- I just associate...
summer with youth.
And...
it's just kind of the most carefree time of the year.
I would say.
And that's kind of the sentiment
that I wanted to capture in this song.
It's just kind of celebrating
these lovers' sort of their youth together.
I was just sort of given a very small brief of like,
"Hey, you know, Shang-Chi, his mom and dad love each other.
Can you write like some kind of love song?"
And at that point I had made five to seven ideas,
and we were sort of at the tail end of the process.
And my boyfriend and I, who produced...
Jacob Ray, who produced this song.
We had been listening to a lot of Barry White. (laughs)
We were just super inspired, we had nothing to lose.
And we were like,
"Let's kind of make a throwback sort of vibe."
My boyfriend, currently is the first boyfriend
that I ever really was like,
"Hey dad, this is who I'm dating."
And that was really interesting,
obviously for everyone involved.
So the way- (laughs)
The way I broke it to my dad is actually really interesting.
My dad and my entire family,
they were in town for "Head in the Clouds II" in 2019.
And that's when I had just started dating Jacob.
And my roommate, Abby and I, (laughs)
we had made a reservation at Park's BBQ,
or Korean BBQ, in K-Town.
Okay, this is where we're going to meet.
And I literally invited four other friends
to soften the blow and cut the tension.
And I was like,
"Let's just make this like a fun
get together with everyone." (laughs)
To lessen the pressure.
And me and Abby, my roommate, literally,
we made like a seating arrangement.
We're like, okay, dad's going to sit here.
Jacob's gonna sit here.
And I'm going to- (laughs)
Everyone had an arrange like seating position.
Obviously, nobody catered to that because everyone panicked,
in the moment, but it went great.
Afterwards, my dad was like,
"He's a decent guy, I can tell."
And then now they're best buds. (laughs)
I was given the brief of, you know,
these two parents falling in love and that's all I knew.
I didn't know anything else.
I knew the story was kind of set in San Francisco.
And so I just kind of imagined
these two...
Asian-American lovers in the 80s,
in the summertime,
what their anthem would be whilst they were falling in love.
And obviously, I tried to tie everything together
into a single narrative.
And so I literally googled,
"What flowers grow in San Francisco?" (laughs)
And it said magnolias.
And I was like, "Oh, okay, that's cute."
And so that's where that came from.
I wish it were more sincere,
but I literally just googled,
"San Francisco, common flower." (laughs)
So there you go.
I love my dad.
We have a really solid and just awesome relationship.
And I'm very blessed to say that.
The best advice he ever gave me is like,
"Always pursue...
you know...
things that nourish you
and also bring you happiness
'cause there's nothing worse than living life
and going to work and hating what you do."
When I heard him say that
I really expected him to be completely against,
you know, this chosen career path of mine to get into music,
'cause it's not very traditional, "Is it even a real job?"
After a little bit of resistance in the beginning,
he did come around and he was like,
"You know what? I can really see that this makes you happy.
And as long as you're passionate about it,
that's all that matters
'cause you gotta be happy in life, man."
That line, I think is based on
a lot of rom-coms I've seen where...
you know, you meet the family and it doesn't go as planned.
And...
Yeah!
That "Dinner with your sister and the jokes kind of hurt",
sort of just imagining how,
you know, this girl meets with her boyfriend's sister
and she was just being really cutting
or super critical, whatever.
And then actually the line that follows after
is sort of what makes it for me,
which is "Cry the way home and you're putting me first."
I feel like those two lines set up the story.
Like, they go together.
And essentially, the main clincher of that sentiment
is somebody putting you first, right?
'Cause I think- I saw this Modern Family episode recently,
where it was Mitchell and Cam and basically,
Cameron was taking his family side over Mitchell's side
and it was this hilarious, ridiculous storyline.
But essentially, I think we all have that tendency
of kind of being torn between
our family and maybe our significant other, whatever.
And whatever capacity that means.
And so when they put you first,
when somebody puts you first and prioritizes you,
I think that is such a underrated thing and concept,
like somebody prioritizing you.
I think...
I don't hear about that a lot.
'Cause we hear a lot about prioritizing ourselves,
but when somebody else does it,
it's just, it's awesome.
There's nothing like an old friend, right?
It's like, you can't really make old friends.
As you grow.
And so...
anytime I'm just kind of...
feeling down or...
yeah, just, you know...
blue.
I call them and they always know what to say.
In the summertime.
I love...
going to the beach.
You know, that's so boring and cliche, but it's true.
I love going to the beach
because I live in LA and it's great.
I just, I really like cold drinks, right?
Everyone loves a good cold drink,
but when you drink a cold drink in the winter,
it feels like morally wrong, you know what I mean?
I'm just like, I shouldn't be doing this to myself
while it's like 60°. (laughs)
I love how I said 60° as though that's super cold,
but it is in LA. (laughs)
But yeah, as it's like super cold outside,
I should not be drinking this.
But in the summertime,
you don't even think about it. (snapping fingers)
You're like, "Yes, give me all the ice in the whole world.
This is the best thing ever."
And yeah.
So I'm looking forward to drinking cold drinks again,
without feeling any sort of way about it.
I'm actually more jealous of my boyfriend
and my brother's friendship,
because they play video games, like all the time.
And it's really cute and also really annoying.
'Cause like, I'll come over to my boyfriend's house
and he'll be like, "Hey, your brother says hi."
And I'm like, "Text me! (laughs)
I haven't heard from you in like two weeks."