“All For Us” was originally written just
for a record on my album and then once Sam
caught wind of it, he was just like, "I hear
it, Lab.
I'm in."
At first I was a bit like, oh Hollywood, you
know, everybody loves to say that, "Yeah,
we're gonna use your track for the finale
of a massive HBO show."
To see my personal music and the music that
I was creating for myself become a musical
piece in a HBO series is ticking a lot of
boxes.
This is definitely a dream come true.
What I love about “All For Us” is that
it's a rounding up of Rue's dream and her
dream is to be clean, to be the better version
of herself.
“All For Us” is that song that's like,
I can do it.
I know I can do it.
Zendaya being as talented as she is.
I was like, "Hell yeah, this girl could kill
this record."
The song is the idea that you're a dreamer
and you believe that your dream is for everyone
around you.
It's actually a bit of that Drake, "Started
from the bottom.
Now we're here."
Everyone's coming up and it's that mentality
of just triumph with your people, but there's
also a catch where every dreamer has a certain
element of selfishness.
When I started this track, I was sitting in
the studio with my managers having a meeting
while they were talking about marketing and
all that random shit.
I was like, "Well, I just want to make a beat."
So I just went off and started working on
“All For Us.”
I kind of had a trap rhythmic swing in my
head.
I don't love using trap sounds all the time.
But what if I could use like a live drum kit
and still keep that trap bounce?
They're still doing this meeting and I don't
know, I just heard a few words like, "Yeah,
and the video is gonna look like this."
And then my mind just blanked out and I was
like, "Okay, now I'm putting on the bass."
It was this one finger bass note just rolling
out.
I'm originally from Jamaica and every bassline
they say you have to rub up the bassline.
When you play a bassline, you go rub it up,
you've got to make sure it swings your head.
I started thinking of this choir.
I just started kind of...
I was trying to sound like different people
because a choir sounds best when there's different
voices.
I wanted it to feel like it was in a cathedral
or a church.
One thing that really inspires me is, what's
it called?
“Oompa Loompa.”
That song?
Yeah, from from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory.’
Literally every time I'm working on a record,
I'm trying to sound like these guys.
From there I was like, I need something that
carries the high register of the record and
so I was like, why don't I sample myself?
I sampled it on an MPC and just used it as
a trigger, so I just put it on a pad.
I'm using three elements and all of those
three elements are already showing people
what the rhythm or the swing of the record
is.
From there it was just kind of adding extra
mini elements like hats and just stuff that
helps develop the record.
It's just like, what are things that say that
this record is you?
I love like Super Nintendo glitch stuff.
A little Mega Man is just ran through the
middle of my track, just like shooting little
pistols.
I didn't want to overdo it and because I can
really overdo it with 8 bit.
You just keep thinking that the track's not
done so you add more sounds and then it just
sounds like a mess.
The hats kind of turn up a little later, so
I wanted them to kind of just help elevate
the record.
It was just to add some room because a lot
of the sounds were pretty produced and programmed.
It was just the bass, the drums, and the chipmunks.
I just wanted to have some other elements
sitting over that.
It's a clavinet, which is something that Stevie
Wonder's used on many, many records, but I
used it just as something just to help lay
out the record and just keep the rhythm rolling.
I really love production that has elements
of industrial sound, so I just kind of added
this just to develop on the pre.
I put some guitar in there, which I sat well
far in the back.
This was kind of inspired from that ‘Kill
Bill’ and a lot of those soundtracks.
Well I was really happy about is that even
though I wasn't there, Zendaya was able to
interpret every vibe and everything I was
doing.
She could take on anything and figure out
a way of expressing it in a way that that
works for the record.
She came in the studio.
She heard the record.
She really loved it.
She was like, I'm not going to do what he
does.
I'm going to do what I do.
And I was like, that's the perfect way to
approach the record.
I remember speaking to the ‘Euphoria’
team and they were like, "Lab, you need to
finish the record if we're gonna use it for
the finale."
And I was like, shit, I need a middle eight.
Like, and I watched another episode of ‘Euphoria’
and I was like, okay, I think I know what
Zendaya needs to say or Rue needs to say to
round up what this record's about.
And so I'd started working on this middle
eight.
It was a jazz bass, my V3 Hammond, and a Celeste.
And then I wanted to put the Celeste sound
through chorus and a few delays and stuff
just to make it sound a bit wonky and a bit
kind of psychedelic.
The original record for “All For Us” had
my family singing the chorus and singing the
choir parts.
They're also musicians and they tour with
loads of artists and they put me to shame
as a musician.
I've got them all in the studio and I was
like, I would love to hear all these voices
together.
I wanted a choir rap.
No one's really made a choir rap, even a choir
saying, bitch.
Like no one's ever made a choir say bitch.
I was like, I'm going to get them to say bitch
and I'm going to get them to like do this
kind of flow that like maybe Kendrick would
do.
Sam comes to me and he says, "Lab, I've got
this crazy idea.
I think I can make your genius a little bit
more genius.
I want to add an even bigger choir on the
record and I also want to add a marching band.
We're just going to get everyone in a room
and just go ham."
This crazy HBO choir just decided they were
going to come and they just heard my version
and they were just like, they just wrap that
shit up quickly and that was like the moment
I really noticed that the record was becoming
even bigger than itself.
The final bit that we worked on was just getting
the marching band in.
So this is basically just the whole track
as one piece.
There's loads of little bits that I couldn't
even get into, but um...
I think that's what's great about a score
is that you can introduce somebody to this
motif or this energy and introduce them to
almost the theme song of each character.
I didn't know that my music could even translate
to a world like that.
So I'm definitely proud to like have my music
involved in something that.
I'm pretty excited about everyone getting
to see this extravaganza.
Yeah, let's hear it.
I remember talking to one of my friends and
he was like, it's kinda like you're downloading
all of this information from the sky.
So I kind of seem like I'm just talking to
myself and I'd be like, duh, duh, duh, duh.
Yeah, that sounds right.
Buh yeah.
Bass, buh doo doo doo.
And I look like an absolute psycho, but somehow
that seems to make sense once I've put it
all into this machine.
