Ed Sheeran and Blake Slatkin on Writing the Rock Anthem ‘Drive’ for ‘F1’ and Making It ‘Sound Like an Engine’
Ed Sheeran may be known for his slow, sultry songs, but that vibe didn’t fit Apple Original Film’s “F1.”
With Joseph Kosinski at the helm of the film, “F1” is an adrenaline-fueled look at the world of Formula 1 racing. Brad Pitt’s Sonny Hayes is forced out of retirement to help his friend’s team APEX GP to a podium finish. So, a slow acoustic song wouldn’t work.
Before the opportunity to pen a song for the film even came along, Sheeran was a fan of the sport and could often be spotted in the paddocks, and, like many others, he’d seen Netflix’s “Drive to Survive.” But it was his producing partner Blake Slatkin who first got to see about 20 minutes of the film and immediately brought it up to him. Sheeran watched the footage with Jerry Bruckheimer, but the producer wanted him to write a song for a specific scene that would be the film’s final sequence.
After screening that footage, Slatkin called John Mayer, who is one of the songs producers and plays guitar on the track. Sheeran was inspired after he’d seen that footage and knowing the song would go over the final scene of the film. “I sent a voice note to Blake which was essentially the chorus mumbled,” Sheeran says. At the end he mumbled the word “drive” because “I wanted it to sound like an engine starting.”
A rock anthem was the only way to go. Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta Love” opens the film, and that inspired Sheeran and Slatkin to create something with a big riff. “We wanted it to make it feel in the zone of very riffed-based ‘70s rock music.”
As for his vocals, Sheeran reveals hitting those registers in his voice and “making it more screamy” was not something he gets to use much. And it’s not for lack of trying.
Slatkin says, “People don’t realize that Ed can rock like this. We had so many times when we were making music…but it never really fit the record.”
“Drive” provided Sheeran to flex that registry. In writing the song for the dune buggy scene, the idea was that everything had to build up to the crescendo of the film. Sheeran knew it needed to be high intensity. “It needs to have this riff to start off with. The drums need to come in at this point. The chorus needs to come at this point. “
Once Sheeran and Slatkin had the framework of the song, including the mumbles and chorus, the rest was about “putting lyrics when the phonetics are there,” says Sheeran. “You’re singing vowels and words form themselves in those points. When you have bullet points of lines from the film, that will actually make up lyrics of the song, it’s quite easy to put song lyrics together.”
Currently on tour, Sheeran hasn’t added “Drive” to his set list. Writing the song came easily for him. He jokes, “It was a fucking ball ache to sing.”
Watch the video below.
With Joseph Kosinski at the helm of the film, “F1” is an adrenaline-fueled look at the world of Formula 1 racing. Brad Pitt’s Sonny Hayes is forced out of retirement to help his friend’s team APEX GP to a podium finish. So, a slow acoustic song wouldn’t work.
Before the opportunity to pen a song for the film even came along, Sheeran was a fan of the sport and could often be spotted in the paddocks, and, like many others, he’d seen Netflix’s “Drive to Survive.” But it was his producing partner Blake Slatkin who first got to see about 20 minutes of the film and immediately brought it up to him. Sheeran watched the footage with Jerry Bruckheimer, but the producer wanted him to write a song for a specific scene that would be the film’s final sequence.
After screening that footage, Slatkin called John Mayer, who is one of the songs producers and plays guitar on the track. Sheeran was inspired after he’d seen that footage and knowing the song would go over the final scene of the film. “I sent a voice note to Blake which was essentially the chorus mumbled,” Sheeran says. At the end he mumbled the word “drive” because “I wanted it to sound like an engine starting.”
A rock anthem was the only way to go. Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta Love” opens the film, and that inspired Sheeran and Slatkin to create something with a big riff. “We wanted it to make it feel in the zone of very riffed-based ‘70s rock music.”
As for his vocals, Sheeran reveals hitting those registers in his voice and “making it more screamy” was not something he gets to use much. And it’s not for lack of trying.
Slatkin says, “People don’t realize that Ed can rock like this. We had so many times when we were making music…but it never really fit the record.”
“Drive” provided Sheeran to flex that registry. In writing the song for the dune buggy scene, the idea was that everything had to build up to the crescendo of the film. Sheeran knew it needed to be high intensity. “It needs to have this riff to start off with. The drums need to come in at this point. The chorus needs to come at this point. “
Once Sheeran and Slatkin had the framework of the song, including the mumbles and chorus, the rest was about “putting lyrics when the phonetics are there,” says Sheeran. “You’re singing vowels and words form themselves in those points. When you have bullet points of lines from the film, that will actually make up lyrics of the song, it’s quite easy to put song lyrics together.”
Currently on tour, Sheeran hasn’t added “Drive” to his set list. Writing the song came easily for him. He jokes, “It was a fucking ball ache to sing.”
Watch the video below.