John Legend on How His Viral Cover of The Purple Monkey Song Led to His New Album, 'My Favorite Dream' | THR News Video - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

John Legend chats with The Hollywood Reporter's Mesfin Fekadu and shares the story of how his new children's album, 'My Favorite Dream,' came to be. After a day of being in full dad mode, Legend ended up recording three songs with Fisher Price and composed a whole album of sing-a-longs and lullabies for kids and families. 'My Favorite Dream' will be released on Aug. 30th.

Transcript

00:00All of this came about because I did a quick version of the of the Maybe Purple Monkey song

00:06on Chrissy's Instagram and it kind of got the ball rolling

00:10and this album might not exist without that having happened.

00:13John Legend was in full dad mode the day that sparked the inspiration for his new album.

00:31It began when he serenaded his youngest daughter Esty,

00:35the song many millennial parents are all too familiar with,

00:37from the Fisher-Price Piano Gym playmat.

00:40They call it the Purple Monkey song and it's one of Esty's songs that she loves

00:45from the playmats that they play with and and Chrissy was like you got to learn this song

00:50it's so cute and you should do a version of it and so I just sat on the piano

00:55and started learning the chords and singing it and Chrissy recorded me singing it

01:00and put it on her Instagram and she just said if you know you know

01:05and a lot of parents were excited to hear me singing it

01:09and they're like man John you just got to go and record

01:12all of our favorite children's songs we want to hear your version of them.

01:15Fisher-Price even commented on the post.

01:18The father of four decided to go all in not only recording three songs with Fisher-Price

01:23but composing a whole album of sing-alongs and lullabies for kids and families

01:27calling it my favorite dream.

01:29Really what I wanted to do was create brand new songs and so most of the album is original material

01:36that I created based on you know the inspiration of wanting to make children's music that parents

01:43want to listen to too and and you know since we're right in the thick of having young kids

01:50and it being that season in my life it felt like the right time to do that

01:55and so I just sat in our piano room and started writing songs based on the kind of messages

02:05we communicate with our kids all the time the ones we want them to remember and keep with them

02:10and I felt like it would be cool to put that into song so that all kinds of parents and families

02:16could share that my favorite dream which features legend as a toddler on the cover photo taken by

02:21his aunt will be released on august 30th. The grammy winning singer says he approached this his 10th

02:28studio album differently than others. I tend to have a way that I write songs but the idea is that you

02:35know the music kind of drives me towards certain lyrical content but with this album I did make kind of a

02:44lyrical like inspiration sheet first and I thought about um the things we like to communicate with

02:54our kids and what we want to talk about with them. I started by writing the songs on piano at home

02:58most of my albums I write in the studio um but I wanted to write these at home because I wanted to

03:04be close to the you know inspiration um that made me want to write the album in the first place.

03:09Legend says he wanted the album to feel whimsical playful and dreamy so he tapped Oscar nominated

03:14musician Sufjan Stevens to produce the album and was thrilled when he said yes. I've been a fan of

03:20Sufjan's for like 20 years and he was the first person I thought of when I was like here's how I want

03:26these records to sound and the cool thing about him is he goes well beyond my imagination even like what

03:34he would come up with it's always like more creative more interesting more fantastical than I would have

03:40ever imagined um but it's been amazing working with him I always kept telling him I'm just so glad you

03:46said yes. My Favorite Dream has 15 tracks 10 are originals three are bonus songs with Fisher Price

03:52and two are covers one is Bob Marley's Three Little Birds and the other the classic lullaby

03:57you are my sunshine. The first track released is called L-O-V-E and includes vocals from his wife

04:03Chrissy Teigen and his two oldest daughter Luna and son Miles. Oh it was so fun it was my idea I was like

04:10Chrissy Luna Miles come on to the studio I want you guys to sing and they're like what and I was like

04:19it's gonna be so easy it'll be so fun you'll love it. The song is truly a love fest it's like a celebration

04:23of love and I see it as like almost like a mission statement for like how I want to live and how I

04:31want my kids to live um and the kind of light you see in people that are filled with love I want them

04:38to be those kind of people and um and that's what the song really celebrates. Legend says he names the

04:45album from a lyric that meant especially a lot to him and wrote songs with deep thought for his kids.

04:50It's literally me sitting there explaining like my favorite thing to dream about which is literally

04:56what I'm talking about in the song soaring the sky with my arms as wings you know that's my favorite

05:04dream and so when I was thinking about what I wanted to sing about as the kids are getting ready

05:09for bed and starting to calm down uh I wanted to like inspire their dreams to to dream their favorite

05:17dream. Family is a big part of the album. Legend was proud to share that eight-year-old Luna designed

05:23all the single artwork and says his kids share the musical bug. She's like literally drawing and you

05:29know uh creating all of the uh single artwork so when you see the single artwork come out you know that

05:35Luna did it and uh she's just really creative and and such a light um and I'm so excited she could

05:43collaborate with me on the album. Luna's been really practicing the piano more uh than anyone.

05:48Miles loves music though he's always like picking songs, DJing. This December marks the 20th anniversary

05:54of Legend's debut album Get Lifted which he says he plans to celebrate somehow this year. I'm so grateful

06:00for Get Lifted and what it's meant to my career how it launched my career. My son is a fan of my music

06:06and so he goes back and listens to it so um by extension I've been listening to it more and it's

06:13cool to listen back you know I've got notes. I'm like oh I would have done that differently but you

06:20know I'm truly like so proud of all the work that I've done and they all represent that moment in my

06:28life. Get Lifted really represents the the roots of my career represents all the work that I was doing

06:35trying to get a record deal and and it it kind of represents my upbringing in the church and uh

06:44so much about who I am and the collaboration with Kanye and with hip-hop producers like

06:49all of that really set the foundation for everything that I did after that.

06:54My Favorite Dream will be released on Republic Records Kids and Family, UMG's newly launched

06:58children's division. For more on THR's interview with John Legend head to THR.com.

07:04This is THR News.

John Legend on How His Viral Cover of The Purple Monkey Song Led to His New Album, 'My Favorite Dream' | THR News Video

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