What's yours?

Okay.

My first trip out to LA.

I get asked to work with Britney Spears.

So I'm sitting there.

I'd never been in any situation like that.

I didn't even really listen to a ton of pop music growing up.

Benny, speaking of starting out, Albie S. emailed, is it true your first professional gig was doing the beats for a soft porn video called Hip Hop Honeys? What do you remember about the experience?

Yeah, where are you living?

I, I, I, I signed up for a, uh A, uh, like, audio engineering school Mm.

And there was, like, this thing where you could stay in, like, the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn.

And, and e- it was like a six-month program, and I, like, split it with my mom.

I had made some money.

Mm-hmm.

And then she was like, "That's all you got.

Yeah, that is wild.

What's your favorite thing?

My favorite thing to do is just whatever the next new thing is to challenge myself because I always want to be challenged.

So like just like sitting, like I know how to make music.

It makes me very happy.

Like making a cookbook was always a dream of mine because- Why? Yeah, why? Because of you.

When I was a kid- I always was watching on TV and I always, I got your book pretty early in life, your entertaining book back in the day.

And I just love entertaining.

And you know, all

[laughs]

Yeah.

It, you, I, I mean, look, look, the only way you're gonna succeed is if you fail.

You fail.

No one, no one just gets up and, and just, like, writes the number one song their first song they've ever written.

Like, I'd say 95% of the songs I write in a year never see the light of day.

And then out of the 5% that see the light of day, maybe 1% is good.

[laughs]

this like sort of solidified

it.

It knew I was like, oh, I have to marry this person.

Like, OK. Yeah.

It was the day before her birthday.

We were spending it in Malibu.

I had a concert thing that I had to do.

Did that light a fire in you?

Why should they make that leap?

leap?I feel like it- it's like this.

Okay? When I was a kid, I wanted to be the biggest rapper in the world.

Okay? Uh, obviously I didn't become the biggest rapper in the world, but I landed somewhere pretty cool.

So I feel like you need to figure out what you wanna do.

You need...

I mean, if you're watching right now, just write down like three or four things on a piece of paper, pick them out, and then just do one thing to inch it forward a little bit.

Number five.

Yeah.

You know, we were, we're, we are so lucky and fortunate that we just, we're just each other's yin and yang, and like everything is so easy, and she's like my best friend.

Like, sometimes like I get home and I feel like we're like gossiping about the same thing.

[laughs]

New things that I don't even know that kids do.

Um, and I think people are scared to take that first step because then you're gonna be fully judged.

You're gonna be, you're gonna, your peers, everyone is gonna make an assumption, and if you fail, y- y- it's like some bad thing.

For some reason when we were kids-

What?

Okay.

John Mayer will send you a message that says, "Whatever you do, I don't want you to acknowledge this.

I want you to have the best birthday you could ever have.

I'm letting you know that I'm, I'm acknowledging it's your birthday.

But you have no responsibility to acknowledge."

She was gonna have you do it?

No, she's just like, "Just tell them to turn it down." I was like, "Mom, I'm not telling a concert to turn the bass down.

year is this?

Not, no, not back when I was first doing it.

No, no social media.

But, but how I first really got discovered, well, Well, my brother was in a fraternity.

There was a guy that went to his college.

Yeah, there was a guy that went to his college.

He knew someone who was in the music industry.

Yeah.

[laughs]

Like, like, I am, like, the antithesis of, like, what I became and what I'm supposed to be, and I always am just true to myself.

And I was with Ed Sheeran, and we had just finished a show in Toronto, and we went to this, like, Drake Fu- it was when Drake and Future put out that album together.

We went to, like, the after party, and it was, like, so cool.

We're, like, having the time of our lives.

We leave, we get on the bus, and the way it works is when you're on tour and you're going back to America, what they do is they, they wake you back up at the, uh, border patrol.

We said, "Ah, I don't wanna have to get woken up and then go to sleep again.

But then the other risk is, "I've got a song that actually all the big artists want, and I'm gonna trust a newer artist."

It sucked.

But I did it.

I did it.

I flew because I said, how... can I put this book out if I'm like hiding from like my biggest fear? Like, how can I do that? How can I tell people to go buy this book and I'm not getting on like a tube in the sky? And I was like, I gotta do it.

So I did it.

It sucked.

I made a step forward.

What can people learn from you and Selena in this book?

They can be digital rooms.

Yep, and we didn't even have a computer at this point, so I would do it at lunchtime in the library, and I would do anything I could to get in touch with people.

So first thing I started doing is I would cold-call record labels, okay? And let's say I was calling Interscope Records.

I would call up, and I'd say, "Is Jimmy Iovine there?" Jimmy Iovine ran Interscope Records.

So I'd say, "Is Jimmy Iovine there?" And then I would look up who Snoop Dogg or Tupac Shakur, I'd look up who their lawyer was.

I'd look up online, and then I'd call, and I'd say, "Uh, yes, uh, I, I'm, I'm, I'm calling on behalf of Jay-Z.

This is Michael Guido.

Okay, great.

Yeah

...

I was like, "Dude, I don't know how to do that." He was like, "Well, if you don't do that and read this book," he gave me this book called like The Tao Te Ching.

