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a look behind
we wanted to give you all a personal behind the scenes look of what went into making this single. from hitting Jake up to recording the track to shooting the photoshoot and planning the upcoming video(s).
February 21st, 2018 we sent Jake an e-mail through his general contact that said something along the lines of "we think you're dope. we're flying to LA. lets make music." we hadn't heard back for a few weeks and had just landed in LAX. we looked down at our phones and Jake texts us saying "hey want to get in the studio in a few days?"
the past two years since, we've co-wrote (Slavo produced & co-produced) songs of Jake's such as "Ocean Away", "Nobody Else" & "Ross & Rachel". after working together for several months we became close friends. we had always known that there would be a time where we would collaborate with both of our projects, but hadn't come across the right song yet that made sense.
we wrote "Automatic" March 4th this year with our co-writer Rebecca Page. we had just moved into our brand new back house studio in Los Angeles. having just arrived from New York, the first couple of months we found it a bit tough to adjust. coming off the momentum of our track "Lovely" we continued to find ourselves writing songs from a place of loneliness & longing for someone. we went in that day with a different & fresh perspective. we were getting used to our surroundings more. we were becoming more comfortable with where we were at in our lives. we wanted to capture how it feels to automatically click with someone like we have. Here's a link to a voice memo from the session that day: link
fast forward a few months ago we had went out to dinner with Jake to catch up since he had been in Florida for a majority of this year. we told him about the collaboration EP we've been in the process of releasing and that we had a song we wanted him to come through to the studio to listen to. we played him "Automatic" shortly after and spoke about what it meant to us when we wrote it. within two days his parts were recorded.
we're always excited for each release of ours because it gives you, the reader / the fan a different side of us. each song resonates with people differently. every artwork we design & every video we direct is another project that brings in new eyes and ears to what we work on night + day. this release has had so many layers & prep go into it and that's why we wanted to write this for y'all.
a lot of what has made "Automatic" a special one for us is how we decided to collaborate with new creatives for it. the photoshoot was shot by @natashawilson.co we had sent her a mood board for the mature aesthetic we were going for. we met for the first time in the photo studio and went straight into shooting. a lot different poses. some that had us trying to keep a straight face on and others that involved Jake jumping over our head.
we had went over Jake's house to rehearse "Automatic" acoustic for his live stream show and discussed an idea we had for the lyric video. a few days later we rented a photo permit and brought our camera out to a bench amidst some beautiful LA nature. we knew that the official video would be involved with more crew so we wanted the lyric video to feel more personal. We filmed it ourselves for a couple of hours, walked around looking at trees for another 30 minutes, and then called it a wrap.
3 moments of the creative process:
Slavo: Recording the gang vocals in the studio with all of us was a blast. We kept and still continue to do this stupid game where we change the lyrics in the chorus and it had me dying that night.
Justin: Meeting up at 6:30AM to load the car for the official video was pretty great. We were all tired as hell, but really committed to giving the best video we possibly could.
Jake: One of my favorite moments was getting on a giant zoom call with 100 fans and playing them the song before it came out. The 3 of us were pretty nervous, but the response made us even more excited for the release.
sneak preview: "Automatic" Acoustic
a hotel room.
3 instruments.
stripped vocals.
coming soon
sneak preview: "Automatic" Official Video
an adventure.
3 suit jackets.
tons of energy.
coming soon
If you've made it this far and are reading you know that the official video and acoustic video are not out yet. We don't want to give too much away, but they're both coming soon. When they're out we'll be updating this page to show more exclusive behind the scenes.
Until then all we can say is we hope you love listening to "Automatic" as much as we loved making every aspect of it.
- Justin & Slavo
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