Here is a part of it....click the link above to read the rest on Zo!'s blog....This is the kinda stuff I want to know. How the songs were crafted. The bumps and bruises along the way. The backstory. I dig this type of stuff...
Studio Campfire Stories: "Driving" (feat. Sy Smith)
I was having a conversation with Phonte one day...... and he was telling me about a recent connection he made with a certain well-known female vocalist who essentially made it known that she was down to be on the album. Now knowing how things can change on a dime in music without much warning, I decided very early that I wasn't gonna get too excited until I was listening to a final version of a song with her vocals on it. A few days later, Phonte sent me a folder of four joints, which included the song "Driving" by Everything But the Girl. I'll admit, I remembered the song VERY vaguely... BUT out of the four that he sent, this is the one that both of us gravitated toward. Technically speaking, when I listened to the song and heard it bounce back and forth basically between two or three chords, I thought to myself, this is gonna be a pretty easy song to redo... This shouldn't be a problem at all - That is, until I listened closer and heard about 593 layers of synth in the joint. It seemed like every time I listened, a brand new synth patch would mysteriously appear - the track was VERY deceiving. Even when I sent what I thought was the final music to Phonte... he hit me back right back, "Ayo... There's a synth line that you missed. Go to (insert minute mark value here) and check it out..." DAMN!! I thought I GOT all of um!!! *Angrily opens Pro Tools file back up*