(ELECTRONIC SYNTHS)
Well, it's gotta have drums. Yeah.
(DRUMS PLAY)
It's gotta have really good drums. Yeah.
Usually it's writing a lot of lines about it.
You have, like, heaps of ideas that you've come up with
over a long period of time,
then you have this consolidation moment,
and when what that happens,
that's when you can start to actually see the song.
WOMAN: I guess you don't know when you're writing it.
I think the main thing is to create something that people connect with,
even if it's just a song
where they can just put their dancing shoes on and just go wild,
that's a hit, because it's made them move.
Heh. You tell us.
Who knows how to write a hit? Do you?
Well, if I knew, I shouldn't...I wouldn't tell.
I wouldn't tell anybody. It's a dark art.
(LAUGHS)
The way to write a hit song is...
Is write lots. Yeah.
And then just pick 1 in 50 that you think you love.
The motto is
"You've gotta go through all the shits to get the hits."
Yeah.
Hi, I'm Dan. Hi, I'm Linda.
And this is What Is Music?
And we're not in our usual studio today
because we're here to write a hit song.
Yes. Start to finish, all in one day. Boom.
To achieve this monumental task,
we've come to the largest recording studio in the southern hemisphere,
Studio 301.
This award-winning, platinum-record-churning studio
will have all the bits and pieces we need to pull this off.
I've even enlisted the help of a topnotch producer, Simon Cohen.
Simon is a producer and engineer
who has worked with Justin Bieber, Guy Sebastian,
Vera Blue and Jessica Mauboy.
So he is no stranger to making a banger.
So, Simon... Hi!
Is there a formula to writing a hit song?
Well, there's a lot of techniques for writing,
uh...different types of songs -
whether it goes on to become a hit or not
is as much up to good luck as good writing, maybe.
But we can certainly have a go at writing a great song.
So all we need is, like, two to four chords
and, like, a hook and a strong beat, right?
That's...that's it. That's the recipe.
Absolutely. And then just...I take my top off.
Yeah. (LAUGHS) Alright. Nice. Funny. Cute chitchat.
Let's get down to it - what does this stuff do?
OK.
Well, so behind me we've got the mixing desk,
and so essentially
we plug all the microphones and keyboards into there.
Then we've got a computer where we're gonna record it all.
There's a few extra toys lying around -
some guitars and microphones.
Everything we could need.
Step 1 - the beat, and our chart-topper needs one.
BPM, or beats per minute, measures the pace and rhythm of a song.
The growing trend in pop music has been for slower beats,
with the average song declining from 116 BPM to 100
in the past four decades.
How fast do we want this song?
I like the idea of it being slower -
like, about 100 or something. Yeah.
Shall we give that a try? OK.
Yeah. See if it makes you move?
You know Dan loves to dance as well. I've heard.
(LAUGHS)
This is our regular 100.
(SLOW BEAT PLAYS) Yeah.
Dun. Dun-dun-dun.
And let's try a couple of loop starting points,
get a bit of a feel for the groove.
(SLOW, FUNKY BEAT PLAYS)
(SLOW, ECHOING FUNKY BEAT PLAYS)
I like that. That feels like a nice intro.
Yeah. That feels like a nice kind of house, slightly hip-hop.
(BEATBOXES TO BEAT, MIMICS DRUM BEAT)
So we throw a bit more of, like,
a sort of straight-up kick under it too.
(FUNKY BEAT BECOMES MORE COMPLEX) Oh, yeah.
Mmm, mmm! Mmm! Mmm!
That sounds great.
In this first verse, maybe we'll start with sort of 16 bars.
Then we can go into the chorus section.
Quite often in the second verse... Shorter verse.
..shorten it down a little bit, maybe eight bars.
Everybody's waiting to get back to the hook again.
We start with bits and pieces, and as the song kind of forms out,
we'll sort of put some of the ornamentation in.
I like the idea of keeping it quite uncomplicated.
Yeah.
