And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan - Ep. 164: Take A Daytrip

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

From humble beginnings in the NYU dorms to working alongside some of the biggest stars of the last decade, today’s producer duo guests sit at the center of music culture. They became friends during the first week of freshman year at NYU in 2011, bonding over music and genre collisions. They’re musical omnivores who do their best to inhabit the world of the sound they’re working on, from afrobeats to grime, latin trap to garage, country to pop. That appetite manifests itself in their work on Sheck Wes' 5x Platinum "Mo Bamba,” on country star Kane Brown's recent genre-bending collaboration with R&B powerhouse H.E.R., "Blessed & Free,”and "Good in Bed" from Dua Lipa’s Grammy-winning sophomore album Future Nostalgia. Their palette expands from there: alt-rock anthem "Hero" by Weezer, "High,” a heartfelt ballad by Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus, James Blake’s gorgeous single “Life Is Not The Same,” AJ Tracey and Mabel’s UK hit “West 10,” and nearly half of Kid Cudi’s long-anticipated album Man on the Moon III:The Chosen, they have left their mark on nearly every genre. Outside of the US, collaborators include Colombian rapper Feid, who was nominated for a Latin Grammy for his album 19, and international stars like Flohio, Santi, and NSG.In 2020, Daytrip earned their first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 with the gothic Cudi and Travis Scott collaboration “THE SCOTTS,” setting the stage for a prolific 2021. They executive produced multi-platinum star Lil Nas X’s debut album, MONTERO, garnering the duo’s second and third Billboard No. 1s singles with “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” and “INDUSTRY BABY (feat. Jack Harlow).” The album's success is a reminder that they can’t be boxed in. Moving seamlessly across styles and genres to achieve their career-long mission of creating freely and making music that connects with listeners worldwide. And The Writers Are… Denzel Baptiste and David Biral of TAKE A DAYTRIP! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to And The Writer Is with Ross Golan. There are millions of singers, thousands of artists, and only 40 songs per genre at a time. These are the stories of the hottest creatives, the most venerable legends, artists, songwriters, executives, and more. Come join our Discord, follow our socials, and share your music with the And the Writer is community. We'll see you all there and now. Here's this week's episode. Hey, what's up? It's Paige MacDonald, and this is your weekly music industry update. With revenues of $510 million in H-1, Latin music is still on course to generate $1 billion in the U.S. this year.

SoundCloud just launched a new creator dashboard and a new name for its artist services platform, now dubbed SoundCloud for artists. Hypnosis has struck a partnership with SongClip, which is a tech platform for integrating licensed music in apps. TikTok parent bite dance is in talks with labels to expand music streaming services to 12 plus new markets. Muddy Waters Estate has signed a global admin deal with Sony Music Publishing. After scrapping sales plans, BMI has transitioned to a for-profit business model. Probably nothing is launching a Web3 label with Warner Records. Blink 182 is reuniting and has announced a class. classic lineup with Tom DeLong for their

2023 World Tour. Warner Music has acquired a stake in the Serbian label, Mascom Records. Julie Greenwald has been promoted to chairman and CEO of the newly created Atlantic Music Group. Lily Galightly has joined Verve Label Group as Senior Vice President of Publicity.

Position Music has hired A&R executive Sam Scalar to join their A&R team. Sony Music Public U.K. has signed Hitmaker Lost Boy. A big thank you to Charlotte Isidora of Megahouse for gathering today's news. Now stay tuned for this week's episode of Anne the Writer is. Welcome to And The Writer Is. I am your host, Ross Golan.

This week's smash producers built their careers up from the NYU dorms in obviously New York City all the way to the Grammys. They've helped define some of music's biggest stars while still composing records left of center of the broader musical culture. Their work pushes boundaries from Afrobeats to grime, Latin trap to garage, country to pop to alt, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And from their breakout, Chek West's Mo Bamba to executive produces multi-platinum star Lil Nas X's debut album, these guests have only brushed the surface of their inevitable

monumental career. I mean, they're not even 30 years old, and the writer is, are David Burrell and Denzel Baptiste, aka Take a Day Trip. What's up? That was amazing. Yeah, that was a great intro. That was intro we ever had. Gentlemen, it is a pleasure.

I was just saying to David Denzel before you came, I was saying that I always feel like you guys are in all of the sessions. I feel like every time I'm like, oh, I'm in with, they're like, oh, yeah, I just did a record with Take a Day 2. Or like they're, you know, they're going to be in with Take a Day 2 or they're, like it feels like you guys are in a lot of places at once. Is that because there are two of you or is that just because you guys have a crazy work, I think? Honestly, we go everywhere together when it comes to making music. So probably the second one, which is we just like to make music, like truly, you know. Well, I want to go to like the beginning of your story because, you know, some of it's notorious.

Anybody knows you guys and knows of you guys. You got, you know, to actually meet in the dorm is kind of like every, you know, aspiring musicians dream is to know that they could find their music life mate, you know, in something like school. But you guys had 18 years before that. So I kind of want to just go and, you know, each of you have a different story. but I want to hear a little bit of how you guys ended up in the dorm together when one of you is from New Jersey, one of you's from Virginia. So Vermont, sorry, my bad. And it's new to start with a V.

Okay, so let's just start. You know, David, tell me a little bit about your childhood. I mean, what was that like? Yeah, I mean, you know, I was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and spent my first 13 years there. but it was when my mom got a job in Vermont that me and my family moved up right after my seventh grade year. And there happened to be a little DJ school on this little tiny street called Church Street. And quite literally called Church Street, there's like a church at the top of it. And it's like the tallest building in Burlington, Vermont.

Like super tiny town. It's like 30,000 people. But, you know, like snowboarding and ski culture is like really big there. And you have like Burton snowboards and like Ben and Jerry's was starting. started there. So every now and then we have like these X games like events and things like that happening. So, you know, at the time where, you know, DJing is starting to serve a big purpose like in that world, there happened to be a little DJ school that, that, you know, started up on that street. And my buddy, Zach Johnson, was my teacher for, you know, maybe the first four years. And I met a bunch of kids there and just got really obsessed with it. And it was kind of my first introduction to music outside of the radio. It was like a whole history lesson of really just

hip hop like from the late 80s all the way to, I guess that year might have been like 2008 or something like that, you know, but I got really obsessed with just everything that I didn't know. And I think through that really inspired me to want to, you know, start dreaming about wanting to be in music. And early on, like, my parents put me in lessons for, like, conga drums and piano. Like, I was classically trained for, you know, eight, nine years, like, did jazz training for four years. And, you know, really loved it, but there wasn't the same freedom that I got from DJing. And when I heard about the Clive Davis School when I was, like, a junior or senior in college, or sorry, in high school. And, you know, me and my dad used to go down to New York City a bunch

to, like, see Knicks game. So it was like, it was like, like, a lot of the kids. So it was, like, this perfect situation where I was like, this is the exact place I want to go. This is the dream that I want to chase. And this is where I want to learn how to make music, you know. So at the time, I didn't even know how to produce. I didn't know how to do any of that. I had a knowledge of obviously playing keyboards and, you know, being in jazz band and playing conga drums and all that kind of stuff. But I had no idea how to sit in front of a computer and like actually, you know, be able to structure something out. And, you know, fortunate enough to get accepted to the Clive Davis Institute and you know it was fortunate enough to to meet Denzel my freshman year and you know we

kind of geeked out on all our early influences of just stuff that I was into stuff that he was into like kind of you know flip-flop the things that were into I taught him how to DJ he taught me how to produce and then just over time we kind of started to lock into a rhythm and really really figured out what our flow was you know but that that that was my beginnings you know really to me it started in Burlington, Vermont where the interest of wanting to be in music happen. And before that was kind of the boot camp of getting into playing piano,

getting into playing conga drums, and not really knowing where it was going to take me. But, you know, my parents were like, this is something you got to do. And I'm grateful that they did it, you know. Yeah, I mean, you obviously have really good parents and supportive parents. Did you have siblings? Or were you

in this journey alone? I was in this journey alone. And, I mean, for parents to say, in Vermont that you should pursue the music industry or even look at the Clive Davis Institute feels like really progressive

thought process. I mean I guess you were born there you're born in Providence but that also isn't necessarily like a hotbed for the music industry where were they I guess I mean how are they supportive of a music career

coming from sort of I don't want to say the boondocks because Burlington is not the boondocks, but it's a middle of nowhere, you know? It's like, it's like it doesn't, how did they know that the music industry was a viable, you know, job for their kid? Yeah, I mean, to be honest, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't all flowers the whole way. You know, I definitely had to do a lot of convincing and, you know, I had to prove it, essentially.

