Father John Misty Reveals Songwriting Processes Behind Beyonce + Lady Gaga Tracks
Despite his indie background, former Fleet Foxes drummer Father John Misty earned writing credits on two of pop's biggest albums of 2016 -- Beyonce's Lemonade and Lady Gaga's Joanne. He recently opened up about his experiences with both artists and, in case it wasn't already intuitive, Gaga and Beyonce take wildly different approaches to songwriting.
Misty -- born Joshua Tillman -- opened up about working with both artists during an in-depth interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Beats 1, where he revealed Beyonce's camp reached out to him after being introduced to some of his music.
"That was never an ambition,” he said, according to NME. “Our friend Amil played her some of my music. He was having a meeting with them and played her some of my stuff and I guess she really loved it. Sent me an email and said she wanted me to write."
The Pure Comedy singer continued, explaining the collaborative process behind his work on the Lemonade track "Hold Up."
“With ‘Hold Up’ they just sent me the beat and the hook. I wrote that first verse and the ‘jealous and crazy’ part. After we recorded I was like, ‘We cannot send this to her. This is ridiculous.’ I just couldn’t," he said. "My voice is not – the song is not intended to be sold by me. But it was never an ambition, it was never anywhere near – it’s completely absurd that Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are my only co-writes. Everyone else is like, ‘Ehhh.’”
Speaking about his contributions to Gaga's 2016 release Joanne -- Misty co-wrote the tracks "Sinner's Prayer" and "Come to Mama" -- the "True Affection" singer admits the writing process differed greatly from his time with Beyonce.
"That was way more immersive than the Beyoncé thing,” he said. "Oh, we were hanging. It was like five in the morning, someone handing me an acoustic guitar and I’m just like, ‘What are hands.’ We had so much fun. Mark [Ronson] – just watching him produce, it was amazing.”
Check out a truncated version of Father John Misty's interview with Zane Lowe above.
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