I mean, a lot of the styles these days,
particularly R&B and kind of hip-hop influenced pop,
there is a lot of space.
It's kind of the drums and just kind of one bass note,
and maybe a little kind of melodic element.
Let's go ham, and then see what happens when we slap it at the wall.
Perfect. Is that even a saying?
It is now. Just slap it at the wall.
Simon, slap it at the wall. Come on.
I'm gonna get T-shirts made of that.
The beats are down.
Now we need some harmony, and that means step 2 - the chord progression.
OK, fact time. What's a chord progression?
So a key basically has seven notes in it,
and you can build a chord around any of these.
All the way from C, all the way up to B, and then C again.
So you've probably heard this before.
(PLAYS A SERIES OF DESCENDING NOTES)
It's the basis for a fair few pop songs.
That's a chord progression.
Chord progressions dictate the flow of a song.
They can give a song strong vibes, like the blues.
(PLAYS JAUNTY TUNE)
And doowop - popular in the '50s and '60s.
(PLAYS UPBEAT TUNE)
Or the sad modern ballad.
(PLAYS MELANCHOLY TUNE)
You can also play with these chords by stacking more notes on the top.
(PLAYS CHORD)
Lowering or augmenting some notes.
(PLAYS DISSONANT CHORD)
Playing with dissonance can give a song character,
can give it tension, lightness, darkness,
and take you further away from home
so that when you return, there's a real emphatic feeling.
But recently, we're hearing progressions with fewer chords
being played in pop music,
like two or three chords repeating.
(SORRY BY JUSTIN BIEBER PLAYS)
So, would you pick a particular key?
Is there, like, a secret key for pop success?
Look, there's a few keys that get used quite often,
particularly the keys that have, essentially, all the white notes.
You've got your A minor.
If it's being written for a particular singer,
they will have a certain range that they sound best in.
If you're writing for yourself,
then obviously it's whatever's comfortable.
Or just wherever the idea comes from.
Cool. Let's try something out.
(PLAYS UPBEAT PERCUSSIVE TUNE)
We could do something a bit more synthy.
(PLAYS UPBEAT SYNTH TUNE)
Let's just record some of that down and see if some of it works.
And you can do the variation with the three.
Cool!
I reckon that's kind of the skeleton for our chords.
Um, we'll run that through the verse and then...
..it'll probably work through the chorus as well,
but we'll see if there's anything that needs to change
depending on where the vocal melody goes.
Um, and we'll see how the bass line kinda works around it.
Perfect.
Step three is all about that bass.
The lower, the better.
A big bass sound that everyone kinda uses
on a lot of these urban R&B tracks
is the 808 kind of bass, so...
(THUMPING BASS NOTE)
Sounds a bit like that.
There's a "boom-oom".
Yeah, I feel like that could hit a...
Yeah.
(BASS LINE AND SYNTH TUNE PLAY TOGETHER)
Which makes you want to move more.
That kind of octave shift is kinda cool.
So there were a couple of things I kinda really liked in there.
(TRACK PLAYS)
But if you like that pattern,
we could try tweaking the sound for the other one
to make it a little bit more interesting.
The first one still fits kind of the best.
That kind of groove makes me want to move the most.
Yeah. Which is kind of...
Yeah, that sits with me, like, a lot better.
A little bit more like that Billie Jean thing
where it's sort of...
The rhythm doesn't really change. Yeah.
The funny thing is, is that that bass line emphasises the hi-hat.
I suppose particularly with the melodic embellishments
hitting the off beat.
They sort of pulse like they kind of live together a little bit more.
Yeah, that sounds nice.
LINDA: But I had a secret weapon to elevate this track from nice
to a chart-topping monster.
Hey, Simon? Yeah.
In one of the earlier episodes, we did an instrument challenge
where we had to create our instruments.
OK. We had a competition
and we were judged,
and my contraption that I made from start to finish, all by myself,
actually won.
So we've decided that we want it to be in the song.
