I think it's important not to overthink what you're doing.
You have to be willing to make hundreds of really terrible ideas, and then one of
them will be good.
And that's kind of what happened with this song, as well.
Prior to learning what the fuck this was about, I used to come home from school every day
and just sit in front of Ableton, and stare at it until it made sense really.
The story with "What If I Go?"
I had just been to London to see my manager, and we were kind of talking about what an
album would sound like or feel like.
And I was so excited on the train back to Brighton, which is in the south of England
that I just got going on some music.
And this is one of the ideas I made on the train, so…
It started with this drum break, I think.
Just as the real song goes.
It looks like it's labeled with the BPM and stuff, so it's probably from one of these
sample packs.
After that, I wrote the main loop on this little Operator synth.
Quite a typical Mura Masa thing is to have the main line played by a few instruments.
When I first moved to London, I was hanging around in south London a lot and Brixton.
And outside the train station in Brixton, there's this steel drum band that play everyday.
I was walking past that so much and hearing it so often that it just kind of became a
part of the vocabulary.
I think it's a really London-y sound.
In the second half of that build-up, the piano kind of drops down an octave.
It's like a very subtle thing, but it creates movement.
And then, there's a few percussive things that come in here.
Just to build up some of the rhythm approaching the chorus.
These claps are such gold.
That is from a vinyl that I picked up at a vinyl fair in London.
That's a very easy way to add human atmosphere.
And a lot of these sounds, I think, are rooted in real-world sounds.
Everything kind of builds in.
And the harps.
The classic Mura Masa harps.
‘Cause originally these were…
Yeah.
Still sounds nice, but doesn’t really make sense in the context of what we’re doing
until we...
Yeah. Pitch it up.
Suddenly there’s a lot more energy.
And it sounds like it fits.
Much more of like, a head nod when it finally does kick in.
The thing that’s happening is there’s these kind of vocal chops going on.
One thing I really love about Ableton is this transpose feature.
But this makes it super easy.
So, we have the original pitch here.
But with Ableton, in a pinch...it sounds like that.
So this is all the same sample.
And one of them is just pitched down an octave, and one of them is pitched up a fifth?
So yeah.
Here’s the synths, affectionately labeled here as "FuckSynth" and "FuckSynth2."
And the sub.
It’s basically...surprise, surprise.
Here’s Operator again.
One of them kind of...that's handling the mid-range stuff and some of the higher end.
And then the second one there's a little bit more reverb on there.
There's this ping-pong delay.
And then the sub.
Operator again.
It's just one oscillator, it's a sine wave.
It's about using it in the right context.
Tension and release, I'd say.
There's a few percussive things that come in here.
All this stuff.
Way too many snares.
This is gonna be really sharp.
Most importantly is this CamelCrusher.
Can’t recommend that enough.
That just makes everything sound super loud.
There's this, which is like a multi-sampled, actual drum kit.
That's all programmed.
Individual hits.
The kick is two layers.
It’s kind of this middle.
And then there’s the stereo one as well.
It kind of sounds a lot more like a real kick drum would once you add that layer.
Then obviously you have Bonzai’s amazing vocal that she came in and added.
And we recorded it a couple of times, but I was really happy with how it came out.
I sincerely think Bonzai could be the next Rihanna.
This lower octave layer.
Which is very not high up in the mix at all but it adds some depth.
And then just the backing vocal layer.
There’s this really like broadway slowdown at the end.
Everybody who I sent this to thought I was joking.
They thought I was really wack for that.
But it's something you wouldn't normally hear in this kind of song, and I really like that
so fuck it.
Fuck them.
It sounds great.
There's this really weird sample of a Japanese...I think it's a weather report or a newscast.