We talked to producer Jesse Shatkin about producing “No More Control”, MURS’ latest release from his upcoming album, Have A Nice Life.

The grammy-nominated producer shared with us the process behind the song and what it took to achieve its huge sound. With the sharp acumen behind the boards that’s resulted in him co-writing and producing songs like Sia’s “Chandelier”, Jesse was able to help MURS craft an anthem that is perfect for our times, sonically and topically.

Check out our convo with the acclaimed producer below.

Tell us about “No More Control”. How did it start and turn into what it is now?

That was the first one we did, actually. So, for me, that was the first concept I had was to do that track for him. Just like melody, drums, minor chord – a banger with a big hook. I just knew that MURS had a lot to say about one thing or another, and that it would be the type of thing that he could really sink his teeth into.

So, him and I started the song and then we tried some chorus ideas, and I was just like, “You know what? Let me bring in my friend, MNDR, to do the chorus,” because I’m kind of in love with her voice. I think she has a very unique, powerful voice that is pop, but not in a Katy Perry kinda way. Her voice just has a special quality to it and she’s a very unique-sounding singer.

Then I worked on production for awhile. I really wanted to nail it, and we went back and forth about the song structure and then I think he wrote that third verse later on in the process and he killed it. I think everybody really just like put in a lot of work and there was something special there.

You can definitely tell that there’s a producer’s touch. A lot of the songs on the album definitely feel like the producer and the vocalist definitely work together to make these things. They feel very organically created.

Yeah, that’s how it was. I mean, not every song was like that, but I think I have eight on there and probably six of them were just me and him sitting down with nothing and then writing a song in the studio.

What were some of the things you were able to add to the structure of it or that you helped dictate?

We tried every possible combination of structures, and at the end of the day, I think that we kind of went a little bit more classic. It’s really just verse, chorus, and a couple things here and there to just make all the parts work like that. The controlled chant really bridges the chorus to the next verse and then the third chorus. The third verse is like a verse, but it’s not like the other two. To me, it sounds a little bit like its own moment and then could be looked at like a bridge or something. So, from a pop songwriting point of view, this song, to me, makes sense. At some point, we kind of realized that this will probably be a single, and I just kind of tried to use all the tricks and everything to make it work as well as possible.

• What other artists do you think would work well with a MURS song?

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