set the room up
and the way we did it is we
mic'd up every instrument.
We have the grand
piano mic'd up.
My bass player brought in
all of his big cabinets.
I had the brass section
here on a separate day.
Everything was pretty much live.
So, so good is like always
a goosebumps moment for me,
is when I can have
like, horns or strings,
'cause they're just like that
really rich layer
and the texture you
can add to the music
so, yeah, exciting!
Not many people do that
these days, you know?
It's very time consuming,
people would rather use samples,
or things like that.
(brass section playing)
I've set up room
mics, they're hidden,
so we also had those as well
just to pick up some, you know?
Foot taps and some energy.
Behind the grand piano, you
can hear that foot tapping
and the air in the room.
(piano playing)
You hear the hitting
of the keys as well.
You know, it was
really important
to add all of those
elements to me.
'Cause it just, it
gives the track color.
Horns, doot-doot-doot, done.
- I have to say I think
the production on "Naked"
is some of Guy's best.
- I definitely in the
10,000 hour thing,
to get to a level of
mastery in anything.
He's just a brilliant,
brilliant producer in that way.
- A couple of month's
before release
he was still tweaking,
still perfecting.
- So I can have loads and
loads of layers and elements,
but is it actually
doing anything?
You know, are you
just clouding it?
I think its the years
of experience of knowing
what can deliver me what I need.
- It's not just the production,
it's not just the
tempo and the energy,
or the melody they're catching.
It's marrying all
three of those things
with a perfect lyric
and getting the right
kind of artist to sing it.
- There's only a few people
who can sing this song.
It was always about
finding someone
who can really capture
the emotion of what
was already there
and just elevate it.
- That was a big
thing for me to keep,
to keep the original
feel of the demo
while bringing my own flair.
- [Jonas] He recorded it
with his engineer in LA.
- My immediate
reaction the first time
I heard the demo was I'm
obsessed with this song.
And then I really knew
because my dad couldn't
stop singing it too.
♪ You only say you love
me when you want me ♪
♪ And we're naked ♪
♪ When you're laying
on my bathroom floor ♪
♪ Oh ♪
- The tone and the
confidence in his vocals,
he just nailed it.
- I remember I did the vocal
and Jonas, it was like
middle of the night
and he face-timed
me, and I was like,
"Oh whoa! He's face-timing me,"
We hadn't talked before.
He's like "Mate, this
song, this vocal,
I've listened to it 30 times!"
- We just knew that we
had something special
at that point.
There is a happy
accident on this record.
(background vocal chants)
Sam, who is one of
the BVs on this,
she did this thing
everyone thinks is a cat.
(laughing)
(meows)
She just happened to do
that at the right point
and it became a massive
part of the record.
(music continues)
So yeah, happy accidents.
(record scratch)
(Beep) (beep) scared,
that's how you feel
before a release.
- He comes to me like,
"What's the feedback?
Do people like it?"
- But also a sense
of relief as well.
Putting something out and
giving something back.
- I just hope people have
the most fun with it.
- Happy, party music is the
hardest (beep) to write.
- Trying to write a happy song
without it sounding cheesy,
is really, really difficult.
- So I hope that it gives people
that much needed confidence,
inspiration, happiness.
- Just good energy
- Young people in suits dancing
next to an 80 year old couple.
- [Jonas] Usually the best
tracks come within an hour.
It's almost like this thing
where the come through you.
They end up being special
'cause they're in the moment.
I hope that from this track
People can take away a
different side to me.
I think the way I know
something's finished
is when you just, you
can't add anything more.
I never try to do
the same thing.
It would be easy for
me to just keep doing
"Fast Car" or
"Perfect Strangers",
but that's not what
I'm trying to do,
I'm trying to push
the boundaries.
I'm not a very emotional person,
but when it comes to my music
every bit of emotion
goes into that.
It's almost like my outlet for,
you know, me as a person.
Music for me is my life,
I wouldn't be able
to do anything else.
It's just an
extension of my life.
I feel very happy and
fortunate in where I am,
and that's the feeling
that goes into it.
I want to make masses
of people happy.
There are these stories
that everyone can relate to
and that's generally my
concept when making my songs,
is you know, it's not
me, it's kind of us.
And it's just
happiness you know?
Its everything.
(music continues)