So when I was DJing in high school, my, my DJ partner, who I was DJing with at the time, who was still one of my best friends, this guy named Josh Decatur. And, you know, I went to the same DJ school together, and through that DJ school, they started giving us opportunities to, you know,

DJ a Burton event or, like, do a little showcase at this venue called Higher Ground, which was, like, the only concert venue in all of, like, Burlington, Vermont. And I guess my junior's senior year, there was a couple kids in my high school that wanted to throw these rave parties. And I happened to be the only kid in my whole high school

that knew how to DJ. So obviously I was going to be the DJ that got booked. And, you know, I wanted it to work so badly that I remember I go around my high school and I'd be like, these are the last five tickets left. And there'd be like, you know, 700 tickets left to sell. But I'd be, these are the last five tickets left and, like, sell them real fast to five kids, go to the next five group of people. So I'm real fast to the next five kids.

And, you know, my junior senior year, me and Josh used to throw these raves that we'd bring out like 800, 900 kids. in Burlington, Vermont that, you know, really had probably not much to do except, you know, just have fun with, you know, at these raves and try to dodge the snow and all that kind of stuff. And I was fortunate to have a bunch of supportive friends that shot videos of it and all that kind of stuff. And that ended up being, like when you apply to the Clive Davis program, you have to, you know, showcase a video and write a bunch of essays and all this kind of stuff.

But that video, I think, really is what helped put me in place to get accepted to that program. and at the time I was like writing a blog and had all these other things going on like I was just really interested in trying to get out of Vermont but be a part of the culture that you know I was obsessed with and was fortunate enough to to be able to do a lot of cool things in high school that that you know put together a really strong portfolio and I think when my parents saw that it kind of clicked in their mind like okay like maybe maybe our son is capable of of you know being actually able to do this because people are actually showing up You know, but when I told my, it was funny, when I told my mom about the, the Clive Davis Institute and it was like, yeah, only like 40 kids get in and things like that. My mom was like, and my mom works in education. My dad works in education. My mom was like, all right, if you're going to apply to this school, here's 18 other schools I want you to apply to too. And literally for like months, I was just writing essays for all these other programs. You know, my mom being like, hey, you're a black kid, like from Vermont. You might, you might want to look at like applying to these schools in Maine because they don't have that many. any black kids, like you'll probably get in pretty easy, but they're really good schools, you know?

And in the back of my mind, I'm like, hell no. Like, I do not want to do that. Exactly, right. You know, and I remember me and my dad were on a way to a Knicks game. We were driving down to New York City. And we used to do that, like, once a month. You know, tickets were super cheap because the Knicks sucked. But we love going to New York, love going to the games.

And on my way to New York, I remember opening up my email one day and I was like, you've been accepted to the Clive Davis Institute of, you know, recorded music. and me and my dad were just so stoked, call my mom on my phone, like, you know, she's like out of her mind excited, you know, like almost like, it was almost a dream that, like, I wanted, but wasn't sure if it was actually obtainable, you know, like 40 kids get in, all this kind of stuff,

and, you know, I was fortunate to get in, and it's like, it's this memory in my mind that I can always repeat and I remember it so perfectly, you know? And that was kind of the first moment where I was like, maybe I could actually do this outside of outside of my little town of Vermont and you know expand past the the little 30,000 you know person town that I'm from and how does that experience compare to you know hearing a song on on the radio does it compare to that and you're when you're like you you light up so much when you talk

about finding out you got into that school do you think of that moment on the same level that you would you know finding out that you're nominated for a Grammy A little bit. I think it's a little different because as a 17, 18-year-old kid, that was like the opportunity of being like, you can actually escape this tiny town and be a part of something that is your dream, you know? And I think me and Denzel, like, when we did get nominated for Grammys and everything like that, we had been in the music industry for so long, like, working up to that moment that it was kind of like we, I think it was something that we could predict a little bit easier in terms of the amount of work and effort and time that we put into it.

Like obviously being nominated for a Grammy is like, hell yeah, like dream come true. Like never would have thought that as the 17 year old kid like driving to New York City with my dad getting accepted to NYU. But that moment specifically, I think is probably the most special moment that I've ever had is like, someone being like, oh, for the first time of my life, this is actually something that I could do. Yeah, that's amazing. I think a lot of people think that the goal in life is a trophy or something else, and it's not. It's like, it's about a path.

And if somebody's going to open a significant door like that, you know, I think most of us think of the biggest moments in our life, not being the moment that they got nominated for Grammy. That's just like, that's frosting. But the other thing, it's going to be that first session that you had to open the door. It's going to be the first person you met in the music business. You know, it's going to be whoever's going to be the, whoever opens the door to like the next, the next part of your journey. So I really like that that's your perspective.

Denzel, I mean, before we go to tell your story, you know, when we're talking about how you learned how to be a DJ, you know, after you taught how to be a producer, but you learned how to be a DJ, you know, what's the difference in, you know, in this era? between a producer and a DJ. Yeah, I think now it's like the, the lines definitely get blurred.

There's so many transferable skills as far as like, you know, understanding music, being able to count BPMs and just having taste and what to play, being aware of what people want to hear. I think, yeah, like, you know, for us,

DJing has always been something that, our production so much and really being able to study what people want to listen to and seeing specifically like, okay, let me play this song. Who's dancing? Like, which people are dancing? Are they going to dance to this song? No, like, these three people stop.

Like, why did they stop? Who are those people, you know, getting really deep into that type of thing and, like, you know, getting big into people watching while DJing? But I think, you know, DJing is so much of, like, an instant gratification. process where you play a song and like everyone's excited it'll take you you know five seconds to cue that song up and you just downloaded it like earlier that day but production is so much of a delayed gratification process where you could be working on something for weeks and months and it gets shelved for two years and it comes out like you know a year after that and then you get the

gratification so it's like much more of a uh a self-reliance process yeah and being being down to go on those on those journeys without the gratification to keep you going yeah but you know like our history and DJing I think is probably one of the most important components to how we figured out how to produce together and how to actually craft a record from that perspective you know when me and Den's DJ together we're looking at people and we're like how are they dancing to this you know we play like a West Coast beat you know or West Coast song that's in 100 BPM. You play an Afrobeat song, that's 100 BPM.

You play a reggaeton song, that's 100 BPM. And every single song might create a different reaction in terms of how people are dancing to it. And that I think really informed us how to approach making music and especially, you know, this last two years of like the TikTok boom and the TikTok era and, you know,

people really showcasing dance, you know, in front of their iPhone, in front of their camera phone. And being able to study those things and being like, okay, maybe if we place a kick here or place a snare here or play this synth lead line this way, this is the type of reaction that we want to get from it based on all the knowledge and all the studying that we did, like actually physically seeing people react to music in front of us. And me and Denz are like huge geeks when it comes to like music history and like seeing how people move and like rhythm and all that kind of stuff. You know, that's been a huge part of how, you know, fast forward to 2022, how we've really developed our style of production is based on really our eyewitness of how people react to things in real life, you know, and really basing it off of, you know,

how people have fun to music, you know, how people build an emotional attachment to music, like all these kind of things. We've done probably 170 episodes, and I think that that's probably the most important piece of information that you can get in maybe any episode, which is that I try to explain how little, like, it's how important it is to throw away your ego when you go into a room. And even for an artist, your whole objective is how can you make your fans enjoy their experience? are they watching you? Are they dancing to you? Are they like what is the what is your goal as an artist? And as a producer and a writer, your job isn't to placate to the label or to the artist. It's only to the fans. If you can understand how people want to enjoy their hour at this show or how they're going to enjoy listening to this record in a car or if they're going to be listening to headphones or whatever it is, you have to understand who the listener is to write good songs. And so, like, the fact that you guys are saying that and have had that experience is so wise

and will only just, like, help your career, you know, over the next 25, 30 years, because you'll just continue to see more people listen to more kinds of music. And it'll be, oh, that's interesting because you can use that influence from this genre to that genre, as you guys already know. you know but um i love that you guys said that um denzel tell me a little bit about your life

yeah so i grew up in new jersey i was born in brooklyn um my parents moved to new jersey just so it'll be like a safer place to to grow up uh and the first town that i lived in was uh union new jersey which is like uh coincidentally where nizia and like halsey are from uh same town uh And I went to a music school, like a summer camp music school, super early on. I think it was like before kindergarten. Like before I went to school for the first time in New Jersey, it was of this summer program where I met like, you know, a bunch of my friends that I've had, I had, you know, even to this day

when I was like, you know, four years old. And I think my parents sent me there because, Before that, I would just, like, you know, get a bunch of pots from the kitchen and start playing them like drums or, you know, always seemingly gravitated towards music. So that really jump started my, you know, knowledge about music and or a bunch of different classes. And this is like a music squad I went to for like years every, every summer I would go to this. and there would be like jazz improv classes and you know learning how to read music learning how to write music

it's pretty like rare and all that think about it like I can't imagine that still exist or anything like that still exists for like babies to go to all the way up to like high school there'd be like plays and I'm in the play and doing all this type of stuff so when I when school started or music started in like the public schools

that I was going to it was like oh, let me teach you how to play the trumpet. I signed up to play trumpet and everyone's learning, like, oh, how to hold the trumpet. I'm like, oh, yeah, I could run through scales like nothing. I've been doing this for years. So I've always been like, because of that, I was always, you know, a little head.

