On the Netflix show, Song Exploder, Alicia Keys, Sampha, and Jimmy Napes go into detail on how the song developed. Alicia Keys came to London to work on music with Jimmy Naples following the birth of her second child. Sampha joined them, feeling keenly the recent loss of his mother. Working together in a single session, they started by developing ideas for melodies and beats. They played with vocal tones, forming them into lyrical phrases, including that of the song’s title and the central phrase of the chorus, “you give me life.” Having developed a verse, they then realized the possibilities of mirroring the same words with different delivery by the two singers. In the end, the song became a meditation on the circular nature of life, the joy and grief of arrivals and departures that make up the typical arc of our existence.