'Black Hole Sun' was written in a car when I was driving home from the studio one night. Pretty much everything that you hear was written in my head.
I have a lot of songs, and I'd love to do some more recording with the band.
Especially early on, I had no idea what I was going to be asked to do when I walked into a studio. I was doing 26 sessions a week - all day, all night.
When we're in the studio, and we sing that first note on that record, you're committing to being a Backstreet Boy!
I must say, I've been in the studio with Jay Z, dog... I thought the freestyle thing was a myth. But, bro!
I don't write; I just go in the booth.
There was no such thing as production at Starday. We'd go in with the band, we'd go over the song, I'd look over and tell the steel player to take a break or kick it off, and I'd get the fiddle to play a turnaround in the middle.
It's a miracle was the last track recorded for the album, we based it on the rhythm from the middle of 'Late Home Tonight, where there's Graham Broad playing lots and lots of drums with me shouting in the background, pretending to be a mad Arab leader.
There was a recording studio in my school, and I knew this kid who had a key, so I'd write lyrics in school while I was in class, and then, in a 10-minute break, I recorded the song 'Hurt' in one go at the school studio.
I'd do a demo recording by myself, layering instruments on top of one another, and while that's fun, it doesn't have the same impact as getting some great players together in a great studio with a great engineer and producer, then waiting for the magic.
Later on, when I signed with Sony, we wanted to re-release 'Fade' as 'Faded' with a brand new mix and with vocals by Iselin Solheim. I think Iselin was the first person who sung demo vocals for 'Faded.' And it worked out great! The way I got in touch with Iselin was through a guy that I work with in the studio.
I approached my career like a rapper. I would go to every open mic, every studio session, bringing my beats. I would almost do exactly what a rapper would do to get on.
I can make a record when I think I have a good one.
The 'Manipulator' record was really fun to do. It was far less heavy and draining, in an emotional way. It was just like making a rock record. It was just really fun.
We rarely write in the studio. Everything's already completely arranged before we go in. That way, we can really focus on getting the recording right.
I do feel most at home playing live, but the feeling of getting into the studio to see the new songs take shape was really incredible.
I was lucky enough to be in the studio with Drake and Kanye before I put 'Freaky Friday' out. I showed them the video before I put it out.
The Netflix thing with Nas is more of a documentary, where we kind of… talk. We go to my neighborhood. You get to see where I'm from and all that. And then, I'm in the studio with Nas.
We've never performed the song live outside of recording it in the studio. That was a dream come true because Whitney, she's an icon and she's been one of my main mentors in this business.
You can see how different artists work, from writing to recording, just from being in the studio environment with them.
When we cut 'Strangers In The Night,' we did the whole song in two takes.
I'm a producer at heart. I like being in the control room and directing people. That's what I do. But I've gotten on the mic a few times in my career; people seem to like it, so I'll do it again here and there. But that's really not my thing.
All I ever wanted was to make scrilla Have a recording session with J Dilla.
I've written a lot of songs but I haven't had the opportunity to record a lot of them.
I met the guys at HeavyRoc through the drummer in St. Lucia, Nick Brown. He is Ben from The Knocks' cousin, and at the time we'd been doing some work together, but everything was still very much in the unsure developmental phase (even though I'd been in it for a year and a half). I told him that if he was going to play the music for anyone that he shouldn't say anything about it and should just play it and see if anyone says anything, and he did it one day at their studio and they loved it and got it touch.