And, you know, I was in third grade and playing in like fourth grade, fifth grade band. So it was always something that was easy and fun to me because I had been doing it. And I moved to this other town after fourth grade, Hillsborough, New Jersey, because Union started to get, you know, a little bit sketchy at times. And that was like a completely different environment. It was like a culture shock. It was like literally the middle of nowhere, like farms and turkey roaming around in deer.

And being like the only black kid there. So it was definitely like going from Union, which is like, you know, right by. out of New York City and, you know, everyone looks like me to a place where no one looks like me. And then, you know, it wasn't like the most instantly, I wasn't like instantly accepted there. So I spent like a lot of time just on my own, you know, just go to school, come home. And I'm on my own, you know, every day over the weekend and, you know, repeat, repeat. So through that time of just having a lot of time alone, I would just, you know, continues to learn as much about music as I could and sign up for like drum lessons and

you know trumpet lessons, bass guitar lessons, uh, and spent all my time doing that up until YouTube came out and around that time I was playing drums in the church and, you know, I was cool with like the music director of the church and we, you know, have rehearsals and stuff. and I knew that he was a producer. His name is Noel Goring, and he produced, like, the R&B singer Joe and, you know, like, a ton of, like, big R&B artist before when he kind of, like, stopped producing to work for the church.

And because I had been learning so much on YouTube, which was, like, completely new at that point, I went from just playing drums in the church to being like, oh, yeah, just check out this, like, CD I made with my mom, with my mom's laptop, her work laptop, I downloaded, like, FL on, and I have, like, just doing all these, like, super intricate beats, and he's like, so you did this on your mom's laptop, uh, you should come by my studio, so I would go to his studio every week, and he had a studio in his house, and he would teach me logic and, uh, how to play keys, and we'd, like, record

artist, like, we made a Christmas album and I'm, like, in, in high school. And then through YouTube. I was like watching tutorials and like seeing Ryan Leslie for the first time like blowing my mind like, oh my God, like he's doing these things with these different instruments. Like I could do that. So then I started making tutorials of how to make other people's beats. And I made one that was like how to make a DJ Khalid beat. I was like, oh, like, you know, DJ Callad doesn't even make his beats. It's really like the runners and the Incredibles blah blah blah, blah, all this stuff. And then the one of Cald's producers, the Incredibles saw it. It was like, oh wow, like you're pretty dope. like we should link up so they came to New Jersey and we started working together and then we

were going to like Atlanta and working with two chains and like when he was still Titty Boy and I'm just like in high school my parents like what is going on like you're just in a basement and now people are like flying you to Atlanta to like work in studios and stuff and I'm like pitching beats all over the place and getting super into it just in high school and like no one in my high school knows I'm just like the quiet kid like sits by himself and is on his laptop I was the first kid in my entire high school to bring a laptop to school. I would just like always, you know, live my life through the computer, which, you know, once production started becoming like a thing, I was just so happy to always be on my computer.

And like eventually I got my own computer. I'm like bringing it to school. And people are like, why does this kid have like a laptop in school? Like he's like a little business man, like bringing a laptop. There's like no computer rules. like because you know no one even had that so i was you know just doing whatever i went uh in that capacity and then when it was time to apply to colleges my grades weren't the best like i really didn't care about school and it wasn't like the best time for me so i just like

you know my grades weren't great but then my mom was like oh this is this you know school program that is just about things that you love to do already uh so I remember my parents being like, yeah, like we could go for a tour, but, you know, it's NYU. Like, you know, your grades aren't the best. So I remember at that point, I was like, okay, like, let me try to put this together. So I went to, like, every class that I had, like, a B or a C or a D and was like, what's something I could do for extra credit that would, you know, I approve my grade? I'm down to do anything.

Could I do, like, a song or, like, a video project or, like, put together a, thing and I did like extra credit like making songs for like all these different classes and doing the entire periodic table in song form and like the teacher being able to use that to teach and all my grades went back up I got so much extra credit just like getting extra hundreds added to to my grade and then yeah I remember one day you know I wrote I wrote my college essay for NYU I only applied to like two or three schools and two of them were backups And I was like, you know, if I get into NYU, I get into NYU. But, you know, if not, I'll just, I'll stay in New Jersey and keep doing what I'm doing.

And I wrote my essay on this Travis Porter song, which is so funny, like, thinking back, it's like all the way turned up by Travis Porter. It was so funny that I wrote a college essay on that. But I, yeah, wrote that and sent in, like, some of the beats I was working on and, like, put together this video because I was already, like, you know, getting good at editing and final cut and all. things and yeah I'm just like in my set up like a little studio in my parents basement just like KRKs and you know the laptop that I got and yeah I got that email I was like you're accepted to NYU I'm like

is this even real like this is not like a real email yeah it's supposed to be spam I was like no and then I like closed it for a little bit just went back to me against some B's and I'm like wait a minute does this mean like I'm going to NYU in a few months like by moving out of New Jersey and going to NYU and I showed my parents and I was just like I got this email and they're like oh my God

and then I was like oh yeah that's dope yeah this is gonna be crazy and yeah then a few months after that it's moving to New York City have you guys gone back since to teach or to talk at the school? We did a couple things like

during COVID so it's been mainly zooms and things like that. But it's definitely on the horizon now that things are starting to open up again to do something in person, you know. Yeah, that's like the next thing is when you go back to your alma mater and you're like, because I just remember that freshman year

where there was this one teacher that was like how many of you guys think you're going to make it in the music business and a lot of people wanted to be like managers and stuff but how many people want to make music? And I raised my hand with like, 10 other people and they're like

you have a better shot of getting struck by lightning and it was like that's how like the school started so it was like it was nice to be able to go back and be like I guess I got struck by lightning a couple times

so you guys are at NYU you know your histories are unique and yet similar in some ways like I think as you were saying like being in Burlington

and being in the middle of nowhere, New Jersey, and both being not, like you were saying, like one of the only black guys in Burlington and the only black guy in that part of New Jersey. Yeah, a few more moved in after, but yeah, there's a feel of. But I think like that, you know, what happens a lot when you enter the music business is that people pigeonhole you one way or the other, did you find that going to school, you know, if you're studying, you know, you're a drummer

and a church band, you're playing music and a jazz band, you're doing EDM, DJing stuff, you're doing all kinds of music that's really versatile, it's all kinds of different genres, it's not, you know, even if you're doing stuff with two chains, or even if you're doing, you know, you study hip-hop, it's not the only music that either of you do, which, Now you guys have, you know, your discography shows that you can do a lot of different music. Did you find that people would assume the kind of music you would do because of who you are? 100%. Absolutely.

That was like the biggest thing. You know, I think when we started to take a day trip, a lot of our mission was to change the narrative on that, you know. and when we really started to get into the music industry as producers, we're fortunate enough to make a splash with this artist named Rory on this song called Cigarette Song, which is more of like a more rooted in folk music, I'd say, than hip-hop, you know? And that was our entrance into music.

So it was kind of cool for us to come in from a lens of not being hip-hop producers right at the front, but even still coming in the... the gate with that song, people still wanted to pigeonhole us and push us into rooms where it's just really other black people, you know, and we were really fortunate enough to make incredible music with people of color, you know, from Obamba to, you know, early songs like Kung Fu with Corday and, you know, Little Boat with 88 glam and, you know, all these records that were so proud of, like, super proud of, you know, all the early stuff with Juice World, all that kind of stuff. And really

records that were like dreams come true you know like we were in the like a basement studio in new york just every single day for like 12 13 14 hours a day just making beats making beats making beats making beats and trying to get a start in the world that accepted us first and once that world accepted us that's when we looked at each other and was like you remember where we started with rory we want to get back to that and continue to change the narrative you know and we were fortunate enough to have opportunities with like Miley Cyrus and a record with Vince Staples for the Spider-Verse movie that isn't, you know, a super like rap record is very much like a cinematic record and Duolipa, like good in bed. And then eventually with Nas, like to this day, people still call call me by your name a rap

record. Like, you know, there is rap on it. But like, come on, guys. I think that's exactly it. That's exactly it. It's also like the way people define things. I mean, this will be really hard to explain in the podcast, but I was showing you guys this Super Bowl shuffle. Exactly, exactly. For the Bears and that getting a Grammy nomination for Best R&B is just as exactly what happens when you have people defining what music is, and there's that great expression of talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

Yeah, that's exactly. You know, and it's like when you're well-studied in music and his, history and you're into all these different genres. It's like you're just a, you know, it's, it's, it's, you're using all these influences to make music and this is actually a good era for producers like that because if you were 20 years ago where there were just aisles and stores and aisles and stores, it's hard to put little naus X in a in an aisle. That's what makes him so special. Um, you know, and a lot of those records that, that, that, kind of straddle different genres.

