The most recent Skylar Grey’s release is her cover on Travis Scott’s collaboration with Kendrick Lamar “Goosebumps”. However, this is more than a nod appreciation, explains Skylar in her interview.
The songwriter behind hits like Eminem’s “Walk on Water” and “Love the Way You Lie”, Dr. Dre’s “I Need a Doctor”, Nicki Minaj’s “Bed of Lies” and Macklemore’s “Glorious” focused more on her solo career recently, putting herself out with her songs and making music that she likes.
She explained in her Zoom-interview with Insider that working from her own studio without any label restrictions gives her emotional and creative freedom:
I’m going back to the stuff that has always inspired me, which is kind of dark, and interesting chord changes. And then I’m incorporating more current things that I’ve been into, which is heavy 808s and a nice sub, with vocals that are very soft and beautiful.
It also gives her an opportunity to explore and reimagine the music that influenced her style. One of those influences appeared to be Travis Scott. Skylar’s interpretation of “Goosebumps” gave it a new flavour, moody and melancholic. She commented on her choice of the track:
It’s the first song that I heard of Travis Scott’s — or at least, it was the first that I recognized as him and thought, “Oh my god, that’s dope”. So I was listening to it one day and thinking, “I would love to figure out these chords on the piano. I love these chords”. I’m a chord nerd. So I sat down and started playing it on the piano and started singing it. And it just felt right to record it.
Skylar Grey calls Travis “one of the most creative people in music” and claims that she wanted to express her appreciation:
Because I just figure, why do we have to wait for legends to pass or whatever before we decide to honor them? He’s a legend now.
She also spoke on how she studied Scott’s 2018 collaboration with Drake, “Sicko Mode” and how the inspiration she’d found them would be transferred to her own music:
When I first heard that song, it feels like there’s tempo changes and there’s just total vibe switches in the song. I was like, “Wow, that’s so ballsy because it’s so against the formulaic style of pop music”. And yet, it’s very popular. And so it kind of encouraged me and gave me the courage to be more experimental in my own music.
In some of the songs that I have coming out in the future, I have some similar vibe switches, not necessarily tempo changes, but just drastic vibe switches happening.
It’s the sort of thing I’ve always wanted to do, but I just felt like, ‘Nobody is going to get this.’ And I’m grateful that Travis Scott kind of paved the way to opening people’s ears up in the popular music world to more experimental stuff like that.
Read the full interview on Insider and listen to “Goosebumps” cover below:
