Benny Blanco
Appearances
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
It is true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is he the waiter or is he Andrew again? He's still the waiter.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
We can't afford premium brand. What are you talking about? That shirt was $9,000.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Okay, and I wanted someone who was kind and who actually like... Selena's incredible. When I wake up in the morning, I know what's going through her head. And now what's going through my head too is like, how can we make today the best day for both of us? She's thinking about me.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And I feel like a lot of times in relationships, I felt like I was always giving and I wasn't getting what I wanted in return. And she's so thoughtful, so caring, so compassionate. So I really wanted someone like that. I basically manifested the perfect person for me. And I want it manifest.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Our first date? Yeah. Our first date was insane. Okay. So I didn't know we were on a date. Okay. So here's what happened. Okay. Here's what happened. We had like left. We left the studio one day. We start texting.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I produced with her. And I have for years. For years. For 10 plus years.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Okay. So afterwards she texts me or no, I texted her and I was like, Oh my God. I was like, uh, I was like, what a great set. I forget what happened, something. And then we start texting back and forth and I'm busy that night. And, and we're just texting back and forth and, and, and,
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
There's never been sexual tension. So you never even thought about it? No, I never, we've always been in relationships. We've always like, there's always, we've never even been single at the same time. Professional mode always. Okay, so we start like texting and somehow we start sending like selfies back and forth. Oh, that's how it starts. It was like a selfie thing. Right.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
there was there was giggling but i wasn't thinking of anything i was just like oh i'm just like we're working on a song it's cool and then she was like uh you want to you want to get some food tomorrow and so okay so before while we were at the session i was talking we were talking about our dating lives and i was like oh my god i know so many great guys why don't you like come to our house one day and like we'll have like a dinner and you can meet some people like i literally wasn't even thinking about it
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Why do you keep going like this with your hair? Because I'm emo, dude.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
No, they're... I was shopping with my fiance at... Ooh! Now he's changing again. Ooh! Now we were just saying. Why does everyone have to use these mics? Why can't they find a better system? This is one of the best mics in the game. You've been complaining since you've been here, Benny. Yeah. What are you complaining? I wanted you to put on your shirt, and I thought you looked beautiful.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
So she decided to come over and I was like, oh, my friend has a birthday party. Let's go get some drinks first. We went to my friend. My friend has a bar called Stir Crazy. It's like a wine bar. We like went there first. And then we went to Jitlada was where my friend was having. You know that place?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
It's delicious. Jazz. She runs it. I love jazz. I love jazz too. No, her name is jazz. Okay. Keep going. You like it?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Okay, so we're just sitting there and then she's like, or no, first we're at the wine spot and she said, oh my God, if this was a, she was like, man, I would have worn something different for this date. And I was like, we're on a date? And then she was like, what? And then I was like, and I was so confused. And then she didn't bring it up again. And then we're like hanging, having the best time.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Yeah, after the date, right? Yeah, I'm so clueless. Wow. So then we're on our, we're like second date, we're just chilling at my house and we're like- Who organized the second date? You said come over? I think she was like, let's hang out again. It was so casual and it was so, and I was like, I'm so, I'm so- dumbfounded that she could ever even like me.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Then I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, let's hang out again. So we're at my house, and we're playing this little game, and it's like these cards you pull out.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Almost 20 pounds. Really? Yeah, 15. And how long will you do it till you have no torso left?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Second date, she comes over to my house. We're playing the game. How many people are there? No, it's just me and her. Oh, my God. It's just me and her. Wow. And still in this moment, I'm just like, I'm like, I'm not even thinking about it like that for some reason. She's at my house. There's this game. And in the game, it says, take a selfie with the person next to you.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I was the only one next to her. So she like comes up towards me and like is on my chest and takes a selfie. And then I was and I said, oh, my God.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
and then I turned oh my god what let him do it oh sorry and I was like oh my god and then I just kissed her immediately and that was our first kiss it has to be a 95% you know what I mean you have to be 95% higher 99% sure with Selena Gomez you do with Selena Gomez yeah how did you know it was 99% I felt it When you feel it, you feel it. Really? Yeah, I felt it. Yeah, he felt it.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
That's never happened to me before. Wait, have you read it wrong many times in your life? No.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Every time I read it wrong. Not every time. I think there's six to eight in your life.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
You don't like these mics? As someone who is a professional. No, I do like these mics, but I don't understand why there's not a version at this point where it's like we're like,
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
No, because we're both so busy. But very, very quickly, we realized, you know, when like you first start dating someone, you're like, oh, I can't give them all my time. But then very quickly, like it's like, oh, I have an hour free here. I'll hang out with them. Oh, I have this time here. And very quickly, we realized that we were I have a little go fever. Yeah. Very quickly.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I realized we were like inseparable and no, I love. Yeah. And I met my best friend who said, who said, I love you first. She did. She said it so many times by mistake. Even.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
She was getting like, uh, um, I forget. She, she was getting like dental work or something. Something happened and she was like a little woozy and, uh, as she was coming to, she was like, I love you. And I was like, and I, and I, and I, and I, I was so scared. So I didn't, I didn't say it back. I didn't say it back.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And then one time she was, her and Taylor Swift were at a sushi restaurant and they were sending me a voice memo and they were like, Oh my God, this is so much fun. We miss you. We wish you were here. And she was like, we love you. And then just like, she literally said, we love you. And then it was like, and then it ended. And then I was waiting. I knew we were taking this trip to New York.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
You like Southwest? Yeah. Every time this guy has to go to New York, he has to drive. He's like, I'll be there in three days. Yeah, I drive. I do. I take a boat to Europe. Are you being real?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Be honest with me. I haven't flown. I haven't gotten on a plane since 2000. Oh, I got on a plane, but I got off of it. I haven't successfully flown on a plane since 2018. And before that, 2015. Before that, 2009. So you really drive to places. Yes, and I take a boat. But I just decided two days ago that I'm going to fly again. Thank you. I just decided.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I was in the shower, and I was sitting on the ground in the shower. I sit on the ground every time I get in the shower.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And I said... I said, how? What? That's funny. Yeah, it's insane. What? It's insane. You don't ever sit on the ground in the shower. What? What? No. In the bathtub? In the tub. No. No. In the shower. Sit on the ground. Let it wash over you. Sometimes I actually lay down and let the water shoot into my asshole.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
That's where all the good ideas come from. It feels so... Okay, so I was just sitting in the shower and... I was like, how old am I? I'm 36. And I said, fuck. I said, you know, someone died recently and they were like 90. And I was like, Jimmy Carter. I was like, that's I was like, I was like, shit, I only get to live my life like two more times.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I was like, I'm going to die and I'm not going to get on an airplane. I was like, I should just get on an airplane because I might die on that. I might get cancer tomorrow. I might. I don't know.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
2018? No, I was in New York like a month or two ago. And you drove there from L.A.? I was in New York in December, and I'm going back in two weeks. And you're driving there? Yeah. Okay.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I've been a few times by flight, but many times by boat. Wonderful. So you do fly, sir?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Yeah. Did you, when you were younger, are you finding it that you're getting girls easier now or when you were younger?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I know, I know. Well, okay, okay. Here's, here's, here's what it is. She's like a homebody. Like her favorite thing to do. Let's not talk about a woman's body on the show.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Everybody got blowjobs in high school. I never got one. Not in high school?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I know, I'm shaming. Yeah. Her body's like a house. It's a big, burly house. No, she just likes to chill at home. So do you, though. Yeah, yeah, I'm like a big chiller. Like, I don't want to go to, like, we're not going to... Like, we want to, like, chill at... That's us every night.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Wait, are any of you guys sober? No, you're not. I'm in the program. Okay, okay, okay. Are you in the program? I'm not, I'm not.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
, , , , , , ,, P P P P P P P P P 100實 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , a and a and a and a and a and a a a an P P P P P P That's literally what she did. No. She goes, she goes, is blank here. And he was so embarrassed. He even, I remember that day. She did that? Yes. I remember that day. Subs are rad. We were at home.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Go ahead. I don't even know what I was talking about. Yeah, you do. Oh, oh, oh. Yeah, you do. Alcohol. Okay. When I was like... Until like 31, I could drink the entire night, sleep zero, go to bed at 5 a.m., wake up at 6, like work a full day. Now I have like two drinks and I feel like hungover for three days. And I just can't. I can't take it. Why don't you get in the program?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
We were at home and he was contemplating changing schools. Yeah. Changing schools. He should have done it. Yeah. Okay. Genders. Okay.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I mean, fast forward. This man goes through puberty and his cock becomes huge. Love this.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
He's got like a he's got a fucking python in his pants. It's thick. It's huge. How do you know? You know, we all know. How do you know?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Yeah. Everyone. Yeah. You know, you know. You know. Okay. So he's in college. He's at a party. Same girl.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Wow. And he said it was like the best performance. He's like, usually I'm terrible at sex. He's like, it was the best performance I had ever done. Yeah. And he said, as he's leaving, she's like, the next day he's leaving. And he just goes. As he walks out.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Where a guy like comes up and hits you on the back. Touching you in the bathroom is insane.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
You know what happened to me? Yeah. The other day. It's happened to me so many times. The guy's just pissing and starts talking to me. And then after he talks to me, he gives me a high five with his dick hand. Not necessary.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I mean, act. What the fuck? I saw him on, I like that, Call Me By Your Name. That movie. The movie from four years ago?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
You're so... I usually don't like those type of biopics. They're usually kind of corny.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
That's the one I saw, and I was like, oh, I still can, I can, I'm like, I was right, I can't see these again. Because that one was a little corny. Yeah, they're just like, they're, as someone who like, I really love like all documentaries, like Dylan's documentary, incredible.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And I love, for me, it's just like- Okay, the type of movies that turn me on and turn me off, I don't love those super Hollywood biopic things. I don't love action movies. They're not my favorite type of- What do you watch? Nothing. Okay, I love a movie that's gonna rip my heart out, or I love a- Amelia Perez. No, but I also love like Force Rejoice, Triangle of Sadness. Force Rejoice is so good.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Triangle of Sadness is good. Yeah, I love those type of movies. And I like like... How about horror? I do like, I like some horror. Okay. And I like... You're good. And I really like, what's it called? Because horror is different than action. It's like more, it's like actions like that. Like horror, you're like, horror, you're like, whoa, like they really did.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
It's not just like a really good horror movie is like so beyond. It's a mindfuck.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Okay. The Hulk. Yes, so you do know. Yeah, you know. Wait, really? Yes. I just guessed. Are they actually Spider-Man and the Hulk? They're in the Avengers, yeah.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I've only seen... Copyright. I've only seen... I think I've only seen one Marvel movie.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Spider-Man, it's gotta be. Oh, is that Marvel? Okay, then I saw the original Spider-Man.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And then, oh, I've seen two. I saw the one, the animated one. The open verse or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw that. Okay. I went with someone's kid to that one. Let's clarify that story. Yeah.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
When I was a kid, I saw Star Wars in school. Like we had to watch it in school. But that's the only time you saw it? Only time I've ever seen it. That's so fascinating. I've never seen Lost. I've never seen. That's nothing to do with fucking superheroes.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
He made some Star Wars. Okay. Yeah. Oh, okay. And then I've never seen, what's another big, one of those movies?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I've never seen Game of Thrones. Wow. Not one episode? Just one episode when Ed Sheeran was at my house and he wanted to stream it because he was in the episode. It was the only episode I ever saw.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
No, Mayo's cousin, I would say. Yeah, yeah. What would you watch? I would say, let's watch Amelia Perez, I Miss My Wife. She was good in it, I heard. Yeah, she's great.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I can't even get a commercial agent. Yeah. Yeah, mustard doesn't get a lot of work in this town. And I love, I really love, like, the, like, slapstick comedy that's just gonna mine this. Oh, Naked Gun.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And I also love, like, I love, like, like, like, Early Days of Seth was so good. I loved Superbad, all that shit. Oh, right, right. Love that. And then, and then, yeah, otherwise I want to watch, like, an indie, like, my mom took me, when I was a kid, I was watching, like, we were going to see, like, The Squid and the Whale. Like, you know what I mean?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Okay, okay. My family, like very important shows growing up that we watched as a family, we watched Sopranos, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Seinfeld. That's great. Those were our, and my parents both have pretty good tastes in stuff. I'm also obsessed with any mafia movie. So like, I'm a- Scorsese.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I was actually just rewatching, I had COVID like two months ago and was rewatching so many movies and I'm just like, oh, I'm just like, I forgot like how good Cape Fear was. So good. Oh my God. And I was just, I was going through like all my favorite movies and like all like, you know, like, A Bronx Tale, all those old movies. Those movies are so perfect. Bronx Tale is so good.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
What's your favorite gangster movie? Probably either Casino or Goodfellas. That's everyone's two.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Okay, why are you looking at me like that? He's a pro. I don't know what the fuck you're doing, Benny. That's why I'm looking at you. I have an album coming out. With My Better Half. We're doing a joint album. Yeah. Clap more for her, not me.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Selena and Benny? It's called Selena and Benny. Really? No. Wait, wait, wait.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
What do you mean? Anything's possible. It's possible. All right. Kentucky Lightning. That's it. That's really good. That's really good. How did he get it? That's really good. No, it's not Kentucky Lightning.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Which one? So when does the album drop? I think it's already out by the time.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
It's out right now, go check it out on everything. This is the future, so it's already out. Well, we are living in the future.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
It happens, it happens. Well, Benny is- It does. I come from, my family is- He's a child of fetal alcohol syndrome. No, I'm- I can already tell. I can tell already. Don't bring that up.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Is it? No, no, no, no, but it wasn't. Romantically. Yeah, it wasn't romantically before. Well, what is it now? Romantically. No, but it didn't change the work relationship. Well, you guys just hook up mid-session? Yeah, we're just mid-session hookup. No, it's actually better because we can... I know her so well now. We can say, we can speak so freely to each other and really...
