Labrinth on Creating “Surrender” With the Whole World Watching

Most artists would be wary of making a song from scratch in a few hours with the whole world watching, but Timothy Lee McKenzie, better known as Labrinth, treated it more like meditation. For Apple’s overnight “Labrinth: Live with Mac” livestream last week, the British producer, songwriter, and composer transformed LA’s Tower Theater into a studio. Surrounded by instruments, with a string quartet beside him, Labrinth let the music find him in real time. Over a few hours, “Surrender” took shape as distorted guitar chords, atmospheric strings, and rhythmic synths, each layer stacked by touch on the new MacBook Pro.

Labrinth has won an Emmy and an Ivor Novello for Best Television Soundtrack for his work on HBO’s Euphoria, co-written and co-produced for Beyoncé, and earned three Grammy nominations. In the 2010s, the multi-platinum-selling artist chased the charts with hits like “Jealous” and “Earthquake” and formed the supergroup LSD with Sia and Diplo. These days, he approaches making music like a kid in his toy room, guided by honesty rather than the need to please anyone.

For the livestream, he worked on the new MacBook Pro with Logic Pro 13, Apple’s music production software. Its touchscreen let him move his music around by hand, which he says he’s wanted for years. Afterward, Labrinth spoke with Hypebeast about building a song in LA’s theater-turned-Apple-Store, tuning out 50,000 viewers, how scoring differs from writing for himself, and why he now sees vulnerability as part of the work.

HYPEBEAST: When you start a song, what’s the first thing you reach for? A beat, a feeling, a lyric?

Labrinth: The first thing I reach for is peace in my body, because you can’t take anything in without making sure your body’s ready to receive. It’s following your instincts, and it’s being silent enough in your body that you’re ready to receive whatever’s gonna come to you. It’s pretty much like meditation.

How do you know when a song is finished?

I don’t know when it’s finished. I just try my best not to judge what’s going on as I build, and then there’s a moment where the flow just feels right, and then you just know where to stop. You almost become a spectator to the energy that you just created.

You started out writing and producing for other artists. How does this shape the way that you approach making music for yourself?

When I started up, I really wanted to serve everybody. When you write for artists, you can become very formulaic, especially when you’re in commercial industries. Everybody wants music quickly now, so you’re like, “Where’s my good chorus? Where’s my verse? How do I make sure I get in the top 40?”

Now, I feel like I’m five years old and I’m just playing in my toy room, and I don’t really think about pleasing anyone. I just think, “Can I be as honest as possible in what I’m doing?”

When you’re scoring a scene, how is it different from writing for yourself?

The visual that you’re working on tells you what it wants to say, so you’re just complementing the energy that you’re observing. Whereas when you’re writing for yourself, your internal voice or experience is guiding where the music should go.

Making a song in a few hours with the whole world watching sounds pretty daunting. What about the opportunity enticed or excited you, and did you have any preconceived ideas about what you were going to make? 

It’s vulnerable, and it’s very sensitive. I’ve done livestreams before, but when I do livestreams, they’re very small, and I’m usually in a place I’m very comfortable with. So this felt like the pressure was on a bit, but music is so powerful for me that I lose myself when I’m creating. I didn’t feel like anybody was there or anybody was watching me. I was just hearing where the energy wanted to take me.

Then being in the store — it was originally a theater, so it was the perfect place for me to record with a quartet. It was really spiritual to be in that kind of environment. Before I even did it, I had about three different songs in my head, but I just went to the piano and just played whatever came to my head.

How did the new MacBook Pro and Logic Pro 13 support your craft?

We’re in a time where you want to keep your face out there, but I really am mindful about what I create with or what I put my name to. When I tried out the device, I loved it so much, and it really opened up something in my workflow. I’ve always felt like I wanted to be able to touch my screen and move my music, so as soon as I tried it, I was like, “This is exactly what I’ve needed for a while.” So, the livestream was a pleasure to do. 

What was your favorite part about the process behind the song you made last night?

I’m in a place in my career and life, and as an artist, where I believe vulnerability is a very beautiful thing. So, to be on livestream, and to have to create something out of thin air could be daunting, but I really love the idea of showing people the vulnerable part, or the kind of beautiful part of putting all these colors together. 

It’s like the difference between watching a film and then the act of being in a theater. In a theater, you get incidental things — you get this rawness that is exhilarating for me.