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The prospect of a brand new model of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” with vocals from Britney Spears has despatched the music world right into a tizzy for weeks, notably since Spears has not launched recent music in six years amid the knockdown, drag-out battle over her conservatorship. Fortunately, “Maintain Me Nearer,” produced by Andrew Watt and Cirkut and eventually due out at midnight ET, is an unabashed dance-floor celebration of fine vibes a lot within the vein of John’s shock smash 2021 collaboration with Dua Lipa, “Chilly Coronary heart,” which was constructed on components of his previous hits comparable to “Rocket Man.”
John first labored with former Grammy producer of the 12 months Watt whereas making a visitor look on the 2020 Watt-produced Ozzy Osbourne album “Atypical Man,” which led to Watt producing John’s “Chilly Coronary heart”-featuring “The Lockdown Classes” album final 12 months. “The tune continues to be within the 20s on the worldwide prime 50, and it has been over a 12 months,” Watt (pictured above) tells Selection of “Chilly Coronary heart.” “It actually resonated with individuals, as a result of the world is so critical proper now. It was a technique to scream an Elton John tune when you’re out at a nightclub and in addition really feel Dua’s power. Elton needed to do a follow-up to that tune. Why wouldn’t he? We thought we’d strive one thing with ‘Tiny Dancer,’ in order that they despatched me the unique stems.”
“Andrew and I’ve been collaborating on a bunch of music lately, and someday he known as me as much as ask if I’d wish to produce one thing for Elton collectively,” says Toronto-born Cirkut (actual identify: Henry Walter), who has additionally labored with Spears a number of occasions up to now. “I’ve been a fan of Elton’s since I used to be younger, so after all I needed to be concerned. We had been in a position to combine in and re-arrange the unique strings, guitar, piano and background vocals from ‘Tiny Dancer.’ We stumbled upon this superb guitar half that I didn’t even know was within the tune — it’s not a outstanding a part of the unique manufacturing. We used that as the idea for the start of ‘Maintain Me Nearer’ and constructed round it. We had it enjoying on loop whereas Watt began enjoying bass and I programmed the drums.”
Of that Caleb Quaye guitar half, Watt marvels, “It actually gave the impression of Hendrix. I used to be like, what the fuck is that this? Is that this really Hendrix? Was he even alive then? I FaceTimed Elton and performed it for him, and he was like, ‘That’s fucking superb!’ I stated, ‘Give me a pair hours. I simply acquired actually impressed.’” When the 2 producers laid the “Tiny Dancer” hook atop of their nascent instrumental mattress, “that was it,” Watt says. “It clicked. We had our fuckin’ report.”
“We had to determine easy methods to put a brand new spin on it whereas nonetheless preserving the spirit of the unique,” Cirkut says of the problem inherent in reinterpreting a tune as well-known as “Tiny Dancer. “The unique tune’s tempo is 73 BPM (beats per minute). We may have gone half-time with it and brought it in a totally completely different course than we did however we needed to do one thing upbeat and danceable, so we primarily slowed down the tempo of the unique and made the beat double-time. As soon as the groove was locked into place, I knew we had one thing particular.”
Watt was leaving his Beverly Hills studio in anticipation of flying to Dallas to fulfill John the following day when one other thought hit him. He recollects, “As I’m going up the steps, I’m singing to myself, ‘maintain me nearer … maintain me nearer.’ What if we take that first line of the basic refrain and repurpose the melody a bit of bit? I ran again downstairs and Cirkut was already packing up his stuff, however he’s so superb that we rapidly took my thought and turned it into this post-chorus sort of factor on the finish of the tune. The construction was growing. However there’s numerous strain to take a seat down and be like, ‘Hey Elton, right here’s one other model of “Tiny Dancer.”’ What I needed to hold telling myself is that this isn’t a brand new model of ‘Tiny Dancer.’ It’s a fantastic addition to an already superb piece of artwork. Fortunately, he liked it.”
Whereas John and Watt had been sitting collectively in Toronto the following day, John’s husband and supervisor David Furnish confirmed off some new merch that includes pictures used on John’s 1992 album “The One.” Says Watt, “We’re observing this hoodie whereas sitting on the sofa, and it hits Elton: What about ‘The One’ for the verses? He begins singing it, however he’s singing it a bit of completely different. We went by means of melodies collectively, and it’s the phrases and the vibe, however the melody is repurposed to work over the chords. We took the vocal from that and tweaked it. ‘Tiny Dancer’ and ‘The One’ are 20-something years aside, however they labored collectively unbelievably.”
John later performed Fender Rhodes piano by means of a Roland Jazz Refrain amp and added new piano elements to “Maintain Me Nearer,” leaving one essential and remaining ingredient of the tune to be conceptualized. “He needed to collaborate once more with an artist and got here up with the thought to have Britney on the report,” Watt says, confirming that Spears recorded her vocals at his studio. “The truth that it got here collectively and he or she needed to do it and the way she sounded on the report — you couldn’t have made it up. It’s superb. It’s a second in time. She elevated the report a lot and put a lot of her personal persona into it — all of her ad-libs, runs and soulfulness.”
Spears “was really one of many first main artists I acquired to supply for again once I was first getting my begin professionally,” says Cirkut. “It feels very particular to be part of her first launch in fairly a while, to not point out at a major optimistic turning level in her life and profession. Seeing her followers’ pleasure will get me excited.” Provides Watt, “I used to be born in 1990, so she’s my pop star, you realize? She’s the one I grew up watching on MTV. She’s my Madonna. To report together with her and listen to that voice was simply unbelievable. She was a grasp at listening to her personal voice and realizing when she had the take. You’d by no means assume her and Elton’s voices would mix so nicely, however they do. She took the report to a spot we by no means dreamed it may go and actually made it an occasion.”
Finally, “Maintain Me Nearer” is a ray of positivity amid a world perpetually battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the specter of escalating battle in Ukraine and bitter political and cultural divisions. “Everyone seems to be on edge,” Watt says. “This tune is only a celebration. It hopefully retains the summer season going for an additional couple of months. It’s a tune to exit and sing your ass off to at Elton John karaoke. You will get misplaced in it. You wish to have a superb time. The songs which can be critical and might change the world are superb too, however this one, you’ll be able to simply go away every little thing off to the facet and revel in. Britney’s had numerous stuff to undergo, and possibly that is that second for her, too — a second of attending to be carefree and use her voice to make individuals dance and have enjoyable.”
Requested why he thinks John has been so obsessed with revamping his basic materials when so many artists of his classic are content material to depend on decades-old formulation, Watt says the artist “loves music greater than anybody on this planet. He’s the one particular person on the planet I may sit with and in the identical sentence speak about Lizzo and Jerry Lee Lewis. We simply sit and hearken to different individuals’s music for hours and hours — the opposite evening we went from James Blake to Aretha Franklin. His breadth and information of music is so extensive, so it is sensible that he enjoys making trendy music. You possibly can’t play ‘Tiny Dancer’ in a nightclub. You can, nevertheless it must be a remix. So for Elton, why not do it himself? Why not put his musical genius into it and make a model that the youth of immediately will wish to hearken to?”
John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Highway tour has been paused since early August however will resume with reveals on Sept. 7-8 in Toronto. Watt produced Osbourne’s subsequent, star-packed album, “Affected person Quantity 9,” which arrives Sept. 9 from Epic, whereas Cirkut was behind the boards for his longtime associate Ava Max’s upcoming launch “Diamonds & Dancefloors,” due Oct. 14 by way of Atlantic.
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