Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
On her new album The Pains of Growing, collaborated with No I.D., primarily known for his work with artists like JAY-Z, Kanye West, and Common, on the track “Comfortable.” In an interview with Vulture, Cara discussed creating with No I.D. and how making “Comfortable” differed from the way she typically approaches her music.
No I.D. was one of the people who brought Cara to Def Jam in 2015, and she said that over the years he’s served as something of a mentor figure for her. She said that when they first got together to make music she had the title and some of the lyrics for “Comfortable,” while he had the instrumental partially finished. She explained that she typically only goes to the studio when she has a song fully written:
I usually have a song finished when I go into the studio and have a melody and chords. But with this song, I just had lyrics. I didn’t even know what I wanted it to sound like. I remember No I.D. was playing me a folder of a bunch of rough instrumentals and samples. He had this one filed called “doo-wop” and I was like, “What’s this?” He played it for me and I loved it, I thought it was so interesting. It was super rough at the time but it was very reminiscent of the old Motown music that I grew up listening to and I just said, “I gotta take this to the hotel with me and I have to write to this.” Then I pulled up the lyrics to “Comfortable” and just felt like they could go together and I started singing the lyrics over that melody and it worked so perfectly.
“Comfortable” is about being in a relationship once the honeymoon phase is over and you have to navigate the challenges of a long-term partnership. Cara reflects on that on the song’s bridge:
It turns out you think my favorite song’s annoying
Turns out no one makes me sensitive like you
I used to be sad that the honeymoon’s behind us
Until I realized that it means we made it through
In a Billboard interview from June, Cara talked about recording “Comfortable” directly to tape to fit with the nostalgic, Motown-inspired tone of the track.
“We thought, ‘Well, if this is going to sound very old-school, we might as well record it the old-school way,’” she explained. “It definitely sticks out on the album, but in a good way.”
No I.D. was an A&R executive at Def Jam before joining Capitol Music Group to serve as Executive Vice President in June 2017. Recently, he’s branched into new musical directions, working with John Mayer on the song “New Light.”
Alessia Cara appeared on Genius' series Verified to discuss her track “Not Today.”
Read the full lyrics to “Comfortable” and the rest of Alessia Cara’s discography on Genius now.
