Alesso & Nate Smith Break Down Dance/Country Anthem "I Like It" | Behind the Song - video Dailymotion

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Watch Alesso & Nate Smith Break Down Dance/Country Anthem "I Like It" | Behind the Song - Variety on Dailymotion

Transcript

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

Alesso & Nate Smith Break Down Dance/Country Anthem "I Like It" | Behind the Song

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