interviews
Connecting Dots: Inside The UK’s First Large-Scale Songwriting Camp With Warner Chappell
“Songwriters and artists want feedback, they want your opinion, so it’s just about knowing how to navigate that creativity and making sure it thrives.”
—Ryan Press
Creativity juices are flowing. Inside Metropolis’ lofty halls, music is being made at an almost industrial scale, but in ways that can only be termed organic. In Studio A, producer Ben Billions and alt-pop queen La Roux are cooking up a beat while, in Studio B, UK rap wonderkids A1 x J1 have finished a new track, brimming with excitement as they hear it back. Church Road legend Nines has just left Studio C, replaced by Grammy Award-nominated producer T-Minus.
Over in the foyer, renowned songwriter Sean Garrett—brains behind hits by Beyoncé, Usher, Brandy and more—is chopping it up with rising producers such as Atlanta’s Section8, himself having worked with Lil Baby of late. There is no sense of competition here, only the desire to catch a vibe and learn from each other. Food and drinks, courtesy of Wingstop and Hennessy, are swirling, as are conversations based on common interests not exclusive to music—from Wordle challenges to hazy nights at London hotspot Tape—a refreshing normalcy, despite the star power in the building. And everyone’s invited, across camps and labels, strengthening the community feel of the experience.
“Word has gotten out about this really quickly,” says Shani Gonzales, Warner Chappell’s UK MD & Head of International A&R. “We have people coming in who have their own draw and it’s great the news has spread.” Press chimes in: “You leave your ego at the door with these sessions. More often than not, songwriters and artists—they want feedback, they want your opinion, so it’s just about knowing how to navigate that creativity and making sure it thrives.”
These sessions often run well into the early morning—Section8 admits he left the studio at 7am one night—allowing more time for imaginations to run wild. But rather than going gung-ho on producing would-be hits, the camp’s participants aim for optimum conditions to let the juices flow. New Jersey native Dougie F—who had a hand in penning Drake’s “Jimmy Crooks” and Jack Harlow’s “First Class”, both No. 1 smash hits—has been working with Headie One, Popcaan, Wretch 32, ENNY and more during his time at Metropolis.
“I work based on the feeling,” says Dougie F. “You have to be willing to compromise and able to read the room and see where you can insert yourself. You have to be intentional: if you come into a room saying, ‘I just wanna have fun and make good music,’ the product is going to feel like that. You never want these camps to feel like work.”
“This camp is a multicultural, multifaceted open space for people to create and I love that… Stuff like this doesn’t just happen in LA or Atlanta.”—Samuel Ademosu
Mirroring Dougie F’s outlook is Ari PenSmith, a Grammy Award-winning songwriter who has worked with Queen Bey, Wizkid and Kaytranada, and shared a studio with Garrett, Tay Keith, T-Minus and A1 x J1 this time round.
“I came here to have fun, make some new friends and just enjoy myself,” he says. “I think a lot of people tend to put pressure on themselves because of who’s in the room, but—for me—I look for those longer lasting relationships that you can build. When I write with others, I don’t necessarily walk in with any expectation for how a song should turn out. I work with what the energy is.”
Ultimately, beyond the goal of making music, these artists cherish the personal relationships they cultivate, so much so that the music almost feels irrelevant. In an industry that can be territorial and outright confrontational at times, the respect for each other that fills Metropolis is nothing short of admirable, as universal as the act of creating. Warner Chappell’s venture, as a result, can be classed as an overwhelming, collaborative success.
“This camp is a multicultural, multifaceted open space for people to create and I love that,” says Samuel Ademeso, founder of The Flight Club, management home for names such as TSB, P2J and J Warner. “It proves London is a real creative hub. Stuff like this doesn’t just happen in Los Angeles or Atlanta, so it’s a big thing for us.”
Giveon Is Making Music for Himself. Not for R&B Purists.
Giveon’s GMA appearance comes just a week after his BET Awards performance, in which he experienced technical difficulties on stage that made him sound off-key, leading many spectators to question his vocal abilities. Having had some time to digest the moment, he provides some clarity on what goes behind the scenes of a major TV performance. “As a musician, who has context, and understands it, I thought it was common sense. But I’m realizing not everyone has common sense on basic music theory and production,” he explains.
