HOT CREATIVITY HACK ZOOM SONGWRITING

Unable to get in a room together, pop professionals are collaborating remotely

IN JANUARY, the Atlantabased hip-hop producer TM88 received an urgent call from Lil Uzi Vert:

The rapper was craving a beat that sounded like his biggest hit, 2017’s “XO Tour Llif3.” Over the next few days, the two men spent hours on FaceTime perfecting a track together. “He’s like, ‘Take that out [of the beat], do this,’ and I’m doing it and sending it back,” TM88 recalls. “I’m telling him what I don’t like about the lyrics. The whole time, I was babysitting my daughter.”

At the start of the year, musicians could choose to work this way. Now, it’s pretty much the only option available for those who are still hoping to create music collaboratively in real time: Just like with concerts and movie theaters, COVID-19 has largely spelled the end of in-person songwriting sessions this year.

That means musicians are following the lead of millions of office workers around the world and trying to get the job done over video apps. “There’s no way to replicate that human connection in the room,” says songwriter

Dan Henig (Monsta X, Chelsea Cutler). “But even with lag and choppy sound, you can find connection and common ground. It’s not the same. But that’s what we have.”

The aspects of Zoom or FaceTime or Google Hangouts that can be annoying for civilians — faulty audio, everyone talking over everyone else — can be deadly for songwriting. “Writing [songs] is a lot about listening and reacting in real time,” says PJ Harding (Noah Cyrus, Chromeo). “If you’ve got a one-second delay, that’s a vibe-killer, a deal-breaker.”

Working remotely can also test the limits of songwriters’ skill sets. “A lot of people are used to having an engineer or a producer who knows how to track and record,” says Antonio Dixon (Beyoncé, Ariana Grande). If they want to add background harmonies to a track they’re working on, for example, they may not be able to do that on their own.

That said, the songwriting world wasn’t completely unprepared for stay-at-home restrictions. For years, writers have been starting hits on the Voice Memos app and slinging them to collaborators in emails and texts, with demos gaining detail and density as they carom around the internet.

This approach can be both convenient and environmentally conscious. “I’m from Australia originally, and the last three or four years I’d been coming over to L.A. maybe three times a year,” Harding says. “That’s not great for the environment. So I’d been looking into this — how can I still be productive without releasing as much carbon into the atmosphere?”

Some writers collaborating remotely for the first time are enjoying themselves. Poo Bear, who is currently stuck in the Bahamas, has found that FaceTime sessions with Justin Bieber offer a “refreshing” change. “If anything, it makes you pay even more attention,” he says. “I’m listening harder, making sure I don’t miss anything.”

The pandemic may well have long-term impacts on professional songwriting. “Remote sessions [will] become more normal,” says Henig. This could expand the possibilities for writers in exciting ways, freeing them to hop into a remote session with an Afrobeats writer in Lagos or a K-pop writer in Seoul.

For the moment, remote sessions are continuing out of necessity. “Even online,” says Neil Ormandy, who co-wrote James Arthur’s global hit “Say You Won’t Let Go,” “you can still get that buzz.” ELIAS LEIGHT