Kehlani talks to Apple Music about ‘After Hours’, surfing, and writing music from a joyful place
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Kehlani chats with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to talk about her new song ‘After Hours’
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She talks about how it was important for her to make music from a joyful place after a series of global tragedies, saying “I want my art to provide some kind of life and fun… I want to hear this outside and I want to feel good.” She also shares how she wrote and recorded ‘After Hours’ after a day of surfing in San Diego, revealing “What more can you pray for as a surfer musician than good waves and then fantastic collaborators to come into the house to after the good waves. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had making music…”
Kehlani tells Apple Music about getting inspired to write ‘After Hours’ after a day of surfing
We were sitting in a house in San Diego, because I’ve been making a lot of music in Airbnbs. I’ve been surfing and then coming inside and recording. And one of my favorite songs of all time and also just to be outside and it comes and it drops and everybody’s bodies just move, no pun intended, is ‘Move Your Body’ by Nina Sky. And I remember walking around the house and I was like, “Why has nobody sampled ‘Move Your Body?’” Because those drums, when they drop, it’s so recognizable and everybody just loses it. It’s one of those things where it drops and everybody goes, “Woo”, and bends their knees and puts their hands on their knees. And coming out of this pandemic to global tragedy, to global tragedy to global tragedy, I was like, I’m not really in a space of wanting to make something that feels super jarring or super sad. I’m very outspoken about these things, but I want my art to provide some kind of life and fun and I want to go outside. I want to hear this outside and I want to feel good. So, I focused just on making something that feels really good, and the second we finished it and we just couldn’t stop listening to it and then we tested it at the club and we tested it in the car. It was so fun.
Kehlani talks to Apple Music about making music from a joyful place
I wanted to make things for once that didn’t feel reminiscent. For once, I’m not attached to some story or some public thing or some trauma or some deep explanations. As we go out this process and we have to talk to each other a bunch to all these people, I have nothing but joyful things to say to you. I’m in such a happy place. I’m ready to be outside. I learned so much coming out of my last album and going on a tour and being like, “Wow, I have to perform this really sweet, airy music.” And people just wanted to turn up and I was like, “You know what? I’m just going to have fun, and for once, I’m going to let myself and not think that that makes my art any less creative or any less large.”
Kehlani talks to Apple Music about how writing ‘After Hours’ was the most fun she’s had making music
Kehlani: What more can you pray for as a surfer musician than good waves and then fantastic collaborators to come into the house to after the good waves. It was like there was nothing more, and I had good food. It was like bam, bam, bam. Every single part of the day was perfect.
Zane Lowe: So you’re just sitting out on the board, just letting go because you’ve got no control on the ocean, and then you’re like, “All right, my soul is full. Let me go inside. Let me get the belly full a little bit and then let me just lay this down.”
Kehlani: Literally. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had making music in general, was this process, but especially this song. We just had a blast, and then playing it. I remember I took everybody out. Everybody that I was working on the album with, we all went out to the club one night, actually in San Diego, and we played this in the Sprinter on repeat, and the entire Sprinter, it’s so catchy. You get to the hook and the whole Sprinter is screaming all the words. Even people who weren’t even in the room when we were making the song, just because you know it after the first time and just watching everybody being like, “I love this.” I can’t wait to see the reaction from the general public about this, how it makes them feel.
