The BRITs saw Raye break records as she took home six awards, including both Album and Song Of The Year, the latter going to her million-selling UK No.1 Escapism. Here, LA-based producer Mike Sabath tells us how it felt to help make history with a no-holds-barred anthem that came to life via studio break-ins, surprise food poisoning and a night-time drive around Hollywood...    

INTERVIEW: MIRANDA BARDSLEY

From the moment Raye and I met, we just loved each other. We became best friends immediately. I got to know her six years ago, when I was first getting into the industry. I’d started the whole production thing by going to studios in LA with my then manager, pressing the intercoms and saying, ‘We have a session.’ The doors would open and we’d just go in and find people to play my beats to! I was grinding for so long. I started working with artists like Selena Gomez, Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, then I got my first publishing deal on the same day I turned down university – no more breaking into studios. One day, Justin asked if I wanted to meet this artist he was working with called Raye. The day we met, we wrote Hard Out Here together and became so close. 

We’d see each other when we could, writing and hanging out in London, LA, wherever, and a couple of years in, we realised that everything we made together was actually so good! But we didn’t ever speak about doing an [album] or anything; music was just a special, beautiful thing we had together at that time.

Fast forward a few years, Raye hit a point where she needed to leave her label and that’s when I was like, ‘Okay, it’s time!’ She asked me to executive produce the record, which I might not have been ready to do before, but I was at that point. 

In music, you always have to ask: ‘What’s the intention?’ With this, it wasn’t to ‘make hits’, but to help Raye embrace herself as an artist, to heal and find her own self-expression.

Escapism happened while she was in LA and we were writing together. At the time, my studio was literally right next to my bed. One night I was about to go to sleep, I was watching videos of both Jay-Z and Troy Royster JR – this drummer I loved growing up – and I was just feeling all this energy from it.

I got out of bed, went over to the studio area and recorded that first screamer sound, then drums, then chords. I basically made the track in the order that you hear the instruments come in. I usually work with the artists in the room, but I was just feeling it and felt like I was tapping into Raye’s [energy], too.

Raye and 070 Shake were good friends and she’d always wanted her on a song. So after I made the [beats], I texted her saying, ‘I’ve just made the track Shake is gonna get on!’

The next night, Raye, her engineer Felly [Jenna Felsenthal] and I were driving around the Hollywood Hills. I was like, ‘It’s time.’ I said to whoever was on the aux [lead], ‘Yo, bump this.’ We put it on and when it dropped, they were like, ‘Oh shit!’ Raye started writing some ideas down in that exact moment. This was just before we drove out to Park City in Utah, where we got an Airbnb and set up a little studio. In the six days we were there, we made Escapism, Environmental Anxiety, Mary Jane, The Thrill Is Gone and Body Dysmorphia.

The day we did Escapism, I was eating this banana, which smelled weird – and it suddenly gave me food poisoning. So we’re working on it, I’m sweating and getting chills – it was like the gods were putting me through a plague! I was curled up on a couch while Raye was singing, ‘Just a heart broke b*tch…’.

Eventually, I recovered enough. We played through what we had so far and I was just like, ‘Holy shit, this is powerful.’ Back in LA, I was messing with the arrangement and I made a section for Shake, thinking, ‘Let’s see how this goes.’ We weren’t sure it would happen, but shortly after, her, Raye and Felly were in my studio without me, as I couldn’t be there. Shake had written lyrics on a napkin, cut the parts and when I was back the next day, we put all the most potent bits together. It was beautiful. I’m a big fan of Shake’s, too –  it was so fun to play with her vocals.

After that, Raye came over to do some finishing touches, but when we got to the end, which was [originally] on the word ‘Night’, there was a delay on it. It sounded special, so I made it long and re-sampled it, then added drums, thinking it would be fire for live shows. In about 10 minutes, Raye wrote the whole outro, then the key change and thunder sounds happened. And the last thing was the strings – which we both love.

It’s amazing to go from where we met to the BRITs, where I’m watching her go on stage six times. The process was tough, there was pressure from others to do more dance tracks, but we just focused on making the best art we could and my role was to help Raye be herself. It’s a big win for creatives and it’s just fuel to keep going, to see the work touch so many people. You can feel the magic. It really was a spur-of-the-moment decision not to go to sleep that changed mine and Raye’s lives.

I’m still processing it, it’s so emotional – but I had a moment recently where I just thought, ‘Holy shit, we made history.’

For more stories like this, and to keep up to date with all our market leading news, features and analysis, sign up to receive our daily Morning Briefing newsletter