He also talked about how he found the initial task of marrying together the “street” sound which Beyonce — who sings a verse of Telephone — wanted with the disco theme the rest of the track has.
“When I got on the phone with Beyonce, she was telling me she wanted her verses to have a hood, street element, and I actually was caught off-guard,” Rodney said. “I wondered, ‘How am I going to do that? How am I going to make a disco/techno record and create a hood, street anthem vibe for her verse?’
“But once I got to the studio, it just kind of came to me.”
http://www.showbizspy.com/article/202093/lady-gaga-compared-to-michael-jackson.html
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AHHA: Is there any artist that you just absolutely love working with? An artist that can call you at anytime and you would run to go and work with them again?
Rodney Jerkins: Yeah, probably Beyonce. I feel like our batting average is 4/4. We have done four records together, and all four of them were singles. I did “Say My Name,” “Cater 2 U,” “Lose My Breath,” and “Déjà Vu.”
http://allhiphop.com/stories/alternatives/archive/2008/05/08/19792636.aspx
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How did you become involved with the new Destiny's Child album?
I was supposed to go to London for a meeting and my wife argued with me about how she didn't feel it, so we went to New York for a couple of days. I bumped into [singer/songwriter] Beyoncé [Knowles] in the hallway at Sony. I won a Grammy with Destiny's Child, so I said, “I heard you're in the studio,” and gave her a CD. Two days later, I was back in the studio with them, and 30 days later, “Lose My Breath” was the top song in the country.
What were you listening to and for during those sessions?
The first song we did this time was reminiscent of “Say My Name,” which we'd done before. It was good, but not great, and greatness means not repeating history but making history, so I created a marching band — type of thing on the spot. It just happens that way sometimes.
How do you know when it's right?
It's just a feeling you get. That feeling…you just know, “We got it!” We write every day, but there are always those [projects] that stick out. You get excited and you're almost ready to celebrate on the spot because you know the potential. That's how it was when we finished the new Destiny's Child.
Can you create a rough sketch of how “Lose My Breath” was cut?
I love to start with a melody — chord progressions, sounds, whatever — and work rhythm after melody. I create beats later. When I write, I challenge the writing. We'll do 20 different choruses or verses and I pick the best. Twenty bridges. I preach to writers and producers: You have to challenge yourself. My best grooves come fast, but writing and melody I spend a lot of time on and really perfect it. “Lose My Breath” was tracked fully with all the parts: chorus, verse, B sections. The track is cut and they sing over it. You can have a great track, but if the lyrics or the melody aren't great, it's not a great song. It was awkward working with them this time. Last time, they were all there. This time, we did it one girl at a time. Beyoncé, Kelly [Rowland] and Michelle [Williams] were in different rooms and were physically all together one time. And they all did their vocals in the control room, not the vocal booth. They said it was more comfortable. I said, “You could have saved money and done it at home!” It wasn't hard because I had worked with them before and I know their capabilities, but it was awkward because I had to sit and wait, sometimes for hours, for someone to finish upstairs, and when you're in the zone, you want to keep going. They had so much to do that week. They were in other rooms with different producers to get three songs done a day.
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2362247695&topic=3058
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Singersroom: What is your favorite genre to write/produce for?
Rodney Jerkins: I really don’t have one to be honest. You know I get frustrated that sometimes the music industry puts us in a box creatively. In that, people will say you know, I need a record for Beyonce, so if I do a record for Beyonce then automatically every other R&B act will want me to do a record for them.
http://www.singersroom.com/interview/182/Rodney-Jerkins-Innovative-Stamp-On-Music
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In
1999, inspired by music he had heard in a club while working with the
Spice Girls in Europe, he created Destinys Childs international
cross-over breakthrough hit. Say My Name incorporated traditional
R&B elements with the syncopated beats of 2-Step Garage, popularized
in the UK at the turn of the millennium by artists like Artful Dodger
and Craig David. After the group initially expressed their dislike of
the original erratic, 104bpm 2-Step beat, Darkchild returned to the
lab to rework the track but insisted on staying true to his original
concept, at least to an extent. The day that I fixed the song, I
listened to it and was like they were right, that beat is whack!
What am I doing? What was I thinking? he recalls. Then I changed
it and flipped it into 72bpm, created a whole new track and it became
a smash.
Say
My Name soon went from being a cut that very nearly didnt make
the final tracklist for The Writings
on the Wall
to arguably the quintessential Destinys Child anthem,
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