That's what makes it good, but that also makes it really hard to define. And genres are, genres obviously still exist, especially with radio, but, you know, it's just a much more of like a sea of,

is the song good or not? Yeah, and how unique is it? But, wait, this is like probably the dumbest, uh, journalistic kind of question,

but, um, where does, uh, take a day trip come from? Like, why not just day trip? Where did it come from? Well, when we, so David and I were just working together in New York and, you know, we're in college.

We're going different places. And I think we really gravitated toward each other because we were from small towns and we're like in the city now. So our, you know, the thing that we really wanted to do the most was just experienced the most. life as we could because now we have the ability to so we we're going to like sketchy studios and Bushwick and we're like traveling all around we're going to Miami with like no money and trying to figure it out just to go for like winter music conference and ultra like we have no passes we have nothing and we're just like finessing into places like do you know who I am like my my my friends the DJ for tonight like he's he's calling me right now he's going to be so upset that

you're not letting us in they're like oh I mean I guess like Sure. I just got hired at this security job yesterday. Go right ahead. Meanwhile, we're under 21 with no fake idea. No fake ID. And we were just like figuring things out and trying to take in as much information and as much influence as possible. And, you know, really just trying to bring in as much inspiration as we could from experience. So that when we sat down with our friend John Tannis, who is now our manager, he was like, so what do you guys want to do? Like what, you know, this is something you guys are making all this music together.

What do you want to call it? And we were writing down things that we were inspired by and, you know, a lot of words that had to do with travel. And the last one, it was like this long list of names and words that John, just writing down on paper and like the last one is day trip and we're like ah yeah like we like to go places and the places that we go influence our music so that's there's something there's something there's something there so we had we're like all right we're going to call ourselves day trip and then you know there was like another day trip and we had the email they were like we couldn't get the email like daytrip at gmail.com so oh wow we're i mean obviously our email is take a daytrip at gmail.com

but like we're probably going to have to change that but yeah that was like our first email and uh when we had to like figure out what we were going to shift our name to we were like all right let's just let's do take a day trip because we had already been using that a little bit so to make it more unique than the other day trips that exist in the world yeah we we started a hashtag on instagram super early on where it was like hashtag take a day trip and it was like our essentially our college project was uh and and we started a lot of it pretty early on and right during like the early rory days where uh you know the idea was to go to a different city every single month and release a song that was inspired and based off what we experienced in that city um and

you know obviously it's not something that we're doing uh still uh but i think that really informed a lot of our habits of what we geek out on with music. Like we love studying like the history of places. It's like even this week we're working with this producer that I can't say his name right at this moment, but he was talking about how a lot of dub music in Jamaica, for instance, where you get those bass sounds that are kind of like like, like everything's like kind of muffled and covered. And he was talking to us about how a lot of those things happen because it was actually

just the quality of speakers that they actually had. So when they're listening to music, that's just what they thought bass sounded like. So then you have, you know, Lee Scratch Perry and all these people end up making music that is actually sounding like that because that's what they're hearing because of everything else that, you know,

they think that's what it sounds like, you know? And I think things like that, you know, really just made us be like, wow, this is like, you know, hearing things like, you know, throughout our college career and everything like that, those were the things that made us excited about music and excited about the idea of going out to places and experiencing places and learning about the culture and learning about the music history. Like, why did this genre become a genre here?

Why did this artist become an artist here? What was politically happening in that place and all these things? And really taking all that energy and all that knowledge. And, you know, the dream was to work with local people and all that kind of stuff to create like one song for one month in whatever place we went. And, you know, we realized very early on as two college kids that didn't have any money that that was really fucking expensive and we just could not do that. You know, so we stopped pretty quickly. And, you know, you guys were, I mean, you guys were releasing the music as the artist, which really kind of explains the importance of the name, too.

It's like you guys are actually releasing the music. And that plan is still something you guys could do, especially because now you've worked with so many big artists you could easily do. like take a day trip and find a bunch of these artists from different cities that you love and now do it like really blow it up. We always check back in like every year or year and a half or so like isn't all the time

that we should do that project? Because that was always our dream like the only reason that we even produce music for other people initially was to raise enough money to do that project to go to like a different city every month. So why don't you do that? I can guarantee you there's there are a bunch of people

listening to this that that would love to help you help fund you guys doing a countrywide worldwide record like that it's definitely on of the mind you know I think nice well I think at the moment it's a our our purpose in life is to help little now's X's dreams come true you know and we're we're just the team that that you know helps put these these important records together for the world you know absolutely but totally I mean like going to the records that really do end up spreading

throughout the world. You did a bunch of things on some records that were you must have been working on them while you were in school or right when you graduated, some that actually went platinum. I'm sure there was this feeling of like

we can do this. There had to be a lot of encouragement during those later parts of NYU and early parts out of NYU where you are making enough money to kind of survive at least. You know, but there's sort of a difference between even an album track on like the black album, you know, or something like that where you have like, you know, Quavo is obviously

huge, you know, you get these like some pretty decent size. You know, I know he was on the A track record and stuff. Like you have like at the time, you're having a bunch of these big names. but the big names really they mean something to move your career on but it's different when you have something like Mo Bamba which just takes off and is like a whole other thing and it's so weird because like if you listen to like

the music that you'd released up until then and the music since then it's so seemingly simplistic and you know it's not overcrowded it's really like you chose like the right amount of things and the right amount of vocal production. It's like, it's just super tasteful.

But if I heard that song next to some of the other records, I don't know that I'd be like, if I didn't know that it was going to be successful, like, wow, this is going to be just a giant smash. Tell me a little bit about watching that song go, because I mean, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but my guess is that you didn't have, you didn't think that this was the song that was going to blow open an entire career

you know when you were getting in the rooms with some of these really big name kind of artists yeah I think when we started our mind was kind of split into two different purposes for production because when we started you know this was pre-spotify era that we're in now where everything is like categorized in and and playlists and things just end up rising to the top on their own. And hip hop wasn't in the place that it is now. So when we signed our first publishing deal, we're like, all right, we're doing this because we want to raise enough money to travel around the world.

So we'll do what they want us to do. So we're going to like riding camps and really pushing, they were pushing us towards doing more pop stuff, like stuff that's going to make money for the publishing company. So we didn't really get that many rap sessions. It just wasn't the vibe then. It was a lot of, yeah, just like pitch songs to like send to like whatever the biggest artist was then. And then we were doing that for a little bit. And, you know, we built like a little studio in New York and we're like,

but we don't have a session today. Maybe we could just have one of our friends come over. You know, our manager, John Tanner's found this artist. Tries O'Kee from Virginia. he's like so far maybe like we'll work on like our side like a little rap project on the side and and do that for fun and through doing these pop sessions which really like you know it was it was like boot camp learning about different ways of production and songwriting and developing those skills there and having certain records come out and then you know we were doing our thing and we're like uh you know we

want to listen to these songs, you know, at a barbecue or something. Like, let's see if we could figure out a way for them to get on Spotify as well. And I remember we put out a couple of songs with our friend Treeslow Key, who's from Virginia that our manager found. And we became, like, really close friends. And we were just like, you know, it was just fun. It's like, these are the songs that we were going to play with our friends. So we put, like, a couple of them out. And then we wake up one morning. And it's like, whoa, like, did you see that the Tree song is on the viral chart on Spotify? I'd never even heard of the viral chart on Spotify.

What does that even mean? And I remember it came out the same day. We put it up on Spotify the same day, like another pop song that we did. It came out. And it was just like out streaming like crazy. It's like people are hitting us up like,

yo, that Tresel Key song. Like I don't mind. It's going crazy. Like that's so far. And then we're like, oh, like, you know, maybe it's possible that the stuff that we really find fun could be. the things that actually make us money and pull us along this journey.

So then our thought process kind of switched and was like, all right, let's just do these things, like, for the culture. Let's do things that when we go to DJ, that's going to be what we're going to play. And we're DJing a lot at that time, you know, just trying to survive in New York and make our little $3,500 a night. And, you know, we're playing like hot niggas.

Like, oh, my God, like the place explodes. Like, whoa, like that's good. crazy. Like, this song really does that every time. Bodak, Yellow, you know, these certain New York songs, like being in New York, you drop that one New York song, it's like, everything is going crazy. We were, like, talking amongst ourselves, like, you know, we need one of these records. We need to do something like that that's going to really just, like, shake up the culture. So we're doing a lot of, like, you know, shots on goal of just things that are cool, like,

you know, Rocky and Ferg, we're going crazy at the time. We're having Mosh pits at, like, apartment. parties, like the floors are like caving in. We're like, man, like that's the vibe. Like the pop stuff is cool. We'll do that when we get to it. But we're just to do stuff that's going to be fun to listen to in a sweaty basement. So when we did that record, it definitely had that vibe.

It was like, oh, yeah, this is like, you know, fuck the rules. Like, we're just doing this to have fun. We don't care what the pop, you know, listeners listening to right now. This is just for us. Like this is just for us to play with our friends. And definitely people were like, yo, what is going on with this song? Like, there's no format, no structure.

