I actually have two songs I did with Nicki Minaj. We didn't even plan on doing it that way, but it was an organic connection and just a really solid connection she and I had musically.
I don't really have studios. I wander around around people's attics, out in fields, in cellars, anyplace I find that invites me.
We wrote a song, while sitting on a trampoline & we loved it so much that we ended up recording it as a duet
I get a more passionate delivery when I just go in the booth and let the music talk.
My approach to recording and all that is pretty organic. It just has to do with all the songs I wrote; go in and record them.
The art is what can't be put on a timeline. You can't say, 'Well, I'm going to make a record in May because that's when the producer has a window.' So just recording and getting things out is paramount for me.
We just set it up and recorded it the way we played it. But that was the way we played it then.
The nature of the video camera really makes you focus on the present. Since I have always been a diarist filmmaker, not one who stages scenes with actors, it has always been about the present moment.
There's really never any sort of master plan. I find if I've got a couple of tunes that I think are possibilities, I phone everyone up and get them into the studio and we'll have a go at recording them.
