Behind the Boards with Kid Harpoon: Producer and Songwriter Talks Harry Styles, Maggie Rogers, Florence + the Machine, and More
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The post Behind the Boards with Kid Harpoon: Producer and Songwriter Talks Harry Styles, Maggie Rogers, Florence + the Machine, and More appeared first on Consequence.
Behind the Boards is a series where we spotlight some of the biggest producers in the industry and dig into some of their favorite projects. Here, we sit down with Kid Harpoon to discuss working with Harry Styles, Jessie Ware, and more.
If the name Kid Harpoon doesn’t immediately ring any bells, the odds are strong that you’ve still heard a song with his name somewhere in the credits. As a songwriter and producer, Kid Harpoon (born Thomas Hull) has worked with some of the very biggest names in the music industry; from Calvin Harris and Shakira to Years & Years and Shawn Mendes, and countless others, he’s built the kind of career many pop producers can only dream of.
Reflecting on his career in conversation with Consequence over Zoom, Kid Harpoon speaks of moments in his career by sharing stories around the relationships he’s fostered over the years. His longstanding friendships with Florence Welch and Jessie Ware have yielded some incredible work, and, in 2019, he co-wrote or co-produced all but one of the tracks on Harry Styles’ Grammy-winning Fine Line.
Following the tremendous success of the album, Kid Harpoon has stayed close with Styles, and co-wrote and produced the record-breaking “As It Was.” “The song has become such a big thing in my life,” he says. “I get to enjoy it and all the success it has with two of my best friends.”
With such a widespread and successful discography, it’s hard to pin down Kid Harpoon’s story so far in just five tracks. What the stories of his time working with Styles, Maggie Rogers, Florence Welch, and more all have in common, though, is his commitment to a track. Each individual story in a song has its own place in an artist’s career, and this feels like something Kid Harpoon understands innately; he handles every song, even beyond those discussed here, with care.
Read our deep dive with Kid Harpoon about the process behind Styles’ “As It Was,” Shakira and Rihanna’s “Can’t Remember to Forget You,” and more below.
Harry Styles – “As It Was”
What’s funny about that song is it was just one of a few songs written that day. It’s funny because some of these get written in such a quick window that you don’t know what they’re going to be at the time. That was just song two or three that day, and now it’s “As It Was,” with this whole other meaning. It’s become such a big song this year, and it’s definitely not what any of us thought it was going to be, which almost makes it more special.
We recorded the song at [Sony Music Entertainment CEO] Rob Stringer’s house in England. We moved all the furniture out and put a drum kit in the TV room. “As It Was” was done in that setup. Harry came in with a riff idea, and we ran with it. It’s a funny one because it happened so quickly that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to recreate that magic again — it was just so good.
Lyrically, what I love about Harry on this whole album, is that he has a lot to say but he can tease meaning. What’s going on in his life is intertwined in that song, and in that line, “Harry, you’re no good alone.”
I love the way he built the lyrics across his whole record, so when I think about “As It Was” I think about the whole album, to be honest. He can come across as a bit guarded sometimes, but I think he’s just a very mellow, thoughtful person. His music is the context for him to say things. With having his goddaughter on there, it all becomes really personal, which is sort of crazy when it comes to such a huge song.
I remember, production-wise, spending ages with the drums. I’ve had a lot of producer friends reach out about it — if you heard the drums in that room, the TV room, they sounded so awful we had to work around them. We had to record each part individually and make it sound good, so it’s a weird hybrid of it not really being a live drum kit but it still being a complete drum kit.
The song has become such a big thing in my life. And, I get to enjoy it and all the success it has with two of my best friends. I’m blessed to be able to enjoy it in that way.
Maggie Rogers – “Horses”
“Horses” was interesting because when Maggie and I did “Light On,” she was still getting used to work with people, so we’d worked years ago in a session and we really got on, but she found getting used to the experience of the studio kind of odd. She called me eighteen months later and said she really liked the ideas we’d come up with that day, and we ended up writing “Light On” that day.