Yeah, especially early on. I mean, that record came out in June 2017 and didn't become a hit until like fall 2019. You know, like it took a long time. And I remember like during that summer, like 2017, like into fall, every now and then, you know, Ali, who's like Ali, with the motherfucking dope, like we'd run into them every single time and you'd be like yo like I was at a party in

Brooklyn and like Mo Bamba like got played and like the place went off and me and dens are like wow that's crazy that's crazy we weren't there so like we have we have no idea like what that means or what that looks like you know and then one day I'm in the studio's like a Saturday like at night you know I wasn't really doing anything and our friend Mel is friends with with yes Jules and she came by and she was like throwing parties around the city I was like, oh wow, that's dope, like it's yes, Jules. And I'm like working on this beat. And then she's sitting in the back just, you know, doing work on her laptop.

And she's like, oh, this reminds me of this song. Like, it's like a really cool vibe. Like, have you heard this song, Mobamba? I'm like, oh, yeah, I know that song. How do you know that song? She's like, oh, yeah, that song is so sick. Like, I love it. It's just so interesting.

I'm like, well, yeah, actually we made that song in this room that you're in right now. She's like, what? No way. I'm having this party next week for fashion week. You guys have to DJ. Like, I had no idea. And we're like, all right, yeah, sure. Like, well, DJ, like, you know, 500 bucks can't hurt.

And we pull up. I remember Kerwin Frost is DJing and, like, spaghetti boys. It's like some real downtown underneath One Oak, not even in One Oak. Some real, you know, fashion week. Trinidad James is there in Six, Nine, and all these things. And we're, you know, this is like one of the biggest parties that we've DJed because it is fashion week and yes, Jules booked us and we're like kind of nervous to get into it.

But Kerwin, we're upstairs and Kerwin plays Mobamba. We're like, what? Like, how does he know Mobamba? And we're hearing, like, the floor starts shaking under us. And we're like, what? Like, why? And then the next DJ goes and they play Mobamba too. I'm like, what?

Two times in the same night? Like, that's so weird. And then we're starting here, like, people screaming. We're not even in the room. We're just like upstairs and the actual like one oak just like chilling waiting to to go downstairs for our set. And we get down there as like completely packed. And then we get on, we're like, hey, we're like, take a day trip, you know.

We're, you know, from from here and we're going to play this song that we just did. And we just like drop Mobamba as like the first song. And we're thinking it's going to be like, oh yeah, dope. As soon as we play it like, dang dang, dang. People are like, oh! People like throwing like chairs. across the room and like jumping off of things and then the chorus hits and like everyone is going crazy like just throwing things around throwing drinks and like having a mosh pit like an entire

club just turns into a mosh pit and we're like what is going on when we brought this song back like a few times but i think i think that moment you know going back to talking about special moments and you know when i got into clive like that moment felt the exact exact same same. That was like that. I remember getting home and not being able to sleep at all. I'm just looking at everyone's stories that were at, you know, the event that night. And they're all

posting Mobamba, like the when we dropped Mobamba, and I just could not sleep. I was up to like 5 o'clock in the morning. It was the first time that we actually, and this was February 2018 during fashion week. So the song had already been out since June 2017.

So all this time had gone by where me and Denzel had not seen that song react in any room ever until we had the moment to DJ and play it for the first time. And, you know, Ali's there. Like, he's, like, on tables, like, jumping up and down. Like, we have been working with Nick Cannon on music a bunch and he's, like, literally right behind us. Like, his mind is, like, blown. He's like, what is going on?

Like, you know, it's like the 6-9 era where, like, 6-9 is really big. Like, you know, Goldlink had, like, crew going on. Like, that was, like, the time of music, you know, and all these people. were in the room. So like for me and Denzo is also special because there's like legitimate people that we want to reach and we want to talk to that are also experiencing this moment as we're playing our record that we made with Shaq West. Yeah, as soon as we like leave everyone's like, yo we got a link man, yo we got to. We're like, yo, that's like this is everything. This is what we want more than anything like the, you know, big radio song with an artist that is like

super well known. I'm sure that would be really cool too. But the feeling that we were always chasing and that we still chase is that exact feeling when something reacts like that in real life and really mean something to people specifically. Yeah, that night and a couple of days after, like, I've never held my head higher, you know? It was like, it was like one of those moments where you're like, oh, like I'm, I'm proud of what we're doing. Like, we're shocked. Like, it was definitely like shocking, but like we're, like, this is something that maybe like the dream is actually starting to become alive, you know? And I remember for me personally that night was really crazy because like my family dog of like 14 years like passed away that same exact night.

And like right before like we were getting ready to DJ, like my mom calls me on the phone. Like she's like, oh like, like, you know, and my mom was out of town, like wasn't with my dad. And like, you know, delivers the news that our family dog Champ had just passed away. And like my dad calls me on like or I call my dad right after and like he's bawling crying and like, you know, telling me that like champ passed away in his arms and like all these things. and like have this moment of just like you know that dog meant so much to me like having this moment of just like i don't even know if i can actually do this you know and honestly like hearing mobba played by karen and like Lucasabad and like the other i forget who else was DJing oh that was doing that song you know and actually being like oh shit like that's something that we did

and is like i can actually hear people like reacting to this song it gave me a little bit extra energy to keep going through that night. And for me personally, it's like one of those, like, you know, God moments that's like, it's giving you like a moment. It's like almost like my family dog, like brought this energy into this room was just like, yo, run with that shit, you know? Like, you were so great in my life, like, keep going, you know? And I think about that all the time.

Like, it's just like, like out of all days, you know, out of all nights. And like this song that had been sitting really on our laptops and on SoundCloud since, like, June 2017, it came out two days. after we made it. You know, like we've told the story before how it's like one take, you know, laptop freezes, like all these chance things. And me and Denzel used to always look at each other like one day, out of all these years that we spent in New York,

out of all these years grinding in New York, just like trying to chase our dream. Like, we want a record like Hot Niggott. Like we want a record like Bodak Yellow. Like we want something that like touches New York at its core, you know? And seeing it react in that moment with like a room full of people that we've been trying to interact with, like, you know, Nick Cannon in the back of us, like a room full of all these kids we went to college with, like, all these kids that we met

after college, like, you know, family, like family in the room and, like, all this stuff. And just, like, finally being able to, like, almost release all that energy out with a song that allows you to release a lot of energy out was such a special moment, you know? And I think in a lot of ways, like, Grammy nominations, awards, like, all that kind of stuff. Even number one's like special, but that moment is, it's like untouchable. Yeah. Like it was the first moment that we were like, it like coming, like going from like our old farm towns where like, you know, Vermont's 98% white.

Like you grew up in like probably 98% white like farm town. Like being these only black kids that just wanted to be a part of a bigger world and be a part of a world that also had people that look like us, you know, and being able to step into New York and get to understand New York, get to learn. New York, get to learn the culture of New York, and then have a dream of wanting to make a song that touches New York. And then after all these years, like 2018, like we started school in 2011, graduated 2014, and four years later finally have that moment with all our family, all our friends, like all these people that at the beginning believed in us, like Nick Cannon at the

beginning believed in us, like, you know, and then all these New York icons and things like that that are like to the left of us and finally have that breakthrough moment. of being like, maybe we can actually do this. It felt like the entire years that we're in New York. It's like we're trying all these keys and all these different doors. We're going to every door. We're trying it with every single key we have. It's like, we're not getting anywhere.

Nothing is working. And that one night that we dropped Obama, we put the key in the door, turn it, and the door just breaks off the hinges. And we're like, okay. It's always, it's so weird because you can't predict why certain songs touch people, because it's not like that was the only time you try. tried it. But for that one to hit and then to be able to experience it from the artist's perspective, being able to actually be the DJ and see it from the stage as something.

But like it's one of the parts of the last few years that if you had a hit in the last few years, you didn't see it happen. You didn't hear it with other people because there weren't festivals, there weren't concerts, there weren't anything. So like people were listening in their car. they were listening at home or whatever it was, but you didn't get a chance to be in a room that was crowded with people. So like the fact that you guys were able to experience it a few times even before everything that went down in the last couple years is amazing. And I mean, you went from that song to something that became a little more mainstream.

If Lil Nas X at the time was mainstream, he really ended up, you know, striking a core. But then you kind of pull it back to this like really authentic. kind of record for him with Panini. That thing was also just I think at that point you had to have, unlike the other one where it was it, you know, where I think it was probably

there's some random story in it. This one had to feel like you know, you knew it when you were done with it that this was going to be something or am I wrong with that? You're talking about Panini, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean

it's crazy how that record happened because that was also like a so serendipitous yeah like how mo bamba came out two days later obviously like took a while to bubble pinini the snippet came out literally before we left the the studio session like we didn't even record the second verse yet like we came in like we're fortunate enough to have built like an incredible relationship with dot the genius beforehand and actually today is a really special day because the first record that we ever made with Kid Cuddy. And the first record that really started our relationship with Dot the Genius, this record, Do What I Want,

that just came out today, which is a beat that we made in like 2018. We made an early pack for Dot the Genius, maybe like 2019 or something like that. And then our relationship started to blossom from there, because Dot eventually delivers the news that Cuddy loves this beat. He recorded a song to it. And from there, we...

