For the first time in a long time, Britney Spears fans got a new song from the pop icon today, via her and Elton John’s “Hold Me Closer.” Also involved in the track was producer Andrew Watt, who was blown away by Spears’ vocal abilities.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Watt said:
“She’s unbelievable at layering her voice and doubling, which is one of the hardest things to do. She really pushed herself vocally. Sometimes when you produce, the greatest thing in the world you can do is say nothing, so I just let her do her thing. She’s so good at knowing when she got the right take. She took complete control. […] She kept going, ‘Nope, again, again, again.’”
He also noted that Spears was “incredibly specific” about how she wanted her vocals mixed, saying, “She was really collaborative and had really good ideas about the production. She’s an expert in music to make you dance. So many of her records are pop perfection, she worked with the greatest of all time and made timeless pop. We experimented with speeding the record up and turning certain elements of the sound up to get it pumping and make you wanna dance.”
Of first meeting Spears, he also said, “She asked me who my favorite artists were — Prince — and I asked her who hers was. She said Elton John. The song meant so much to her and you can hear it in her vocal performance. She’s singing her ass off.”
Check out more from the feature here.