She told me, “I want to pick up where we left off for the next one.” I was working out of Real World, Peter Gabriel’s studio in Bath, England, so she flew out and we did a few weeks. We went in and wrote three songs that day that made the record — “I’ve Got a Friend,” “Horses,” and “That’s Where I Am.” With a solo artist it can be really tough, and sometimes it’s my job to create an atmosphere where ideas can happen and I can help catch them.
Maggie’s so smart, sometimes too smart where you want to say, “Stop thinking and just do it.” I played some chords and she started writing in the background. I told her to stop thinking, keep going, and just do it — she had the melody and the lyric, and we pushed to keep going and the song came so quickly. With a song like “Horses,” it’s so emotional. We had moments where we were both just crying working on that song.
As an artist, you can feel really contained and controlled, and like you can’t do things you want to do and there’s certain things you have to do. “Horses,” when I hear it, is the feeling of what you imagine to just jump on the horse and go. It says it all in the song. From her point of view it was the opposite of where she was at in her life, spending a lot of time in New York.
I thought it was great because for that song she just wasn’t thinking. For some of the production on the record we’d spend hours and go back and forth and fall out about it, but “Horses” was kind of its own thing. The production leans into what the song is all about. We’re not overthinking it.
Shakira – “Can’t Remember to Forget You” feat. Rihanna
John Hill, who I think is one of the best producers in the world, [and I] were asked to write a song for No Doubt. I started writing with a bit of a ska/reggae vibe. In the process, No Doubt didn’t end up doing a record. What often happens is those sort of songs sit on hard drives for years — I’ve probably got hundreds of them.
John had worked with Shakira before, and he sent it over and she loved it, so we finished it for her. I actually didn’t hear it with Shakira and Rihanna’s vocals on it until two days before it got released. I know some people are really in that world, and hearing Shakira and Rihanna was one of those real-life, holy shit moments. It was also a reminder how incredible both those artists are.
But also, compared to what I’m doing with Harry now, it was a totally different experience. I always think of John and I working on that in the studio with Gwen Stefani in mind, and it ended up with Shakira and Rihanna. It was also fun because Shakira ended up recording it in Spanish, too. It was a lot of fun.
Florence + the Machine – “Cassandra”
I’ve known Florence since before she had management or a record label or anything. Then she obviously went on and did her first record and that was really big; then I did my first record and it wasn’t really big. I’d always wanted to write and do production for people so I sought her out to do some writing. This was right after her first record, so she was absolutely flying, and her label and management weren’t totally sure. Florence said, “Well, I love Tom,” so I’m going to go in.
She’d been up all night and we wrote “Never Let Me Go,” which ended up being a single on Ceremonials. I ended up having a bit of a run with Florence, and it was during that process that I felt like this was what I should be doing — not being an artist, but being on this side of things. I owe it all to Florence because she took a shot on me when it wasn’t an obvious thing.
With this record, it was after Harry’s Fine Line, and I’d hit a point where I felt like I’d grown all these new skills and might even be good at this job now. So she hit me up and we got into the studio to work on “Heaven Is Here,” and “Cassandra” already had the bones of something really good. It starts bright and happy and then gets dark and goes into crazy, Jefferson Airplane world. I always love, with Florence’s music, it’s like the scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where he says to just toss the toaster into the bath. I’m ready to go, I’m ready to get euphoric; “Cassandra” was that kind of moment. To get to be part of “Cassandra” was great.
Jessie Ware – “Wildest Moments”
We were at a friend’s wedding, and Jessie had fallen out with her best friend at the wedding. The vibe at this wedding was that everyone had to bring a cake, rather than there being a wedding cake, so there were cakes all around. Jessie had fallen out with her best friend and there were cakes all around so they started having a food fight. She told me this story, and I’d recently been talking to Florence about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; they were kind of this incredible couple because they’d fight all the time but they also seemed so in love.
So Jessie and I were talking about that, and how you can be the greatest and the worst, and we decided that would be a great idea for a song. I think it’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever worked on, because that idea is so simple — you hear that lyric and you know what the whole song’s about. It kicked off a lot for Jessie and we’ve done a lot since then. Jessie will always be part of what I do, and that song in particular is a bond for me and her. It’s a special one.
Behind the Boards with Kid Harpoon: Producer and Songwriter Talks Harry Styles, Maggie Rogers, Florence + the Machine, and More
Mary Siroky
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