What’s the story behind ‘FTSG’?
I started dating women this year, and it’s been fun. It’s something I’ve finally come to terms with. The first time I was talking to a girl, it was peak situationship-core. She incessantly used the word “baby,” and I hated it with a fiery passion sent from god. I’ve never been a pet names girl or openly romantic in that way – that’s just not how I do love. It’s not my love language, and I don’t think it ever will be. But she kept saying, “baby, baby, baby,” and I was like… it’s slightly better when you say it, but it’s still gross. It was like, maybe you’re one of the few people who can kind of get away with it.
How did the track come to life?
I wrote this song around May or June with Dan Fernandez, who is one of my favorite co-writers of all time, but he’s also an insane producer. We had a completely different direction for it sonically, but it just didn’t fit right at the time. But we knew that we loved the song, so we put it aside and started working on some other songs, and kind of found the exact sound and production vibe where we wanted a lot of stuff we’ve been working on to live in. So, we revisited ‘FTSG’ in July and re-recorded basically every single part of it. But then I was dumb and teased it recently, and it was just the demo work tape we had going on, so we basically finished it four days ago.
How did you come about your songwriting process for ‘FTSG’?
I honestly didn’t walk into the room with Dan that day except to write the song, which was so fun for me. I walked in and we were kind of like, “What’s going on in your life right now?” and I was like, “Dan, I’m literally talking to this girl and she calls me baby and it’s so fucking gross,” and he was like, “That should be what we build this song off of.” He thought it was hysterical. So, we kind of just ran with the initial idea from our gossip session, and that’s how it came to be.
When was the moment you felt the track was complete?
It was probably the day my friends came in and we tracked strings. We did the full band – we had the violin, cello, banjo, bass, and mandolin – and it was all played live. I was like, “Holy shit, this is so cool.” I don’t think I’ve had that feeling with any of my songs before. I love them, and I think they’re so special, but hearing a full live band sit there and write these parts was one of the coolest experiences.
What’s a lyric that perhaps might be understood in the song?
There have been a few that I’ve been told people don’t love. “I’ve been talking since ‘88” has been a really big point of debate because they’re like, “You weren’t even alive yet,” and I was like, well, that’s the point – because I’ve been talking since before I was even born. Some people are definitely like, why ‘88? And I was like, I don’t know — I liked 8 and 8, and it’s long before I was born.
What were you listening to while making ‘FTSG’?
Through the Deep, Dark Valley by The Oh Hellos, Eli, Role Model, Gracie Abrams, and Olivia Rodrigo
What did you take away from this track?
This song has morphed for me so much now, because I wrote it and I was like, maybe I do like being called baby, and now I’m like, I don’t. I think there’s something that’s okay with that, but I don’t really want it for me. I think it’s really funny that it can exist for other people in that way. I think for me, a lot of this track honestly exists more in what it’s done for other people at this point. Seeing the way people connect with it has been the coolest thing, and it almost doesn’t feel like my song anymore, which is really cool with this one.
I think there are some of my songs where I’m like, wow, this feels so me still, and this one does. I think it’s more so because of the sonic space it lives in, the collaboration, and how much it means to see everybody gravitating towards it. Whereas I’m making these videos and I’m like, fuck, I’m still a simp – but now I actually have somebody that doesn’t call me baby, and I like that.
What would be the best way for someone to listen to ‘FTSG’ for the first time?
The peak situation is you’re somebody who’s horrible with love, and you’re in the pits and depths of despair of a horrible situationship or relationship. But I’d say: get a matcha, drive in your car, blast that shit through the speakers, and maybe have a little windows-down moment – like fun, movie-core.
What do you want listeners to take away from this track?
I just want them to have fun with it. I think there’s something that’s really fun about being able to, one, admit this is kind of cringey – and I think there’s totally that undertone to this song. Like, fuck, that is really gross, but I also think that being okay with something being a little gross was kind of where I was living at the time of writing this song. So, I think that’s kind of what I want the takeaway to be – that it can be kind of gross, but you can still do it, and that’s okay.
What are some emerging artists that everybody should be listening to?
Caroline Carter, Alina, Mckenzie Lockhart