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
If we're sitting in bed, I'll be like, oh, actually that thing we did earlier, I thought it'd be better if we did it like this. And then she'll be like, oh, I either like that or I don't. And we can just talk about it. Some things you might walk on eggshells a little bit more when you're working with an artist you don't necessarily know that well. And I think it's so much better.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And we've been able to like... You can say whatever you want. You can talk about... There's no rule. It's like... you know how in comedy, like you might say a joke. That's something that you would never say in real life, but it's the art of the joke. That's why you're saying like, it's not how you actually feel about a person, but you're saying it because you think it's funny. Right.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And in music, it's the same thing. Like you can say something like, let's say I was talking about like someone from my past or she's talking about from someone from her past in a song. If you can like talk about that way more than like talking about, you know what I mean? Like, so it's, it's, it's like therapy and it's, I found it to be,
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
much easier to work with her than I've worked with anybody else, I think.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Why can't he fit in it? He's saying that I'm fat. I think you fit in that easily. Thank you, Benny. Do you actually think he can't fit in it?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Right, right. Like, just be cracked? What are you doing? He's moistening, dude. It's not making them moist.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I like the way you did that. I can't do that because I'm stuck in a plastic chair in between. Here's my unicorn.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Korean unicorns are different. No, no, no. I don't think that's the unicorn. I think that's him on top of the unicorn.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
And why have you been out of breath? I smoke cigarettes. So you're just out of breath all the time? Why does everyone come out here nitpicking all my frailties? Okay, wait. I'm a unicorn.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
That's actually cool. Okay, now when you're at Shake Shack, is he coming? Yeah, he's coming. Of course he's coming. You guys want something to drink? Yeah, yeah. He works in every restaurant. And I'm like, oh my God.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
How do you know? How do you know? Because I'll go on their Instagram. It took you like 40 years to make. It takes everyone so long. Benny, let me ask you something.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Family upbringing though. This is, I always talk about any, No, no, because my mom always says this. She always says, she's like, before I started dating Selena, she would always say, I want you to be with someone from a good family. And then I don't agree with that. My mom was from a shitty family. Like my mom has a terrible, I don't, you don't get to choose who your parents are.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Sometimes your parents are dickheads. I don't know. I don't believe, I believe that they should have like a, a close relationship with like someone in their family. But I don't think you have to be best friends with all your family. It's great. If you are, it's fucking amazing. But most people's parents are divorced. Most people, you know, they're, I don't, I don't know.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Okay, let's see. It fits. It fits perfectly. Fits good. It's perfect.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Your parents aren't divorced. My parents are both are the divorced. Oh, they are? They are the divorced. Do you talk to your dad? I speak to my dad.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Stop pointing at me when you talk to me. Okay. What's wrong with you? No, he has arthritis.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
You've never camped before. I actually did a couple months ago. No, he did.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Oh, okay. But he doesn't. But you want to know that if you do go camping and you light a fire, your imaginary Mayo girlfriend won't have trauma from that. This all adds up to me. It all adds up.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
He's the waiter, man. He just has to stay here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't have a choice. He does tip me very well. I guess so. Yeah, okay. What are some of your check marks? Okay, I had- Give me your check marks. Okay, okay. I did, because before I met Selena- How'd you meet her? We've known each other for like 15 years. But I'm saying, before we started dating, I remember being like, fuck, like-
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
Wait, are you actually on Ozempic? Yeah, I am. Really? Not Ozempic. He's on the other one. Manjaro.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I keep doing the same thing over and over again. Like I'm just dating. I'm doing this. And my therapist was like, you got to make a checklist. He was like, you got to make a list of the things you want and need. And I had a checklist. And OK, you want to know what mine were?
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
That was all of them. Really? What was the checklist? That was it. No, really, what was it? No, the checklist was I wanted, I said 30 or over for me. Right. 30 or older. That's what I wanted at the time. That's how I felt. 30 plus. I wanted someone who was passionate about something. They didn't have to make money or anything, just that they have a passion and they're going towards something.
Bad Friends
benny blanco-gomez
I don't care what it is. If they were like, I do those little paper football things and I'm the best at flicking it through like this, I would say, you keep doing that, babe. Whoa, hey, this is my dream woman. I didn't get mad at you when yours was mayo made of sand, okay?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Has anyone ever heard these before? No. Besides the people who made them? I don't think anyone's ever heard it. This is insane. That song was like eight years old by the time... Really? Yeah, by the time it came out. Wait, I think I... It's the return of the...
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
With somebody that everybody was counting against. Every single person told us stereo hearts wouldn't work. A moves like Jagger is not going to work. Every person. So it's like, I always, I don't know. I always feel like I always want to go against what everyone is saying because I don't know. I just got it. You got to trust your heart. Yeah.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It's so hard to explain to someone who doesn't, like, traditionally make music. And I actually always want to know if a listener feels this, too. When I know the song is one of those songs, I get this, like, strange feeling in, like, my stomach or chest. Like, right when you're about to, like, kiss someone for the first time or you're, like, going to get hit by a car.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And it's, like, it kind of takes your breath away. And then... I always smile and I can't stop smiling. Like when someone plays something so sick and I'm just like, like, and you can't stop. So whenever I get those feelings, I usually am just like, oh, I have to go with that because I like that. So at least a few people might.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Wow, you're so juiced up. When you first came in here, you were so tired. And now you're at like peak energy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Those songs I knew right away. That's cool. The second I was like, oh, this is it. And I just have to trust my intuition. I knew they were great. I'm never like one of those guys that's like, this is a hit song. I knew they were amazing and they made me feel a certain way.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And I hope they made other people feel that way because I just wanna share music that makes me feel like so excited because hopefully it can make another person feel excited. I'm not even thinking about it in like the hit capacity. If it's a hit, that's great. Otherwise, it's still a good day for me. I put out a song that I love.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, a lot of big songs people don't really believe in until it's too late.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, it's crazy. It's so crazy to me. Wow. Yeah. What's another song we're supposed to talk about?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay. I want to tell you, I want to tell you a story about, about issues. This is a crazy story that not that many people know. Okay. Julia Michaels. I'm tucking my arm right here. Oh yeah. I'm getting comfy for this one. Julia Michaels. Yeah. Incredible songwriter. Okay. Yeah. She was just starting to get big, okay? She had a few hits under her belt.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
We wrote a song with, you know, Stargate and Justin. And I always was like, I always wanted to have one of those songs that had like an orchestra behind, like Salaam Remy was so good at doing that. And like, I love that song, Bust the Windows by Jasmine Sullivan. I love, you know, I also love like Unfaithful by Rihanna. I love those moments where it was like strings.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And I was like, we have to bring that back. So we started playing some stuff and then issues just like fell out of the sky, okay? And Julia just like, it just happened so quickly. And I remember everyone wanted that song. Everyone wanted to sing that song. They wanted that song to come out as their project. And Julia called me days, weeks after.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And she said, Benny, I think I want to become an artist. And I think I want to use that song. And I said, fucking amazing let's do it some other people didn't necessarily believe in that same vision and they were like what are you talking about this song's right here it it's huge there's an artist right here there's so many artists fighting over this and i just remember telling everyone i was like
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
If she wants the song, give her the song. It's her heart and soul and she sells it so well. And it's a song, we'll make another song. If it's not a thing, it just felt right in that moment. And so many people were against it. She didn't even have a record deal yet. And I remember we finally got her to have the song. Everyone, same thing. Everyone was so nervous about it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Nobody thought it was going to be this big thing. And she puts the song out. It connects like a motherfucker. And that year she literally got nominated for Best New Artist and Song of the Year. So it was like this song that we did that nobody believed in for her to be the artist. They just wanted some huge artist that was already successful. And I, you know, for me, it's like, that's cool.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, probably. I don't think anyone's ever heard it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
But like breaking a new artist and like bringing a new artist with so much personality and identity to, the world is so much better to me than just doing a song for a big person. All the first people I worked with, they were all nobodies. Kesha wasn't big. Katy Perry wasn't big. I didn't work with like a big artist till a little bit later. And then I was like, oh, this is cool too.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
You're breaking ground.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
You know what I mean? It's like when we work with like Rihanna, I was like, oh my God, this is a moment. Now that's a crazy story. Okay. Okay. This is an insane story. Did I ever tell you the diamond story?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
But never, we didn't do it together, did we? No, never. Okay. Here we go.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
This is so long ago. I'm so old. Well, I'm just thinking, this is like when we did this, it was probably 2010 or 11. Wow. So I remember... Me and Stargate are sitting there, we're making some beats. Everything's all good. We got all these beats happening and we loved this one that we made. And I said, oh my God, we gotta send this to like Eminem or Kanye. And we like sent it and I remember
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Paul Rosenberg, Eminem's manager was like, we love this thing. And I was like, oh, that's so sick. Fast forward, like eight months, never heard anything from that. Sia's in the studio. She'd finished all of her music for the day. Okay. And this was like before Uber was big or anything. And she was like, I'm going to call a car. She called a car.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
They said, oh, the car is like 18 to 20 minutes away. She said, okay, well, I guess pull up another thing. Well, I wait. We pull up. the beat to Diamonds. In 15 minutes, song, lyrics, melody, harmonies, full demo, done. Okay. That's insane. Her car gets here, she had a few minutes to spare to go to the bathroom. Okay. We, I remember Stargate was like, we're going to send this to Rihanna.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't, you know, I didn't, I couldn't hear the song yet. I was like, I don't know. Uh, no, maybe we shouldn't.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And I just like, didn't hear the song. Sometimes you don't hear the song. And I was just like, I don't know. I don't know if this one's like our best song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
maybe we should send something else oh and then yeah got it and i was like i don't know about this song and then they were like you gotta trust us you gotta trust us and i said you know what you guys know rihanna so well let's let's see what happens and then i remember i remember getting the call where they were like rihanna loves this and then they made one change uh
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Shine Bright Like a Diamond was only in, like, the intro. And then they put it over that... They put it over that part. And this guy, Tata, that works with Jay-Z, had, like, a brilliant idea that just, like, really made it so catchy. It kept doing that part. And they were like, she wants to cut it. And I was like, shit, okay. And then I remember...
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I was with I was randomly with Sia at like a furniture store or something, and we get a call and they said, She cut it last night. It's coming. This was like Thursday. She cut it last night. It's coming out on Monday. And I was like, wait, what? And I remember being in a meeting with a record label and they were like, yeah, they're like, Rihanna's looking for songs. Like, I don't know.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
We're going to put something out in the next six months. The label didn't even know she was putting that song out. Okay. And they were like, we're putting that song out on Monday. And I was like, What? I was like, this is, and I remember listening to it and just being like, oh my God, this is like the biggest song in the world. Randomly, around the same time, I get a call from Paul Rosenberg.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And he's like, hey, Em really loves that beat. And he's like, I think he might be like doing something to it. And I was like, wait, what? I was like, Rihanna, I haven't heard from you in like a year. Rihanna's putting the song out. And he was like, what? No. And then I was like, what? And then somehow it all worked out. Rihanna puts out the song like three days later.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It becomes the biggest song in the world.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And yeah, it was crazy. Once her voice was on it, she's so good at making a song, like bringing a song from like a seven to like a 500. Like it's insane. But songs rarely don't come out that quickly. Like it doesn't usually happen. The only other time I remember that happening was when we did Kesha's We Are Who We Are.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay. We made that song. And I remember... This is the craziest. We made the song and they were like, we need to put that song out in like four days. Like we were finishing like the repack. It was like the last thing we did. And I remember the day we were gonna finish it, we were all like, oh, let's take edibles, okay? And we took these edibles.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It was like, there was like this French guy named Billboard who's a producer who like gave us all edibles. And I remember I like took it And I was like, oh, I feel cool. And I went to the computer and I sat down at the computer and the computer like froze and we had to restart it. And I remember as it was restarting, I was like, I like short circuited and I was like, whoa.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I was like, what's happening to me? And then I was just like, um, and it was hitting me so hard. The edible hit me so hard that I remember walking out And the assistant looked at me and he was like, you don't look so good. And everything was like in slow motion. And he was like, hey. And I was just like, and I like didn't know who I was. And I remember losing my mind. And I was so high.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I was at Conway, the recording studio, and it's like all outdoors. And I like went over to the guy and I was like, can I get some food? And I like ordered food. I was losing my mind. I called my brother to like pick me up. I got so freaked out that I ran and hid in the bushes and started crying. And like, I remember like they like, my brother came to pick me up. They like found me.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And they like, I had no shoes on. I like took my clothes. I had like, and they like dragged me to the, to the car. And I remember Kesha being like, hey, do you want? And I was like, don't talk to me. I just remember yelling, don't talk to me. Go home, I don't remember a thing after that. I sleep for like 24 hours, okay? Then we have like one day to finish the song. Oh my gosh.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
So I go back and I finish the song. So if you realize, let me see if I have it on this. What's that song? We Are Who We Are. Okay, so... Okay, watch this. Is it letting me play it? Okay, so if you notice... Please update my browser, remind me later. I haven't opened this computer in so long. Okay, here we go, watch.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay, so if you notice, we had so little time that we didn't have time to record her on a bridge, okay? So I had 30 minutes to finish the song, okay? So if you listen to the second verse of this song, watch. Okay. Okay, second verse. Didn't have time to finish the song, so the bridge is literally just DJ Turn It Up a million times in a row. Listen.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
But you never notice.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
So you did that in 30 minutes? Less. I had no time. We had to turn the thing in. So that's literally, I was like, what can we put there? We have no more vocals from her. And then I was like, DJ, turn it up, up, up, up. And it just worked. And people loved it. And people have no idea. I didn't know that. I guess you pumped up.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, exactly. Everyone sings that part. Literally, it's literally just the verse.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Do you also have diamonds? The demo? Let me see if I have it on this computer.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Here's the original version without.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Crazy, right? That's insane. It's so amazing to witness and watch. I've only been around a few artists like that. You know, Sia literally records her songs in five minutes. You play a beat. She says, you play like one second. She goes, no, no, stop it. She goes, I like that one, after one second, okay?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, probably. Same Old Love? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I think that might be the first time. Was that 2013? I looked it up.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Then she goes, and she presses record on her little laptop and she usually either lies on the ground or is in a blanket lying in a fully fetal position with like a blanket on a couch. She goes, and she's like, And just like singing a demo. She does three passes of it. And then she goes, okay, which one's the verse? Which one's the chorus? And which one's the pre? Then she goes, okay, I like that.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Then she goes, okay, give me five minutes. And then she writes it down. Then she goes, okay, let's record. She goes, open eight tracks. And then she knows how many harmonies. Then she records it in three seconds. Esther Dean was like that too. Wow. Yeah. It's just like some of these people, it takes me so long to finish anything.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Like, even like after she does that, I like sit there and I like, just like cry over each layer and I'm like, should it be the, or it like, and it's like, like, I'm so I'm, I'm so tortured by my own brain and they just do it so quickly.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
With me? A long time.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Sometimes. A week, sometimes a year, sometimes three years, sometimes two months, sometimes eight years. I sit on songs until it's like the perfect time with the perfect artist, because I think everything has to align the right way. You know? And it's just like, sometimes it works right then and there. Sometimes it doesn't.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
When did Same Old Love come out? It came out in 2015. I think we worked earlier. Because I saw Kill Him With Kindness. What year is that?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It's different every time, you know, some artists, you know, I, you know, you know what I try to explain it as to people. It's kind of like, okay. It's kind of like going to the gym. Okay. Okay. And you're, The artist is bench pressing. They're sitting down, okay? They're lifting up those reps. They're benching 200. And some artists need you to spot them a little bit more.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And some artists, you just are there just like kind of just like in case something happens. Some artists, you're like helping them a little bit. Some artists, you're like kind of pulling the bar up all the way on. And I look at it like that. I just try to get in where I fit in. Some artists, I write the song. Some artists... I help them craft the song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Some artists I stay out of the way and then just step in when I need to.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay, I'm working with you.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
How does the first session go?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay. I'm working with you?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay. Well, I know you're not a morning person, so I start the session later. Okay? Okay. So the session starts a little later. Okay. You come to my house.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I like doing it in the house more than a studio because it's less pressure. Studio is so much pressure. Feels comfortable in a house. Yeah, studio is so much pressure. I get so nervous. I usually make majority of my songs that I've made in the studio are made in a lounge because I don't like to be in the studio. I don't even use the real studio. That's great. And then you come in. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
We talk and I'm like, I'm like, how are you? And you're like, oh, I'm good. And I'm like, no, how are you? And you're like, I'm good. And I'm like, no, really, how are you? And you're like, I hate this. I hate that. And then we start talking and we get, we're gathering our little story. And then we might make music. We might just talk for a few days. We might make some music that sucks.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Oh, yeah. Yeah, because we started Samuel Love in 2013 or something, the end of 2013 or something. That makes sense. You started Samuel Love at the end? I think so. It took two years?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And then hopefully something good will come out and we'll eat a bunch of food. We'll laugh. And I don't ever force the process ever. I'm never like, we only have 30 minutes to make a song. It has to be a hit. Like, I'm just like, oh.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
A song finished, I'm okay with finishing a song, but not creating the idea. I don't, no one's like... Sometimes that naturally happens. Like, you know, with Kesha, we thought blah, blah, blah was going to be the first single. And then right before we were turning in the album, we made TikTok, Your Love Is My Drug. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All that stuff. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I told you the California girls, they had both the singles done. And then I got there and I was sitting in the lounge. Did I tell you that story? On our last thing?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Oh, but I didn't tell you the story of what happened.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Oh my God. Okay, okay. Real quick. I thought I told you this, right? I stopped flying. Okay. And I didn't want to fly anymore.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I'm still not flying. It's so stupid. Do you fly a lot?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Oh, it's so pretty over there.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Are you going to move?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Are you going to do it?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Like sometimes, sometimes I have songs. I have a song that by the time it came out, it was probably eight years old, seven, eight years old. What's that song called? Animals by Maroon 5. That song was like eight years old by the time. Really? Yeah, by the time it came out. Wait, I think I... What? Hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, it was originally...
