Jacob Collier stopped by the Genius office to discuss his hit song “Little Blue.” The song features Brandi Carlile and is off the fourth installment of his Djesse album, a quadruple-album project. The multi-talented artist goes into detail about the sweet origin of “Little Blue” and the music theory behind the popular song. On today’s episode of Verified, the London native also shares what he hopes people take from his music.
“Some of my favorite songs in the whole wide world are about many things at once. There is not one way to take the lyrics and I think for me that’s always something I aspire to as a lyricist.”
“Some of my favorite songs in the whole wide world are about many things at once. There is not one way to take the lyrics and I think for me that’s always something I aspire to as a lyricist.”
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MusicTranscript
00:00 I have an incredible mom.
00:01 When I was a very young child,
00:02 she would make me and my little sisters
00:04 little creatures, tiny creatures.
00:06 It's just a shape and two eyes.
00:07 There's so much in the eyes,
00:08 so much in the eyes, always.
00:10 These creatures, which were actually blue,
00:12 they were really, really important.
00:13 Everywhere I go, even now,
00:14 I have a little blue creature with me, always.
00:16 Some of my favorite songs in the whole wide world
00:25 are about many things at once, right?
00:26 There's not one way of taking the lyrics.
00:28 And I think for me, that's always something I aspire to
00:30 as a lyricist, is writing a poem
00:32 or a song that's open-ended
00:34 and invites you to see yourself
00:36 or see somebody else in the song.
00:37 And that's definitely something I was hoping for in this song,
00:39 to leave it open for people to come in
00:41 and find whatever they need to find in the song
00:43 or see whatever they need to see in the song.
00:45 ♪ Little blue, be my shelter ♪
00:51 ♪ Be my cradle, be my womb ♪
00:57 ♪ Be my boat, be my river ♪
01:01 ♪ Be the still, the soft, the moon ♪
01:06 Being the boat and also being the river
01:09 is something that I think about a lot.
01:11 You are kind of one cosm of life going around
01:15 and projecting and perceiving and absorbing,
01:18 but you're also made of everything.
01:21 A boat is the river. They're the same.
01:23 ♪ If I could, I'd go with you ♪
01:28 ♪ To a place I never knew ♪
01:33 ♪ In your eyes, so dark and open ♪
01:39 ♪ There's a light that leads me back to you ♪
01:44 Sometimes when I'm feeling out of it,
01:46 I just walk down the street and look at everybody's eyes
01:48 and it brings me straight back to myself,
01:51 which is kind of an amazing thing.
01:52 I think, again, about the idea
01:53 of being a very, very, very young child
01:55 and looking into the eyes of your mother or father
01:58 and also being the mother or father
01:59 and looking into those deep, deep eyes of a baby.
02:01 I think about being very, very young
02:03 and very, very old as well at the same time
02:04 and how those two things speak to each other.
02:07 Something magical going on there.
02:09 ♪ 'Cause you're not so far away ♪
02:13 ♪ I hear you say ♪
02:16 ♪ You'll never walk alone ♪
02:21 A lot of your life is lived
02:23 without the people you love right next to you.
02:25 I think the idea that those you love
02:26 are never truly away from you is a huge idea
02:29 and something I really carry.
02:31 And the idea that even if the person's not there,
02:33 they're never further away
02:34 than they are in your heart and your mind.
02:36 You're never truly alone as long as you have ever loved.
02:38 ♪ Singing, don't be afraid of the dark ♪
02:45 ♪ In your heart ♪
02:48 ♪ You're gonna find a way ♪
02:51 ♪ To carry the weight of the world ♪
02:55 ♪ On your shoulders ♪
02:58 ♪ You're gonna find a way home ♪
03:03 The only dark I'm ever afraid of
03:05 is the dark in my heart, in a sense.
03:07 We think of ourselves as cameras, right?
03:08 But we're just projectors.
03:10 And so if you see the dark, then you are the dark.
03:14 And yeah, there are days where I am afraid of that dark.
03:16 I think, I'm like, what's going on here?
03:18 How do I find the way back up?
03:20 And then the way will come.
03:21 So yeah, this course for me is something to sing for myself
03:25 as much as for the people of the world.
03:27 ♪ Little blue ♪
03:31 ♪ Be my anchor ♪
03:34 ♪ Be my light, my compass star ♪
03:39 ♪ Be my darkness ♪
03:42 ♪ Be my danger ♪
03:45 ♪ Be the strings of my guitar ♪
03:50 ♪ Little blue ♪
03:53 ♪ How I love you ♪
03:55 ♪ Something strong and something true ♪
04:01 ♪ In your eyes so dear and gentle ♪
04:06 ♪ There's a home that leads me back to you ♪
04:12 For me, in the writing of this song,
04:14 a lot of the process and the study of it
04:16 was all the different ways you can get home.
04:18 My idea of home has evolved a lot over the years.
04:20 It used to be one room where I made all my music.
04:23 And then over the last 10 years or so,
04:24 I've been doing much more traveling.
04:26 And now home is like in my body.
04:28 There's a home that leads me back to you.
04:30 It's almost like the idea of this home.
04:31 Whatever that means for you is a magnet of sorts
04:33 and will pull you back to that truth and that solace.
04:37 ♪ 'Cause you're not so far away ♪
04:43 ♪ I hear you say ♪
04:47 ♪ You'll never walk alone ♪
04:51 Harmonically, this goes into kind of some outrageous places.
04:55 It feels like you're going on this journey, right?
04:57 So this song is in E-flat major,
04:58 one of the best keys in the world.
04:59 Don't even argue with me in the comments.
05:00 It was important for me in what the song is about
05:02 to depart from E-flat at moments
05:04 and then find your way back.
05:06 Kind of literal in a sense,
05:08 but this second pre-chorus,
05:09 I think it's my favorite moment in the song harmonically
05:10 'cause it starts in C minor
05:13 and then it goes to A minor, which is gorgeous,
05:15 and then to F, and then it goes to D major,
05:17 which is like, whoa, D major, so amazing.
05:20 I really enjoyed the challenge
05:21 of threading together these key centers
05:24 and then getting from D back to E-flat major
05:27 was an interesting challenge.
05:28 I had to hop through B and then to that helpful,
05:32 there's like a D-flat seven over A-flat,
05:34 which is like such a helpful avenue.
05:37 And once I finished that pre-chorus,
05:38 that's when I really knew this song,
05:40 like this song has to be written
05:41 and everything lined up and it was a good feeling.
05:44 ♪ Singing, don't be afraid of the dark ♪
05:48 ♪ In your heart ♪
05:51 ♪ You're gonna find a way ♪
05:54 ♪ To carry the weight of the world ♪
05:58 ♪ On your shoulders ♪
06:02 ♪ You're gonna find a way ♪
06:05 ♪ Don't be afraid of the light ♪
06:09 ♪ It's all right ♪
06:12 ♪ It's all right ♪
06:14 ♪ You're gonna find your way ♪
06:16 ♪ To carry the weight of the world ♪
06:21 ♪ On your shoulders ♪
06:25 ♪ You're gonna find your way home ♪
06:31 The first chorus is about finding a way,
06:33 finding a way, what is a way?
06:34 And by the end of the song, you found your way,
06:36 find your way home.
06:37 It starts as a path and ends as your path is important
06:41 for anyone who travels and looks and seeks
06:43 and finds in life.
06:44 ♪
06:46 I've been a fan of Brandy Carlile for so many years.
06:48 She's a master storyteller.
06:49 And when she sings a word, you believe her, you trust her.
06:52 And she has that way, just in every note,
06:54 that she sings of pulling from her life.
06:56 Brandy really came through and I got those stems
06:59 and it was just like straight in my heart.