Breaking it down for the not-so musically inclined, he lays it out like this: “The song is in B note, and the mic I was given was in the key of G. So anything I sing into this mic is going to come out in G, even if I’m singing properly in B. That’s when it’s going to hit the ear very weird. I just assumed people would know, because I didn’t even sound human. It sounded robotic.”
Criticism is part of the game, though, and it’s something that he’s experienced from time to time. He reveals that when he first began singing, many people judged his deep baritone. Others have questioned why he has a British singing accent although he’s from California. “Why do you sound like that?” they would ask. But Giveon welcomes critique. “I’m fine with it. I handle criticism so well, because I don’t really care,” he asserts. He playfully responded to the criticism after the awards show, tweeting: “Not BET sabotaging my mic!”
“If I’m making a song about how my heart was broken, I’m going to make a song about how my heart was broken the way I want to make it. Either you like it and enjoy it, or you just move on.”
Negativity comes with the territory of being a public figure, and although Giveon isn’t too enthused by that aspect of his rising status, he’s come to adapt to it. “I’ve learned how to deal with the attention a lot more,” he contends. “I hate to use the word famous or celebrity, but we kind of don’t have any other words for it. It definitely took some getting used to.”
The past two years have been good to Giveon Dezmann Evans. He rose to prominence in 2020 with his appearance on Drake’s “Chicago Freestyle,” where his hushed vocals added a reflective layer to the song, rather than overpowering his collaborator. Later in the year, he took full advantage of the attention, dropping two EPs, Take Time and When It’s All Done, the former earning a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album. “Heartbreak Anniversary,” the second single from Take Time, was certified platinum by the RIAA, spawning covers by everyone from Justin Bieber to Chloe Bailey to Kelly Rowland. The following year, he appeared alongside Daniel Caesar on Justin Bieber’s smash hit No. 1 single “Peaches.”
Giveon is the most refreshing voice in R&B right now. The stories in his songs are relatable, and thanks to his infectious tone and laid-back delivery, he’s carved out a unique lane for himself. Naturally, he’s become a go-to collaborator for A-list stars from all genres, but he’s also figured out how to stand on his own. Explaining how he was able to capitalize on his moments and build a loyal fanbase, he tells me, “Just because someone likes ‘Peaches’ or ‘Chicago Freestyle,’ doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a fan of Giveon. But I think the beauty of that is, I had a body of work, so it really redirected them to that. I’m extremely grateful for that magnifying glass on my music. I love those moments [because it’s] transferring them to my world.”
After blowing up in the middle of pandemic lockdown, he’s making up for lost time this summer. In the last few weeks alone, he’s performed at Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the BET Awards, and now he’s preparing for his own headlining tour, which is set to kick off in August. “I’ll still have the same energy, if not more,” he assures me, hinting at the mentality he’ll bring on the road. He might be the same, chill guy from Long Beach, but things are moving fast for Giveon, and he’s on pace to becoming the new face of contemporary R&B.
Two hours after his GMA performance, he arrives at a three-bedroom apartment in East Village for a photoshoot. Against the backdrop of an exposed brick wall in the living room, Giveon poses as the camera freezes the moment, folding his arms and tilting his head to properly capture the light. He’s at ease, having clearly had his fair share of photoshoots in the last year, and after shooting extra shots on the outdoor patio, he scoots over to an empty space in a backroom for a chat.
When we meet, Give or Take has been out in the world for just a few days. He could have rushed to release his debut album in 2020 or 2021 after his string of appearances on major pop and hip-hop releases, but it didn’t feel right. “I like to, no pun intended, take time, because that’s really when the quality is there,” he explains, sitting at a wooden desk in the corner of the apartment. “It’s challenging, because the consumer now is so impatient and they expect so much music in so little time, and then they’ll complain about quality. You have to pick one. If it was up to me, I probably wouldn’t drop until every three years. I think anything rushed is going to sound and feel rushed. And a huge part of the process of making music is living with it.”