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, I feel like if you're out here, you'll be doing these every day. Probably. It's crazy. I don't even know how you do this many from being in Arizona. It's such a quick flight, though.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
That's crazy. I've driven it a million times.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I've been to Arizona 75 times.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Driving through to New York on road trips.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Every single person told us stereo hearts wouldn't work a moves like Jagger is not gonna work every person Sometimes I'm taking a shit and I just hear a whole chorus in my head It was like Jagger was the song you were trying to make us your idea As my idea. All the first people I worked with, they were all nobodies. Now she's like the biggest artist in the world.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, I take a boat to Europe.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I've done it not filmed.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Probably like six. Really? Yeah. And I drive to New York very often. I'm doing it in two weeks. Are you driving or someone else? No, no, no.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I take a tour bus and I like hang out with all my friends and like go to fun places.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah. I do it all the time. I'm doing it in two weeks. I just did it a month ago. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I'm on my way to... I'm on my way to LA.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
At this point, I'm not driving on a tour bus at this point. I'm like driving in like a rav four with like my brother and like a bunch of people in the car. And it's like, we're like stopping every four hours. Cause we like are tired. So it takes like two weeks. It took me like a week and a half to get to New York or to LA. I was in New York to get to LA. I get to LA.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I get in the studio with Katie and all them and they were like, oh, we did it. We finished the album. And I was like, what? I like just got there. And they were like, yeah, we got the first single. It's the song called Part of Me. And then the second single is this one called The One That Got Away. And I was like, oh, okay. So I remember I went to the lounge and I made,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
two beats while I was just waiting, okay? I might have, let's see. Let's see, let's take a little. I made two beats. The first beat I made, what's it called, was this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
We had a little teeny keyboard and a guitar plugged into a system so much smaller than even this. It was just like a roll away system. And I remember, I remember we were like, we were we were just making ideas what's i what's i'm trying to remember what teenage dream is called oh i think teenage dream is this no uh hold on i have it in here so let's see oh it's this
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And it was like, that's why the song sounds so shitty. It's like recorded, like everything's recorded, just like no plug in, like, and just. That was a keyboard that I got for $20 at a garage sale. And I remember... Max walks by the lounge getting a cookie. And he was like, what's that? And I was like, oh, it's just a thing we did. Everyone comes in. Melody starts happening.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Melodies to that and California Girls done that night. And I remember, I remember everyone was like, yeah, I guess it's okay. Like, I remember like, yeah, it's okay. And then, well, cause you never know. And then over the next like week or two, we made those songs and then those wound up being the first singles. And you just like, it's just, I don't know. Music's fucking crazy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
We had made like a, I don't even know the password to this computer. There we go. Oh, wait, this is super sick.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, sometimes it happens like that. Sometimes... The words all come at once. Sometimes I'm taking a shit and I just hear a whole chorus in my head. I hear the whole thing. What's the song where that happened? So many songs. Do you know how Dynamite happened? Dynamite's crazy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
No, Dynamite wasn't the toilet. Dynamite, I was at... the gym. And at this point I never like worked out for some reason. I was just at a gym. I didn't have my cell phone with me. I asked my brother, I said, give me your cell phone right now. I was on the treadmill. And I was like,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay, wait. This beat, what is it? Oh, yeah. We had started this beat so long. I think it was for like B.O.B. Yeah, wait, hold on.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
and i was like oh my god that's such a good idea and i remember i went to the studio early before anyone got there and they didn't have uh they didn't have the uh the synths plugged in because, and I don't know how to do anything with electronics. So if you listen to that song, the main sound in the chorus is a grand piano going, because I didn't even have A synth. So that became the thing.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And I'm not a great player. So it's just two notes. It's like, and so many of those songs I made back then were just like, they're all two notes because I'm not that good at playing. And I didn't even know you could change the grid type on Pro Tools. So that's why all my first songs, like big songs are all 120 BPMs because I didn't even know you could change the tempo.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
So the default tempo when you go to Pro Tools is 120. Is that what it is for Ableton?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I didn't know you could change a tempo. So I just made all my songs in 120.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I guess it did at that moment. Yeah.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, I'm changing tempos all the time. I'm like going up, down, up, down. Like now it's so easy to move them around and stuff. And I'm moving them to different keys, doing all sorts of shit.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, I make every experience different for everyone. Like what's your favorite food?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay, so that's your favorite food, chocolate chip pumpkin bread?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay. So I'd bring your mother, I'd call your mother, and I would ask her, I would beg her for the recipe before you came in. And then, like, you would tell me this in our first session, that your mom's my favorite, your favorite. And somehow I'd find out your mom's information, get the recipe, and then, like, have it the next time you came in.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, that's what I would do for you.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Probably Ed Sheeran Divide would be cool to go into because we could, because not only did we write, so many songs, like for that album, there's like five number ones that spawned for other artists. That is crazy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
No, I don't think I've ever really like dug into it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Are we filming? Yeah. Yeah, I guess we are. Okay. Let's talk about divide. Yes. Um, yeah, look, divide was so interesting. Okay. The whole story to this is actually pretty crazy. Oh, let's get, I'm like stretched into a thing. Okay. So How I met Ed is like such an interesting, have I even told you this before?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Okay. So how we met. I, my manager, used to work for Atlantic, called me up and he said, hey, there's this guy who's just starting to put out music in the UK. And I think he's really good. And I think we should work with him. And I said, okay, play me a song. And they played me A-Team. A-Team had come out.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And I was like, I got to work with this man right now. He was coming to America and I had email at the time. I don't have email anymore, but I had an email and I remember someone put us on email and Ed was like, Hey, nice to meet you. And I was like, I have to shit. That's all I wrote on the email. I said, I have to shit. I said, hi, I have to shit. And everyone was like, why did you do that?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Like, he's not gonna write back. Like he's never gonna- Everyone meaning like the people? Yeah, all the people on the email, my manager. And then like a day later he wrote back, me too. And I was like, okay, now I know I'm gonna be friends with this guy. We met up for a drink in New York City. We had like the best time ever. We recorded two songs the first day.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Don't and some song that I thought was the big song. So I was like, we have to work on this song. But then Don't was the one we wound up working on. And Don't's such an interesting story because we made this song. And then he was like, Rick Rubin's gonna produce my album. I was like, oh my God, that's amazing. And I remember he was like, Rick wants to take a stab at your song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
So he took a stab at it and it was like all live music. And I remember... Rick played it for me. And I was like, ah, I was like, Rick, I was like, I love like the way mine sounds. Mine sounds better, I think. And Rick was like, well, why don't we take all of your electronic sounds and the ones you did with Ed and time them to the live musicians so it has a better feel? And I was like,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
that's gonna take so long, I have like 30 kicks and 30 snares. And he was like, well the engineer can like put it together. And like the engineer started putting it together and me and Rick like went around his house and like we like,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
picked eggs and like did and we like laid with no shirts on and like and i don't know we did like all this crazy stuff and we were like he was like showing me like underwater like aerobics oh my gosh and like five hours later we came back in and the man had finally finished it and he like played it and i was like I don't know, man. I think I like the original way better. And he goes, all right.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
He goes, we're the shot. And the engineer like did like five hours of work. And then I remember like me and Ed were like cutting new vocals. And, and then we played it for Rick and he was like listening. And he listened like three times in a row. And he was like, this song makes me feel orange. And I was like, what? And he was like, it makes me feel orange. And then I was like, oh.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And then I was like, well, what do we need to do to fix it? And he goes, you'll figure it out. And then he walked out of the room and then we thought about it so long. And that's like the genius of Ricky. Like you like sit there and then we start fixing all the things that we think are wrong in the song. And I think he knew we were going to do that.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
this was through a voice note that him recording and then it be and then it and then it becomes like this I mean songs songs like this take so much shit, you know I mean like there's so many different versions of these songs like like, okay perfect example I had... There was a friend of mine that I signed very early on in my career named Amar. Yeah. And he...
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
So then like, after we were done, we played it for him and he was like, it's perfect. And I was like, did he just like, get into my mind and tell me what to fix without telling me what to fix. I was like, this song does make me feel orange. And then I remember after the success of that song on that album, and that was like, that was Ed's first number one at radio. Like, and it was like, yeah.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And he was like, whoa, shit. And I remember He called me and he's like, hey, let's make some more music. And I said, well, when are we going to make music? And he said, well, I'm on tour for a while. And I said, why don't I just come on tour with you? And he said, well, I've never had anyone come on tour with me.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I said, yeah, why don't we just set up a studio at every arena or stadium and I'll just be on tour with you. And I went out for a week and it turned into two years. And we worked on an album for two years. And obviously, you know, it was so great. It was Ed's biggest album. It sold like 40 million copies. It was like one of the biggest albums ever. And I was like, whoa, this is fucking insane.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
An album that we just made like on a tour bus in the back of studios in his house and stuff that we never worked in a real studio. It was all done just like whatever we had at the time. And then, you know, it was so interesting because not only did we get the success of that, we made like so many other big songs for other people during that time.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Like during that time, not only did we make like, you know, have like, you know, Castle on the Hill, Perfect, all these big songs. We, yeah, we, we, were able to somehow get all these, and I didn't, you don't even notice when you're in it like that, but it's like, look, it's crazy. Watch, watch this. Okay. Some of these songs took such different shape. Like, listen to this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
You won't even know what this is yet. Watch.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It's crazy, right? Like, and these songs, they become these, like, different worlds. Like, and, you know, you look at, like, let me see. Let me see if I even have this on.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's insane. And then, you know, you look at like, I wonder if I have it on this computer. This is, this is a crazy one. One sec. Okay. So, Me and Ed Sheeran are, you know, obviously you've seen the video of us.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Of us making love yourself. We were in Canada. We're on our way to America. Okay. Okay. We just, we got invited to Drake's like after party for like his album with Future. And we were like, oh my God, we get there. We have the best night ever. We're like wasted. We go to a pizza place that's closed and we like bang on the door and we're like, please. And they like let us have like one last pizza.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
We're eating pizza. We get back on the bus. We decide to make a song because we wanna stay up because they're gonna wake us up anyways at the border patrol in like two hours. We make a song, here's the song we make. Listen to the noise in the background of the bus. Look, look, listen. The ringing? Yeah, listen.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And I remember we did that song and we were like, oh yeah, it's cool. And then it becomes this like big song. And there's like so many like that, like you look like, we were in a hotel in Philly. Yeah, okay, listen to this. So we're in a hotel in Philly, okay? Blake Slatkin's my intern at the time.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It's the one day he didn't come to the room because we were like, oh, we're just going to like try some ideas. And we sat down and I remember we ordered food and and like the old lady, there was like an old lady who was like bringing the food in, like who worked at the hotel. And I remember she she. Ed opened the door and she went, she was like, and she almost dropped all the food.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And she was like, oh my, sorry. And she like, I just remember that moment so vividly. And then me and Ed started doing this song and he was like, yeah, it's okay. And then, and then it was, and I remember we pitched it up right away. Cause he was like, we should just give this to like a girl or something. Look, this is like first demo. And then we pitched it up.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
like it's it's just to to me the like when stuff like that happens it's magic we made that whole album we made so many songs for other people and for you yeah yeah and for me and then we also made that song uh During that time we made, what was that big song? Anne Marie song, 2002. We made that song during that time too.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Like, so I was like, oh, I, this is like. Oh, for, okay, got it. And I get that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like we, we just have like, we're always, I'm always just getting ideas. I get them in the middle of the night and I'm like, oh my God. I'm like, I wonder if Khalid would like this thing and then send it, you know? And it always just, I don't know. I feel like.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
He was from Virginia, from my hometown. And I remember they were at home back in Virginia. He had still lived in Virginia at the time. He's like at home with my guy Robopop, Dano. And they were all just like coming up with ideas. And I remember there was like a kernel of an idea that they sent me. And this was the original, original thing.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I feel like my best ideas always come like at the worst times when I don't want them to come. It's always like when I'm in like an important conversation with someone, I'll be like talking to them and I'll be like listening to them and I'm like, this is an idea and I have to like pretend or actually keep listening to them and retaining the information, but also.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Like think about the idea at the same time. You know, Ed Sheeran used to do, we would be on tour. We'd be working on a song backstage, backstage. Okay. We're working on the song and they're like, Ed, 10 minutes. And he's like, okay. He's like working on a song. Some people come in, he's signing autographs while we're singing a song, while we're working on it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
He's like taking pictures, still working on it. And then they're like three minutes. And then he's like still working. And they're like two minutes. They come in, they like put the thing on his head. And then they're like one minute. And then he's like, Keep working on the song, I'll be right back. He goes, performs for two hours, okay?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Then he comes back and he's like, okay, I was thinking about the pre-chorus while I was on stage. And I was like, what are you talking about? And he's like, I was thinking about it. And I said, how can you think about it while you're singing a song to 80,000 people? I can't even like, I can't even remember what I had for breakfast. And somehow he does it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
He just comes back and then came back and would like lay the chorus down right then. Like while he's playing the songs. It's insane. Just think about it. It's insane. I'm so stupid. I'm like these. But you said. You said.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It's crazy. I feel like this is a good interview. I think this is phenomenal. What else were we going to talk about?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
by another artist. Who was it?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It's just, Julia was so raw on it and she sounded so, the demo is literally what's out. Oh, that's sick. It's literally what's out. There's like minor changes, but it was so raw and it was a song that I feel like so many people could relate to. So many, you know, so many people in general, it's just like, yeah, I got issues. And it's, and it's,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
You know, it was one of those moments where I remember every time I would like drive in a car And I would see someone singing at the top of their lungs that song by themselves. And those are the moments where I'm just like, we made the right decision. Or when you're at a concert and you see thousands of people singing the song with their children.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And I knew we made the right decision by giving Julia that song. It might not have been the right decision in the moment. Maybe there was a million other people that wanted that song. But like... Charlie is a testament to everything. Charlie's written songs for so many other people. She's been around forever. She's been around. I worked with Charlie when she was 14 years old. Wow. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I was her one on her first trip to America. I don't think she had any songs out really in America yet. Like she had, like she had just done a few shows and I remember like, how talented she always was. And it's just like, sometimes people just get their flowers like a little bit later than, look, now she's like the biggest artist in the world. And she's saying exactly what she wants.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And she's paving the way for so many young artists that can be themselves and they don't have to fit the norms of like pop music. And you can say what you wanna say. And I think we're at a really interesting time right now. Artists like Chapel Roan, like those artists would never exist before. True. And it's just like now kids get to pick what they want.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
There's not like labels holding back barriers being like, you have to listen to this song and we're gonna feed this down your throat like until you vomit and like it. No, there's people like, who are like, oh my God, this girl Chaperone is saying shit that like I vibe with. And yeah, maybe she's a little bit different than what is like known as like pop music, but this is my pop.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