He wants to invite you. why you did the studio, we're like, what? Like, that's crazy. And from there, but from there, we just built this incredible, uh, collaborative relationship with Dot the Genius. Just making idea on top of idea,

on top of idea, uh, you know, in hopes that we get more records with Cuddy and in hopes that we get more records with other artists. Um, but within that crop of records, like one of our earliest studio sessions,

we made that Panini beat, you know, and fast forward to, uh, you know, I want to say it was like, it was sometime top of April. And our A&R, James Supreme, who was our A&R at the time at Universal, was like, hey, like, I know you guys are in L.A.

There's new artists you might have heard of him, Little Nazex, that has a song called Old Town Road that, like, just went number one this week. You know, and it's his first time in L.A. It's also your opportunity to have his first studio session ever, you know? And me and Dens are like, we have nothing going on today. So, like, sure, why not? Like, let's go, you know, and like pull up to the... How crazy. like had you had it been like oh Thursday or something like that and you were in with whoever that artist is you would have been like sorry man we can't do it today like yeah literally if we had anything on the schedule we wouldn't anything else and it's not no offense to him it's just like that's just the way it is that if your schedule happens to be open and a half your life your life change like that the only thing we had that day was a meeting with someone who uh was uh we were

with our publicist and that was like our first time meeting him and we go to this restaurant and we see there's a funny backstory yeah we see g g g g g naus at like big noz like oh g naus at the restaurant we're like what naus is here and then we're it's uh we're getting pasta and we get like beef pasta and we go over to the studio and we're working with lil naz

and we have like a bunch of um you know like country type beats already prepared uh we play him like a bunch of things and he's not really gravitating towards anything And he's like, you know, I just kind of want something different. Like, I want the most weird, different thing that you have. He said he wanted something futuristic. Yeah. So then we're thinking like, oh, we just did a bunch with Doc for Cuddy.

Like, that's always the vibe with Cuddy. So this is one that he didn't pick. And we play the Panini beat, which name the name of the beat is beef pasta. And we just had beef pasta and we just saw Nause big notes before. And some backstory on that, like for the longest time in order for us to remember. our beat names, we started creating like the day trip recipes. So every single one of our beats is named after some sort of food. Like some of them are quirky, some of them are real, like some, you know, and happened to name this one beef pasta, happened to be eating like, you know, beef

bolognese like pasta at John and Vinnie's. Like the OG Nas is literally like a couple tables away from us, you know, and we're getting ready to have this session with Lil Nas X. And, you know, going through all the ideas that we had prepared for him, he gives us the prompt of being like, I want something futuristic, and it happens to be the most futuristic beat that we had in our portfolio was this beef pasta beat that we had with Doctor Genius. And, you know, play him this record.

And I think the thing that immediately made us realize how special of an artist he is, is without even knowing the terminology and exactly, you know, being able to, identify a kick drum from a snare and a high hat you know they're early on our relationship he'd be like oh like turned down that high hat it'd be like a snare drum or something like that you know like it was the very beginning of his music knowledge you know but without having the terminology and all that kind of stuff he immediately knew where he wanted the sections to be you know so he was sitting down

with us he was like move this section to here arrange this this part to here like move this to here moved that to here and maybe within like 30 minutes 45 minutes to an hour uh you know within that time frame he had written out the first verse to the chorus and all this stuff and a pre-chorus and we're just sitting there like okay he had to rearrange all these parts and he wrote this entire thing in his head but perfectly took a song that was like started with like a chorus and then went to like a you know the verse and the pre-chorus next and then like a bridge he like rearranged it did like intro verse pre-chorus chorus and then wrote perfectly to that and we're like yo what is going on like did he just it took us a minute to even realize like what he just did and I don't think he cognitively knew like he was moving those parts to make

that arrangement but we're like whoa like that's not normal to do that on your first session ever especially being so new to music you know i mean like not as tough like old town road was one of like the earliest songs he ever made like out of making music in general like it's maybe like song number 13 that he had actually made you know in his entire life

and it becomes this massive like it's the biggest song ever you know in terms of you know how many times it's certified platinum you know and comes in like very new to l.A first time in l. first time having a studio session with any producers and tells us exactly what he wants, tells us exactly where he wants the parts to be,

and goes in and just, you know, record, like, the melodies are perfect. You know, it's like, even the whistle at the very beginning of the record, we're like, this guy whistles flawlessly. Like, we have to keep this in the intro. Like, this is incredible. And he's like, you sure you like that whistle?

We're like, yeah, that's fire. And then we're like, oh, what if you try to, like, layer the chorus? He's like, what does that mean? It's like, sing it like this, octave up. He's like, okay, I'll try it. And, like, does it? perfectly. He was like, oh yeah, it's actually pretty far. So we pretty instantly, like, establish that mutual trust. And then he's, like, in the corner, like, oh, can you take this

video of me listening to it? Second verse has not been done at all yet. So we're, like, taking this video of him. And he's like, okay, dope. And then we go back to, like, you know, comping his vocal and then start seeing, like, all these notifications, like, all coming in. It's like, yo, that Panini song is crazy. Like, literally, instantly, as we're working on the The song he posted it, he didn't tell us he was posting it, it's just up on the internet, and our phones are going crazy. Like, how do you even know this kid? Like, this new old top road kid, like, love about this song is crazy.

And I think the really awesome thing about that one, too, is a lot of people that we looked up to in the music industry started commenting on that one. So, you know, we go to, like, the genius page where, like, they reposted it or, like, you know, all these different, you know, different Instagram, like, blogging pages and things like that and see, you know, I remember probably, like, boy Wonder. Yeah, boy Wonder, like, we were, like, oh, my God. Boy Wanda likes this record, everything like that. And that was another moment where we're like,

maybe we can do this, you know? Yeah, it's one thing when you get that first, you know, there are a lot of people who have a hit. There are a lot of people who have a hit. Not there are a lot more people who haven't, but there are a lot of people who have a hit. There are very, very, very few people who have two. Like if you can get that second one,

there are people in the Songwriter Hall of Fame who have two hits. There are people, like, if you have one hit, it's really hard to do that unless you wrote, you know, the biggest song of all time, maybe. But like, it is so hard to repeat it. And it becomes a thing where you're like, oh, this isn't a fluke. This is legit. And it doesn't matter who, you know, it's frustrating when you hear about somebody being as talented as little Nazex because you're like, come on, man. like everyone else had to write more than 13 songs and everyone else went like had to go to school and do like you know not everybody's a savant but you know for most people like to earn that

second hit is like uh that's the moment when you're like okay thank god you know like i know like i know that that if all else fails i did it twice yeah i think that moment was awesome too because so many people were rooting for him ever since he got to taken off of like the country you know billboard charts and all these things there's like that controversy around the old town road record in terms of the entrance he made into the music industry he was immediately backlash in categories where he probably shouldn't have been backlash from you know like i remember texas you know you know like the basketball team made it like all the way to the to the NCAA like championship that year and like old town road was like their fight song

the whole way through and you know i was fortunate enough to go to the championship because my mom works on the NCAA Division 3 board so I'm sitting in the audience and like these white dudes with cowboy hats like in you know the Vikings you know stadium are like screaming old town road and I'm like sitting there like these people are reacting to it this way because it's something that touches them in the world that they're from and all of a sudden this guy is he getting shunned from the charts and all the things that should be accepting him and you know it was it was at that moment where people were like really rooting for him to keep going you know and then all like panini snippet goes up and it was almost like the whole world like the whole internet that we looked up to like we obsessed obsessed over like the boy wonders of the world all that kind of stuff coming to his side and being like yes this kid has more in the tank you know like this kid is more than just this record old town road and in that moment that was also our moment where we saw that eureka moment of being like this kid is way more than old town road you know like this kid is way more than old town road. road. We saw him make a record from scratch from the ground up and saw his knowledge and his

intuition of just how he knows how to make the perfect record for him. Before you work on Montero, which happens a bit later, you have like, you'd start to work on all those other kinds of records. You know, you end up on future nostalgia, which is a massive, massive album. I think it might be like the most dreamed female album of 2021 or 2020, whatever it was. You know, to work on duo and then to have like Weezer, a number one rock airplay with Weezer, man. Legends, just like with Rivers Cuomo. Like, I imagine that there becomes like a feeling like maybe this is. isn't the right word, but did you start thinking it was easy?

