00:07and truthfully in the studio oh we chopped that shit oh we chopped it no it was a chop in
00:13the
00:13plan i was scared i was like how am i gonna perform this live
00:24midnight sun was something that i wanted to write about for quite some time and i knew i
00:29had that title before and i had tried to write other songs but nothing really felt right but
00:33it's something so personal and beautiful about the midnight sun because it sounds like this mystical
00:39um like fantasy thing almost and i think a lot of people don't know that it's a real phenomenon
00:45i just wanted to capture the feeling of what it what it feels like to be like in the countryside
00:51at the peak of swedish summer me and uzo have known each other for a long time
00:58we've done songs like throughout the years but i feel like we really started hanging
01:03when midnight sun was made and we met at uzo's home which is very special that's like such a special
01:09key place for like the record yeah it really is a lot of it was made in that room in
01:16rainy london
01:17in rainy london we're making a summer album in the rain but you know what i think there's something
01:22aspiration about that when you think about it and i spilled a whole ramen in the studio i do remember
01:27this you know it was literally and the worst thing is my studio has so much fair furniture
01:35like i don't know why i decided these light sofas these light walls all this stuff and then zara
01:39comes in with this like piping hot like bowl of ramen and it just spills everywhere it doesn't even
01:46stand we get together that is actually a miracle we get together yeah you know what i mean it could
01:51have been a real disaster but zara's like her lover yeah i remember the moment when you were sitting
01:57there and you were saying all these things like i want to write a song called midnight sun i want
02:02it
02:02to be about you know my summer house i wanted to feel like a love letter to life i want
02:07to talk about
02:07how beautiful nature is you're like i want to write about my summer house like you just said it like
02:12so
02:12like i want to write about my summer house and i was like okay real estate interesting but then you
02:19start like going into like the feeling of it yes the references in my head when she was saying that
02:24was just like okay white girl joy just like in the like in the sun like in the nature hands
02:31in your hair
02:32like and my first thinking was ray of light madonna that ethereal major key feeling which also really
02:45inspired the video later after we had done the song i had these ideas for these chords i was because
02:50sometimes i just i'll hear the music in my ear in my head maybe don't know how it's going to
02:56be executed
02:56but i'm like cool margot who isn't here right now but is also co-produced on this record try these
03:04chords duh duh duh duh and then mark was like hey why don't we make it arpeggiated like go more
03:13of a
03:13sequence of notes um and then helena got on the keys and you know played you know what is something
03:21as a constant across the song so beautiful yeah and i also love songs where like you hear this intro
03:32and you know you know it is yeah yeah yeah the song maintains the same chord throughout the whole song
03:38so however anything was produced can be tweaked you know alongside to cater to what we're singing you
03:45know i feel like we wrote the song chronologically but maybe we didn't i think we did we did right
03:50we wrote it lyrically chronologically right but the melodies we put because i remember that you
03:56just i just didn't record it because i feel like you're just like i think he's like a short verse
04:01exactly i just remember that i the way i remember it right i remember it right that it was the
04:07decision
04:08to make the verse more spacious was based on how busy we decided we knew what the hook was it
04:13makes
04:13sense we knew what the free was because she's got the receipts i have like this is very cute because
04:18this is the one where we're all seeing the hook
04:28i think i have like this one i have the one with the hook where it's like but this happens
04:33like
04:33further
04:45i feel like you just started
04:52you know you said oh i started yeah and then you were like what if it again
04:58yeah we were like but but that was but that was the ray of light yeah because that was totally
05:06inspired right like where she's like wow and i feel and i was like okay how would it feel if
05:13it was
05:13the drop and it just felt like never ending all that kind of thing so so good it's like here
05:18right
05:19why
05:34and truthfully in the studio oh we chopped that oh we chopped it no it was a chop in a
05:40band but like you
05:42know but and i was scared i was like how am i going to perform this live i wasn't worried
05:46i was
05:47like something happens when i go on stage and i hold the mic then i'm just like oh i can
05:52i can really
05:53sing this but in the studio we really had to like let me take a breath the chorus production felt
05:59like
05:59okay how do we attack this i know we always had conversations about the drop and just like how the
06:05drop can sometimes feel a bit late and a bit like okay fine another dance drop another edm moment but
06:12the difference in this is that obviously the vocal is leading the drop and you know we want it to
06:17be
06:17something effective and as we were writing it as we were coming up with the sun i remember going to
