Bruno Mars and Diplo Hit Paris Strip Club for 'Unorthodox' Inspiration
By Matt Diehl
"It turned into this soulful, experimental, electronic, hard-to-explain
thing," Bruno Mars says of the freewheeling sessions that produced his second
solo album Unorthodox Jukebox, due out December 11th. "That's the reason
behind the album title – before I got signed to my current label, executives
would always tell me what I did was too all over the place – too unorthodox.
They couldn't imagine what radio station would play my stuff. I was thinking
about this in my head when I started this album – so I decided to go into
the studio and do whatever I wanted."
嗯就跟之前一直提的一樣，前公司非常反對他所寫的歌
表示無法想像有哪家電台會播這樣的歌
那這也是專輯名稱的來由(不正統的)
One thing Mars was sure he did want: to create something unexpected with the
follow up his smash 2010 debut, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, which unleashed gushers
of hits spanning "Just the Way You Are" to "Grenade," transforming him into a
star. To that end, he tossed out the pop rulebook – working with surprise
guests like jazz iconoclast Esperanza Spalding, collaborating with EDM
hitmaker Diplo to create an insane club banger unlike anything Mars has ever
recorded, and pushing a cadre of pop's most innovative producers (Jeff
Bhasker, sonic auteur behind Fun.'s "We Are Young" and hits for Kanye and
Beyoncé; Emile Haynie, crate-digging beatmaster for everyone from Kid Cudi
to Lana Del Rey; and Mark Ronson, stylish groovesmith whose retro-tastic
grooves defined Amy Winehouse's Back to Black) beyond their comfort zone.
所以他決定要跳脫pop的框架，展現和首專完全不一樣的風格
為此也請來了各式各樣的製作人
"I was traveling in Zanzibar on my honeymoon when I got this call: 'Do you
want to meet Bruno Mars?,'" Mark Ronson says. "I was only kind of familiar
with his music. But we met up in London a month later, and the first thing he
said was, 'I want to sound exactly the opposite of what a Mark Ronson
collaboration with Bruno Mars is supposed to sound like.' That won me over –
and then I found out what a phenomenal talent he is. This is the most
progressive music I've worked on yet. It's going to open up the arteries and
change the sound of music." As such, for "Locked Out of Heaven," Ronson
brought in the rhythm section of his frequent collaborators the Dap-Kings to
achieve a crisply syncopated, locked-in groove. "It's hard to create sounds
with live instrumentation that bump in the club, and Mark Ronson did it
here," Mars says. "Since Back to Black, I've always wanted to get into his
head and see how he does it."
這段是Mark Ronson的談話
說Bruno當初找上門求合作的時候就表明：
成品要聽起來完全不像兩人"應該"會搞出來的東西XD
"So much of the record is played live, but still sounds like a hit record on
the radio," adds Jeff Bhasker. "This is Bruno showing new dimensions as a
songwriter and producer." Mars and co. pushed themselves even further on "Old
& Crazy," a bonus track on the album's special Target edition featuring a
face-to-face duet with Esperanza Spalding that Bhasker calls a "kooky,
true-jazz classic, like 'Pennies From Heaven.' It's sounds like a song you'd
hear in a club in 1920s Paris, even though we recorded it on a laptop; we
even use old microphones to give it that feel. It started with an Emile beat,
and then I added a Django Reinhardt sample that I screwed with in Ableton;
then Esperanza came in and nailed her bass and vocal parts live, like an old
pro."
雖然才說批特很少和女聲合作，不過新專確實是有這樣一首的
和Esperanza Spalding一起合唱的Old & Crazy(不過這首是收在TARGET版本裡的)
這首也是復古到無以復加，會讓你彷若置身在1920年代的巴黎夜店
為求質感還特地用了老式麥克風來錄製
還加入了一點Django Reinhardt的採樣橋段!
Meanwhile, Mars' frequent collaborator Diplo – the pair worked together on
"Liquor Store Blues" from Doo-Wops & Hooligans – took Mars even further away
from the safety net on "Money Make Her Smile," surrounding his tale of a
gold-digging super freak with rave sirens and hardcore punk rattle. "That's
the wild card," Mars says. "Diplo has all the sounds in his computer to make
the club go wild. We actually wrote that to be a strip-club anthem. After a
concert in Paris, we went to a strip club; the promoter got on the mic and
said, 'We have a special guest, Bruno Mars!' – and then they played 'Just
the Way You Are.' That's the worst song to hear in that environment, so I
resolved to write a good one." "In our generation, he's the most talented guy
I've worked with," says Diplo, who's crafted hits for everyone from M.I.A to
Beyoncé. "That record, he wanted to have something for the club, that has
some noise on it and an 'I don't give a fuck' feel. Still, he writes giant
pop songs. Bruno just does things with the songwriting I could never do –
I've never spent so much time working on a bridge or post-chorus, but that's
what you have to do."
老面孔合作夥伴Diplo(首專Liquor Store Blues的協力製作人)這次也參與了
Money Make Her Smile的製作
這首的誕生來源滿有趣的，當初寫來就是為了要成為脫衣舞吧的國歌這樣(XD?!
據說是因為當初在巴黎開完演唱會之後，一群人順道去了脫衣舞吧慶功
結果在介紹Bruno的時候背景音樂是Just the Way You Are…
批特說真是當下囧到深處，所以之後下定決心要好好寫一首來雪恥
(感嘆一下這種好像很正經卻又好像歪到不行的創作理由吧!!!)
Elsewhere, Mars' new material proves more emotionally revealing than ever.
"When I Was Your Man," a stark breakup ballad (co-written with Miike Snow's
Andrew Wyatt) stands out amidst the edgy production, featuring only piano and
Mars' raw, intense vocals. "When we started the record, I was like, 'I'm
never singing another ballad again,' but that came from the gut – it's the
most honest, real thing I've ever sang," he says. "When there are no safe
bets, that's when I feel my blood move."
期待火星人招牌抒情歌的人也不要失望
When I Was Your Man是純鋼琴伴奏的正宗抒情歌
嗯雖然剛開始錄製的時候批特想說以後打死都不要再錄這樣的拔辣情歌了
但結束之後非常自我感覺良好，覺得這應該是他自己唱過最真誠實在的歌了
然後他也表示當未來完全不可捉摸充滿挑戰性時，他才會覺得自己是確切活著的
以上!
新聞來源 http://0rz.tw/g3ZIG