It wasn't, the thing that happened, there was a switch that I think happened around the time that we met Nas, where a lot of the things that we were doing before seemed like we were spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. We're putting in so much effort and nothing was changing. And then, Naz's outlook on life in general was so different in reference. because it was like he was just like radiating so much positivity and just like belief in himself and then his like belief in us at that time was like wow like you know he's so positively sure that you know he's going to be great and we're going to be great so like i think our energy switch from being like oh damn like nothing's working to like wow everything works out so easily

for us. You know, everything is great and, you know, we do what we want to do and the things that are supposed to happen happen, happen and things that don't happen don't happen for like a reason. But, you know, with the Dua thing, we had met Dua years before and we're like working on a ton of records for her and she didn't have anything out and they just like didn't come out. Like, they didn't make the album and we have been working on the Weezer song, you know, years before and it's like the different artists cut it and it just never worked. That song has been reproduced like literally 25 times. So many times.

And it's just like nothing was working. And then, yeah, after, you know, Mobamba and Panini. And also, you know, we were fortunate enough to work with Juice World super early on, you know, and made legends in rich and blind, you know, obviously on a very unfortunate day, which is the day that XXX and Toshione, you know, was unfortunately shot and killed. that record we did it and then it's just like you know it was like a tough time and you know we were in with juice

and he previewed it the same night and when we woke up it was out and then you know those types of things just started happening more and more in like these full circle moments like oh well you work with do it for years the song never came out but like randomly our A&R is like oh you want to work on this doer song

and we work on it and it comes out and they're like randomly like oh weezer actually ended up working on this song and making it their own and it came out and then all these things started to just like fall in line. I think it was almost like the momentum of all our hard work finally meeting luck for the first time and just crash landing right at this moment where I was like Panini. I think and all these other records are starting to circulate that we had been working on for like three, four years before that. You know, like even home. like the Vince Staples record that we made for Spider versus a record that we made with a friend like

Maybe two or three years before that movie even was like being developed. Yeah, you know and just all these moments started to Finally start hitting in the center, you know, and a lot of that just came from I think you know our persistence and in hard work and just Really just having a dream that we wanted to make you know be you know make true Mm-hmm and just having good energy and that really changed everything things just ended up working out. I mean, I know like the Scots ends up being like a big moment too. And like you end up with the Travis Scott, Kate Cuddy record and you have a bunch of these songs that kind of come and go. But it's not the same thing as when Montero comes out. And it's like, oh, that's, this is like it came out. I think, I feel like everybody just assumed that it would be nominated for Best Album. And it would just

assumed that it was just so much more unique and honest. And it's honest in a, you know, the fact that he's out and open about it in a community that doesn't always accept people who are out and open, it's a really, it's got to be a very exciting project to work on because there's a purpose to, to it that's bigger than just like doing music. Yeah. That album to me has so much more importance to it than, you know, another record with another artist or another, like, it wasn't just a pop record. That's a pop record with a purpose.

That album comes out and it's like, and those videos are not shy. Like, he's coming out and he's like, I want you to know who I am. Yeah. And, you know, you guys as executive producers have to bring that out of him. Tell me a little bit about that, you know, what that experience is, you know, to be a part of an album that, in a way, is that controversial? And also, maybe it's not controversial anymore. I don't know. What's it like from your perspective?

You know what I think? I was thinking about this the other day. Like, I think coincidentally because we went to NYU and we had the experiences growing up that we did, of meeting so many different types of people. And, like, you know, in NYU, my roommate was gay, you know. And there's so many people that are from different backgrounds and different, you know, outlooks on life, different sexualities. Like it wasn't really a thing to us. It was just like, oh, yeah, it's whatever. Like, oh, yeah, that's.

I remember in our first session, when we were making Panini, like, you know, when you export a song, obviously, it's called, like, bouncing that. You know, so me and Dan's were just like, yo, like, bounce that. Like, you know, bounce that. Like, we're just making, like, bounce that. Yeah. And then now it's, like, so shy. He was like, bounce that. We're like, hey, yo, chill, bro.

Like, bounce what? And we're, like, making all these jokes back and forth. And, like, that was, like, our whole joke the first session. It was like, oh, yeah, bounce that for me one time. But it was, like, a joke. And then, you know, the 70p comes out. And, you know, he comes out with one of the songs, like, during Pride Month. And then he texts us because I think he was, like, nervous.

He's like, okay, these are, like, rap producers. Like, how are they going to perceive me after this? is this going to change our relationship? And he hits us on text like, oh, I guess we can't do those bounce that jokes anymore. And then we're just like, I guess we're just going to have to bounce it harder. Literally from that moment, that was just that, like,

that's when I think all of us became comfortable. You know, or at least when Nas realized, like, oh, these guys like actually rock with me. It's like we can be homies, we could be best friends, we could be brothers, we can laugh about this stuff, we can joke about this stuff, but at the same time, we can change the world together. And I think working on that record, Montero, like, Nause is a superhero.

Like, he's legitimately a real-life living superhero. Like, everything he stands for, everything he said, even just, like, when he's just standing there, when he's saying nothing, like, he represents what the change in the world needs to be. You know, and I think over this last year, we've found a lot of disappointment in, you know, some of these institutions. in these establishments of, you know, being nominated or not being nominated at all, not winning in categories that I think we should be winning in. And seeing that happen, it kind of made us realize like, you know what, if some institutions or some people want to be on the wrong side of history, our job is not to pay attention to that.

Our job is actually to change people's lives and make people feel comfortable. And make people feel comfortable in their own skin, make people want to be exactly who they want to be. You know, and, you know, especially after the Grammy's going home, like, spending all this money on outfits, like getting ready for, like all this stuff, getting six nominations and, like, just hoping that we'd walk away with one. You know, music video of the year, maybe, you know, just one. And to walk away with zero awards, you know, and just feel the disappointment of that.

And then immediately be like, you know what, maybe this is a sign that we're actually supposed to be a part of something bigger. You know, it's not, it's not for the award shows, it's not for all that stuff, it's actually to make a difference in people's lives. You know, and working with Nas, like, he just embodies all of that. You know, like whenever he comes in the studio every single day, it's such a blessing just to be free and creating such free and open music with him, you know, like he just has to be honest.

And then me and Dan through our, you know, decade of studying music and all these kind of things, just have to put it into context that makes sense for the masses, you know? and that's what makes our relationship so beautiful is because we just have such a connection on what works and what's important to say and allow the freedom in the room to say we can all be who we want to be

tell your story make it real, make it true and in return make a fucking incredible video visual that explains that even more and even further and me and dens are always going to be behind you no matter what you know

like after call me by your name oh you want to make industry baby cool we got you you know it's like you want us to do this whole album you want us to be with you five six seven days a week countless hours we got you because we're here to make your dreams come true we're here to like help you change the world essentially like he's just so important like he's truly so important he's been so important to our lives as well like he's just opened so many doors not you know from a work standpoint but just uh human standpoint yeah just let us see so much of the world. And, you know, he's given us so much.

And in return, like, we're just so grateful and so thankful to be working with someone as incredible as him, you know, truly. Yeah, going back to the taking your ego out of it, the, you as a producer and as a songwriter, as a professional, are in the service industry. Your job is not to write your song. It's not to produce your song.

It's to write and produce the artist, best song. It's to serve them. It's to serve them and it's to serve their audience. If you can do that, then you're doing your job well. And obviously he recognizes it and obviously you guys do too. You know, going, I don't, you know, without talking about award shows too much, it's like, you know, I didn't understand it until I was involved in the committee side of things for, for Grammys, a bit, but, man, it is so hard, so hard to get nominated. When people say, you know, it's an honor to be nominated, when you see how many albums are trying to be nominated, how many artists are disappointed that they weren't

even included in the nomination process, you know, it's like, it's a, it's such a win to be nominated. It's a fun to get the award, sure, but it really is irrelevant because you're talking about just being accepted amongst the community at that level shows so much movement and acceptance and a lot more now than ever so you know look the guy should have been nominated for best country song you know you know the guy the guy's been knocked down a number of ways along you know but part of that is because he stands alone and is his own genre and you guys serving him well are keeping him straddled on a number of genres

and that's what makes him, you know, a great artist. So it won't be the last time you guys end up going to, you know, going to the Grammys with him. Let's go to this next section. We're going to go five for five. I'm going to just list five things that just want to hear your thoughts

on them. I'm going to start with Juice World. One of the most incredible and one of the most talented people we've ever had the opportunity to just stand in a room with, you know, even like when we weren't making music with him, me and Denzel would just stay just to see him, you know, record on 10 other people's beats.

It was like watching the craziest movie you ever seen just like in real life. It's like watching, you know, someone juggle 14 bowling balls at the same time. It's like, how was he, how was he doing that? He would just sit down with the mic. You could play any beat and he's going to do a song from top to bottom with the most intricate bars and melodies at the same time and just be like okay let me try it one more time and then do it again

completely differently and then do that 10 times in a night all different beats and you know different melodies and not you were using the same lines it's like it was the craziest thing we've ever seen yeah it was it was incredible it really was

you know I remember when we made legends with him and just you know A, the just the feeling that was overwhelming that room you know and one like it took him a couple takes

just to figure out what he was going to do and then literally one take the whole entire song and then the second take was just him you know lighting a lighter in that moment of silence and then that was it you know and it's like chills you know that

yeah you feel your heart sink when the take ends and it's just like the song is over it's like, oh my God, like he just did that all at one time and has all that meaning in it. Yeah. Like I, you know, I truly wish he was still here. Like, he's just, phenomenal artist, you know, phenomenal person, phenomenal human being. Like, he, in a lot of ways, he was one of the first big artists that made me and Denzel feel confident. Like, he really, like, complimented our beats. I remember when we're working on, you know, we're working on the first Sonic the

Hedgehog movie. And there's a version of the song that, you know, that leaked. that has him on it. And I remember pulling up to his house and just like, you know, he was full of compliments. Like he just love making people feel great. You know, like he'd look at us and just be like, man, I love your beats.