This is what I wanna listen to, you know? And I feel like, I feel like, There's so many artists that in 2010 couldn't exist the way that they do now. And I think that's really cool. That's really cool that, that fans get to decide who gets to be big. There might be an artist who's unknown yesterday and today they have the biggest song in the world. And like, that's so powerful to me.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, it's amazing. People want these, you know, especially for females. I feel like we're in an era right now where, like, the females are, like, reigning supreme and doing, you know, everyone, you know, it's so great that, like, Like Billie Eilish wouldn't have been an artist that in 2006, if somebody was like Billie Eilish, they'd be like, what?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
They'd be like, we want this like typical thing, doing the dance moves and all that. No, people don't want that. They want a girl who's like dressing cool as fuck, saying exactly what's on her mind and just being herself. And like that's, I feel like the artists today I can't wait to see the next generation because they're growing up on these amazing artists.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
So I can't wait to see like what that brings five, 10 years from now. You know what I mean? All the artists who are growing up on these artists right now. Be cool.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Maybe. Is there anything else you want to ask me before we wrap up?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
No. Yeah. That's crazy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
We're just going to sneak and not tell the label we're going to perform this song and we're going to release it that night. And people have no idea. I didn't know that. I guess you pumped up. Yeah. Here's the original version.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, stuff like that happens. Stuff like that happens all the time where like something becomes... And then those usually wind up being the best songs, but it's hard. Sometimes you gotta work your way back to those. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes like a song like that, it's so good, but an artist gets really scared of it because it's exposing such a real side to whatever they have going on.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And it's like music, It's hard because when you're writing a song, it's kind of like a therapy session. And when you're writing a song, it, it can become so real because when you're doing, like if I'm doing a song with you, you might say things to me that you wouldn't say to me in real life because you have like the mask of the song to disguise it through.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And then, and then you look at like this, then, then I was in a hotel or no, I was on a train and I like started producing it up. And then we brought shell back into it. And then, and then here's like a slightly more produced up version. I don't even know if this has, no, this is, this is my first attempt at like a little thing. And then we have
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
So you might like say things about me that you might not even say with like your closest friends because it just kind of falls out because you're in a creative space that feels safe. So, sometimes something like that falls out and you like sit there and you're like, oops, I don't want the whole world to hear this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And it's hard because a lot of these artists, you know, they're going to be singing this song for 30 years and they might not feel some people's biggest songs. they don't feel that way 10 years later than what they did when they wrote it. And it's like, it's so complicated because it's like a creative art form and everyone's like, well, just let us hear the songs.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
But sometimes it gets too real and like songs, certain songs never come out. Like I have songs that I've done with people that are incredible that will never come out. Like I have like unreleased songs with everyone that are insane. that just have to sit on my hard drive because you have to respect the artist. For sure. Do you ever go back and listen to them? Yes.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I have so many that I love, that I hope, but with my theory, eight, 10 years, they might come out. You never know. Or sometimes you give that song to another person, another artist who is okay with saying words like that. That happens a lot too. That makes sense.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
You know, like some artists like Charlie or Julia, they'll give away a song because they're like, actually this, it doesn't feel right for me. I want to give it to somebody else. And then it gets to see the light of day in a different way.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Start today, okay? Start yesterday, okay? Start, just start. Because you never know what you're gonna be. You know, it's like, I started out, I thought I was gonna be the biggest rapper in the world. I wasn't the biggest rapper in the world, but you know what? I landed in a pretty cool job. Yeah. And it's like, Don't be so precious. You can reinvent yourself a million times.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Every artist has a past. You go on, you see Post Malone's first song. You see this person's first song. And it's like, I like the evolution, showing where someone evolves. And I think right now the point of entry is easier than it's ever been. You could be nobody today and tomorrow have the biggest song in the world. Put up your music, make videos, express yourself. Don't be afraid to be yourself.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
If your music sounds like everyone else, it's probably not that good yet. You should do something that makes it sound like you. Just be original. Be yourself. Fuck everyone else. Sorry for cursing.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I'm sorry, mom. And my own mother. I'm sorry. Sorry, mom.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Oh my God, it's so long. You don't have to read it right now. Okay, I'll read it. I don't want anyone to know our little secrets that we hold. Okay, guys, it's behind the wall. We did it. We did it. We did it again. This is amazing. Thank you guys. I meant that shit, guys. Just start today. It doesn't matter. Who cares?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And then this is Shellback singing. Oh my gosh. And then we came up with like a verse. This is where the verse happens.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Oh, yeah. My new album. It might be out yet. I don't know. We're recording. This is the future. We're going to be in the future. We're recording. I have an album. It's coming out or it's out. And I hope you like it. And I love you.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, like sometimes there's like there's things but like, like, like, and then and then this was the first time Adam ever got on it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And it's just like, you know, these songs build up. Like, I mean, you look at like, take example like this. Okay, watch this. Okay. So, okay. So like these are like, okay, so you take, let me try to find them. I don't even know where the first one is. Here, listen. Watch, listen. So the lyrics, we don't even know what they're gonna be yet. Watch, it's insane.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
so it's like you know what i'm saying yeah but there's but there's always the right like consonants and syllables and like phonetics like watch but then the chorus has a little bit in it watch So there's like, you know, it's starting to... And then it like... The songs, they get, you know, they get more along the way. Why? And we like started a little bit more production.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Then... Wait, let me see what the... Oh, wait, wait. There's another one before that. All right. Oh wait, oh yeah, this was like the first time we had, this was like the first time me and Adam got the lyrics right. This was the first time.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah, let's do it. Okay, listen to this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Now you wanna know something insane about this. Okay, so here's the whole story about how this song happened, okay? This story's insane. I'm excited. Okay. So, I'm gonna take you down a little story time. Okay, so the first time Amar had been working at his house in Virginia, okay? And my manager was working at Atlantic Records at that time. And we all started working on this demo.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And this was a demo.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
So we had that, okay? Okay. I go in, we do the song with Travi, everything is going all according to plan, and I remember we were like, who are we gonna put on the chorus, okay? And I had I had just been at a Sara Bareilles concert, okay, randomly. My business manager was like, come to the Sara Bareilles concert, I want you to meet her.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I get to the concert, her manager at the time was a guy named Jordy, who unfortunately passed away since then. And he said, hey, I also manage the band Maroon 5. And he said, They've never written with anyone else before, but I really think you and him would be great. And it's like a loud concert. And I said, okay, you know, hook me up. We'll, you know, do it, blah, blah, blah.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
I start thinking, I'm like, this was right when Train's whole Hey Soul Sister got big. And I was like, oh my God. Maroon 5 was obviously huge, had the best, but they weren't as poppy as they once were at this time. And I remember, I was like, we gotta put Adam Levine and Maroon 5 on this song. And I remember going to a radio person and saying, I really think this is gonna be great.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
And they were like, Adam Levine, Maroon 5?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
that isn't that like a little bit like you know i don't know i don't think that's gonna work and i was like no there's something about it i really think we could and i remember we go to adam and he like never wants to get on a song he he's like okay but i have to like make it my own i have to change the lyric i have to you know write this bridge i got to do all this stuff we we get him to do it
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
He loves the song so much. And he's like, I want this song so bad. I said, let me give you another song. I have an idea for another song. I had no idea at that time. That's when we hurry. We make moves like Jagger. In the meantime, I'm in a hotel room going back and forth trying to make it happen.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
As my idea. So we... we get the song done he loves that song he stays on stereo hearts everyone at radio thinks i'm an idiot it winds up being huge success number one we have moves like jagger the problem is they have another song at radio at this time called never gonna leave this bed and his manager comes to me and he said hey we have this other song Adam's gonna be on this new television show.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
It's kind of like American Idol. And I was like, yeah, but American Idol already exists. He's like, no, it's gonna be like bigger than American Idol. And I really think it's gonna be a big thing. And like the, we're gonna have him perform and premiere this song on the TV show. And I was like, okay. I was like, but there's already American Idol.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
There's like four. Do I look at this one? Hello.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Was there going to be an, and he's like, I'm telling you, just trust me. So his label Interscope at the time wants him to play, never going to leave this bed. And they think he's going to play it. But Geordie at the time, the manager was like, we're just going to sneak and put this song on and not tell the label we're going to perform this song and we're going to release it that night.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
They perform the song. His record label goes, you fucking idiot. What are you doing? You're supposed to play the single we have at radio right now. Why would you do that? we wake up the next morning, it's number one in 85 countries, okay? The label owner goes, change the song and radio immediately. And they changed the song, never looked back.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
You know, that started such a great journey with, you know, me and Maroon 5, we probably made five or six number ones after that and really like, you know, we believed in each other to make these records, you know, to trust each other. And, you know, Adam had never written with anybody else before. So it was like a big step in the right direction for something that lasted like a really long time.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Hello, hello, hello, hello. Okay, I'm saying hello. Oh, look at that one. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down The Original Demos of His Biggest Hits
Yeah. So you never fucking know. You never know. Amar was making a demo to Stereo Hearts in his parents' basement. And then five months later had two Billboard number ones.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Has anyone ever heard these before? No. Besides the people who made them? I don't think anyone's ever heard it. This is insane. That song was like eight years old by the time... Really? Yeah, by the time it came out. Wait, I think I... It's the return of the...
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
With somebody that everybody was counting against. Every single person told us Stereo Hearts wouldn't work. Moves Like Jagger's not gonna work. Every person. So it's like, I always... I don't know. I always feel like I always want to go against what everyone is saying because I don't know. I just got to, you got to trust your heart. Yeah.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Wow, you're so juiced up. When you first came in here, you were so tired. And now you're at like peak energy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's so hard to explain to someone who doesn't like traditionally make music. And I actually always want to know if a listener feels this too.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
When I know the song is one of those songs, I get this like strange feeling in like my stomach or chest, like right when you're about to like kiss someone for the first time, or you're like gonna get hit by a car and it's like, it kind of takes your breath away. And then... I always smile and I can't stop smiling.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Like when someone plays something so sick and I'm just like, like, and you can't stop. So whenever I get those feelings, I usually am just like, oh, I have to go with that because I like that. So at least a few people might.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Those songs I knew right away. That's cool. The second I was like, oh, this is it. And I just have to trust my intuition. I knew they were great. I'm never like one of those guys that's like, this is a hit song. I knew they were amazing and they made me feel a certain way.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And I hope they made other people feel that way because I just want to share music that makes me feel like so excited because hopefully it can make another person feel excited. I'm not even thinking about it in like the hit capacity. If it's a hit, that's great. Otherwise, it's still a good day for me. I put out a song that I love.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
What I love most of all is it sounded like no one believed in those songs. Yeah, a lot of big songs people don't really believe in until it's too late.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Until they are big. Yeah, it's crazy. It's so crazy to me. Wow. Yeah. What's another song we're supposed to talk about?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay. I want to tell you, I want to tell you a story about, about issues. This is a crazy story that not that many people know. Okay. Julia Michaels. I'm tucking my arm right here. Oh yeah. I'm getting comfy for this one. Julia Michaels. Yeah. Incredible songwriter. Okay. Yeah. She was just starting to get big. She had a few hits under her belt. And I think it was the day Sorry went number one.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
She had just broken up with her boyfriend. She came into the studio. She was crying. She felt terrible. And I remember... us talking in the lounge we got her like cupcakes or something and champagne and she was crying but she was like happy at the same time and i said you know let's write a song she was like i don't know we wrote a song with with you know stargate and justin and i always was like
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I always wanted to have one of those songs that had like an orchestra behind, like Salaam Remy was so good at doing that. And like, I love that song, Bust the Windows by Jasmine Sullivan. I love, you know, I also love like Unfaithful by Rihanna. I love those moments where it was like strings. And I was like, we have to bring that back.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So we started playing some stuff and then issues just like fell out of the sky, okay? And Julia just like, it just happened so quickly. And I remember everyone wanted that song. Everyone wanted to sing that song. They wanted that song to come out as their project. And Julia called me, you know, days, days, weeks after. And she said, Benny, I think I want to become an artist.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And I think I want to use that song. And I said, fucking amazing let's do it some other people didn't necessarily believe in that same vision and they were like what are you talking about this song's right here it it's huge there's an artist right here there's so many artists fighting over this and i just remember telling everyone i was like If she wants the song, give her the song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, probably. I don't think anyone's ever heard it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's her heart and soul and she sells it so well. And it's a song, we'll make another song. If it's not a thing, it just felt right in that moment. And so many people were against it. She didn't even have a record deal yet. And I remember we finally got her to have the song. Everyone, same thing. Everyone was so nervous about it. Nobody thought it was going to be this big thing.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
You're breaking ground.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And she puts the song out. It connects like a motherfucker. And that year she literally got nominated for Best New Artist and Song of the Year. So it was like this song that we did that nobody believed in for her to be the artist. They just wanted some huge artist that was already successful. And for me, it's like, that's cool.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
But breaking a new artist and bringing a new artist with so much personality and identity to... the world is so much better to me than, you know, just doing a song for like a big person. You know, all the first people I worked with, they were all nobodies. Kesha wasn't big. Katy Perry wasn't big. I didn't work with like a big artist till a little bit later.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And then I was like, oh, this is cool too. You know what I mean? It's like when we work with like Rihanna, I was like, oh my God, this is a moment. Now that's a crazy story. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
This is an insane story. Did I ever tell you the diamond story?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
We didn't do it together, did we? Okay. Here we go.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
This is so long ago. I'm so old. Well, I'm just thinking this is like when we did this, it was probably 2010 or 11. Wow. So I remember- Me and Stargate are sitting there, we're making some beats. Everything's all good. We got all these beats happening and we loved this one that we made. And I said, oh my God, we gotta send this to Eminem or Kanye. And we sent it and I remember,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Paul Rosenberg, Eminem's manager was like, we love this thing. And I was like, oh, that's so sick. Fast forward, like eight months, never heard anything from that. Sia's in the studio. She'd finished all of her music for the day, okay? And this was like before Uber was big or anything. And she was like, I'm gonna call a car. She called a car. They said, oh, the car is like 18 to 20 minutes away.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
She said, okay, well, I guess pull up another thing. Well, I wait. We pull up the beat to Diamonds. In 15 minutes, song, lyrics, melody, harmonies, full demo, done. Okay. That's insane. Her car gets here. She had a few minutes to spare to go to the bathroom. Okay. We... I remember Stargate was like, we're going to send this to Rihanna. And I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't know.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
You know, I didn't, I couldn't hear the song yet. I was like, I don't know. No, maybe we shouldn't. I was like, let's.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I just like didn't hear the song. Sometimes you don't hear the song. And I was just like, I don't know. I don't know if this one's like our best song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
maybe we should send something else oh and then yeah got it and i was like i don't know about this song and then they were like you gotta trust us you gotta trust us and i said you know what you guys know rihanna so well let's let's see what happens and then i remember i remember getting the call where they were like rihanna loves this and then they made one change uh
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Shine Bright Like a Diamond was only in like the intro. And then they put it over that. They put it over that part. And this guy, Tata, that works with Jay-Z had like a brilliant idea that just like really made it so catchy. It kept doing that part. And they were like, she wants to cut it. And I was like, shit, okay. And then I remember...
