NOLIE

HOW I WROTE: “THINK BACK”

‘Think Back’ was almost not going to happen. I was going through (as I think most of us were) a bit of an existential period in my life when my producer Christofi and I made this song. It was one of our last “quarantine writes” and for me, that process was not productive...I love nothing more than being with one of my friends, listening to songs that have been inspiring us, and then jamming until some, not to be completely cliche, magic wants to enter the room.

During this time the flow would be either trying to start from scratch on a Zoom or Christofi sending me little beats here and there. ‘Think Back’ was a SUPER bright and poppy track I think he titled “Fun.mp3”, The verse melody jumped out almost immediately and the distance between my family and I during this time had made me want to write and analyze a lot of our relationship during the teenage time period in my life and my families second divorce.

Like I said earlier, this song almost didn’t happen...the initial hook melody was not feeling right for me and I really let it sit in the back of my mind (and demo playlists) for the next few months. It felt too pop for the mood I had been in, especially in contrast to the songs we were writing following it.

A few weeks after Christofi and I started getting back into writing in person, we opened the session and recut the entire hook which gave it a whole new life. I just remember showing my friends and everyone would bop their head and say it made them feel cool or sexy and I loved that. It made it feel right to be the first song for me coming back out of all of the heaviness...ultra happy and something I want to roll my windows down and drive to on a warm night.

The China Blue

CARR