Following Cirkut's Grammy win for Producer, here's a chance to revisit our Hitmakers feature on the making of APT...
A collaboration between Blackpink star Rosé and pop icon Bruno Mars had all the makings of a global hit, but even co-producer Cirkut couldn’t predict the heights APT would go to when it was released last year. The track landed at No.2 in the UK and has racked up over one billion Spotify streams to date. Here, the hitmaker tells the story of how a Korean drinking game inspired the song that shook the entire industry...
Sometimes, it’s the simplest little thing that can become a whole song. That’s exactly what happened with APT. It was my first time working with Rosie [Rosé]. We had a batch of sessions over the course of a few weeks, and we’d been trying out different ideas – songs which might see the light of day at some point! – before we came up with APT.
It was the end of our third session or so, and Rosie, Theron Thomas, Amy Allen, Omer Fedi, Rogét Chahayed and I had been working on a different song all day. We were all so tired, but as we were wrapping up, Rosie was telling someone about this Korean drinking game called APT, saying it rhythmically, like ‘A-P-T, A-P-T’. Theron turned around and was like, ‘Wait! What’s that?’
Rosie said, ‘Oh, it’s just this silly drinking game!’ But Theron was like, ‘Why isn’t it a song? That should be the song!’ I really give him credit for that; he saw what it could be. And from there, we were like, ‘OK, let’s go!’ and I put down a rough version of the drums.
I usually like to work in a smaller group, but it can be so fun with lots of people because there’s more energy to feed off. Everyone in that session is also so talented, and I’d worked with the producers and writers before, so it just clicked. We were so comfortable.
In the session, we put down the hook, the ‘Apateu, apateu...’, the drums, then we pretty much wrapped. The next day, we got in and put down the pre-chorus chords, had a jam, made an arrangement, then we’d play it out and people would freestyle on the mic or throw out ideas and melodies as the song took shape.
I remember Rosie not being sure about it at first, so it was put on the back burner. That happens a lot. You don’t always do a song and right away it’s a priority; sometimes you have to let it simmer.
But after a bit, people started getting excited about it again, and that’s when Bruno got involved. I don’t know who played it for him, but he and I had worked together before so he texted me, like, ‘Yo, I heard you’re involved with APT, I love it!’ He said he had some ideas and was like, ‘I’ll be in the studio next week!’
When Bruno gets involved in something, he’s not just a feature, he becomes a part of it. He’s an amazing musician, a producer, a songwriter, an incredible performer – and he’s also hilarious.
When he got in the studio with Rosie, they did some rewriting tweaked the pre-chorus with the ‘Don’t you want me...’ melody, added the bridge – which is one of my favourite bits – and basically took what was really good in the demo and made it even better.
There were four or five sessions like that, re-recording Rosie’s vocals and Bruno recording his. He also recorded guitar, bass and drums! It was cool seeing their dynamic together; Rosie would be re-recording her vocals and Bruno would be producing them, coaching her, saying, ‘Yeah, do it again Rosie!’, and Rosie was also coaching Bruno on how to pronounce ‘Apateu’. We’d be doing a bunch of takes with him being like, ‘Wait, how do I say it?!’
At that point, not all the writers could be in the room together, so I would be telling the original group things like, ‘Hey, this is where we’re at with the song...’ That’s what I love about making music: every track is different – with this I was very involved, like a middle man between everyone, but with others I might do less.
At the end, it was just about tweaking everything and going back and forth with different mixes until it felt right, from start to end.
I always knew APT was great, but you never really know how big a song will go. Once it’s done, I like to just let it do its thing – I don’t like to be involved in the marketing or anything, I think of it as letting my baby go and seeing what it does.
The thing with APT is, even though anyone can sing it, the chorus being in Korean makes it unique for a song that mainstream – it’s earcatching. Sonically, it melds the world of Rosie’s K-pop and Bruno’s live musical identity and character.
We weren’t trying for it to end up in the vein of [Toni Basil’s] Mickey, that was unintentional! It just makes people go, ‘Oh, what is that?’ K-pop really is here to stay, and every time a song in this sort of genre makes it into the mainstream, it opens up the door for other K-pop artists, too – and for artists and music from across the world in general to become big. That is a really cool thing.
APT really was a milestone in my career. I’m so proud of the song and it’s such an honour working with great artists like Rosie and Bruno. Other than that? My girlfriend and I have a puppy who’s four months old and has her own treadmill [laughs] – and her favourite song to run to is APT. So, that’s been very fun for me. I like seeing my dog running to a song I produced!
Writer’s Notes
PUBLISHERS: UMPG, Warner Chappell, Sony Music Publishing, BMG, Kobalt, MCA
WRITERS: Roseanne Park, Peter Gene Hernandez, Theron Thomas, Philip Lawrence, Omer Fedi, Henry Russell Walter, Amy Allen, Christopher Brody Brown, Rogét Chahayed, Michael Donald Chapman, Nicholas Barry Chinn
PRODUCERS: Bruno Mars, Cirkut, Rogét Chahayed, Omer Fedi
RELEASE DATE: 18.10.24 LABEL: The Black Label, Atlantic Records
TOTAL SALES (OCC): 584,429
Publisher’s Corner
Leading executives salute their star songwriters...
Jennifer Knoepfle, EVP & head of US A&R, UMPG: “APT is an incredible example of how writers Cirkut and Omer came together with others to fuse styles, creating a global hit. It incorporates the interpolation of Toni Basil’s Mickey from our writers Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, to create something fresh that resonated with fans worldwide and helped create a distinctive sound for Rosé for the lead single of her debut album.”