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I was randomly with Sia at like a furniture store or something. And we get a call and they said, She cut it last night. It's coming. This was like Thursday. She cut it last night. It's coming out on Monday. And I was like, wait, what? And I remember being in a meeting with a record label and they were like, yeah, they're like, Rihanna's looking for songs. Like, I don't know.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
We're going to put something out in the next six months. The label didn't even know she was putting that song out. Okay. And they were like, we're putting that song out on Monday. And I was like, What? I was like, this is, and I remember listening to it and just being like, oh my God, this is like the biggest song in the world. Randomly, around the same time, I get a call from Paul Rosenberg.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And he's like, hey, Em really loves that beat. And he's like, I think he might be like doing something to it. And I was like, wait, what? I was like, Rihanna, I haven't heard from you in like a year. Rihanna's putting the song out. And he was like, what? No. And then I was like, what? And then somehow it all worked out. Rihanna puts out the song like three days later.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It becomes the biggest song in the world.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And yeah, it was crazy. Once her voice was on it, she's so good at making a song, like bringing a song from like a seven to like a 500. Like it's insane. But songs rarely don't come out that quickly. Like it doesn't usually happen. The only other time I remember that happening was when we did Kesha's We Are Who We Are.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay, we made that song. And I remember... This is crazy. We made the song and they were like, we need to put that song out in like four days. Like we were finishing like the repack. It was like the last thing we did. And I remember the day we were going to finish it. we were all like, oh, let's take edibles, okay? And we took these edibles.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It was like, there was like this French guy named Billboard, who's a producer, who like gave us all edibles. And I remember I like took it And I was like, oh, I feel cool. And I went to the computer and I sat down at the computer and the computer like froze and we had to restart it. And I remember as it was restarting, I was like, I like short circuited and I was like, whoa.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I was like, what's happening to me? And then I was just like, and it was hitting me so hard. The edible hit me so hard that I remember walking out And the assistant looked at me and he was like, you don't look so good. And everything was like in slow motion. And he was like, hey. And I was just like, and I like didn't know who I was. And I remember losing my mind. And I was so high.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I was at Conway, the recording studio, and it's like all outdoors. And I like went over to the guy and I was like, can I get some food? And I like ordered food. I was losing my mind. I called my brother to like pick me up. I got so freaked out that I ran and hid in the bushes and started crying. And like, I remember like they like, my brother came to pick me up. They like found me.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And they like, I had no shoes on. I like took my clothes. I had like, and they like dragged me to the car. And I remember Kesha being like, hey, do you want? And I was like, don't talk to me. I just remember yelling, don't talk to me. I. Go home, I don't remember a thing after that. I sleep for like 24 hours, okay? Then we have like one day to finish the song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So I go back and I finish the song. So if you realize, let me see if I have it on this. What's that song? We Are Who We Are. Okay, so. Okay, watch this. Is it letting me play it? Okay, so if you notice, Please update my browser, remind me later. I haven't opened this computer in so long. Okay, here we go, watch.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay, so if you notice, we had so little time that we didn't have time to record her on a bridge, okay? So I had 30 minutes to finish the song, okay? So if you listen to the second verse of this song. Watch. Okay. Okay, second verse. Didn't have time to finish the song, so the bridge is literally just DJ Turn It Up a million times in a row. Listen. Watch. But you never notice.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Oh, I did. I did get engaged. I did get engaged. That's true. That's true. That's true. I'm engaged.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So you did that in 30 minutes? Less. I had no time. We had to turn the thing in. So that's literally, I was like, what can we put there? We have no more vocals from her. And then I was like, DJ, turn it up, up, up, up. And it just worked. And people loved it. And people have no idea. I didn't know that. Because it gets you pumped up.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, exactly. Everyone sings that part. Literally, it's literally just the verse.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
The demo? Let me see if I have it on this computer.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
There's no shine bright like a diamond.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Because then we did an edit where it goes. It makes it so much better.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's so amazing to witness and watch. I've only been around a few artists like that. You know, Sia literally records her songs in five minutes. You play a beat. She says, you play like one second. She goes, no, no, stop it. She goes, I like that one, after one second, okay?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Then she goes, and she presses record on her little laptop and she usually either lies on the ground or is in a blanket lying in a fully fetal position with like a blanket on a couch. She goes, and she's like, And just like singing a demo. She does three passes of it. And then she goes, okay, which one's the verse? Which one's the chorus? And which one's the pre?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It came out in 2015. I think we worked earlier. Cause I saw it kill him with kindness. What year is that?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And then she goes, okay, I like that. And she goes, okay, give me five minutes. And then she writes it down. Then she goes, okay, let's record. She goes, open eight tracks. And then she knows how many harmonies. Then she records it in three seconds. Esther Dean was like that too. Wow. Yeah. It's just like some of these people, it takes me so long to finish anything.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Like even like after she does that, I like sit there and I like, just like cry over each layer. And I'm like, should it be the, or it like in there? It's like, like, I'm so I'm, I'm so tortured by my own brain and they just do it so quickly.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Oh yeah. Uh, yeah. Cause we started, uh, Samuel 11, 2013 or something. The end of 2013 or something. That makes sense. You started Samuel 11 at the end. I think so. It took two years. Is that normal for a song? Like sometimes, sometimes I have songs. Uh, I have a song. that by the time it came out, it was probably eight years old. Seven, eight years old. What's that song called?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Sometimes. A week, sometimes a year, sometimes three years, sometimes two months, sometimes eight years. I sit on songs until it's like the perfect time with the perfect artist, because I think everything has to align the right way. You know? And it's just like, sometimes it works right then and there. Sometimes it doesn't.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's different every time, you know, some artists, you know, I, you know, you know what I try to explain it as to people. It's kind of like, okay. It's kind of like going to the gym. Okay. Okay. And you're, The artist is bench pressing. They're sitting down, okay? They're lifting up those reps. They're benching 200. And some artists need you to spot them a little bit more.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And some artists, you just are there just like kind of just like in case something happens. Some artists, you're like helping them a little bit. Some artists, you're like kind of pulling the bar up all the way on. And I look at it like that. I just try to get in where I fit in. Some artists, I write the song. Some artists... I help them craft the song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Some artists I stay out of the way and then just step in when I need to.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay, I'm working with you.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
How does the first session go?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay. I'm working with you?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay. Well, I know you're not a morning person, so I start the session later. Okay? Okay. So the session starts a little later. Okay. You come to my house.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I like doing it in the house more than a studio because it's less pressure. Studio is so much pressure. Feels comfortable in a house. Yeah, studio is so much pressure. I get so nervous. I usually make majority of my songs that I've made in the studio are made in a lounge because I don't like to be in the studio. I don't even use the real studio. That's great. And then you come in. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
We talk and I'm like, I'm like, how are you? And you're like, oh, I'm good. And I'm like, no, how are you? And you're like, I'm good. And I'm like, no, really, how are you? And you're like, I hate this, I hate that. And then we start talking and we get, we're gathering our little story. And then we might make music. We might just talk for a few days. We might make some music that sucks.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And then hopefully something good will come out and we'll eat a bunch of food, we'll laugh. And I don't ever force the process, ever. I'm never like, we only have 30 minutes to make a song. It has to be a hit. Like, I'm just like, oh.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
A song finished, I'm okay with finishing a song, but not creating the idea. I don't, no one's like putting, sometimes that naturally happens. Like, you know, with... you know, with Kesha, we thought blah, blah, blah was going to be the first single. And then in right before we were turning in the album, we made tick tock. Your love is my drug. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All that stuff. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I told you the California girls, they had both the singles done. And then I got there and I was sitting in the lounge. Did I tell you that story? On our last thing? I know about Teenage Dream being the hardest song. Oh, but I didn't tell you the story of what happened.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Every single person told us stereo hearts wouldn't work a moves like Jagger is not gonna work every person Sometimes I'm taking a shit and I just hear a whole chorus in my head It was like Jagger was the song you were trying to make us your idea As my idea. All the first people I worked with, they were all nobodies. Now she's like the biggest artist in the world. People have no idea.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Oh my God. Okay, okay. Real quick. I thought I told you this, right? I stopped flying. Okay. And I didn't want to fly anymore.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I'm still not flying. It's so stupid. Do you fly a lot?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Are you going to do it? We'll see.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
That's crazy. I've driven it a million times.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Animals by Maroon 5. That song was like eight years old by the time. Really? Yeah, by the time it came out. Wait, I think I... What? Hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, it was originally... We had made like a, I don't even know the password to this computer. It's so old. There we go. By the way, this is super sick.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I've been to Arizona 75 times.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Driving through to New York on road trips.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, I take a boat to Europe.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I've done it not filmed.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Probably like six. Really? Yeah. And I drive to New York very often. I'm doing it in two weeks. Are you driving or someone else? No, no, no.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I take a tour bus and I like hang out with all my friends and like go to fun places.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah. I do it all the time. I'm doing it in two weeks. I just did it a month ago. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I'm on my way to... I'm on my way to L.A.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
At this point, I'm not driving on a tour bus. At this point, I'm like driving in like a RAV4 with like my brother and like a bunch of people in the car. And it's like we're like stopping every four hours because we like are tired. So it takes like two weeks. It took me like a week and a half to get to L.A. I was in New York to get to L.A. I get to L.A.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I get in the studio with Katie and all them and they were like, oh, we did it. We finished the album. And I was like, what? I like just got there. And they were like, yeah, we got the first single. It's a song called Part of Me. And then the second single is this one called The One That Got Away. And I was like, oh, okay. So I remember I went to the lounge and I made,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
two beats while I was just waiting, okay? I might have, let's see. Let's see, let's take a little. I made two beats. The first beat I made, what's it called, was this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
We had a little teeny keyboard and a guitar plugged into a system so much smaller than even this. Okay. It was just like a roll away system. And I remember, I remember we were like, we were, we were just making ideas. What's, what's... I'm trying to remember what teenage dream is called. Oh, I think teenage dream is this. No. Hold on. I have it in here. So let's see. Oh, it's this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And it was like, that's why the song sounds so shitty. It's like, like recorded, like everything's recorded, just like no plugin, like, and just... That was a keyboard that I got for $20 at a garage sale. And I remember... Max walks by the lounge getting a cookie. And he was like, what's that? And I was like, oh, it's just a thing we did. Everyone comes in. Melody starts happening.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Melodies to that and California Girls done that night. And I remember, I remember everyone was like, yeah, I guess it's okay. Like, I remember like, yeah, it's okay. Well, cause you never know. And then over the next like week or two, we made those songs and then those wound up being the first singles. And you just like, it's just, I don't know. Music's fucking crazy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay, wait. This beat, what is it? Oh, yeah. We had started this beat so long. I think it was for like B.O.B. Yeah, wait, hold on.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, sometimes it happens like that. Sometimes... The words all come at once. Sometimes I'm taking a shit and I just hear a whole chorus in my head. I hear the whole thing. What's the song where that happened? So many songs. Do you know how Dynamite happened? Dynamite's crazy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
No, Dynamite wasn't the toilet. Dynamite, I was at... the gym. And at this point I never like worked out for some reason. I was just at a gym. I didn't have my cell phone with me. I asked my brother, I said, give me your cell phone right now. I was on the treadmill. And I was like, and I was like, Oh my God, that's such a good idea.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And I remember I went to the studio early before anyone got there and they didn't have, uh, they didn't have the synths plugged in because, and I don't know how to do anything with electronics. So if you listen to that song, the main sound in the chorus is a grand piano going, because I didn't even have A synth. So that became the thing. And I'm not a great player. So it's just two notes.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's like, and so many of those songs I made back then were just like, they're all two notes because I'm not that good at playing. And I didn't even know you could change the grid type on Pro Tools. So that's why all my first songs, like big songs are all 120 BPMs because I didn't even know you could change the tempo.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So the default tempo when you go to Pro Tools is 120. Is that what it is for Ableton?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I didn't know you could change a tempo. So I just made all my songs in 120.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I guess it did at that moment. Yeah.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, I'm changing tempos all the time. I'm like going up, down, up, down. Like now it's so easy to move them around and stuff. And I'm moving them to different keys, doing all sorts of shit.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, I make every experience different for everyone. Like what's your favorite food?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay, so that's your favorite food, chocolate chip pumpkin bread?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay, so I'd bring your mother, I'd call your mother and I would ask her, I would beg her for the recipe before you came in. And then like, like you would tell me this in our first session that your mom's my favorite, your favorite. And somehow I'd find out your mom's information, get the recipe and then like have it the next time you came in.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, that's what I would do for you.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Probably Ed Sheeran Divide would be cool to go into because we could, because not only did we write So many songs, like for that album, there's like five number ones that spawned for other artists.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Are we filming? Yeah. Yeah, I guess we are. Okay. Let's talk about divide. Yes. Um, yeah, look, divide was so interesting. Okay. The whole story to this is actually pretty crazy. Oh, let's get, I'm like stretched into a thing. Okay. Okay. So how I met Ed is like such an interesting, have I even told you this before?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay. So how we met. I, my manager, used to work for Atlantic, called me up and he said, hey, there's this guy who's just starting to put out music in the UK. And I think he's really good. And I think we should work with him. And I said, okay, play me a song. And they played me A-Team. A-Team had come out.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And I was like, I got to work with this man right now. He was coming to America and I had email at the time. I don't have email anymore, but I had an email and I remember someone put us on email and Ed was like, hey, nice to meet you. And I was like, I have to shit. That's all I wrote on the email. I said, I have to shit. I said, hi, I have to shit. And everyone was like, Why did you do that?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Like, like he's not going to write back. Like he's never going to meeting like the people. Yeah. All the people on the email, my manager. And then like a day later he wrote back me too. And I was like, okay, now I know I'm going to be friends with this guy. We met up for a drink in New York city. We had like the best time ever. We recorded two songs the first day. Don't,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