It's like this like, like, like, like, uh, mantras and poems, and he was like, "If you don't read this book by tomorrow and make that," he was like, "don't even bother coming up." He was like, "Or I won't hire you." And I was like, "Fuck." Somehow I figured out how to do it.

I moved the next day to New York.

I didn't have a place yet, 'cause my place didn't start until after the summer.

Right

... just start, you know, this was, this is like 11 years ago, 10, 11 years ago.

Oh boy.

No, no, no. She'll do this.

And it's really cool.

I'm feeling a little irritated and I think I need like 25 minutes.

And I'll say, okay.

And then I give her her space.

And then after like five minutes, she texts me.

So it took time for us to mature for me to realize, wait a minute, you wanting space is you caring for the relationship.

[laughs]

I, I'll, I'll tell you something.

I was, I was with my friend the other day, and we were hanging out, and he w- he, like, just went through a breakup.

You know, I don't ever watch myself back.

I'm not, like, a guy that does that.

I don't...

Like, once it's there, it's there.

Mm-hmm.

She always says there's a loneliness, uh, epidemic.

Epidemic.

Well, 'cause there is.

But I felt like I realized, I do think after COVID, like, all of our social lives have slowed down.

Or if they haven't, there was, like, there was definitely, like, a period where socializing beyond the anxiety of, like, COVID kind of cre- th- th- there was, like, a learning curve to kind of get back into it and putting yourself out there.

And I really resonate with, like, TikTok, and it's not...

Like, I love watching people in, like, Michigan or, like, random sta- you know, like, home videos essentially of, like, people hanging out.

Mm-hmm.

[laughs]

And, you know, after we had done songs together ...

There was one time where, oh, it was probably 2016 or '17 or something.

I remember when you were in a studio, like Interscope Studios, and I remember I came ...

She doesn't remember it, but I remember I came in and I had this talk with you, and I remember being like, "Whoa.

Wow, like Selena's really like a complex person," like in a good way.

And I was like, "Wow, she's, she's-She's so deep.

You text me

Mm-hmm.

Or we, or we did have the same lawyer or whatever.

Um, and he was like, "There's this kid, Finneas, who's really good, and he, and he works with his little sister, and, you know, we rep them, and we think, like, they could be something." And then they had just signed, they'd just signed to Interscope after that, and then I was like, "Oh, I really like this song." And, and they hadn't ever played a concert or anything, and they were like, "Oh, come over." And I, I invited them over to-

Yeah.

My friend, literally, I was putting out my second album, and my friend was like, "You gotta use this thing called TikTok if you want your songs to be big." And I was like, "What's TikTok?" And, [laughs] and he was like, "It's the thing, like, where everyone, like, dances on it." And I was like, "Well, I don't wanna dance on it." And he was like, "No, you don't have to.

Just, like, go on and, like, just do stuff." He was like, "There's, like, these things called trends, and they're doing some to, like, some of your, like, songs that are, like, older." And I was like, "I don't know, man.

I don't wanna do this." And he was like, "I'm gonna come over to your house, and I'm gonna film you."

Thai food, my favorite.

Okay.

So we're just sitting there, and then she's like, uh...

Or no, first we're at the wine spot, and she said, "Oh my God, if this was a, if, if, uh, uh..." She was like, "Man, I would've worn something different for this date." And I was like, I was like, "We're on a date?" And then she was like, "What?" And then I was like...

And I was so confused.

And then she didn't bring it up again.

And then we're, like, hanging, having the best time.

[laughs]

[laughs]

And, you know, after we had done songs together, there was one time where, oh, it was probably 2016 or '17 or something.

I remember when you were in a studio, like Interscope Studios, and I remember I came...

She doesn't remember it, but I remember I came in and I had this talk with you, and I remember being like, "Whoa.

Wow, like Selena's really like a complex person," like in a good way.

And I was like, "Wow, she's, she's, she's so deep." And, and we had this conversation where I really, I was just really left by being like, "Oh, she's deep." And then we went and, and thought nothing more of it.

And then when we did our song together, I remember leaving le- not, not feeling romantic at all.

Mm

[laughs]

And, you know, after we had done songs together, there was one time where, oh, it was probably 2016 or '17 or something.

I remember when you were in a studio, like Interscope Studios, and I remember I came...

She doesn't remember it, but I remember I came in and I had this talk with you, and I remember being like, "Whoa.

Wow, like Selena's really like a complex person," like in a good way.

And I was like, "Wow, she's, she's, she's so deep." And, and we had this conversation where I really, I was just really left by being like, "Oh, she's deep." And then we went and, and thought nothing more of it.

And then when we did our song together, I remember leaving le- not, not feeling romantic at all.

Mm

I'm tucking

my arm right here.

Oh yeah.

I'm getting comfy for this one.

Julia Michaels.

Yeah.

Incredible songwriter.

you'll figure it out.

I'm tucking

my arm right here.

Oh yeah, I'm getting comfy for this one.

Julia Michaels, incredible songwriter, okay? Facts.

She was like just starting to get big, okay? She had a few hits under her belt.

And I think it was the day Sari went number one.

She had just broken up with her boyfriend.

you'll figure it out.