Kid Harpoon Reveals Why Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’ Is a Pop Music ‘Anomaly’
Kid Harpoon has become one of the most in-demand producers in pop music in the last year and on Tuesday (Dec. 6), he spilled the tea about working with Harry Styles on “As It Was” in a new interview with Apple Music.
“Do you know what is funny about that song is how quickly it came together,” the British musician born Tom Hull told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe. “That’s my favorite thing about it because it’s not like ‘Watermelon Sugar,’ for example. That song was written in half a day…and then it was this really s—-y sounding demo and we all loved it and no one else quite got it. And then it took us months and months and months of just chipping away and getting it right.
“And then people weren’t quite sure it was going to be a single. Harry was like, ‘This is a single,’ and then it became the single. So it was this whole real labor of love to prove a point,” he continued. “I’ve learned so much from working with him because he understands how to follow his instincts.”
As for the Harry’s House hit’s mind-blowing success — including spending 15 nonconsecutive weeks atop the Hot 100 — Kid Harpoon chalked it up to being “the right artist, the right time, the right song, the right lyric, the right production.”
“There’s so much that has to align and one thing can be off and it’s not ‘As It Was,'” he concluded. “That’s why it’s an anomaly compared to a lot of music.”
The budding superproducer also dished in the interview about working with the likes of Lizzo, Maggie Rogers and Florence Welch, revealing the “About Damn Time” singer is “obsessed with Radiohead” and saying the Florence + the Machine frontwoman “works harder” than any of her contemporaries in the studio.
Glenn Rowley
Billboard