The album revolves around a conversation between Giveon and his mother, who he has credited for cultivating his love for music. Focusing on the intimacy of their conversation, he opted for voice notes from his mother instead of A-list features, and he says he strived to “tell a story that is transparent, self-aware, and cohesive, so that you could press play from top to bottom and people will be able to see themselves within it.” It’s those personal and strategic elements that make his album sound so authentic and relatable.
Giveon’s specialty is his ballads, which are usually accompanied by piano keys playing in the background. Most songs are anchored by melancholic and gloomy instrumentation, and the somber tone alone may be enough to make listeners break into tears, but Giveon’s rich storytelling is what makes him really stand out. He writes about deeply personal, emotional issues on the album, including mental health. On the piano ballad “Another Heartbreak,” he expresses feelings of PTSD as a result of failed romance. “The concept is just so refreshing to me,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve heard that take. And it’s also saying, there’s literally nothing wrong with what we have right now, I’m just letting you know I have PTSD.” “Lost Me” and “Scarred,” two of Giveon’s other favorite records, explore moving past breakups and emotional baggage. On “Lost Me,” he sings, “I’m not lookin’ for the one/ Later, but for now I’m havin’ fun/ I’m done ‘cause I always get hurt.”
So far, Give or Take has been received well, debuting at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, but Giveon insists he doesn’t “seek [approval] from outside, unless people who I specifically ask.” Still, there’s one reaction that’s invaluable to him: his mom’s.
“She started crying,” he recalls of his mother hearing the album for the first time. “She tells me all the time, ‘I’m an actual fan of your music, not just because you’re my son. I could tell you I liked your music, and when I’m at home by myself, I could play something else. But even when I’m by myself, I’m playing it.’” Those same sentiments are evident in the first 30 seconds of the intro track, “Let Me Go,” where she says, “I’m so proud of you, I’m sick right now.”
“As a fan, she was excited to be a part of it,” he tells me. “And as my mom, she was excited to make something with her son, and hopefully get nominated for a Grammy.”
While I sit with Giveon, a debate about the current state of R&B is raging online. Conversations about the evolution of the genre have been frequent over the years, but the latest discussion was prompted by a recent Verzuz battle between Omarion and Mario, which also included appearances from Bobby Valentino, Ray J, and Pleasure P. Some viewers criticized the live vocals of some of the artists, while R&B vets like Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman declared, “R&B has lost their identity.” He wrote on Twitter, “It felt it had to compete with the bravado of the hip-hop world. Labels stopped supporting the perception of Black men being more than displaying a thug image.”
“There’s R&B purists who are very protective of the genre. So they’re governing it, but that could backfire, because you start to limit the genre.”
Giveon represents an exception to Stockman’s argument, but when I push for his reaction to Stockman’s comments, he acknowledges that R&B has been influenced, both musically and aesthetically, by other genres.
“I could see R&B acts being heavily motivated by hip-hop—you could just hear it,” he says, pausing briefly before finishing his thought. “But I think people also need to realize that making music is a form of expression. People aren’t making music to honor a community or a genre, really. If I’m making a song about how my heart was broken, I’m going to make a song about how my heart was broken the way I want to make it. And either you like it and enjoy it, or you just move on. I think people are taking out the fact that that’s an actual person talking about their actual experiences.”
After another pause, he adds, “It’s tricky, because R&B is one of those genres where there’s R&B purists who are very protective of the genre. So they’re governing it, but that could backfire, because you start to limit the genre. If you were to limit rap or hip-hop, I don’t think it would be one of the number one genres in the world, because it wouldn’t be able to expand. I love that it’s on the front of everyone’s mind, but I also think you just have to let it grow up. It’s like raising a child too strict. You can’t stunt the growth.”
R&B has evolved over the last decade, and some of its contemporary acts are now among the most popular artists in the world. Women artists, in particular, like Summer Walker, Snoh Aalegra, Ari Lennox, and Jazmine Sullivan, are dominating the space right now. Some have argued that no male R&B acts are competing at the same level, but Giveon urges fans to look harder.
“People focus so much on mainstream acts, but there’s so many acts that are making that exact same thing that you can go listen to,” he sighs when I ask him about notable male R&B artists who are making noise right now. “There’s so many artists. 30,000 songs a week are released, and we really just talk about the same cycle of artists. They probably haven’t even done the due diligence to see what it is.”
