[David]: All right, we just got up here. It's a beautiful view. [David]: What do you think, James? [David]: This is James. [David]: He's an animator here on YouTube, and we recently found out we watched eachother's videos. [James]: That's a good view. [David]: Yeah, it's good. I watch his stuff because he's a pretty funny guy. [David]: James. [James]: What's up? [David]: Do a meme. [James]: Here come dat boy. [David]: We met at VidCon, and since then we've made some stuff together. [James]: You should always stay in school, kids. Right, Dave? *acoustic melody playing* [David]: *rapping* Prancer, Prancer, Prancer. I'ma go insane here. But no one really watched it, so we decided to make a proper song instead. [David]: Have you made a song before, James? [James]: I've never made a song. I mean, maybe as, like, a toddler you, like, start singing stuff. [David]: *laughs* Do you remember any of those? [James]: Probably was just incoherent babbling, like... [David]: We can go that route. [James]: Oh, you're right. Yeah, okay. [Both]: *laughs* So first, we needed an idea. [David]: We got a few ideas. What's the one we're woking on at the moment? [James]: It's about a guy who tries to be happy, because the-the feeling of existentialism, and the world ending, and the fact that he's going to die one day is, like, forcing him to be happy and cheerful, basically... [David]: Yeah. So then we have to come up with a bunch of things that made us sad, and we started with the goal of eight things for each of the three verses. [David]: Twenty-four things... [James]: Twenty-four things. [James]: Twenty-four things to think about to be sad about. [David]: Yeah. I do-I do not think we're gonna struggle. [Both]: *laughs* So that was the serious topic we decided on... The existential dread that we all have. [James]: When you're a kid, every adult you saw on TV, you're gonna probably out-live them. Third world countries, our whole country's thing. [David]: *clapping* Oh, I know a great one... 80% of your happiness is genetic. [James]: Oh, really? [David]: That's a statistic. [James]: Really? [David]: Yeah, yeah, yeah... [James]: Wait, so then did I just get bad genes or something? [David]: Is that normal? [James]: Yeah, the tree's screaming. Trees scream in Arizona. [David]: Okay. [David]: I find it interesting that you're an artist, but your handwriting is messy. [James]: How dare you? [Both]: *laughs* [James]: I could be like, "the sun's shining," and then you could be like, "the sun's going to explode." [David]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [David]: Say one aspect of it is meeting friends. [James]: Yeah? [David]: So... [James]: Meeting friends, and then... [David]: All of your friends will die. [James]: Yeah. I like that. Oh... I feel like we need to talk about, like, racism. I think that could be, like, one of the negative thoughts. [David]: Thanks for clarifying that, James. It could be like, "I worked hard to get this job." Like, statistically, people with white names are more employable than black names, and stuff like that. Oh, I can talk about this one. There was a study where they gave CV's to a bunch of different jobs with either stereotypically white or stereotypically black names, and the ones that were stereotypically black were hired significantly less. Which is one of the strongest studies I've seen talking about race issues holding people back... at least in America, because the rest of the world, the race is not an issue what-so-ever. But, yeah... where were we? [James]: What if we talk about cancer? [David]: Cancer; that's right. Please continue. [James]: You could wake up with cancer. [David]: *laughs* "You could wake up with cancer." That's a great one. *laughs* This is so funny. I don't know why I- I love this stuff so much. [James]: Little kids are gonna see this, as well. This might be the thing that, like, wakes them up. [David]: Yeah, yeah. [James]: Existentialism. Sorry, kids. [Both]: *laughs* [James]: Oh! Like, he, like, learns about, like, American history, and is like, "American history was built on, like, a..." [David]: *laughs* Yeah. The funny thing is, we don't need to be specific, 'cause every single country in the world was built on... [Both]: *laughs* [James]: Yeah... We could be here all night just thinking of horrible ideas. [Both]: *laughs* [David]: We just go to sleep... *distressed panting* [James]: *laughs* Try sleeping after this. [David]: *laughs* Yeah. So then we went to sleep, and after that we decided to do some research to make sure we weren't completely out of touch, and to check whether our existential crises were relatable enough, So we went to the-the home of... existential crises online. *echo* Tumblr, Tumblr, Tumblr, Tumblr... And