Wh...what does it do?
(LAUGHS) Well!
Straw.
(VIBRATING DRONE)
Oh, wow!
You know how in some pop songs they have air horns and stuff?
Yeah... You know.
I reckon we could do something with that.
What in the world have you got, Dan? Like a shaker?
Yeah.
A very full sound! It is. Thank you.
Yeah, I reckon we could definitely use some of that in, you know,
some of the rhythmic bed for the drums.
Sure. Wanna go and shake-a-shake for me?
Why not? Definitely usable.
Why not. Says the professional.
(SHAKES PERCUSSIVE INSTRUMENT IN TIME WITH TRACK)
Cool. Perfect, man.
OK. Go for it.
(VIBRATING DRONE)
That's awesome!
Just leave that with me,
and I think you guys need to work on some lyrics now for this.
Step four - the lyrics. Time to pour our hearts out.
There's the folk tradition,
where people write these personal, confessional lyrics
to bring the listener in.
And then you've also got this tradition of jazz standards
where stuff is a lot more vague, a lot more universal,
and, you know, let's be honest -
if in doubt - partying, babes, love.
We can hit it. Always works. Yeah, absolutely.
Or wordless choruses. Whoas. Ahs. I love it.
Oohs. Yeah. For sure. Love it. Big drop.
Why don't we listen to it and see what...see what we can come up with?
(TRACK PLAYS)
What is it inspiring? What is it making you visualise?
It's like a sad party.
I love a sad party. I love melancholic party.
Yeah.
Maybe it's homecoming. Like, I've been away.
Now I have to leave this cool life that I've led,
but gotta return back home, or something like that?
Mm-hm. Yeah. Like if you've been on a holiday. What is that feeling?
What? Yeah. Like a half moon.
I was thinking of that when we were eating croissants earlier.
Not exciting enough to be a full moon...
Why did that remind you of it?
Well, it's kind of a similar shape. Oh! OK.
Yeah. Hey, what do you think about...
What if we just wrote the song about a croissant experience?
Or 'cwoissant'. Do you say croissant or 'cwoissant'?
As long as that does not enter the lyrics at all...
But if we wrote, like, a pastry love song.
A pastry... Oh, my God.
Here. How about this as a chorus, right?
We had our sweet, buttery inspiration
and smashed out some lyrics in no time.
Meanwhile, Simon and his assistant Charlotte
were busy working on the breakdown,
Charlotte adding some much needed oomph
into our original chord progression.
Little waves on them.
Cool.
Then this would be the build-up. (HUMS)
Into the drop. (HUMS)
Cool.
Now we'll kind of get a little melodic top line.
Yeah, it's moody. It's nice.
They were also cooking up something amazing.
Hey! Hey! You're back!
(LAUGHS) Hey!
Is that my little bay horn?
That's your horn, baby! Almost unrecognisable.
Yeah! You've made it into something almost musical.
(LAUGHS)
OK, so we've got a chorus.
OK, yeah. That's a great place to start.
# Almond, chocolate, ham and cheese
# I want you to come home...
# I want you, come home with me. # I think that's better.
Um...
# Almond, chocolate, ham and cheese
# Why you crumble when I squeeze? #
It's about croissants.
I would hope so too. (LAUGHS)
Uh, Dan, anything to add?
Oh, yeah. We just had a lot.
We've got a verse here.
# Thinking of you at a quarter past two
# Your shop is closed
# You got what I need
# Baby, baby, please don't get too flaky on me. #
(LAUGHS) OK. So I like it.
It's ambiguous, but then it starts leading us towards the pay-off.
Yeah. It could be a metaphor.
I reckon it's probably time we get you guys in the booth.
Find something catchy.
Alright. We're not good singers, though.
We'll put a little bit of autotune or something on it.
It's more about trying to find something
than it being a flawless performance at this point.
Just a little autotune.
Mine will be flawless. Yeah.
(SINGS NOTE WITH AUTOTUNE APPLIED)
That's amazing.
