Solange Breaks Down The Making Of And Inspiration Behind “Cranes In The Sky”
She was the latest guest on ‘Song Exploder.’
Most fans already know Solange started writing “Cranes In The Sky” back in 2008 while in the studio with producer Raphael Saadiq. She was working on her second album at the time and Saadiq tossed her a CD of beats, one of which had the stems to “Cranes In The Sky.”
Solange broke down the making of the cut off A Seat At The Table on the latest episode of Song Exploder, a podcast where “musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, and tell the story of how they were made.”
She speaks on how she was in a transitional phase in her life—she was a new mom, had just moved back to Houston from Idaho, and had just signed a publishing deal as a songwriter. A bit later, she headed down to Miami to record new music and the real-estate development in the city became a literal inspiration behind the song’s title and chorus:
You couldn’t look at a street without dozens and dozens of [cranes], it felt really heavy and that line immediately came to me. Miami, again, being this refuge for me. This place that I was also creatively at my rawest, at my most pure and honest state, just the heaviness and the weightiness and kind of even the eyesore-ness of seeing all of these cranes be so disruptive in this space that I found peace in. It really kind of affected me as well. That related so strongly to the idea of trying to push through and work through but something interrupting and something being so big in this space that you’re trying to move from."
You can listen to the entire podcast above and read all the lyrics to “Cranes In The Sky” on Genius now.