and some song that I thought was the big song. So I was like, we have to work on this song, but then Don't was the one we wound up working on. And Don't's such an interesting story, because we made this song. And then he was like, Rick Rubin's gonna produce my album. I was like, oh my God, that's amazing. And I remember he was like, Rick wants to take a stab at your song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So he took a stab at it and it was like all live music. And I remember... Rick played it for me. And I was like, ah, I was like, Rick, I was like, I love like the way mine sounds. Mine sounds better, I think. And Rick was like, well, why don't we take all of your electronic sounds and the ones you did with Ed and time them to the live musicians so it has a better feel? And I was like,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
that's going to take so long. I have like 30 kicks and 30 snare. And he was like, he was like, well, the engineer can like put it together. And like the engineer started putting it together. And me and me and Rick like went around his house and like, we like picked eggs and like did, and we like laid with no shirts on and like, and I don't know, we did like all this crazy stuff.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And we were like, he was like showing me like underwater, like aerobics. And like five hours later we came back in. And the man had finally finished it and he like played it. And I was like, I don't know, man. I think I like the original way better. And he goes, all right. He goes, we're the shot. And the engineer like did like five hours of work.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And then I remember like me and Ed were like cutting new vocals. And, and then we played it for Rick and he was like listening. He listened like three times in a row. And he was like, this song makes me feel orange. And I was like, what? And he was like, it makes me feel orange. And then I was like, oh. And then I was like, well, what do we need to do to fix it? And he goes, you'll figure it out.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And then it becomes like this. I mean songs songs like this takes so much shit, you know I mean like there's so many different versions of these songs like like okay perfect example I had, there was a friend of mine that I signed very early on in my career named Amar. And he, He was from Virginia, from my hometown. And I remember they were at home back in Virginia.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And then he walked out of the room and then we thought about it so long. And that's like the genius of Ricky. Like you like sit there and then we start fixing all the things that we think are wrong in the song. And I think he knew we were going to do that. So then like, after we were done, we played it for him and he was like, it's perfect. And I was like, did he just like,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
get into my mind and tell me what to fix without telling me what to fix. I was like, this song does make me feel orange. And then I remember after the success of that song on that album, and that was like, that was Ed's first number one at radio. Like, and it was like, yeah. And he was like, whoa, shit. And I remember, He called me and he's like, hey, let's make some more music.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And I said, well, when are we going to make music? And he said, well, I'm on tour for a while. And I said, why don't I just come on tour with you? And he said, well, I've never had anyone come on tour with me. I said, yeah, why don't we just set up a studio at every arena or stadium and I'll just be on tour with you. And I went out for a week and it turned into two years.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And we worked on an album for two years. And obviously, you know, it was so great. It was Ed's biggest album. It sold like 40 million copies. It was like one of the biggest albums ever. And I was like, whoa, this is fucking insane. An album that we just made like on a tour bus in the back of studios, in his house and stuff. We never worked in a real studio.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It was all done just like whatever we had at the time. And then, you know, it was so interesting because not only did we get the success of that, we made like so many other big songs for other people during that time. Like during that time, not only did we make like, you know, have like, you know, Castle on the Hill, Perfect, all these big songs. We, yeah, we, we,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
were able to somehow get all these, and I didn't, you don't even notice when you're in it like that, but it's like, look, it's crazy. Watch, watch this. Okay. Some of these songs took such different shape. Like, listen to this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's crazy, right? Like, and these songs, they become these like different worlds. Like, and, you know, you look at like, let me see.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's insane. And then, you know, you look at like, I wonder if I have it on this computer. This is, this is a crazy one. One sec. Okay. So. Me and Ed Sheeran are, you know, obviously you've seen the video of us.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Of us making love yourself. We were in Canada. We're on our way to America. Okay. Okay. We just, we got invited to Drake's like after party for like his album with Future. And we were like, oh my God, we get there. We have the best night ever. We're like wasted. We go to a pizza place that's closed and we like bang on the door and we're like, please. And they like, let us have like one last pizza.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
We're eating pizza. We get back on the bus. We decide to make a song because we wanna stay up because they're gonna wake us up anyways at the border patrol in like two hours. We make a song, here's the song we make. Listen to the noise in the background of the bus. Look, look, listen. The ringing? Yeah, listen.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And I remember we did that song and we were like, oh yeah, it's cool. And then it becomes this like big song. And there's like so many like that, like you look like, we were in a hotel in Philly. Yeah, okay, listen to this. So we're in a hotel in Philly, okay? Blake Slatkin's my intern at the time.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's the one day he didn't come to the room because we were like, oh, we're just going to like try some ideas. And we sat down and I remember we ordered food and and like the old lady, there was like an old lady who was like bringing the food in, like who worked at the hotel. And I remember she she. Ed opened the door and she went, she was like, and she almost dropped all the food.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And she was like, oh my, sorry. And she like, I just remember that moment so vividly. And then me and Ed started doing this song and he was like, yeah, it's okay. And then, and then it was, and I remember we pitched it up right away. Cause he was like, we should just give this to like a girl or something. This is like first demo. And then we pitched it up.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
like it's it's just to me the like when stuff like that happens it's magic we made that whole album we made so many songs for other people and for you yeah yeah and for me and then we also made that song uh During that time we made, what was that big song? Anne Marie song, 2002. We made that song during that time too.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Like, so I was like, oh, this is like. Oh, for, okay, got it. And I get that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, we just have like, we're always, I'm always just getting ideas. I get them in the middle of the night and I'm like, oh my God. I'm like, I wonder if Khalid would like this thing and then send it, you know? And it always just, I don't know, I feel like,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
He had still lived in Virginia at the time. He's like at home with my guy Robopop, Dano. And they were all just like coming up with ideas. And I remember there was like a kernel of an idea that they sent me. And this was the original, original thing.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I feel like my best ideas always come like at the worst times when I don't want them to come. It's always like when I'm in like an important conversation with someone, I'll be like talking to them and I'll be like listening to them and I'm like, this is an idea and I have to like pretend or actually keep listening to them and retaining the information.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
But also think about the idea, like think about the idea at the same time, you know, Ed Sheeran used to do, we would be on tour. We'd be working on a song backstage, backstage. Okay. We're working on the song and they're like, Ed, 10 minutes. And he's like, okay. He's like working on a song. Some people come in, he's signing autographs while we're singing a song, while we're working on it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
He's like taking pictures, still working on it. And then they're like three minutes. And then he's like still working. And they're like two minutes. They come in, they like put the thing on his head. And then they're like one minute. And then he's like, Keep working on the song. I'll be right back. He goes, performs for two hours, okay?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Then he comes back and he's like, okay, I was thinking about the pre-chorus while I was on stage. And I was like, what are you talking about? And he's like, I was thinking about it. And I said, how can you think about it while you're singing a song to 80,000 people? I can't even like, I can't even remember what I had for breakfast. And somehow he does it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It just comes back and then came back and would like lay the chorus down right then, right? Like while he's playing the songs. It's insane.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's insane. I'm so stupid. I'm like these. But you said. You said.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's true, it's true. But I'm not doing it in front of 80,000 people. I'm doing it in front of my mom when she's talking to me. You know when your mom calls you and you just go, uh-huh, uh-huh, yep, uh-huh. It's like that. I'm not in a shootout and in front of 90,000 people. I know, it's great. And making everyone cry. But it's just like second nature to these artists. It's crazy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I feel like this is a good interview. I think this is phenomenal. What else are we going to talk about?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's just, Julia was so raw on it and she sounded so, the demo is literally what's out. Oh, that's sick. It's literally what's out. There's like minor changes, but it was so raw and it was a song that I feel like so many people could relate to. So many, you know, so many people in general, it's just like, yeah, I got issues. And it's, and it's,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
You know, it was one of those moments where I remember every time I would like drive in a car And I would see someone singing at the top of their lungs that song by themselves. And those are the moments where I'm just like, we made the right decision. Or when you're at a concert and you see thousands of people singing the song with their children.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And I knew we made the right decision by giving Julia that song. It might not have been the right decision in the moment. Maybe there was a million other people that wanted that song. But like... Charlie is a testament to everything. Charlie's written songs for so many other people. She's been around forever. She's been around. I worked with Charlie when she was 14 years old. Wow. Okay.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I was her one on her first trip to America. I don't think she had any songs out really in America yet. Like she had, like she had just done a few shows and I remember. how talented she always was. And it's just like, sometimes people just get their flowers like a little bit later than, look, now she's like the biggest artist in the world. And she's saying exactly what she wants.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And she's paving the way for so many young artists that can be themselves and they don't have to fit the norms of like pop music. And you can say what you wanna say. And I think we're at a really interesting time right now. Artists like Chapel Roan, like those artists would never exist before. True. And it's just like now kids get to pick what they want.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
There's not like labels holding back barriers being like, you have to listen to this song and we're gonna feed this down your throat like until you vomit and like it. No, there's people like, who are like, oh my God, this girl Chaperone is saying shit that like I vibe with. And yeah, maybe she's a little bit different than what is like known as like pop music, but this is my pop.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
This is what I wanna listen to, you know? And I feel like, I feel like, There's so many artists that in 2010 couldn't exist the way that they do now. And I think that's really cool. That's really cool that, that fans get to decide who gets to be big. There might be an artist who's unknown yesterday and today they have the biggest song in the world. And like, that's so powerful to me.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, it's amazing. People want these, you know, especially for females. I feel like, I feel like we're in an era right now where like the females are like reigning supreme and doing, you know, everyone, you know, it's so great that like, Like Billie Eilish wouldn't have been an artist that in 2006, if somebody was like Billie Eilish, they'd be like, what?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
They'd be like, we want this like typical thing, doing the dance moves and all that. No, people don't want that. They want a girl who's like dressing cool as fuck, saying exactly what's on her mind and just being herself. And like that's, I feel like the artists today I can't wait to see the next generation because they're growing up on these amazing artists.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So I can't wait to see like what that brings five, 10 years from now. You know what I mean? All the artists who are growing up on these artists right now. It'd be cool.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
No. Yeah. That's crazy.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And then, and then you look at like this, then, then I was in a hotel or no, I was on a train and I like started producing it up and then we brought shell back into it. And then, and then here's like a slightly more produced up version. I don't even know if this has. No, this is, this is my first attempt at like a little thing. And then we have.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Stuff like that happens all the time where like something becomes... And then those usually wind up being the best songs, but it's hard. Sometimes you gotta work your way back to those. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes like a song like that, it's so good, but an artist gets really scared of it because it's exposing such a real side to whatever they have going on. And it's like music,
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
It's hard because when you're writing a song, it's kind of like a therapy session. And when you're writing a song, it can become so real because when you're doing, like if I'm doing a song with you, you might say things to me that you wouldn't say to me in real life because you have like the mask of the song to disguise it through.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So you might like say things about me that you might not even say with like your closest friends because it just kind of falls out because you're in a creative space that feels safe. So, sometimes something like that falls out and you like sit there and you're like, oops, I don't want the whole world to hear this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I didn't know that. I guess you pumped up.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And it's hard because a lot of these artists, you know, they're gonna be singing this song for 30 years and they might not feel, some people's biggest songs they don't feel that way 10 years later than what they did when they wrote it. And it's like, it's so complicated because it's like a creative art form and everyone's like, well, just let us hear the songs.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
But sometimes it gets too real and like songs, certain songs never come out. Like I have songs that I've done with people that are incredible that will never come out. Like I have like unreleased songs with everyone that are insane. That I'm just, that just have to sit on my hard drive because you have to respect the artist. For sure. Do you ever go back and listen to them? Yes.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I have so many that I like love that. Like I hope, but you know, with my theory, eight, 10 years, they might come out. You never know. Or sometimes you give that art, that song to another person, another artist who is okay with saying words like that. That happens a lot too. That makes sense.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
You know, like some artists like Charlie or Julia, they'll give away a song because they're like, actually this, it doesn't feel right for me. I want to give it to somebody else. And then it gets to see the light of day in a different way.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Start today, okay? Start yesterday, okay? Start, just start. Because you never know what you're gonna be. You know, it's like, I started out, I thought I was gonna be the biggest rapper in the world. I wasn't the biggest rapper in the world, but you know what? I landed in a pretty cool job. Yeah. And it's like, Don't be so precious. You can reinvent yourself a million times.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Every artist has a past. You go on, you see Post Malone's first song. You see this person's first song. And it's like, I like the evolution, showing where someone evolves. And I think right now the point of entry is easier than it's ever been. You could be nobody today and tomorrow have the biggest song in the world. Put up your music, make videos, express yourself. Don't be afraid to be yourself.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
If your music sounds like everyone else, it's probably not that good yet. You should do something that makes it sound like you. Just be original. Be yourself. Fuck everyone else. Sorry for cursing.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Here's the original version.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I'm sorry, mom. And my own mother. I'm sorry. Sorry, mom.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And then this is Shellback singing. Oh my gosh. And then we came up with like a verse. This is where the verse happens. And all the lyrics mean nothing like because.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Oh my God, it's so long. You don't have to read it right now. Okay, I'll read it. I don't want anyone to know our little secrets that we hold. Okay, guys, it's behind the wall. We did it. We did it. We did it again. This is amazing. Thank you guys. I meant that shit, guys. Just start today. It doesn't matter. Who cares?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Oh, yeah. My new album. It might be out yet. I don't know. We're recording. This is the future. We're going to be in the future. We're recording. I have an album. It's coming out or it's out. And I hope you like it. And I love you.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Like sometimes there's like there's things but like like like. And then and then this was the first time Adam ever got on it.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And it's just like, you know, these songs build up. Like, I mean, you look at like, take example like this. Okay, watch this. Okay. So, okay. So like these are like, okay, so you take, let me try to find them. I don't even know where the first one is. Here, listen. Watch, listen. So the lyrics, we don't even know what they're gonna be yet. Watch, it's insane. It's like, you know what I'm saying?
