Song Premiere: Brian McKnight Dedicates ‘Better’ to Girlfriend
Despite writing some of the biggest love ballads of the last two decades, Brian McKnight admits that he’s never actually been in love. The “Back at One” singer addresses the subject on his new single, “Better,” the title track of his forthcoming album.
On the song that premieres exclusively on Yahoo Music, McKnight sings, “I’ve never been in love before because I’ve been waiting all my life for you.”
McKnight says the song written about his girlfriend Leilani Malia is based on a true story. “It’s completely autobiographical, about my life now,” the Grammy nominated singer tells Yahoo Music. “After 42 years and writing love songs for 20 years, I never really knew that this type of relationship even existed because everybody we know is having problems. She’s cheating on him. He’s cheating on her and they’re fighting. We don’t have any of that.”
In the song, McKnight also credits Malia for helping him become a better man. Self-improvement is a general theme of the album due out on February 26. “There’s never a time that you should give up on improving yourself,” McKnight explains. “I’m constantly trying to get better. That’s my mantra for 2016.”
Musically, the Better album is a return to form for the singer who released his self-titled debut album in 1992. Over the last several years, McKnight has been experimenting with his sound and recently decided to return to his roots.
“Since 2010, I’ve been trying to find a hybrid between what I do and what the technology dictates you are supposed to do,” he says. “I made a conscious decision [to follow my instincts]. I said, ‘I’m Brian McKnight, why should I try to be like anybody else?’ Musically, I’ve created the best collection of songs I’ve ever created because I wasn’t trying to fit in or thinking, Oh, I have to get these beats by so and so. There’s very little computer generated beats on this album.”
Stockholm, Sweden pop fusion band Dirty Loops inspired him to change his creative direction. “Sometimes it takes listening to someone else’s record to help you and for me it was Dirty Loops,” McKnight says, referring to the group’s 2014 set, Loopified. “What they’re doing is so revolutionary. They weren’t concerned about being like anyone else. They were just going for it like we used to, the way Stevie did, the way Marvin did. After listening to them I remembered that if you’re not awesome people aren’t going to think you are, so I went back to trying to be awesome.”
