Vin Diesel helped produce one of the most distinctly odd moments of the pandemic when the Kelly Clarkson Show virtual audience danced along to his debut single, “Feel Like I Do,” last month. As for the song itself, it was a pedestrian bit of tropical house that was released on Kygo’s Palm Tree Records label and made with Kygo collaborator Peter Martin. The single was actually a chart success for Diesel, as it debuted at No. 18 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in early October.
After a taste of glory, Diesel is looking for more on his newest single, “Days Are Gone.” Like “Feel Like I Do” before it, “Days Are Gone” is a completely acceptable and generic tropical house song on which the actor gets nostalgic for the less restrictive lifestyle of pre-pandemic times.
Ahead of the song’s release, Diesel guested on The Late Late Show last night to discuss the track, telling James Corden of it:
“As you know, I love all kinds of music, but because of the times, I felt like the first few songs that I release should be upbeat or positive in some way. So I’ve been focusing on tropical house, obviously with the Kygo connection and with my songwriter/producer Peter Martin. We’ve been focusing on upbeat songs. ‘Days Are Gone’ is a song that kind of represents how we all feel right now, reminiscing about a time pre-COVID where our lives were different, where we… I can’t say that it’s about the pandemic, but I can say it’s something that I think people will relate to, the nostalgic element of the song, I think people will really gravitate to. I hope they do. I remember my friend Ozuna saying to me one day, ‘Every music artist in the world creates music to be No. 1, but you create music out of love, and because of that, it will probably be No. 1.”
He also spoke about his blossoming music career more broadly, saying he turned to music after he had to delay upcoming film projects: “The idea that I had to push Fast 9 made me feel… I didn’t want to feel like I was letting down a whole audience, a whole Fast audience. So, thinking about what I could do to compensate for the fact that the film was being pushed ’til 2021, I realized I had this other creative outlet and I had my first opportunity, really, to delve completely into the music. […] And that’s what I did. For me, I’m very grateful that I’ve been toying with music so long that on a year like this that no one could forget, I had a creative outlet, and that is music.”
Listen to “Days Are Gone” and watch Diesel on The Late Late Show above.