Ne-Yo

Tor Hermansen

When we first heard about you, the song was already on radio and I remember thinking because it was a blizzard, it was snowing in New York. I remember this is like, but I also remember thinking this is our shot. If we have something that's good enough, we have Ne-Yo coming. Ne-Yo wrote that song. The song is blowing up. He's good enough. Now, we're gonna find out if we're good enough. And I do remember when we started working together on So Sick, I remember your manager came in and he said, stop this. We don't need a mid tempo. We need an up tempo and I clearly remember this because it also shows how fragile some of these magic moments are, and success can be right and, and elusive because we changed gears. We wrote an up tempo in this big kind of brass stabby thing from what I can remember from what I can recall. Then we went back to So Sick after. We’re like, let's go back to that other thing that we were feeling that they didn't ask for. It wasn't part of the brief, it wasn't part of what people wanted, but we still felt there was something there. And the moment you sang it, I knew that, you know, that, that's it. Just the moment I heard, into the chorus, put my hand up and I was like, I don't know, you don't need to hear anymore. I just knew at that moment that that's it. You know, because the, the way you, there's many things if you wanna, if we're gonna analyze it, which I think is actually worth doing is the way you approach. First of all, the melodies effortless. listening to the track, what's going on in the music? How can I take what's going on in the music? Embrace it, internalize it and make it even better. And so that was the first thing I noticed that you did differently from everyone else, other people just dam on top of the track and just like, hope that, you know, that you hit on some magic. You go, you go in and you listen and, and then you, but you make it better also. You don't just follow every note by note, you follow parts of it and then you, you make it your own. That was the first thing I noticed.

Ne-Yo

Well, to, to speak to, to speak to the genius of Stargate, I'm sure you all are familiar at this point. But one of the things that stood out to me about the way that you all made music. Is that like, OK, for example, you're never gonna hear. Yeah, Stargate on the track, you're never gonna hear that. That's not who they are. They let the music speak for itself, you know what I mean? So that, that was impressive one. And then for two, as I'm listening to the tracks, I'm like, there's just enough space, like the track is not too busy, it's not too much going on to where I'm like, OK, where can I even fit a song in here? Like most producers that I was working with at the time because you know, we were moving into that era where the producer was a star too, right? So you got, you got tags and you got these beats that are really complicated and busy and there's so much going on and you're like, how the hell do I write a song to this? And then I come in with these with these guys and it's like, OK, drums, guitar, harp, done. Perfect. Just enough room for me to put a song. I know I know just where to put the words. So I, I can't even say that it was my level of skill in regard to, especially especially So Sick because I, I listen to it and as I'm listening to it, I'm like, this is, this is perfect. This is just enough to wear it. Now, this is, this is the perfect 50%. I add my 50% to make it 100%. And it just, it just came together perfectly. Yeah. It doesn't happen like that all the time. It's real rare when it does happen. But it's always magic.

Tor

And, I think Mikkel is here if we can get Mikkel up here and we can explore how this thing was made because this, this particular, it started as a beat like any other beat. Mikkel was sitting there playing the harp, and you know, it's no secret that we love Rodney Jerkins and we didn't invent using the harp, but, we found our own way of using it. And Mikkel was playing something that was longer, more complicated and I just loved the beginning of this little riff. And I said, Mikkel, what's that you're playing? Why don't you just repeat the first one? And if you don't mind? I said, just play it again and again. And then we made just one change, just hang on the last one, right? And I guess that’s what you connected with..

Ne-Yo

From the first … that song was written, song was written. I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I knew exactly what I wanted to say. I knew that if I didn't follow any of the melody in the track, I was gonna follow that one because it was just. Just the second, it played it, that, that shit like hit me in the chest and went out my back, like, run it back. Give me a second. Done! Again, It doesn't happen like that all the time. It's rare that the song writes itself. It's like the song was sitting in the back of my mind like it's time finally. All right, I'm out of here. You know what I mean? Yes, it required no, no effort. And I think, I think when you listen to the song, you can tell that because the, the melodies are effortless, it's like I'm not, I'm not trying to, I'm not fighting for space with what's going on. I just stayed right there where it was well, with the hook anyway, The hook was the easy part

Tor:

Can we get a sing a verse and a chorus? You know, let's go.

Ne-Yo

Gotta change my answering machine

Now that I'm alone

Cause right now, it says that we

Can't come to the phone

And I know it makes no sense

Cause you walked out the door

But it's the only way I hear your voice anymore

It's ridiculous

It's been months

For some reason I just

Can't get over us

And I'm stronger than this, yeah

Enough is enough

No more walking round

With my head down

I'm so over being blue

Crying over you

And I'm so sick of love songs

So tired of tears

So done with wishing

You were still here

Said, I'm so sick of love songs

So sad and slow

So why can't I turn off the radio?

Tor

So you see what I felt? That's what I felt the first time I heard it. I was like, we don't need to do anything to this one. This is perfect

Ne-Yo

And to think, had we not not listened to the powers that be at the time? That's all might have never even existed. Had we listened to what they were saying and go, no, we don't need this. We need something up tempo. Had we just went there and not going back to this man? Trust your gut, trust your gut. You're not crazy. If you feel it that heavily, you're not crazy. You just, that's, that's what it is. Trust your gut.

Tor

And there was one more thing that happened from our point of view and when we did this song, because when we came to America, we felt that we needed to sound like the other music that was going in, in the States at the time, which was a lot harder. It was Timbaland, it was Pharrell, it was Scott Storch and Dr Dre and we had half of our beats tried to sound like that and then the other half sounded like way more melodic kind of a sweeter approach. And what's interesting was that was what you gravitated towards. So what happened that night was not only did I know that I'd written, you know, been part of the best song of my life, but we also found ourselves creatively. We started trusting our own guts and like, OK, we might have something that is different. But we also needed someone to bring it out of us and you really came and you brought it out of us. So I'm eternally grateful for, for that and for that one song and for all the songs that we did after.

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