the next<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cI think that is a testament to Benson as an artist \u2014 he\u2019s existing in culture in such a way that culture is interacting with him,\u201d Blair says of the way his star collaborator has been able to move on from his breakout hit, even as his breakout hit has refused to move on from him.<\/p>\n
\n\tBelow, Blair talks about his work catching \u201clightning in a bottle\u201d as Boone\u2019s collaborator, why he never feels like he has to tell Benson no, and what fans might be able to expect from the rest of American Heart<\/em>, out June 20.<\/p>\n\n\tYour relationship with Benson goes back further than \u201cMystical Magical.\u201d How did you two come into each other\u2019s orbit?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tBenson is with Warner Records, and I\u2019ve done a lot of stuff with them in the past. His A&R Jeff Sosnow has been a big part of my music career \u2014 and the first person to ever really give me a shot years ago \u2014 and he thought Benson and I would get along really well. He was right: The first session we ever did was \u201cBeautiful Things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat was it about the two of you that clicked?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tThe main thing that drives it is that both of us put a priority on being friends as well as being musical partners. I can definitely take making music very seriously, and Benson\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tLess so?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWell, Benson can too. But I think there\u2019s something about the two of us \u2014 and then the three of us, with Jack [LaFrantz] \u2014 there\u2019s an environment of like, \u201cLet\u2019s also have some fun.\u201d Benson is such a musical super force that he\u2019s almost like this lightning in a bottle that I have to try to catch every day in the session. He\u2019ll sit at the piano, or him and I will start creating something that seems to come from nowhere. He\u2019s one of those artists where you don\u2019t know where he\u2019s getting these ideas. It\u2019s like he\u2019s got some sort of channel that [only he\u2019s] getting. It\u2019s my job every day to try to capture it and make it into something that sounds good and can be recorded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBeautiful Things\u201d [is] a great example \u2014 with time signature changes and very bizarre arrangements. I get to let him just kind of go wild, and it really tests musical ability and years of production experience to be able to not mess with that, but also to put it in a container and somehow harness it. And for me, it\u2019s the most fun challenge, because he\u2019s just straight inspiration. And I get to play with it.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou said that you guys recorded \u201cBeautiful Things\u201d on the first day that you worked together. Have you been working together regularly since then?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt\u2019s been pretty consistent since then. I knew from the first time we worked together \u2014 and Jack also being a part of that \u2014 that there was something really special here. The creation part of it felt very easy, which is not a feeling that comes very frequently. There was just something about the chemistry between the three of us where it seemed pretty clear that we were only at the beginning of something.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBeautiful Things\u201d was done at the tail end of his last album, and then there was a break where he went on tour. We were continuing to work together a little bit after that, but he wasn\u2019t really around for a lot of writing until later when we started on this album. We worked together a lot for the last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIn what part of the process did \u201cMystical Magical\u201d come into it? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tTowards the end, actually. [At] the beginning of the process, we got a good chunk of the best work. There was so much inspiration, and Benson had such a clear idea of what he wanted to do. And then \u201cMystical Magical\u201d was kind of the last one that we put in the pile. I don\u2019t remember ever saying, like, \u201cOh, this has to be a single.\u201d We try not to say that kind of thing \u2014 but we all knew it was really great.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWe were in Utah at June Audio [Recording Studios], and at that time, we were supposed to be finishing songs. All of the powers that be were calling me before the session, and they\u2019re like, \u201cYou guys got to buckle down and finish these songs.\u201d And I was like, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. We\u2019ll do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tJust the way that the three of us work together \u2014 we\u2019re almost always going to try to start something new, even if we are supposed to be doing something else. We\u2019ve had so much luck together that it would be almost stupid not to try. What if the next \u201cBeautiful Things\u201d happens? It feels possible every time we\u2019re together.<\/p>\n\n
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