James found a post that said... [James]: "I hate my smile." Aw, smiling is supposed to be the most beautiful thing you can do, though... [David]: I don't like my smile. [James]: Uh, Dave! [David]: After watching myself in a video where I laughed a lot, I always thought to cover up my mouth because it doesn't look as good. [James]: But smiling is supposed to be like you don't care about the world, you're just happy. [David]: Nah. [James] Like e- even if your laugh is gross, like, who cares? [David]: Control it. Improve yourself. [James]: *laughs* "Improve yourself." [David]:So we had all this negative stuff, so we had to off-set it with some of the positive things in life. [James]: I wrote trail mix, Dave... [David]: Aw... [James]: tetris, comics, Mario... [David]: We didn't get much further than that... I'm joking! Life is wonderful... Then we had to make a chorus. [James]: *singing* "So live your life, and keep on making the papers." *guitar riff* [David]: *laughs* [James]: So yeah, that- that's about my singing ability. [David]: I wonder if that would be a way to take this. Like, make it seem like one of those up-lifting club songs that are all about, *singing* "We are young. Life is great." kind of thing. [James]: Yeah. [David]: Then suddenly [James]: *laughs* *singing* "Life is great, but you're 25% done with it." [David]: *laughs* Yeah, yeah! We ended up going with pretty much exactly that idea... b- because it was great. Not because we're lazy. [James]: May I- I offer you a rat? [David]: This is Daisy, right? [James]: That's Daisy. Yep. [David]: What do you think is Daisy's personality, this rat? [James]: I think she's a lot more chill than Peach. I have another rat named "Peach". [James]: I think this is distracting... [Dave]: *laughs* Yeah. [James]: *laughs* [David]: So the last part of the idea we had to come up with was kind of a conclusion to the song, and that's what we struggled the most with. [James]: We could have, like, the positive and the negative person talking. [David]: Yeah. [James]: Right? And then... then the positive person can go on their a little speech. [David]: So it could just be just, like, the positive guy is just like, "shut up!" [James]: *laughs* Yeah. "You're just so negative all the time!" It's, like, hard to make it seem like not one of those Instagram... [David]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [James]: inspirational posts. "The best thing about life... is living." [Both]: *laughs* [David]: I don't feel like it's there yet, like, that's a funny concept, and it's close. [James]: *noise of agreement* [David]: It's really nice seeing all of this beautiful nature everywhere. [Someone in front]: *laughs* [David]: These natural stairs, this natural gate... [Someone is front]: *laughs* [David]: natural city. [David]: Um, these are just thoughts and I don't have to listen to them, and the- the negative thought -- which has been constantly saying all these things -- is just like... "Yeah, that's fair." [James]: Wait, so... so then, like, negative thought agrees? [David]: Yeah, yeah. [James]: So then he realises that is... yeah. [David]: *laughs* [James]: Alright. Yep. Just k- keep on livin' your life. I will be here. [David]: *laughs* [James]: Don't let me stop you from... [David]: *laughs* Yeah. [James]: Hey, I like that. [David]: Um... what are you doing? [James]: The... the world is your canvas, kids. [David]: Good work! [James]: Yeah, I think... that was really productive. [David]: Yeah, I think this is a good idea. [James]: Yeah! I- I- I'm liking it, too. So once we had the idea sorted, we had to sort the lyrics. [David]: You could even go super cheesy with the intro. *electro music playing* [David]: *rapping* "Uh. The sun is shining in a beautiful way, uh. Gonna take a shower and clean my teeth, uh." "Life is ultimately meaningless, ugh..." [James]: Ugh! [David]: "A-dada dada dada dada da." What did you call your friends growing up? Just your friends? [James]: Yeah, my friends. I had a one friend, whenever he wanted to hang out, he would say, "uh, do you wanna, like, play?" He would say, "do you wanna play?" [David]: "I get to play with my friends!" [James]: I'm like, "what are you? Seven?" [Both]: *laughs* [James]: Friends are so friendly... that rhymes. [David]: *singing* "I get to hang out with all my friends. They're so friendly. My friends are the friendliest friends." [Both]: *laughs* [David]: That's pretty funny... [James]: Saying that... would that be good? I can't tell if it's, like, "good" stupid or "stupid" stupid. [David]: Yeah. *mii plaza music playing* [Both]: *laughs* *mii plaza music playing* [James]: *laughs* *mii plaza music playing* [James]: "Just dance while you