You might have seen Maggie Rogers wowing Pharrell Williams in a viral video that captures the time she played him her song "Alaska" during a master class at NYU. In the video, as "Alaska" plays, you can see Pharrell is feeling it — and when the song ends, he gives Rogers his feedback: "Wow. I have zero, zero, zero notes for that. And I'll tell you why. It is because you are doing your own thing. It's singular."
In this session, Rogers tells us how that interaction helped launch her career and talks about using samples from nature in place of traditional instruments. "So the main rhythmic loop in 'Alaska' is me just patting on my jeans," she says. "But my favorite sample is in the pre-chorus, there is a morning dove. ... It feels like a synth."
Hear the complete session in the player above.
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