(upbeat chiming)
- Hi, my name is JP Saxe, and I'm here to spill the tea
behind my tune "If The World Was Ending,"
with Julia Michaels.
(upbeat orchestral music)
Well, of these teas, only two of them, three of them,
half of them are caffeinated.
So I'm definitely gonna pick a caffeinated one
'cause I'm sleepy.
So, we're going with this one
because I think it has the highest caffeine content,
and I'm going for functionality.
So, am I making this tea on camera?
You wanna see me make the tea.
This is like a whole tutorial.
I think I'm doing a really good job.
(audience member laughing)
Did it, now we're gonna sit in silence for 45 seconds
while I let it steep
because that's how long you steep green tea.
Longer than that, it will be bitter,
and no one wants a bitter green tea, just a bitter ginger.
(audience group laughing)
(upbeat music)
Well, the song is called "If The World Was Ending,"
and it's about fantasizing about a situation
where all of the reasons that get in the way of love
are just not bigger anymore.
They're not, that's an ineloquent way of saying that.
Basically, it's about (laughs) imagining a situation
where all the that gets in the way of love
just doesn't anymore.
And I'd like to think it's inspiring in that sense.
That it's the trivial reasons that get in the way
of the love that you should be reaching for,
and not the very valid reasons that get in the way
of the love that you should not longer be reaching for.
But, I guess everyone's interpretation is up to themselves.
♪ Would you love me for the hell of it ♪
♪ All our fears would be irrelevant ♪
♪ If the world was ending, you'd come over, right ♪
(upbeat music)
Would you love me for the hell of it?
All our fears would be irrelevant.
One, as a song writer, I definitely geek out on that rhyme.
Hell of it, irrelevant.
That one makes my heart smile a little bit.
And also, just, that fantasy about the rational reasons
that get in the way of love just being meaningless
because of a situation where it's the apocalypse
and you're not gonna wake up tomorrow anyway.
Okay, so I've been asked a number of times now,
if the world was ending, what I would do?
And I've yet to determine really how I'd feel about that.
I think it's one of the arrive at the moments
and just see what honesty feels like.
'Cause sometimes it depends how sleepy I am,
and how motivated I feel to go somewhere.
Ideally, I would already be with the people I love
and then I can just stay put.
♪ I know, you know, we know ♪
♪ You weren't down for forever and it's fine. ♪
(Upbeat song)
I over-steeped it.
- [Woman] Oh no! - It's gross now.
That whole speech about it being bitter
and then I ruined it.
( Woman laughing) (Beep)
I know, you know, we know, you weren't down
for forever and it's fine.
I think that lyric is setting up this idea that
we are recognizing in a non-ending world
that it's not a relationship we should be in.
But, in an ending world, maybe it wouldn't be the same.
The song came about, I was on a road trip.
And I was actually just talking about
how I thought Julia was
the most incredible songwriter artist of our generation.
And how she'd defined this era of pop songwriting.
And then 20 minutes later, I get a notification on my phone
saying Julia Michaels has mentioned you in a story,
and I was like, "What is happening?"
And then she had posted my song "25 In Barcelona."
I said, "Thank you."
She said, "We should write together."
I said, "Yeah."
And then we got in the studio and
we wrote this song the day we met.
Yeah, working with Julia was pretty exceptional.
She's unlike any collaborator I've ever worked with.
She just seems to mumble out brilliant things
and it was quite something, watching it happen.
Of course I'm afraid of earthquakes!
Earthquakes are terrifying!
Well, during the earthquake in Los Angeles,
I was in the car so I didn't feel it.
Which is why on the first verse, I said,
"I didn't feel it when the earthquake happened."
Julia was at a concert and she did feel it,
and she was wondering why everyone was freaking out.
'Cause she was like,
"This is normal y'all are trippin'."
She's got a good heart, that one.
♪ But it really got me thinking ♪
♪ That the night we went drinkin' ♪
♪ Stumbled in the house and didn't make it past the kitchen ♪
(upbeat music)
The story behind the kitchen,
how specifically detailed would you like this to be, David?
(Woman laughs)
- [David] Not too graphic, not too graphic.
- Not too graphic.
I mean look, if you're imagining the situation,
I'd imagine you'd imagine a kitchen island
but I don't have a kitchen island.
It's a hypothetical kitchen.
There's definitely been support for this particular song.
Which has been really cool because it's nice
to be complimented. (laughs)
To be complicated, it is nice to be complicated.
(Audience laughing)
Not on purpose though.
Anyways, I'm getting derailed.
Don't try and be complicated, just be yourself
and if that's complicated, that's fine.
It was nice to be complimented by
a lot of artists I really admire.
Well Shawn Mendes posted it on his Instagram,
that was cool 'cause I love that kid.
I don't mean that diminishingly, Shawn.
I think I just mean 'cause you're young
and we're both from Toronto.
So I feel like, this big brother Toronto spirit with you
even though you're 17 times more muscular than I am.
♪ Ah, it's been a year now ♪
♪ Think I've figured out how ♪
♪ How to think about you without it rippin' my heart out ♪
(upbeat music)
It's been a year now, I think I figured out how,
how to let you go and let communication die out.
I think it gets easier not to talk to the people
you used to talk to everyday,
the more days you spend not talking to them.
I don't think it's as simple as just not doing it.
I think you have to figure out strategies
to not talk to them.
Like not looking through the photos.
Which I suggest in my song "Same Room".
Well, I don't suggest it, I suggest my failure at doing it.
But it's still a good strategy.
And I think it's kind of a skill, getting over someone.
You get better at it with time.
And a year is a good amount of time.
My go to remedy for a break up,
singing songs about the love
for a year and a half around the country.
(audience laughs)
That didn't help at all.
I'm being facetious.
That actually made it much harder.
But, well harder and easier,
harder because it was bringing me back to the memories
that I was trying to move away from.
Which is the downside of writing so specifically
about my own life.
But made it easier, because I was getting to
use the love that I once had for a function
that was for myself.
Which is, I guess a fancy way of me saying,
I think when you exit a relationship,
there's the confusion of what am I going to do
with all of this love now.
And I was lucky to have an answer
that was give it to my audience.
Okay top three collaborations, in no particular order,
Paul Mccartney, Kasey Musgraves, Lizzo.
Well Paul Mccartney because he's a Beatle.
And they are important to music.
That's an understatement.
Kasey Musgraves, because that's one of my favorite albums
of the last decade.
And Lizzo, because I just think
we could do something really emotional together.
I think my biggest fear about love is not having it.
But I have it, so, (beep) being afraid.
(upbeat music)