Giveon notes that today’s online music culture rewards thoughtless criticism. “It’s so much complaining,” he continues. “All these complaints don’t really come from artists. Me, I would never complain about a state of something. I would just go make it. If you don’t like the way something is being done, do it yourself. And if you can’t do it better than what you’re complaining about, what gives you the grounds to say anything at all? Make the R&B you want to hear, and if you can’t do that, then your opinion isn’t really valid.”
This is only the beginning of Giveon’s journey to superstardom. He predicts the next five years will be even busier as he plans to drop more music, perform at bigger venues, and “just keep growing my community.” Giveon’s trajectory is trending upwards, and even he can feel the wheels moving. “I don’t know. It’s weird,” he whispers in an eerie tone, “I could feel [the fame and celebrity] growing.”
Even with all the accolades and hype, though, Giveon says he’s still the same person. “I’ve always been a super simple person,” he explains. “My happiness comes from being with friends and family, or eating food, or things that some people would call mundane. I could do so many crazy things, but I try not to do anything too wild. I don’t go out. I don’t party. I only drink white wine if I drink. You know, something classy.”
Giveon may feel like a regular guy who just so happens to sing really well, but I’m not about to let him off the hook so easily, so I pull up a photo on Instagram that caught my eye. It’s a group shot of Giveon standing with Drake, Lebron James, Michael B. Jordan, Damson Idris, and other celebrities, hinting that his life may have changed a bit more than he lets on.
“So, when I do go out, that’s what it’s like,” he admits with a laugh. “That picture is so cool. It was so fun. I’ve been so blessed and lucky enough to be around some of the best role models that a young Black man could want to be around. I love trying to be in a room where I feel like I have the most work to do. That’s my favorite thing. Because if you’re in a room and you are at the top of that room, then you probably should switch the room up.”
Jewelry: Tiffany
Sweater: Jil Sander
Pant: Bottega
Shoe: Loewe
Don’t Front on Kanye
You’re considered a real tastemaker. How do you decide what’s fresh and what’s not?
There’s a team of us. I’m really surrounded by a lot of people who can dress, who are tastemakers in Chicago. And if you see me around somebody who can’t dress, then basically we’re just talking about him the whole way there.
Are you going to stores and looking for things, or do you just take whatever people are giving you?
No, I like to shop.
Where do you go in Chicago?
I go to Bloomingdale’s, Gucci. In New York, Atrium, Saks Fifth Avenue. I go everywhere.
Where do you go to get your kicks? Where did you get your cell phone? Where do you get little stuff like that?Well, you know I definitely have to have a Motorola phone. You know I have to have—
Because you’re on the Boost Mobile commercial?
[Laughs.] No… I have to have the hottest phone out. I have the black one; I think it’s called a Razor.
What about sneakers?
I get boxes of them from Adidas now because I really like the vintage Rod Lavers they just came out with. So I tell them, “Send me every pair in size 12 that are on the continent.”
What about your clothing line? Can you talk about that?
It’s called Pastelle. We’re working on designs for it right now. We want to open up a store in the spring. We’re looking in New York and L.A. There will be at least one of the two, if not both of them.
What can you compare the line to?
They’re really conversational pieces. I don’t want to go towards that and have people trying to predict what I’m about to do. Because so many clothing lines have already capitalized on others’ styles.
Are you trying to change up your look?
I think I dress a little bit more easygoing than I have before. I really wanted to make a statement and set myself apart from people. And now, with the more experience I have shopping, the more opportunities I get traveling around the world, I’ve been able to pick out the best of the best of the best. It takes time to really build up a wardrobe like mine and be one of the best-dressed people on the planet. Like right now, I’ve got a red suede Yves Saint Laurent leather bag and matching carry-on bag. That’s a one of one. I took it as a birthday gift from them.
So who is involved in designing for Pastelle?
We’re going to have multiple designers do stuff under the brand. Adidas, NIGO® [from A Bathing Ape], Jonas [Bevacqua] from LRG. They’ll come up with stuff, design stuff. I think that was my first love even before I truly wanted to be a rapper. I really thought I was going to be a designer. Like, back in fourth grade, I used to design clothes.
