James Blake joins Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1 today to discuss his new album 'Friends That Break Your Heart'. He tells Matt why the theme of lapsed friendships appealed to him, reveals how his collaboration with SZA nearly didn't make the album, shares how JID and SwaVay's contributions to 'Frozen' came about, discusses plans to release further new music, and more.
James Blake Tells Apple Music About The Origins Of Title Track ‘Friends That Break Your Heart'…
Actually, the song ‘Friends That Break Your Heart’ came after naming the album, after having a whole collection of music that wasn't love-song-focused. It gave me the idea for the song. Then, the song came out really quickly. I was working with Rick Nowels, the songwriter. I think I have a voice recording of me just doing the melody in the car on the way. Then, I fleshed it out from there. Paul McCartney said something about pop music back in the day, where he said, "We had a clear shot at the runway because no one had really done it before. All the melodies felt new. All the subject matters felt new." Now, I think there's so few things to write about that haven't already been covered so extensively, especially when you're talking about love in a romantic sense.
James Blake Tells Apple Music Why His New Album Addresses Broken Friendships…
I think that friendship, specifically friends that grow apart or friends that don't have a place in your life anymore, you don't have a place in theirs, and there's no protocol. There's no protocol for, "I'm heartbroken. I can sit in bed all day." People will just be like, "Oh, well." Basically, it's like being sick. In that sense, I got broken up with. There've been friendships in my life that have ended acrimoniously or ended peacefully. But none of them have been simple. You're expected to just take it on the chin and get on with it because it's just a friend. But it's like that person might have been in your life since you were six years old. It's not as simple as that.
James Blake Tells Apple Music About Collaborating With SZA…
That track almost didn't make the album and not because I didn't think it was great, but because we made the body of the song in a night, me, SZA, and Starrah, and Dom Maker. Loads of time went by. I just had this idea sitting down. I played it for a few people. What we were doing, I think, it was like a nugget of gold, but it wasn't produced right yet. I hadn't fully figured it out. As a producer, you have a duty, especially if it's your own project. You've got a duty to serve it up for the person who's the featured artist, if you see what I mean. Basically, I couldn't get this great SZA feature and then just put out a weak track. It took me a year, I think, to just go over it, and over it, and over it, and just try loads of different approaches. Maybe it's going to be ambient at the end, and that'll be really beautiful. Maybe, it's going to be this. In the end, the only real way to approach it was with aggression. That's when the beat came and the baseline, the bridge, and then the... It's like it all had to just smack you in the face a little bit more.
James Blake Tells Apple Music About Collaborating With JID and SwaVay On ‘Frozen’…
Me and JID were doing some work. I wanted to do something for him. I wanted to do something for his record. I ended up making this beat... that riff, which I made on some weird digital sample keyboard. Suddenly, I had this Eureka moment where I pitched this strange sound down. It just became that. I left it exactly as it was. I sent it to him. He rapped over it. I heard it back. I was like, "Oh my god, he's a genius." It's that a thing that Andre 3000 does to me. It's that thing of like, "Well, how did you find those words? Where did they come from? What is your mind?" Then, I did a bunch of stuff on it, vocally. Then, I just had this weird tune with no chorus and a great rap feature, and a beat that I really liked. I was like, "Well, what do I do with this now?" I couldn't write a chorus, couldn't figure something out. It was actually Jameela that had suggested getting SwaVay, who I'd been working with on a lot of stuff. She was like, "You should get SwaVay on that?" I texted him. He did it in 20 minutes. He sent it back exactly as it is. I was like, "Well, now I've got two geniuses on my record, with no chorus and a beat that I like. Then, I just have to figure something out. I made the switch part of it; acts like a chorus but isn't. Made that. Is that a bridge, or is it a thing that happens twice? Then, that was it, really. The rap features finish the song.
James Blake Tells Apple Music About Losing His Confidence…
I think I was a happy kid. I just, somewhere along the line, in that 15 years of childhood, however long it was, I lost my confidence. I lost my self-respect in a way and my self-love. I think it's just taken years to forgive myself and not be so hard on myself. It develops perfectionism. Perfectionism is an illness in a way. Because if everybody else is criticising you for not being perfect, then, eventually, you replace their voice in your own head. Perfectionism and the need for control can't really coexist with collaboration. They're mutually exclusive. Giving up some control, giving up some of that perfectionism, and being... just calming down a little bit basically has been the key to just opening up to collaboration and just being like, "Well, what do you want to make?" and not always thinking, "Right. Here's my Pinky and the Brain-style plan for world domination." It's not an attractive mentality to work with.
James Blake Tells Apple Music About Why He Has Learned To Embrace Making ‘Sad Boy’ Music…
I got the criticism that I make sad boy music. Drake gets the criticism that makes sad boy music, and all these people who are basically just vulnerable... which is our job. Let's be honest. There are some of us who are entertainers, and some of us are just saying what we feel. I don't know. I think I've probably bought into a little bit of the slightly toxic masculine propaganda about not saying how you feel. When I sometimes just remind myself, "No, no, no. You've actually made a record with quite a lot of energy here. Just because it's below 150 BPM doesn't mean it doesn't have energy." Also, slow songs can have loads of energy, and fast songs can have none. It's not really to do with tempo, really. When people say, "Oh, we need a tempo record." It's like, "Not really."
James Blake Tells Apple Music About His Plans To Release Further Music…
Yeah, I think so. Actually, plans, I haven't made plans to do that. But I've definitely got more music. I want to see how much we can actually tour this to start with. It felt a little bit like I wasn't really able to do the touring I would have liked to have done for 'Assume Form' to really go and show people that record. I want to do that with this one. Then, we'll see. But I'll be releasing music in between I think.
