John Legend chats with The Hollywood Reporter's Mesfin Fekadu and shares the story of how his new children's album, 'My Favorite Dream,' came to be. After a day of being in full dad mode, Legend ended up recording three songs with Fisher Price and composed a whole album of sing-a-longs and lullabies for kids and families. 'My Favorite Dream' will be released on Aug. 30th.
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00:00All of this came about because I did a quick version of the
00:04Maybe Purple Monkey song on Chrissy's Instagram and it kind of got the ball rolling
00:10and this album might not exist without that having happened.
00:14Maybe you could be a purple monkey in the poppin' country
00:20And you could swing in the breeze
00:23Maybe you could swing by to me
00:26John Legend was in full dad mode the day that sparked the inspiration for his new album.
00:31It began when he serenaded his youngest daughter Esty,
00:34the song many millennial parents are all too familiar with,
00:37from the Fisher-Price Piano Gym playmat.
00:40They call it the Purple Monkey song.
00:42And it's one of Esty's songs that she loves from the playmats that they play with.
00:47And Chrissy was like, you got to learn this song.
00:50It's so cute and you should do a version of it.
00:54And so I just sat on the piano and started learning the chords and singing it.
00:58And Chrissy recorded me singing it and put it on her Instagram.
01:02And she just said, if you know, you know.
01:05And a lot of parents were excited to hear me singing it.
01:09And they're like, man, John, you just got to go and record
01:12all of our favorite children's songs. We want to hear your version of them.
01:15Fisher-Price even commented on the post.
01:18The father of four decided to go all in, not only recording three songs with Fisher-Price,
01:23but composing a whole album of sing-alongs and lullabies for kids and families,
01:28calling it My Favorite Dream.
01:30Really what I wanted to do was create brand new songs.
01:32And so most of the album is original material that I created
01:38based on, you know, the inspiration of wanting to
01:41make children's music that parents want to listen to, too.
01:46And, you know, since we're right in the thick of having young kids
01:51and it being that season in my life, it felt like the right time to do that.
01:56And so I just sat in our piano room and started writing songs
02:03based on the kind of messages we communicate with our kids all the time,
02:07the ones we want them to remember and keep with them.
02:10And I felt like it would be cool to put that into song
02:13so that all kinds of parents and families could share that.
02:17My Favorite Dream, which features Legend as a toddler on the cover photo taken by his aunt,
02:22will be released on August 30th.
02:24The Grammy-winning singer says he approached this, his 10th studio album, differently than others.
02:30I tend to have a way that I write songs.
02:34The idea is that, you know, the music kind of drives me towards certain lyrical content.
02:40But with this album, I did make kind of a lyrical, like, inspiration sheet first.
02:48And I thought about the things we like to communicate with our kids
02:54and what we want to talk about with them.
02:56I started by writing the songs on piano at home.
02:59Most of my albums I write in the studio.
03:02But I wanted to write these at home because I wanted to be close to the, you know,
03:05inspiration that made me want to write the album in the first place.
03:09Legend says he wanted the album to feel whimsical, playful, and dreamy.
03:13So he tapped Oscar-nominated musician Sufjan Stevens to produce the album
03:17and was thrilled when he said yes.
03:19I've been a fan of Sufjan's for like 20 years.
03:22And he was the first person I thought of when I was like,
03:25here's how I want these records to sound.
03:28And the cool thing about him is he goes well beyond my imagination even,
03:33like what he would come up with.
03:34It's always like more creative, more interesting,
03:38more fantastical than I would have ever imagined.
03:42But it's been amazing working with him.
03:43I always kept telling him, I'm just so glad you said yes.
03:46My Favorite Dream has 15 tracks.
03:4810 are originals, three are bonus songs with Fisher-Price, and two are covers.
03:54One is Bob Marley's Three Little Birds
03:56and the other, the classic lullaby, You Are My Sunshine.
03:59The first track released is called L-O-V-E
04:02and includes vocals from his wife Chrissy Teigen
04:04and his two oldest, daughter Luna and son Miles.
04:08Oh, it was so fun.
04:08It was my idea.
04:09I was like, Chrissy, Luna, Miles, come on to the studio.
04:14I want you guys to sing.
04:16And they're like, what?
04:17And I was like, it's going to be so easy.
04:20It'll be so fun.
04:20You'll love it.
04:21The song is truly a love fest.
04:23It's like a celebration of love.
04:25I see it as almost like a mission statement for how I want to live
04:30and how I want my kids to live.
04:33And the kind of light you see in people that are filled with love,
04:37I want them to be those kind of people.
04:41And that's what the song really celebrates.
04:44Legend says he named the album from a lyric that meant especially a lot to him
04:48and wrote songs with deep thought for his kids.
04:50It's literally me sitting there explaining my favorite thing to dream about,
04:54which is literally what I'm talking about in the song,
04:58soaring in the sky with my arms as wings.
05:03That's my favorite dream.
05:04And so when I was thinking about what I wanted to sing about
05:07as the kids are getting ready for bed and starting to calm down,
05:13I wanted to inspire their dreams to dream their favorite dream.
05:18Family is a big part of the album.
05:20Legend was proud to share that eight-year-old Luna
05:22designed all the single artwork and says his kids share the musical bug.
05:26She's literally drawing and creating all of the single artwork.
05:32So when you see the single artwork come out, you know that Luna did it.
05:36And she's just really creative and such a light.
05:41And I'm so excited she could collaborate with me on the album.
05:44Luna's been really practicing the piano more than anyone.
05:48Miles loves music, though.
05:49He's always picking songs, DJing.
05:52This December marks the 20th anniversary of Legend's debut album, Get Lifted,
05:57which he says he plans to celebrate somehow this year.
06:00I'm so grateful for Get Lifted and what it's meant to my career,
06:03how it launched my career.
06:04My son is a fan of my music.
06:07And so he goes back and listens to it.
06:08So by extension, I've been listening to it more.
06:12And it's cool to listen back.
06:14I've got notes.
06:18I'm like, oh, I would have done that differently.
06:20But I'm truly so proud of all the work that I've done.
06:25And they all represent that moment in my life.
06:29Get Lifted really represents the roots of my career,
06:33represents all the work that I was doing trying to get a record deal.
06:37And it kind of represents my upbringing in the church and so much about who I am
06:46and the collaboration with Kanye and with hip-hop producers.
06:49All of that really set the foundation for everything that I did after that.
06:53My Favorite Dream will be released on Republic Records' Kids & Family,
06:57UMG's newly launched children's division.
07:00For more on THR's interview with John Legend, head to THR.com.
07:04This is THR News.
07:07Thanks for watching.