“It’s shocking how much
time into one song was put from so many different people.” “A year of work,
15 different vocalists, everyone getting the song
to sound as good as everyone knew it could be.” “Hey.” “Hey.” “Hey. How's it going?” “I know we meant all good intentions. Yeah. I feel like that's
my quota of singing for the day. I’m so bad at singing in front of people.” So do you remember
the first session that you guys had where you
worked on “The Middle”? “The day before the session, we were
kind of just going through ideas. And there was this sound.” “We were kind of like, you know,
this feels really special. Let’s save it for tomorrow with Sarah.” “I’m this guy. I sit in the back and I'm like, ‘Cool.’ ” “Is she on Instagram?
Is she on Twitter? Or is she writing?
But she’s writing. She actually is.” “I only really put the voice memo on if I think I’m
getting something good.” “She just wrote for 10
minutes and she’s like: ‘I’m going to go in the
booth and let me sing it. Let me know what you guys think.’ That was literally the
first thing we heard.” “All three of us literally just
screamed with excitement.” And when you heard that, I mean, it sounds crass, but, like, do you see dollar signs? “I mean, it’s hard
sometimes in the room, you write songs so much, but it definitely felt special.” “So we get sent a lot of demos. But there’s a few writers
where we really love basically everything they do. And Sarah’s one of them. We were instantly, like, ‘We’re definitely going to
try a version of this.’ ” “We are, like, obsessed with these,
like, cinematic sound samples that we have.” “Yeah, that’s like a
medieval ax whipping noise.” “Everyone watches ‘Game
of Thrones,’ or whatever. But you never hear it in songs.” “We had something
that we like, but it wasn’t, like, absolutely perfect.” “So they played it for me and were
like, ‘What do you think?’ I felt if done right this could be huge smash. So we start working
on it together, and everybody started loving it. Let’s just find a vocalist. Which is something that
ended up taking, as you know, quite a long time.” “It’s not very often that that many high-level artists cut a song.” “I’m looking for somebody to
sing it with the same intention as Sarah sang it. But I’m looking for
somebody to do it better.” “There’s been months
where we, like, almost gave up because nobody
can sing it properly.” “He kept cutting vocals
and comping and flying to go see the artists. And it’s just, like, so grateful
that he didn’t give up.” “I didn’t really know
about all the drama of finding a vocalist.” “I had never heard her music until I heard her demo. So I was like,
‘Who is Maren Morris?’ ” “She sounds really good.” “The rhythm is so interesting.
‘Looking at you I can't lie.’ It’s like walking up stairs.” “She was in Nashville. So I flew in and had to
fly out that same night.” “I recommended, like,
a hot chicken place that he could check out.” “She sounds the most like
Sarah of anybody because she has this rasp
that Sarah has.” “We had the final
product, which I sent to everybody, and I’ve never had a
song where everybody felt, like, it was perfect.” “Hey, guys. It’s that time again. I wanted to show you a
preview to my brand-new song. Check it out.” “All right. All right. Thank you, guys.” “I saw, like, the name come up
in my car, like, before it started playing. And then was like: ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ ” “ ‘The Middle’ has been like the
fastest-rising song for me I think I’ve ever had.” “See everyone just start to scream
and shout along with it. It looks like an ’80s concert.” “This seems crazy. Like, bits of it were made
in my small apartment.” “After it came out, I went to New York
for the Grammys, and at the afterparty I
saw her, like, walk past. And I was, like, never — it’s never
in me to go up to anyone ever, but I’m, like, ‘I feel like
I’m an idiot if I don’t.’ ” “And this little girl stopped me. I hate calling her,
like, a little girl. She’s 23 years old.” “I was like, ‘I’m so
sorry to annoy you.’ ” “In her sweet Australian accent she’s, like, ‘I’m Sarah,
I wrote 'The Middle. ’ ” “And she was, like: ‘Wait. You’re, you’re the girl in the demo!’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah, that's me!’ ”
seems like Grey had practically finished it before they even got Zedd involved
this is super interesting.. i have so many questions!
I actually expected less from Zedd
I know everyone keeps saying this but if you've ever heard any of Grey's releases under their own name (Miss You, Crime, Wings Clipped etc) it's super obvious that they produced 95% of this track along with the other Zedd/Grey tracks (Stay, Starving). I have no problem believing that the vocal tracking/mixing was all Zedd, but that was probably the extent of his contribution.
This was already posted here yesterday https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/8e6ua4/the_middle_watch_how_a_pop_hit_is_made/
I was in the room the first time sarah and steph met. She is an absolute monster. She'll be one of the biggest writers in the next decade guaranteed.
Man the attention span in this sub...literally the first post on the second page.
This is fantastic, and gave me goosebumps. Thanks for the upload!
This was awesome! Thanks so much for sharing.