06:24margo and saying you know what if it went to jersey like what if it kind of had more of
06:28a kind of a
06:29real up-tempo moment and while the vocals so like we said
06:51it's so fun and sort of unexpected from where you think the song will go exactly i feel like the
06:57harmonies and all that stuff is such a nice addition to the lead i remember when we were
07:04finishing the record and you know one of zara's main points was i don't want too much double tracking
07:09i don't want too much left and right i don't want too much like all this so just give me
07:13a little
07:13plate reverb make it direct and keep it hot and i was like that's great but i'm gonna need a
07:19little
07:19harmony i'm gonna need a pie i'm gonna need a pie somewhere i'm gonna need a little something
07:23you know what i mean which does a lot but there's never ending midnight sun like hello i love that
07:29one
07:29it's amazing like that does so much so good but then there's even just things like you know you
07:36here in the and then i make a little guest appearance somewhere around here
07:55oh
07:59zara was like can you make that sound less like a voice
08:02like just filter it and i was like that's kind of hot margot you kind of told that
08:06i was into that uh-huh but i think it's fun because it's i think it's all these vocal
08:10arrangements that actually make it also such a like a fusion of genres yeah
08:14it's like they're so important to like make it new and fresh we've got to go to my favorite bb
08:18part i'm sorry like we have to run it i was very proud of this when you did this
08:32okay pearly gates
08:42the highest note zara reaches in the song is an e5 not to be super like charlie pooth about it
08:48love charlie i believe it's here
09:00i love to sing that one it's a year since i released midnight sun and two years since we wrote
09:06it and two
09:06years since we wrote it and i feel like people have slowly but surely like really gone into it but
09:12i
09:12always knew i always knew it would happen because i just knew that this song is it's amazing like
09:19i don't know it just speaks to me and if it speaks to me and to all of us it
09:23has to speak to some some
09:25other people i felt really really excited to play this track for people because i just felt so secure
09:31and confident in the song i just knew what it meant to me and how i felt listening to this
09:36and if they
09:36didn't like it they wouldn't like me that's how i felt if you don't like this song you don't like
09:43me you don't fuck with me you don't like i think you fuck with me hello i would hope so
09:49and if you don't
09:51then that's not for you yeah yeah it was really it was really personal to me the way pop is
09:57right
09:57now it's like there's such minimalism there's such you know no one is singing an e5 on the record no
10:03more you know what i mean that's that's that's the truth of it all like everyone is a lot more
10:07chill
10:08and a lot more not as imposing or not trying to take up too much and this song is loud
10:13like it is
10:14it is taking up space yeah it's not apologetic in that sense it's like you want to turn this on
10:20and i want people to be scared when the bass drops i think i needed to find this group of
10:26people
10:27i needed to sort of be in this stage in my life uh at this age have the experiences that
10:34i've had
10:35to be making this like anything that has happened before has sort of led me to this moment an equal
10:43split is so true to what it was like all of us play such a massive part into what this
10:49song is
10:49are from the concept you know helena from her ideas mother from her ideas my ideas like
10:54that nothing of this song could happen without any of us totally and that's a beautiful thing
10:59i really wanted pink panthers on a remix because i knew i wanted to do the girls trip remix album
11:10with
11:11all girls and we obviously just came off a hugely successful run of stateside that i was on i was
11:18on
11:18her record and she was just sort of like in l.a and she wanted to come and do a
11:25session and then i just
11:27asked her very shyly like
11:32so would you be down to uh maybe do the remix
11:37and she was like yeah as she was stretching out this sort of carrot oh yeah it was like a
11:45dog toy
11:45and she was just stretching that shit i love her i will be down and then she sat down with
11:54margot um
11:55they started the remix she went back home finished it and put a verse down and i
12:00i fucking love that i love that track so much it's really different and it's so her and it has
12:07this
12:07even quicker pace and it still keeps the integrity of the song and what it is but she she was
12:13also a
12:13fan of the song so when i asked her if she wanted to be on midnight sun she was super
12:18excited and down
12:19which made me very happy because uh i think she's amazing i'm very excited to get back into the studio
12:25because i sort of feel like we we've only just scratched the surface of like what this can be
12:30i think we're gonna like change the world and i fuck yeah and they say that like genuinely i'm so
12:37ready to to spread the agenda of joy and and community and happiness i'm just ready for world peace
12:47peace i think we all are oh my god yeah let's do it world peace you dropped the theme for
12:53the next
12:53hour peace guys like get into it yeah music can change the world