Like I love what you guys do, all this kind of stuff. Like really one of the first artists to make us feel like, wow, like we're being seen by someone who's like legitimately an icon. You know, especially an icon for like his generation. And now, you know, an icon for the whole world and all of music, you know. And truly just like, a gift to the world, you know, like, such an incredible, such an incredible person, incredible talent. And, you know, I really wish he was still here, like, truly.

Kid Cuddy. I feel like Cuddy is, like, the source of, like, a lot of our inspiration, musically and, and just the approach to creativity and life. And at the beginning, that was, like, one of our goals that was, like, you know, maybe one day we'll have something with Kid Cutty and finding all these ways of like, okay, like, who knows Cutty? Like, maybe let's link with Da, you know, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, the first time hearing him on one of our beats,

like we just sent a bunch of beats and we link with Dot, he's like, don't tell anyone I played you this. And it's just like this Cutty song from the first second, we were just like, oh my God, like. And, you know, Cutty was someone we grew up on. You know, he was one of the first artists that we grew up on be like, yo, you're dope. You know, I remember being in high school, like, you know,

he performed at some small college, like, close to Vermont. And, like, I drove all the way there just to see him, you know, like early day and night days, like 10 deep mixtapes, like, all that kind of stuff. Like, he's been someone that's, like, been in our lives for so long. And to actually have the opportunity to sit in front of him, you know, he's like a rare Pokemon, you know, it's like to actually have the opportunity to sit in front of him. and I remember the first studio session we ever had with him he played us the record that came out today do what I want

and you know me and Denzel are just like holy shit and it was you know Mo Bamba's this massive hit at the time and I remember he turned to us and he was like I want you to make me something that is like Mo Bamba in my world you know like immediately was like I'm gonna give you a task and I'm gonna see how you guys interact with this you know and he was one of the first like people that we looked up to that came in and was like

I'm gonna give you boys a challenge to see if you can actually have. Yeah, he just says that and we're like in this studio, there's like a bunch of keyboards. Everybody's like, okay, so I want you to do this. And then he just sits down and he's just looking at us. And we're like, oh my God. He really put. I mean, you guys got homework.

Like he gave you actual homework. And he really pushed it because he did that time and time again. Like he really pushed us. Every single time we hopped in the room with him, like he'd always give us a challenge. And then he'd reveal a story. where, you know, like Kanye and Jay-Z and all the people that,

when he was a young kid coming into the game with day and night, and all he had to his name was day and night, people were coming to him like, show us what you can do, you know? Like, show us what you're actually made of. And when he actually proved it, that's when he really started to get his flowers. That's when, you know,

all these incredible records that we grew up on were made. You know, that was his experience. It's that second song. It's that third song. It's not the first one. The first one is like, that's the story that's the one everyone you know that's how one hit wonders are made it's the guys who can come back that's the real wonder like how can you actually write too in a world that's

filled with all this other stuff yeah but speaking uh let's go to the next one um NYU clive davis institute probably the most important component of our early journey yeah you know it was really the moment that was like if you guys want to be in music here's your opportunity to A, come to a city that doesn't have, you know, three people living in your town.

It's like come be a part of like a mecca, you know, where like so much music history is there. You know, when we started in 2011, like, you know, purple swag had just come out by ASAP Rocky. Like, you know, like just the coolest shit was happening in New York. You know, it's like Action Bronson starting to pop up.

Like, World's Fair. you have like you know the fools gold uh you know festivals that are happening and like you know music was just such a strong component of the energy of new york city you know and we're like these 18 year old kids just wide-eyed just walking in just wanting to be a part of that you know and NYU and clive and like giving us an opportunity to learn not just how to make music and how to be in a studio but also how to interact with lawyers how to interact with managers like learning music history, learning, like going to legal classes, like having an opportunity to take a class with Quest Love all about Prince, you know, like just all these insane opportunities and like,

all while like, you know, being in the dorms and just like being rowdy and being a kid and like, you know, just having fun with all these kids that are also chasing their dreams that are coming to the city and just like want to make art and want to be a part of that. You know, we might have all been like the losers in high school and all that kind of stuff, like all the art school kids and all of a sudden like we're the coolest kids in New York. Like we're the art school kids, you know. And, like, having the time of our lives, man, like, it's just so important, you know, like, all the flowers to the Clive Davis Institute, like, it gave us a perspective that I think really

launched us into being able to know how to handle every curveball thrown at us, you know? All right, Denzel, this one's for you. David. David. I'd say like when we started hanging out it was like you know when you meet someone

as like a reflection of you but like in so many different ways it was like okay we're both from small towns but I don't know anything outside of my circle but I know this like little piece of information so well and you know like all these other things and they're almost like parallels like oh have you ever heard of justice I'm like no and I'm like oh have you ever ever

ever heard of Kirk Franklin? He's like, who? And then we're like putting these things together and, you know, making it, you know, change our perception of the things that we know best. And that's always been like our dynamic. Like, I'll show something to David and then he'll like show it back to me in a different way. I'm like, oh my God, how do you tell me something about that I know that I'm showing you? So that's like, yeah, he's nice with that. David, Denzel. I mean, you know, reflecting a lot of things that he just said, I think the amount of doors and the amount of perspectives that Denzel has opened up to me that has not only informed and boosted my own confidence as a musician, and it like he really showed me a path of where I can go and really like showcase my skill sets

and also grow within that you know like I think in a lot of ways like we're you know very very incredible in our own ways of what we're best at in music you know and I look at Denzel and I'm just like he's a he's a rhythm god you know like there's no one on planet earth that I think touches Denzel when it comes to his ability to make drums in any genre that you ask them to make them in you know in our chemistry on keyboards like our ability to just look at each other's eyes and like not say a word and like go to one note and be like ah yeah yeah that's that's exactly that's exactly what we're supposed to go you know but this is my brother for life like truly like this is this is my family you know we've

known each other for 11 years now like we've experienced so much together like for from being young kids just like trying to get into events, just trying to chase a dream to all of a sudden, like, realizing a dream. And then from there, realizing that the dream is just literally the beginning, now we've got to prove ourselves in this dream, you know? And being able to look at him and always know that no matter what, we're chasing the same thing for each other, for ourselves, we're always keeping the foot on the pedal together and creating art at the end of the day.

like art that is important to us art that's important to the world art that has has changed our lives you know like i i truly don't know like if what would have happened if i was 18 and like didn't get accepted to the club yeah right it was like the butterfly of like like where would we even be right now like that like i mean it's it's all those things that we were saying like what would happen if you just had a session the day that they're like hey this guy's available tonight and you're like well now that's okay well he's got one song out. It just happens that you, you know, some of these things you can't control. But what you guys have done, first of all, thank you guys for doing this podcast.

Thank you, man. Thank you for having. But, you know, what you guys have shown is that you seize opportunities. And so one way or another, you guys have continued to go through a lot of these doors together. But you guys are holding each other accountable. guys are are managing to continue to repeat success because you guys are are able to handle that hype you guys are able to work together and keep each other grounded and focused on what matters and there's no better evidence than that than when you have artists like kid cuddy or little naus ex who keep coming back to you guys it is so so hard to develop a relationship over multiple

albums with an artist. They often want to try other people. They want to try other things. And that's okay. That's also okay. But it says a lot about you guys wanting to push each other, wanting to push your artists, wanting to be accepting, wanting to open doors. You guys are so smart. It's really fun to watch. I'm glad that we're just meeting like this. I get the feeling that we'll be having these conversations in person soon. But man, I just really appreciate you guys. and what you guys are standing for in the music business. It's good people who are smart. It's just a good recipe for the next, you know,

the next generation of the music business. So thank you guys. Man, thank you so much, truly. Yeah, it's an honor to be on this podcast. Remember listening to this when we were down bad in New York, like, wow, this is great information. Yeah, truly. Well, there you go.

Truly. But, you know, thank you so much, man, for having us, you know. Thank you truly for the kind words. and like, you know, it's really an honor to be able to be on this show and speak to people like you, you know, based on, you know, just trying to do the things that, you know, we've been dreaming of in life, you know. So thank you. There you go.

This episode is produced by Joe London, hypnosis, mega house management, and myself. Shout out Paige McDonald, Kelly Fox, Casey Robinson, David Silberstein, Tim Kirch, and Zach Weinstein. See you all next. week. I'm Ross Golan, signing off.