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah. But there's always the right like consonants and syllables and like phonetics. Like watch, but then the chorus has a little bit in it. Watch. So there's like, you know, it's starting to, and then it like, the songs they get, you know, they get more along the way. And we like started a little bit more productions then, wait, let me see what the, oh wait, wait, there's another one before that.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, let's do it. Okay, listen to this.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Oh wait, oh yeah, this was like the first time we had, this was like the first time me and Adam got the lyrics right. This was the first time. Now you wanna know something insane about this. Okay, so here's the whole story about how this song happened, okay? This story's insane. I'm excited. Okay. So, I'm gonna take you down a little story time.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Okay, so the first time Amar had been working at his house in Virginia, okay? And my manager was working at Atlantic Records at that time. And we all started working on this demo. And this was a demo.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So we had that, okay? Okay. I go in. We do the song with Travi. Everything is going all according to plan. And I remember we were like, who are we gonna put on the chorus, okay? And I had... I had just been at a Sara Bareilles concert, okay, randomly. My business manager was like, come to this Sara Bareilles concert, I want you to meet her. I get to the concert.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Her manager at the time was a guy named Jordy, who unfortunately passed away since then. And he said, hey, I also manage the band Maroon 5. And he said, they've never written with anyone else before, but I really think you and him would be great. And it's like a loud concert. And I said, okay, hook me up. We'll do it, blah, blah, blah.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
I start thinking, I'm like, this was right when Train's whole, Hey Soul Sister got big. And I was like, oh my God. Like, you know, Maroon 5 was obviously huge, had the best, but like, they were like, they weren't like as poppy as they once were at this time. And I remember, I was like, we gotta put Adam Levine and Maroon 5 on this song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
And I remember going to like a radio person and saying like, this is, I really think this is gonna be great. And they were like, Adam Levine, Maroon 5, like, Isn't that a little bit like, I don't know. I don't think that's gonna work. And I was like, no, there's something about it. I really think we could. And I remember we go to Adam and he never wants to get on a song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
He's like, okay, but I have to make it my own. I have to change the lyric. I have to write this bridge. I gotta do all this stuff. We get him to do it. He loves the song so much. And he's like, I want this song so bad. I said, let me give you another song. I have an idea like for another song. I had no idea at that time. I like, that's when we, we, we hurry. We make moves like Jagger.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
In the meantime, I'm like, I'm like in a hotel room going back and forth, trying to make it happen.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
There's like four. Do I look at this one? Hello.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
As my idea. So, so we... We get the song done. He loves that song. He stays on stereo hearts. Everyone at radio thinks I'm an idiot. It winds up being huge success, number one. We have moves like Jagger. The problem is they have another song at radio at this time called Never Gonna Leave This Bed. And his manager comes to me and he said, hey, we have this other song.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Adam's gonna be on this new television show. It's kind of like American Idol. And I was like, yeah, but American Idol already exists. He's like, no, it's gonna be like bigger than American Idol. And I really think it's gonna be a big thing. And like the, we're gonna have him perform and premiere this song on the TV show. And I was like, okay. I was like, but there's already American Idol.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Was there going to be an, and he's like, I'm telling you, just trust me. So his label Interscope at the time wants him to play, never going to leave this bed. And they think he's going to play it. But Geordie at the time, the manager was like, we're just going to sneak and put this song on and not tell the label we're going to perform this song and we're going to release it that night.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Hello, hello, hello, hello. Okay, I'm saying hello. Oh, look at that one. Okay. Okay, we're here.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
They perform the song. His record label goes, you fucking idiot. What are you doing? You're supposed to play the single we have at radio right now. Why would you do that? We wake up the next morning. It's number one in 85 countries, okay? The label owner goes, change the song at radio immediately. And they change the song, never look back.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
You know, that started such a great journey with, you know, me and Maroon 5. We probably made it. five or six number ones after that. And really like, you know, we believed in each other to make these records, you know, to trust each other and, you know, Adam had never written with anybody else before.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
So it was like a big step in the right direction for something that lasted like a really long time. It was really cool.
Behind The Wall
Benny Blanco Breaks Down His Demos - Behind the Wall (Ep. 16)
Yeah, so you never fucking know. You never know. Amar was making a demo to Stereo Hearts in his parents' basement, and then five months later had two Billboard number ones.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
The next time we hung out, it was, it was, we just hung out at home and we just like, we're chilling and we were playing that game. We're not, we're not really strangers. And my, my friend made that game. And we were just playing it and we had both played it. And I was like, okay, sure. We can play it. And we played it. And there was like a card that said, like, take a selfie together.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And we like took us out. She's like, screwed up. We took a selfie. And then right after the selfie, we just kissed. And then, no, that's it. And then she's very private. And then, and then basically the rest was history. And we started hanging out so much. And it just like very quickly, I was like, oh my God, my whole life, I was like, oh, this is my person. Like, I'm gonna marry this person.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
This is, oh, this is the thing. This is what it feels like. It was so different than any of those feelings. And I was like, holy shit. I just, I met my best friend. This is my best friend. Nothing gets any better than this. It can't get better. There's no, this is my, this is like better than any friend I have that's a guy and I get to kiss them. Like, it was like, it was insane to me.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So I was like, I can't let this go. And it was so funny because before I met her, I, with my therapist, I had made a list saying like, these are all the things I want. Tell me the list. You want to know it?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Okay, okay, okay. So before I met her, you know, I was a guy in LA trying to find the one for me, and I was having some trouble, and I think I was maybe not looking in all the right places. I was like, okay, it's time to be a grownup. Like I want to like start a life. I want to have a family. I want to find a person that like is my other half that makes me feel better.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I make them feel better. And it's a give and take. It's the perfect yin and yang. So I wrote down a list. And the first thing on my list was age appropriate. Okay. Okay. So that was, and it was 30 plus.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So I was number one on my list.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Not number one, but it was the first thing I wrote.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then the second thing I wrote was I said, I know these are so simple, but it's so hard to come by somebody who's kind, compassionate and caring. I was like, that's really three in one, but that was my, but I was like, I need someone who's like nice and is like a genuine nice person.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
When you're a pop star like she is and you're a huge entity and people set up all these walls before and then the first second you like disarmed everybody.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I feel like it all happens for a reason. I feel like maybe me doing that is what disarmed her enough to like, you know, it's, we talked about this before. Like if we would have met each other when we were younger, it would have never worked. It's like, we've both grown as individuals and met at the perfect time. And I believe life is like that. And sometimes it doesn't make sense.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And sometimes it's not, the right reasons. And we're like, why is this happening? But I always believed that I, you know, I don't know. I believe in fate. I believe in all that. And I believe, you know, If you're good to people karmically, it's going to come back to you 10 times over. Maybe you might get in that moment and someone's going to do you really dirty.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
But over a long period of time, I think things are going to go your way.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
That was one day. Like, like everything really happened within. And then look, there was, once we knew that we liked each other, there's that part where like, you know, we're both extremely busy people. So it's like, It takes a second to where you fully prioritize, you know, because it's like at first you date someone, you say, okay, I'll see you this time once a week.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then it's like, oh, okay, this person's getting cool. We'll go twice a week. And it's like, wait, don't leave my house. I miss you. Like it all happens so quickly.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I feel like at the beginning, there were a few almost sabotages. She didn't like, she was like- That's fair. At the very beginning, in like her first few trips away, she was still gaining that trust. So there were moments-
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No. Yeah. Yeah. And we all have, that's normal. We all have moments in our life because like, we're only made up. I tell everyone this.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
It's like when you, when you start dating someone, you're not only dating them, you're dating every single person they've ever dated, every single relationship they've ever had in their past, every, because you're getting every piece of baggage that that person's carried in that what they've learned through their own personal life, through the life with partners, with their parents, with this, that, um,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I had to find a way to build that trust with her, not make it feel overbearing and make it feel real and make her actually believe it and vice versa. Like I know that she fully tried. If I say, hey, I'm just going to do this today. There's nowhere in her mind that's thinking that. If for any chance that she, I always told her, I said, it's okay.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
If you have moments of doubt in something, in a feeling, always talk to me and I'll talk you through anything that you may have. You know, if you say, hey, I know this is a crazy thing. I just had a dream and I woke up from this dream and I was upset. Sometimes she'll just say like, please tell me I can trust you or please tell me you're not doing anything stupid.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I say, you can call me anytime you want. And I'm aware. of her strengths and I'm aware of her weaknesses. And what I try to do is surround her with a lot of things to help her. So if she's away and I have to go to a dinner, then a party, then this thing, then that thing, it's a simple text in between each things that says, Hey babe, I'm going to this next thing. I'm thinking about you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
If we would have met each other when we were younger, it would have never worked. We've both grown as individuals and met at the perfect time, and I believe life is like that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Hey, you know, you know, where, where couples, where it starts to hit is when they miss that text. They don't call the person. They wait until the next day. Like, it's just like, I know what she needs to succeed. So I'm gonna help her succeed. I'm not gonna be a dick. I'm not not gonna hit her up. And she doesn't need a lot. She's like the easiest person in the world.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
But I know, yeah, she wants to talk to me before she goes to bed. She wants me to say, I love you. She wants me to text her if I wind up having to stay somewhere two hours late. Just a simple take out your phone and done. And I know that, no, I know that stuff. It really helps, especially when you're long distance because it's natural. You're far away from someone.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
You say, I'm not with this person. I'm not as connected to them. We're not meant to be. You're not supposed to be long distance with your partner. You're supposed to be right next to your partner. It's like we do things in life that we have to do. And we both are very focused on our careers and we're very driven. And you have to find a way to make it work that's comfortable.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
You have to talk to your partner. You have to understand them. I think people's biggest problems, especially men, are that We don't listen all the time. You got to listen. Just shut up and listen. Listen to what they're saying. A woman is going to tell you exactly what she needs. Like when guys are like, I don't know what she wants. I don't know. She told you already. You're just an idiot.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
You're not listening. Just listen. If a girl is getting frustrated with you on something, she's definitely told you multiple times and you're just not paying attention. So it's like, just listen. and don't be reactionary, proactively do these things.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I don't know if you do the same thing, but when, when you're away from your partner, you just try to think of little things that's going to make them feel more comfortable, better. You know, I'm, I'm on the other hand, I'm like living on the moon. So it's like, she doesn't have to really do anything because I'm like, I'm all in on, on everything with her. And, I fully trust her in every capacity.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And my whole life, I've always been like this. I trust everyone until they give me a reason not to. Okay. And I trust people to be who they are. Okay. And so far, I know who she is. So until further notice, that's how I'm going to treat her. You know what I'm saying?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yeah. That's my thoughts on it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I remember there was a time we didn't want this to be like a public thing because unfortunately for Selena, her life is always under the spotlight, being scrutinized at every moment and this and that and for good, for bad. And I remember sitting with her and we'd been seeing each other secretly for months and months and months. And we were about to go to New York and
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
we just made a conscious effort that we were like, we don't want to do this anymore. We want to be able to go out and have fun and like, and, you know, just live our lives. And at that point I knew that it was serious enough to dive in. Like, like that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I was like, okay, I don't care what comes with this because I love this person so much already that like, we literally said, I love you on that trip. She had already said, I love you to me a few times.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yes, she said it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
The number one health and wellness podcast. Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty. The one, the only, Jay Shetty.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
OK, OK. She was she has a plate in her hand because she she had like an accident and she was like coming up from.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yeah, she was had surgery or something. She was coming out of anesthesia and and she was like sitting there and she was like. I love you. And then I was like, what? And she was like, and she was like, I love you. And I, I don't remember. I didn't say anything back yet because I was like, I can't have this be the first time.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then one time she was with her friends and they were at dinner and she was like, Oh, we really wish you were here. We love you. I mean, and then just hung up. Like it literally was like, and then she started wanting to really say it. And she was like, It was right when I was going to do it. It was the same night. And I was like, hey, let me get my stuff out.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I was like, please, just let me. Because I had, it was like, I had felt it. And I was about to do it. And I was like, I want to wait till New York. So it's special. Be in my house. Like, it'll be a good thing. And then the day I was doing it, she was like, she like couldn't take it anymore. And she said it. And then we said it. And the thing that's crazy is, you know, Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Well, it's just like when you're an adult, it's like, I have my people. And that's like, well, I have to let a new person in. Like you barely have time for your people that you have. So you're like, wait, in order to get a new person, I have to like move another person down the list to slot a new person in.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Because there's not, you know, you start to get to an age. It's like, Larry David always says this. He says, I have friends that I'm not even friends with. I've just been friends with them for so long. I can't let them go because they're already built in. It's like a therapist. They already know everything. You can't teach a new person.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
if someone's coming at you with a certain energy, you're already gonna buck back. Like she always comes in a way where she's like, well, I didn't like this because of this, this and this. I'm like, she just said it so nice that I have to, I'm like, no, cause I'm like, shit, I have to approach this in a different way because she came at it with such class and effort.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So like, I'm not gonna come back at her like that. I'm gonna come back at her and say, well, I agree with what you're saying or, you know, I disagree and here's why, you know? And that's how we talk through everything. And then another thing was I really wanted a person That when I wake up, I think to myself, I'm like, how can I make Selena's day better?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Like how, what can I do in my day to make her day better? Because then that makes my day better. And I wanted to find a person like that. And I know when Selena wakes up, like the first thing she's thinking is like, how can I make his day better. And we have such a give and take. Like I could never even see a world where I would ever yell at her. She would ever yell at me.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Sidney disagrees.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Like we don't argue like that. Like I feel like, I feel like we just have conversations. Like there's never an argument. Sometimes she'll say, this is so funny.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No, no, no. She'll do this and it's really cool. She'll go, I'm feeling a little irritated and I think I need like 25 minutes. And I'll say, okay. And then I give her her space. And then after like five minutes, she texts me. She's like, hey, will you come back? But it's knowing that and we have the proper boundaries set with each other. Like I don't have to be on top of her every second.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
She doesn't have to be on top of me every second we're together. I just want to know she's in the house so I can say like, Hey, I love you. And then go back to what I'm doing. You know what I mean? Cause look, we're both highly independent people. Okay. But we're both little mushes who just need to be attached.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yeah. But it's like, but I feel like, I think it helps us too, that we're both, you know, on my list. The thing was, I wanted someone to be driven and inspired by something. I didn't care if they made any money or anything. I just wanted someone to be so into something that they did every day.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And when she comes back from her day and she tells me what she did, I'm like, I'm not sitting there like, yeah. Like when you're talking to your mom, you know, when you're talking to your mom and you just say, your mom just keeps talking and you go, yeah, uh-huh, yeah. Like she comes back and like my eyes light up because I see the enthusiasm. I see what she did. And I'm like, it inspires me.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I'm like, I got to do more in this thing. And it's like, we're in this place where we're inspiring each other. And we're so inspired by what the other person's doing. And she'll help me out. She'll be like, well, what if you did it like this, this and this? And I'm like, And then she'll say something and I'll be like, well, why don't you handle the situation?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I feel like you get guarded as you get older a little bit. Sometimes I wish I weren't as wise because when you, I'm not wise at all, but I'm saying like, it's like when you listen to something like for me, for music, I listened to things when I was like 18 and I was like, oh my God. I didn't know any of the rules. I wasn't thinking of anything.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Because we have such different personalities that are also the same, but the thing that one of us is really good at, the other one maybe lacks a little bit and vice versa. And it's so cool to be able to like workshop like little conversations or how to handle a situation. And I just feel so comfortable with her, like that I can say anything and she won't ever say anything I don't know.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I love the maturity.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Some people, I get it. They want to talk about it right then. They want to, the one thing that also works for us so much is like, we're not chill people, but we're like, we're not, we're never going to get, I like, I'm not going to yell at anyone in my life.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And you know, I came from a home where a lot of that was happening and, And I saw like at a young age and I was just like, well, like my parents weren't speaking the same language. Obviously they were speaking the actual same language. They weren't speaking the same language to each other to communicate.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And if someone comes at you like hostile right away, the first thing I'm going to do, and I know she's going to do is shut down. So you're not getting anything. You know, and I always say this, the guys are so quick to like, They got to win. They got to win the argument. And it's like, what are you doing? What are you winning? Like, you're going to argue with your wife and like make her cry.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