Did you just cherry pick your favorite people to do the line? And were they open as soon as you reached out?
All but NIGO®.
It’s surprising that he’d get involved.
Well, I wouldn’t word it like that. But there will be some exclusive pieces. He’s not doing the whole line. But you know how he did sunglasses with Pharrell? We just want to have it open, to have different celebrity designers come in and design under the brand.
In an interview a couple of years ago, you said you didn’t like people looking to you as a fashion icon. Do you still feel that way?
It was probably just a misquote in the interview. That’s what journalists do professionally, other than actually typing: misquoting. When they go to school, the teachers say, “Make sure you misquote and paraphrase the artist that speaks in spectrums, that talks in colors. The only way that you can make this fit on the page is if you turn what he says into black and white. So take specific lines out of his sentence so that it only means exactly what you want it to say!” My thing is, fuck your 4,000 words. Make my shit 4,050 words and quote it and quote it right. It happens even with the nicest journalists, even with the people that have no malicious intent. That’s one of the reasons I rap in the first place. I wanted to get my point across exactly the way I wanted to say it. I spent so much time articulating my sentences, especially when I did those quotes. If I had all of my quotes, I could make a book.
You have a strange love/hate relationship with the press. Do you think even though you say you’ve been misquoted, they’ve still helped you by praising you and loving The College Dropout?
They were real after the fact with The Dropout. I just had to mature. I’m an artist. I was a starving artist. I was someone nobody believed in. This is your pull quote right here: “Success is a humbling experience because now I don’t have to tell anybody how good I am. Everybody else can see it.”
That makes you feel humble, or just makes you look humble?
Well, I think I have a lot of internal conflicts with that because it’s the nature of a Gemini to try to make people happy. So I guess that’s where I get my split personalities from. What we do is, if we have a problem, we will evaluate the response—if we bring up something, half the people will respond to it before we say something. We really try to think before we talk, and if it feels like a lull, it will be like, “Well, why you not talking?” when, really, I’m trying to figure this all out in my head. And so people say, “Why you acting funny? Why you acting like that?” So I have a complex that I’m trying to fight to try to make people happy. Just today on the train, this guy was talking to me—now, mind you, people come up to me all the time trying to ask for advice on how to make it, so I will remember them. He said, “What are you doing down here?” And I said I have a show. He said, “Yo, dog, keep doing your thing.” And I said, “Fo’ sho’, man. I’mma try.” And then he told me, “Don’t say try, don’t say try.” And I said, “Wait a second, dog—I do this. This is what I do. I say I’ll try to make you feel comfortable.” Just so people will walk away saying, “Damn, Kanye is a really nice guy.” For some reason, whenever I talk directly, it just makes people feel so uncomfortable. The thing is, if you want the realest me, then it’s gonna be like, [excitedly] “Yeah, I did that,” and shouting all the time and celebrating all the time because it’s so good. Every day is my birthday. What do you expect? It’s like, walk a day in my shoes and try to not spare anybody. What do you want from me? So now what I do is put up what I always talked about: the false modesty. I’m becoming so fake. I’m becoming exactly what I tried to fight against.
“Success is a humbling experience because now I don’t have to tell anybody how good I am. Everybody else can see it.”
That’s a trap of success.
Last night, somebody came out to the studio. It was someone I didn’t know who was coming out to the studio. I do know him, but not too well, though—
Who was it?
Come on now… But then they said he’s at the front desk. And I’m telling you, I’m so stressed out—I got a couple days to finish my album, I’m doing an intro for the “Diamonds” video, and I was in total work mode. I don’t have time to say “what’s up?” It’s a closed session. But it’s like if they word it in some way that I was like, “Yo, you can’t come in right now,” then I’m an asshole. Mind you, you weren’t invited or nothing.
Right. But if people want to be around you, then that’s what it’s like.
The thing is, I’m always in the wrong. Somebody looks at me and I’ll just be looking. “You can’t speak? I don’t know you. You didn’t ask me anything. You didn’t say anything to me. Am l just supposed to walk around the street?” On the other hand, should I be so cocky to think that everybody is looking at me? I’ve had times where I thought somebody was looking at me and I give them the head nod and people look away from me. Then it’s like, “What did I do that for?” It’s like you’re always trying to make up for your success, to overcompensate, to try to be extra nice.
