In today’s episode of ‘How It Went Down,’ actress and singer McKenna Grace shares what inspired her to write her song "Gentleman," why she decided to have so many dogs in the music video and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm McKenna Grace and this is how it went down for my single "Gentleman."
00:04 I always have like little reference playlists or vibe playlists for the day whenever I get in the studio.
00:19 It's kind of the most pop I've ever leaned and it's not something I'd usually like do, but it was really fun to explore and play with.
00:27 I think it was more just so a feeling. I was like, "Oh, there's a gentleman!" and I just, "I love it! Oh!"
00:33 You know, it was just like being a girl. A boy treated me really nice and so I wanted to write a bunch of songs about it naturally, of course.
00:42 It was so fun and silly and nice to be able to create and make something positive and upbeat.
00:51 I mean, it was just a fun writing process. I just got in there and gushed for a couple hours and then wrote a nice song about a gentleman.
00:57 We had our own little gentleman in the studio. There was this dog. His name was Woodstock. It's our producer's dog. He was adorable.
01:11 In my heart, my gentleman is that dog.
01:14 I always do this. It does not matter how long it's been since I wrote the song or if the vocals sound great.
01:20 I will always go back in the studio and redo my vocals before the song comes out. I don't know why.
01:25 Maybe I get like, Demo-itis or something and I'm like, "I hate these vocals! They sound wrong! I need to do it again!"
01:30 Maybe my voice has changed in a week.
01:32 And so whenever we decided that we were going to put the song out, I went back in for another couple hours and recorded some vocals.
01:43 For the music video, I'm a really big movie watcher. I love movies.
01:49 Who would have guessed? What? Yeah, I really, really love movies.
01:53 I did that for a music video before I recreated scenes from Scott Pilgrim.
01:57 I always feel so weird making music videos about situations that happened in my life.
02:03 I was like, "I don't want to hire a guy to come and play this guy." That felt so weird to me.
02:09 I was like, "I don't want to have a boy in this music video. How am I supposed to recreate these romance movies?"
02:14 Because that's how it feels to me, that I want to do something fun and light.
02:17 So I was just like, "Oh, you know what? I know a gentleman and he's downstairs in my living room probably rolling around on my rug.
02:24 My dog Gizmo." And so I was like, "Oh, I should write a music video for me and Gizmo."
02:28 I spiraled out of control and I was like, "I have to have as many dogs. I just want to have a bunch of dogs in this and recreate scenes from movies and just have a good time."
02:36 I wanted it to feel authentic and fun and silly and match with the song's vibe.
02:41 And so I feel like this music video is probably one of the most "me" music videos I have out there.
02:46 It's so silly. It's just movies and puppies and that's me.
02:49 (upbeat music)
02:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]