It all comes so easily because you're not confined to like this box that you've put yourself in over the years. And then by the end, you're like, oh, you know, I'm 36, almost 37. I'm like, oh, I can't do that. And it's like there is some sort of freedom to being really young, too.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then you're like, I won that argument. And then she hates you and resents you. Like, wait, like, don't be an idiot.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Well, it's also just a different thing because it's like, look, none of us are perfect. Like she gets spicy sometimes. And when I see something happening, it's about guiding the missile, not adding a jet pack on top of it with like machine gun artillery. Like I want to make, if I see her getting to a place where I'm like, man, Bye. And five minutes from now, this room could explode.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I'm never going to let it get to that five minutes from now. I'm going to say, what are all the tools that I know that work for her that I've learned over? Like, I'm not going to exacerbate a situation. I'm going to try to calm it down because why do I want to be in that position where we're both just like upset about something? I don't want to just calm it down and tell her what she wants to hear.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I'm not saying that. I'm not saying like to your partner, be like, yes, you're right. You're totally right. Like everything you know. I think you listen and you say like, okay. Like sometimes I even, I'll say like, let's not let it get there. Let's like just talk about this. And I do think... physical touch is always like a very big way.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Like if you're in a conversation with your partner, like it's like sometimes just like a hand helps or just holding their hand while you're telling them or giving them a hug while you're telling them. And if someone's upset, let them talk it out first.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then after they talk it out, be like, okay, well, here's what I think, you know, and you can work through these things together such an easy way.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
It's not always easy. I can tell you that. And sometimes we just, someone wants to be frustrated. And it's like, sometimes she'll tell me that. She'll just be like, I know it's going to be okay. But like, I just want to be frustrated in this moment. And I'll have to redirect because I'll be like, you know what? You have every right to be in this moment.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And she'll say, this is why, she said, this is why I want to be frustrated in this moment. She said it the other day about something. I can't even remember. And I was just like, oh my God. I was like, yeah. I was like, that makes so much sense. I was like, I don't agree with the frustration. We'll get there afterwards. And I was like, but I get it. I get it. And it's so cool.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I've never quite had a relationship before. like with her. And we're the furthest thing from perfect in the world. We're perfect for each other. We're not perfect for everyone else. But I think the thing that's cool is that we've had all these experiences. I've had all my experiences where it wasn't right.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I'm like, oh, okay, I'm going to change that the next time, you know, with this person or with that person. And I think that's when you really grow. When you take all your experiences, good or bad, like I'm like her, I take every experience in my life, my past partners, my family, my everything. It's like everything happened for a reason.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I'm not going to sit here and mope about like things that could be better or different. What I'm going to do is I'm going to say, okay, I learned this and now I'm going to put it into practice.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I'm not saying, I'm saying men or women. Sometimes it's not about fixing. You know, everyone is, you know, I'm such a problem solver and you are too. So it's like your first thing. I know the first thing in your head is like, how can I fix this situation? But sometimes it's not about fixing it right there. Sometimes it's about just like, you know, especially for women who are like,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
strong, like both our partners, they don't have a lot of time to be vulnerable in all the areas of their life. They have the world on their backs. Your wife has, there's so many people that rely on her. There's so many people that rely on her. So sometimes they just want to complain about something and that's okay. That's okay.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Who else are they going to do it to? They might as well do it. And you, and you just listen.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I wasn't nervous until one second before. I was so not nervous. I was doing work until one second before. I was approving masters for an album that was coming out that night. And then right when it happened, right when it was about to happen, I said, oh shit, what the fuck am I going to say? And I'm so good with words usually. I can't remember anything.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
If we didn't have a video of it, I wouldn't even remember what I said. You know, I had known I was going to propose to her for so long. And, you know, I never cared about marriage. It wasn't a thing in my head. She cared about it so much. So I said, well, now I care about it because she cares about it. And I found myself not even thinking it was going to be a big deal till I was there.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then I said, holy shit. Getting married now. And in the moments leading up to it, it's not really real until it's real. I remember it was so special for me because it was special for her. And then it was, yeah, she said the two times you said that were the best things in your life were that. And then when I got you, what a burger.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
16.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So she was 16. Wow, I didn't realize it was that long ago. And I'm like four or five years older than you. So I was probably 20, 21. And her mom was trying to gather into music and her mom is a... the way she goes from room to room, gets things to happen.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No, didn't keep it warm. Did you reheat it? Yeah, what I did was I got all the parts to it and talked to the people there and figured out how I could reheat it the best way. And I was reheating it in all different ways, putting it together. And then, yeah, brought it to her. Because to me, someone like Sel could have anything in the world. The best thing you could do.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And she said it right after she said, right when I gave it to her, she said, I can't believe you listened and remembered my order and remembered all these things in such an easy way. And then you just did it. She said, that's what makes this gift so special is that you actually like listened to the things and it goes such a long way.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
That's brilliant. I was just thinking something so crazy. Did you know we were born within 10 minutes from each other? Yeah. Really? Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No, no, no. Place.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yeah, I was born right near her. Like 10, 15 minutes away.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No. No, he can't claim. No, I don't claim Texas.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No, I was born in Texas, but I grew up in Virginia.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
She claims Texas.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yeah. Do you remember your proposal?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Gets things to happen. And, you know, and somehow she got us a meeting together. And we don't remember that. And, you know, after we had done songs together, there was one time where... it was probably 2016 or 17 or something. I remember when you were in a studio, like Interscope Studios. And I remember I came, she doesn't remember it, but I remember I came in and I had this talk with you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
When did you have the podcast?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And wasn't she on like your first ever episode?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I'm just happy she said yes. I don't even care about the next time. No, it's no, but like, we're, we're honestly, we're so, we've been doing so much stuff. We haven't even gotten to really just like bask in the glory. So it's like, I think we're looking forward to doing that in New York a little bit.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
It'll be whatever. She's already told me the types of things she likes and wants for a wedding.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yeah, it's beautiful. I feel like the thing that's so cool about it is I've been fortunate enough to make a lot of songs in my day. And people come up to me all the time and they say, this song changed my life because I would, you know, I was going through the same thing. And sometimes it is what I wrote about.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And sometimes they think the meaning is nothing of what I wrote about, but that's the best part about music that it hits you. It's like music is one of the senses, it's like food. It's like, like there's certain things, certain smells, certain songs, they bring you back to a time immediately. Okay. Like you're immediately transported.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And it's so cool that everybody can be listening to the same song and have a completely different relationship with it. I feel like that's so cool.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I can kiss her now.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
What's really different is I feel like we got to talk about stuff that she would never talk about as an artist if it wasn't with her partner being next to her. And honestly, I would take out, I would just write everything she said. Sometimes she'd wake up from a dream and she's like, I had this terrible dream and this is what it was and blah, blah, blah. I write it down, then it becomes a song.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I remember being like, whoa, wow, like Sidney's really like a complex person, like in a good way. And I was like, wow, she's so deep. And we had this conversation where I really, I was just really left by being like, oh, she's deep. And then we went and thought nothing more of it. And then-
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
It was so cool being able to I don't know. It was like therapy.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
You could say whatever you want. There's certain things you wouldn't be able to say if you were, if I was just, hey babe, like I just want to, she'd be like, what the hell are you talking about? But if somehow like when I'm playing chords while we're saying it, it's like, oh, okay.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yeah. And you can just talk about things and you're more open. It's like a therapy session. It's like, it's a safe place. And like, It was cool to learn things about her that I don't know if I would have learned ever or as soon as I did.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
when we did our song together i remember leaving not not feeling romantic at all i just remember leaving and i was talking you know because when you're a pop star like she is and you're a huge entity and and and you've done so many things in your life before like people set up all these walls before.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Did you interview her yet?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I've known her since she was 14. Wow. So to see where... I put her on an album like five years ago. Wow. So to see where she's gone is so cool. And I'm always one who loves new talent, new artists. And she's great. She has such a great point of view. Her writing comes from such a good place.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I love people where it feels like they're like, and Selena does it too, where it feels like they're just kind of talking to you. And then you're like, oh wait, I'm listening to a song. But like, what, what? You know? Yeah. It's just, you know, making the album with her, I felt like it taught me.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I was just like, we're really good at communicating with each other and saying like, and setting boundaries and saying when we like something, when we don't like something.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So it's like, you get like, like before I came in, they were like, well, you know, this thing's like this and this is like this. And like, she might not want to do that. And like stuff. And they, they speak for people so much. And then I remember we were so me and the director were so nervous. And then, The first second you like disarmed everybody.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I remember walking back and Jake was like, he's like the guy who directing with me. He's like, it's going to be so easy. What they, they made it seem like she was, this was going to be this crazy thing. And the warmth I felt from her in that moment, I remember leaving being like, Wow, Selena's such a cool girl.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Thank you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No, no, she remembers this.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
. . . .
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
,,,,,,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Oh my God. It's so long. It's like first you have to drive to New York and then you get on a boat for eight days and you're on the Titanic.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Wait, that's what you're going to... That's what you do to make her laugh. Oh, I did what I do to her to make her laugh.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Oh, I did what I do to make her laugh.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I said I hug her and then get on top of her and then I do that little funny laugh thing.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
She'll make like a, like she does like this, like little face and where she's like, puts her head down and like looks at me and she's like, I can't even do it, but she'll do that. That'll make me laugh. And you'll usually get on top of me.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
That's true. Whenever she starts to get like angry, she's like, no. And I just laughed at her because it's so hard to take her seriously. Yeah, that's true.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I thought she hated you. Really? I really did.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
That's usually how I fight.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Easiest answer I could have ever thought of. That's the best question you could have ever asked me. I'm a hundred percent right.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I really did. I thought she didn't... Like, I would see her and I would be like... Does she not like me? Like, and I, like, we weren't thinking about anything. I was like, wow, she really like didn't talk to me a lot. And I was like, I thought it was being nice. And like, my friends would be like, no, no.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
She always wants it hot.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No, I don't know what she's... Tell me what you are. I don't think I'm... Selena's not competitive. Oh, I was going to say you are about games, but then you don't care anymore. Like you're competitive for like the first five minutes.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yeah, yeah. She's competitive for like five minutes.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So the most memorable one she gave me. Correct. Okay.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then like, there was another time I remember and my friends were like, oh yeah, it's kind of weird to you. And I was like. I'm so sorry. And there was like a few times and I, and I didn't know. And I was just like, you know, I was like, that's okay.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No, no, I got her an actual piece of art that's in Will and Grace from the set. Yeah, from set. It's what they have. I knew the guy, my friend's brother wrote it. And I got her, for one of her birthday presents, I got her an actual painting that's hung up in Will & Grace. And when I gave it to her, the day I gave it to her, she was watching Will & Grace and it was on the TV.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
That's dope. That's a great gift. And mine's a framed picture of our first text where we fell in love. Like the first one where we decided we were going to go out on that date. She framed it and like made this like cute. She like made like, like did all these designs.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
It was so cute.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
She didn't really engage.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
No, no, I didn't even do the song. It was like one of my guys who did the song. Oh, and you came to fix it. Yeah, and I like came to help out because I was like, oh, I want their song to... I was like, I don't like the way this product... Let me just at least help them. I said, I was like... Well, I'm not sure if it'll be okay because I don't know if Selena likes me or something.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then John Janik, the president of Interscope, he was like, well, why don't you just go into the session? She usually doesn't have people in, but just go in. And if there is something that you feel is weird, try to just smooth it over and talk to her and get in. And I said, okay, I'm going to go smooth it over.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So I went in, it was so funny right before I came, her engineer told me like later that she was like, ah, Benny's coming. And she was like.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So from my perspective, here's what happened. I get in there and I'm like, I gotta smooth this.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I was like, I don't have this with anyone. Like, I was like, I want us to be chill. And obviously 99% of it was in my head. And I come in, we just started talking about life and her. A&R is there, one of my friends is there. And we're just, we're talking about life and we start talking about dating. And I was like, yeah, you know, I went out on this date, blah, blah, blah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then I was talking to her and I said, oh my God, I have so many good single guy friends. I was like, we have dinners at the house all the time. You should come over sometime. And I wasn't even thinking about anything. And we're like talking about like our ideal date and like this and that. And I wanted to make sure she did the line right.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So I was like, oh, I'll stay there to like, make sure it's good after. And then, um, so I did, we left and then I, yeah, I didn't have her cell phone number. Cause I, she changed her number a bunch. So like, I like asked someone, I said, Hey, uh, give me your cell phone number. I want to say like, uh, you know, thing. And I, I wrote, I was like, oh my God, you were. And, and, and during that, I,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I, when I was with her, I was like, oh my God. I was like, not only, she's like really cool. I was like, I want, I was like, I want to be like, I was like, I want her to be like in our friend group. And I couldn't even be thinking. I was like, I want her to be in our friend group and I want to make sure this thing's smoothed out. So the song figures out, goes well and everything.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So I said, let me just text her. Thank you or whatever. And I was like, You know, you were so sweet or something, something like that. And then she writes back. I guess we just were texting throughout the day. And she told me, she looked back at our message. She said, somehow you started sending like selfies where you looked really bad on purpose, like the worst ones in your phone.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Yes.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
I don't know why I sent them. Wait, did you like me in that moment yet or not yet?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
Oh, you did. Okay. That's what I was trying to figure out. I had no idea. So I had no idea. And somehow we decide. So wait, why did you do that if you liked Benny? Why were you sending him?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
So I didn't know any of this. No. And then we decide... And we're like, I forget how it happens, but we're like, yeah, let's hang out. And I was like, oh, my friend's having a birthday party tomorrow. I was like, just come along. And I was like, just thinking friend stuff.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And then, so she comes to mine and I guess she thought the party was going to be at my house, but I was like, oh, in my head, I was like, oh, she'll just come over and we can just like grab a drink first and then go there. Like, not thinking anything of it. I was like, we'll just like grab a drink at my friend's wine bar. It's on the way. And then we'll go there.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
You were there and we were sitting together and she said something like, well, you know, because it's a date I wore blah, blah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
And I was like, we're on a date. And then, and then we went and then we didn't really talk about it. You thought, who thought it was a date? She thought it was.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
she thought it was a date I'm sorry a nice man takes me out for a drink I'm assuming it's a date I didn't know but no one had asked each other out yet no it was like let's just hang out like and then we go to my friends we go to this Thai restaurant we go to Jit Lada and we're like hanging out and there's a bunch of people there and then she all of a sudden like leaves and she was like I gotta go to I have a video shoot really early in the morning and I was like okay and I was like
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
But I wasn't like, cause it wasn't a date to me or anything. So I was like, okay, cool. And I stayed with my friends and stuff. And then she texts me after. And I remember you being like, that was like one of the most fun times I've had in a really long time.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco EXCLUSIVE: Their Love Story Like You’ve Never Heard Before
She did.
Stuff You Should Know
Short Stuff: Poutine: Canada's Pride
Wenn du eine Popstar bist, wie sie ist, und du bist eine große Entität, und die Leute haben all diese Wälder vorgelegt, und dann, in der ersten Sekunde, hast du alle verabschiedet. Übrigens, Glückwunsch an dein Engagement. Danke.
Stuff You Should Know
Short Stuff: Poutine: Canada's Pride
If we would have met each other when we were younger, it would have never worked.