You’ve said you’re a shy person. Do you think that’s because of how you grew up? Do you think you were telling people, “I’m the shit,” because you were overcompensating or just confident?
I definitely think that it’s overcompensation. I was the scaredest of all. Just scared of not being able to make it. Just imagine the walls that I’ve had to climb or the people I’ve had to stand in front of. You have to build something up. When I do my signature pose, it’s like a force field toward all of the naysayers and the haters. I just have that up. I’m going to make up a new theory: [the saying goes] If you come in a room and people think you’re stupid, open your mouth and remove all doubt. The flip side of that is, if you come in a room talking, you don’t allow anybody else to say anything about you.
You did a humble thing by letting Jay-Z come out during your set at Hot 97’s Summer Jam recently. And you look to Jay as a model for a sustained music career. But do you look at him as a businessman whose path you’d like to follow?
Yeah, I’d definitely say that.
“It takes time to really build up a wardrobe like mine and be one of the best-dressed people on the planet.”
Jay’s also a branding expert. Is that something you aspire to?
Well, I want to make my bear be the icon. I always pictured having my own skyscraper. And when you get to my office, there would be the Dropout Bear logo encrusted on the wall.
Have you ever looked into doing real estate?
I was doing real estate before I really got into the game. My mother always said real estate. But not skyscrapers or anything like that.
What are you driving?
A Mercedes-Benz CLS55. It’s really fun, but it’s definitely not like a John Legend-platinum, Common-almost-platinum, all these other triple-platinum artists type of car, know what I’m saying? It’s not downplayed like white person downplayed, like a Nissan Altima. It’s still niggerish… and you can say that Kanye allowed you to print that.
Let’s talk about something else. Can you give me a little “Day in the life of Kanye”? When you woke up this morning, what did you do?
I had sex. Then I ran outside, attempted to make a flight. We made the flight, and we cut the line because I got BSP.
What’s BSP?
Black Star Power. Then I got on the airplane, went to sleep. Got off the plane. [My publicist] Gabe told me that this was the last day for the Complex interview. Then I looked down at my Yves Saint Laurent bag and it’s suede and I saw a little glue coming off of it and I told Ivan I need Scotchgard.
There’s very personal subject matter on College Dropout songs like “Family Business” and “Spaceship.” Is the stuff as personal on Late Registration?
Yes, I think personal, but I’ll word it in ways so that every person can relate to it. I always wanted to rap in a way that I could be respected in a barbershop and on a mixtape level but also spit a rap to a straight, white, corporate dude and he would understand every word. I’m kind of like Jadakiss meets Will Smith.
People say that you get 25 years to write your first record and only one year to write your second. How do you keep it creative?
I have two words for the new album: Jon Brion.
Can you describe the series of events that led to you two getting together?
Just a whole bunch of me asking people and people not giving me the number. When I finally hooked up with Rick Rubin, who is basically like the Hollywood yellow pages, he helped me out.
Was Jon open to it right off the bat?
I talked to him on the phone and I came to him playing songs and he just started working and said, “Hey, let’s do this.”
That’s crazy. You’re really an unlikely pair.
He connected with the music and he has a lot of soul; he plays every instrument. We both want the same things out of the music: for people to feel it at the end of the day. All the technical shit aside, we just want people to feel it. And I wish I could word it to make me sound smarter, but it’s really that simple.
Was it difficult for you to give up the reins?
Well, yeah, we did it together. I guess if I was on a “Kanye’s not so bad” campaign, I could use that as an example. Just because you’re coming out winning three Grammys and you’re considered one of the No. 1 producers in the game doesn’t mean you can’t put your album in someone else’s hands because you respect his work so much.
How do you avoid repetition in writing rhymes? How do you keep it new?
I refuse to be boxed in. I’m always like, “Damn, I never heard that before.” Even at the risk of people not liking it. Seriously—think I am really capable of making an extension of The College Dropout, but the answer is, I wouldn’t.
Are you comfortable sacrificing that bigger success?
Dog, don’t you know that by now? I’m ill.