(SINGS NOTE WITH AUTOTUNE APPLIED)
# Oh, my God. #
I'm (BLEEP) Travis Scott!
(LAUGHS)
# I get those goose bumps every time, yeah. #
Step five - the melody.
Now it's time for us to find the hook.
Let's start with the chorus.
# Almond, chocolate, ham and cheese
# I want you... # Wait.
# Almond, chocolate, ham and... # That's better!
# Almond, ahh! # Yeah!
# Almond, chocolate, ham and cheese
# I want you to come with me. #
(LAUGHS) Yes! Great!
(LAUGHS)
# Why do you crumble Yes!
# When I squeeze... #
(LAUGHS) I love that!
# At a quarter past two... #
BOTH: # You're sold out... #
Down on "you"? Yeah, yeah.
# Thinking of you at a quarter past two
# You're all sold out but I still need you. #
Step six - putting it all together.
Simon guided us through,
refining the rest of the tune before secret weapon number two arrived -
professional vocalist and pop sensation Kota Banks.
Kota Banks is a touring artist, songwriter and vocal powerhouse
and she's singing on our song.
# For better days... #
Hit it, Simon.
(TRACK PLAYS)
# Why do you crumble
# When I squeeze you?
# Your flakes, your flow I need, you know
# I got the butter I need no other
# So toast up and taste me. #
Wow!
That's sick!
You guys killed it.
Should we chuck her in? I reckon let's get her in there.
Absolutely. Let's do it.
Two. Hey, hey. (VOCALISES)
Um, yeah. Should we have a go at this kinda first verse?
# Almond, chocolate, ham and cheese
# I want you to come with me... #
Were you playing around with that before
in the higher version of that?
(HIGHER) # Almond, chocolate, ham and cheese. #
Can we hear that?
# Almond, chocolate, ham and cheese
# I want you to come with me
# Why do you crumble
# When I squeeze, yeah. #
The song was clearly in far more capable hands at this point.
During that drop as well, the way you did...
Thank you.
And they were tireless in perfecting the track.
# Ah, ah, ah. #
Cool. Yeah, I reckon we've got it. That's it. Come on in.
Yay!
Alright, Simon. I think it's time to hear where we're at.
Awesome. Here we go.
(TRACK PLAYS)
# Thinkin' of you
# At a quarter past two
# You're all sold out but I still need you
# Banging on the store window
# Please
# Need to dip you in my tea
# Oh, whoa
# My sweet
# You got what I need
# Oh, baby, baby, baby, baby
# I got the butter I need no other
# Toast up and taste me
# Shake your, shake your, shake your bom-bom for me
# Shake your, shake your, shake your croissant for me
# Shake your, shake your, shake your bom-bom for me
# Toast up and taste me... #
(LAUGHS)
It's a good song!
It's a lot better than I expected we were gonna come up with.
And it makes me smile. It makes me laugh.
Makes me smile. Makes me kinda dance.
I reckon if the lyrics were different,
it would be a pop song,
like a proper pop song.
The melodies are crazy.
If it turned up on radio, I don't think I'd be surprised.
I'd be bopping along. I'd be right there with you.
Thank you so much, Simon, for all your amazing work.
And thank you for coming in and being our little singing star.
Any time!
You know what we didn't do, though?
Do you guys have, like, a producer name or something?
Like, how are people gonna know it's you?
What about Goldiano?
Dan Golding Marigliano. Goldiano.
I... Yeah, I'll take that. Yeah, OK. Alright.
I'm so into that. Alright. In you go. Let's do it.
Alright. I'm doing it.
(TRACK PLAYS)
(AUTOTUNED) Goldiano Productions!
Maybe it needs a phrase.
That was... No. I think that's gonna do it.
OK. Do not do anything more. That's it.
Don't change. You're perfect as you are.
Thank you.
Captions by Red Bee Media
And if you want to hear our full masterpiece...
It's right here on iview too.