can..?" [Both]: *laughs* [David]: So, maybe if we think of, like, a... melody. *singing* "Because you gotta, you gotta make the most of it. Make the most of it, make the most of it." That's really catchy. [James]: Yeah [David]: Nice job! [James]: *laughs* You're welcome. [David]: Well... we're finally at the top of the mountain. [Everyone]: *laughs* [David]: I can't believe we did it, James. [James]: Yeah, we did it. [James]: Remem- remember when I did this? [David]: *laughs* Yeah. [James]: *laughs* [James]: So, like... right now, what we're doing a- and brain-storming is, like, making a song and all that. [David]: *noise of agreement* [James]: And i- it's fun and interesting, but, like, what made you want to, like, keep on doing it? I guess... I guess I like to sit down and start thinking about comics, and I- there's not really a reason why I do it. I just like doin' it. [David]: Part of it is because it works in terms of building an audience. I'm not entirely sure exactly what I get out of it, but I get a lot out of... having an audience. Maybe just validation... [James]: Yeah. [David]: or a large portion of it. I forgot to say here I do like making songs. *laughs* I think I was in too deep of a mode to remember that. Then we took a bit of a break from writing to, uh... relax. [James]: Wait, this... this is my color palette. [David]: *laughs* [James]: This is... I- I know my color palette when I see it. This is my- he took my background! He took the colors of my background. Whatever. I mean, like, I don't own colours, but... *sigh* he knows. [David]: It's also worth mentioning that James is a pretty straightforward person with some of his opinions. [James]: And then your- your friggin' iDubbbz video dropped. *laughs* [David]: *laughs* Yeah. [James]: I'm not gonna lie, like... I thought, like- like, way- I thought you were, like, way cooler, you know? [Both]: *laughs* [David]: Thanks for that, James. To be honest... me, too. [James]: Woah... Dave's in our house... right now! [Both]: *laughs* [David]: I feel like it did give me a lot more credibility than just being, like, a... [James]: Than a Sméagol rapper. [David]: Sméagol rap battler. A-ha! Gollum versus Sméagol rap battle... what a classic. [David]: *singing* "Those sneaky little hobbitses? Wicked, tricksy, false!" Then it was time to record the vocals. Working with James was... a little different to what I'd been used to. [David]: *raspberry noise* *sigh* [James]: *high-pitched noise* [David]: *laughs* I wondered what the hell that was! [James]: That was me. [David]: That's such a convincing tea kettle impression. [James]: *laughs* Oh, really? [Both]: *high-pitched noise* [David]: I can't do it! [James]: Some days are louder than others. This is a pretty loud day. [David]: We get to do the tests. [James]: Do the tests! [David]: Okay, loudest voice. Ah! [James]: Argh! [David]: *laughs* Okay... I-I'll turn it down a touch [James]: Oh. *singing* "Uh! It's a beautiful day, uh!" Hey, does that sound too sexual? *singing* "Ah! Such a beautiful day, uh. I..." Dang it... [Both]: *laughs* [James]: Like, I still have to, like, read it a little bit... [David]: *laughs* It's so funny hearing you say, "dang it." [Both]: *laughs* [David]: After working with iDubbbz and stuff... [James]: What would iDubbbz say when he messed up?" [Ian]: Fuck! *groans* Cunt. [James]: *singing* "Uh... but I'll get outta house. Uh. Get on the road, top down, hands out..." Oh, I wasn't partying... [David]: Not too party... *laughs* "I wasn't partying"? [James]: *singing* "Uh... but I'll get outta the house. Uh. Get on the road, top down, hands out." [David]: That was great, that was great. As we were recording, I noticed there were a few benefits to working with someone who was a voice actor. [James]: *singing* "My friends are the friendliest friends! Can't think of a better way to spend my time." [David]: Try 40% more cartoon-y. [James]: *singing* "I get to hang out with all my friends. My friends are the friendliest friends! [David]: Yeah, I think we just that again, like... "gormlessly happy" kind of tone. [James]: Okay... ha-ha! Alright! [David]: Yeah! [James]: Ha! You're too slow! [David]: *laughs* [James]: *singing* "Whoo! I got a brand new..." [Both]: *singing* "job today doing..." [James]: *belches* *singing* "stuff that'll help the economy." [David]: Try and get some grit while you're, like... [Both]: *growls* [James]: *singing* "Uh... at least I've got a nice stable job!" [David]: That was brilliant! [James]: *singing* "But, man, I'm a passionate graduate. I could be different, "and I have career paths to pick from." It sounds, like, monotone to me. Can I do a cartoony version? [David]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [James]: Okay. [David]: Try cartoony and swaggy. [James]: *singing* "But, man, I'm a passionate graduate, and I..." [Both]: *laughs* [James]: "Cartoony swaggy" is just an overactive swaggy. *singing* "I could be a rapper or an animator if I'm lucky!" [David]: I kinda like that. Let's have a listen. [James]: *singing* "I'm able to choose what I pursue." [David]: Try "anime character". [James]: *singing* "I'm able to choose what I pursue!" [David]: *laughs* Yeah. That sounds like a plan. [James]: *deep voice* "That sounds like a plan." [David]: That's a great voice. [James]: *laughs* My-my voice is kind of like I'm losing it a little bit, so... [David]: Really? It's going in that direction? [James]: Yeah. [David]: We're nearly there! [James]: *laughs* [David]: His voice wasn't doing too good at this point, but fortunately it was just some of the calm bits left. [James]: Argh! Argh! Argh! [Both]: *laughs* [David]: One other time. [James]: Aye! [Both]: *laughs* [David]: It's like a dad yelling at his kid. As we got near the end of the recording process, we had to sort out the singing for the chorus. [James]: Do you realise that this is, like... like, the first, like, time in years that I've done singing, by the way. [David]: Yeah. When was the last time? [James]: Uh, probably choir, ninth grade. [David]: Really? [James]: *laughs* [David]: Did you enjoy choir? [James]: No, I hated it! [David]: And he was actually surprisingly a good singer... [James]: *singing* "We are young. Life is fun." [David]: Well, compared to me he was a surprisingly good singer. *singing* "This can't be the credits. You were the limelight, you were the li-" I'm gonna cut that one off early. *laughs* *groans* Yeah, just do that a bunch of times, and don't worry at all about being out-of-key. I-I will fix it. God, I love auto-tune. *laughs* [David]: Try a really high-pitch one. *high-pitched singing* "We-we..." [Both]: *high-pithed singing* "We are young!" [David]: Yeah, and I'll layer it. Aw, this is so quality. [James]: *laughs* Thank you. I'm a quality singer. [David]: Finally, we had to record the ad libs. You know, the-the little voices in the background of rap. Anytime you think of like a, "Haha!" [James]: *laughs* [David]: "Woohoo!" [James]: "Uh-huh!" [Both]: *laughs* [James]: Whoo! *grunts* Oh... [David]: *laughs* [James]: Wait, what? [David] Just a f- a few more laughs like, "ha-ha!" [James]: Ha! Ha-ha! [David]: *laughs* [James]: Huh... [David]: *laughs* I think we've got everything, you know? [James]: Okay. [David]: I can work with this. [James]: Uh, let's- let's meet back. When do we wanna meet back? [David]: *laughs* Good pleasure doing business! [James]: Pleasure doing business. How do you think I did out of ten? [David]: I think this was a- a solid eight. [James]: Alright. [David]: I do- I do- I don't think you did too badly. Your voice is so good for this. [James]: Sweet. [David]: How are you feeling? Was- was that what you expected? [James]: Um... and I was, like, re-listeningto some parts and I'm- I felt they were screaming it, *singing* "Finally! I'm a functioning member of society!" and I'm like... [David]: But this is delib- this is really intense and happy, and... [James]: Yeah. [David]: Yeah, I think- I think that it suits it. The whole way through the recording process, we'd been working to a temporary beat just to get the timing. This time I got someone else to make the beat based on my guidelines, which I hadn't tried before. I'd used a- a pre-made beat for the song with iDubbbz, but this time I was giving some directions, and it was kinda nice... not having to do it myself. I wanted to do something that was similar to the style of music James liked listening to, so we went for something kind of EDM-y. So thanks to 'OxygenBeats' for doing a brilliant job on that. There were quite a few reasons I wanted to make something properly with James, but one of them was because I really admired the fact that he helps out smaller creators quite a lot. Like, he does voice parts for a lot of smaller animators to kind of give them a chance at the start of their career, like, after they've done some work to prove that they actually are... putting in effort, and I think that's really admirable because you need the ego padding. *laughs* I'm joking... kind of. So then I finalised the song, sent it to James, and he made a... b- brilliant animation for it, so you can check that out here. Go check out James' channel Cheers for watching! Have a nice day, and here's some out-of-context footage.. Or if- if I couldn't find any good out-of-context footage, it's the end of the video. [James]: I wanna be gay!
I thought he reacted to some BTS music videos as in the really famous boygroup BTS ahaha.