Ed Sheeran & John Mayer - 'Drive' from 'F1: The Movie' | Behind the Song

What this episode is about

Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, and producer Blake Slatkin discuss the creation of their song "Drive" for the soundtrack of "F1: The Movie," highlighting the adrenaline-infused inspiration from the film. The collaboration features insights into their creative process, including how they selected scenes to accompany the music and the spontaneous nature of their songwriting.

Key takeaways

• When Ed Sheeran hums a riff, magic happens—it's songwriting at a millimeter's distance.
• Collaborating with legends like Dave Grohl adds dynamism—a rock sound needs explosive energy!
• John Mayer's toolkit of unwritten riffs shows creativity thrives where constraints are absent.
• Scatting gibberish morphs into lyrics; songwriting is as much phonetics as it is poetry.
• An F1 movie soundtrack? Talk about a collision of adrenaline and artistry—pure musical synergy.

Who speaks in this episode?

• John Mayer (Guest) · 4 min speaking
• Ed Sheeran (Guest) · 4 min speaking
• Blake Slatkin (Host) · 5 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, F1, Blake Slatkin
2. 3:00 – 6:00: F1, Dave Grohl, Butlands
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Ed Sheeran, Blake Slatkin
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Pino Palladino, Foo Fighters

Notable quotes from "Ed Sheeran & John Mayer - 'Drive' from 'F1: The Movie' | Behind the Song"

• Ed has a overdrive in his voice when he wants it that you don't normally hear and when it comes out it'll shock you.

  about Ed Sheeran · at 0:03

• Musicians in the entire world would be my first call. And luckily, they were down and we all got into John's room at Hensen and started it. They showed us scenes that were…

  about John Mayer · at 0:55

• I'd gone on my mates stag. You call it a bachelor party. And when I say like budget holiday camp, it's like 60 quid for all of us to stay there or you can drink booze. And it was fun but yeah [ __ ] full on. But I wrote this there.

  about Butlands · at 3:51

• Can go can make the feel change. Also, let's get into how Blake, you and I got really granular on the symbols. I have this theory that rock and roll distortion, that rock sound…

  about Blake Slatkin · at 6:11

• We do have Ramy Jaffy from the Foo Fighters who played some organ. I added some Juno. I think this is this to me thickens up the hooks a little bit.

  about Foo Fighters · at 10:12

• Pino does like this sort of natural side chain where he plays right after the kick hits. So Dave sounds better so the drums hit harder because the bass and the drum and the kick drum aren't.

  about Pino Palladino · at 11:02

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Ed Sheeran — Person · Main speaker / co-creator · 3 mentions · first at 0:00
  Co-writes and performs lead vocals; described as rapidly generating song ideas and delivering a standout rock vocal performance for the film soundtrack.
• John Mayer — Person · Main speaker / co-creator · 3 mentions · first at 0:10
  Introduces the segment, co-writes and performs on the song, and discusses arrangement/mix choices (riff, guitar textures, cymbal balance).
• Blake Slatkin — Person · Main speaker / producer · 2 mentions · first at 0:12
  Initiates the collaboration after seeing the film, coordinates the session, and discusses detailed production decisions (tempo feel, cymbal placement, samples).
• Dave Grohl — Person · Referenced collaborator (drummer on track) · 1 mention · first at 5:05
  Brought in as the first-choice drummer; his performance is credited with locking the feel/tempo and elevating the track’s energy.
  When he plays drums, it sounds like the room is going to explode.
• Pino Palladino — Person · Referenced collaborator (bassist on track) · 2 mentions · first at 10:26
  Plays bass on the recording; discussed for pocket/feel (playing slightly after the kick) and tonal choices (distortion track).

Companies & orgs

• Atlantic Records — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at 0:28
  The record company involved in the creation of the song for the F1 movie soundtrack.
  I was called by my friends at Atlantic Records who were working on the soundtrack and they had me come in and see the movie and I watched it and got the feeling of watching that movie which.
• Foo Fighters — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at 10:12
  Mentioned as contributors to the song with Ramy Jaffy playing organ.

Places & events

• Butlands — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 3:43
  A budget holiday camp in England where part of the songwriting process took place.

Media & podcasts

• F1 — Media · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 0:16
  The main subject of the podcast, discussing the creation of a song for the F1 movie soundtrack.
  And we are going to be taking you behind the song. The song is Drive. The film is F1. Four wheels. You and I got to get out of here.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I definitely lost my voice doing this. I remember you losing your vocals. Ed has a overdrive in his voice when he wants it that you don't normally hear and when it comes out it'll shock you. Hi, I'm John Mayer.

0:11 I'm Ed Sharon. And I'm Blake Slatkin. And we are going to be taking you behind the song. The song is Drive. The film is F1. Four wheels. You and I got to get out of here. My savior.

0:28 I was called by my friends at Atlantic Records who were working on the soundtrack and they had me come in and see the movie and I watched it and got the feeling of watching that movie which is just insane adrenaline and like holy [ __ ] this is going to be the biggest thing in the world and and people are going to love this. And I literally walked out of the screening room and called Ed and John at the same time and was like, "We have to make a song for this." Obviously, some of the greatest musicians in the entire world would be my first call. And luckily, they were down and we all got into John's room at Hensen and started it. They showed us scenes that were going to have songs in them and said, "Take your pick." The one that all of us kind of wanted was the Brad Pitt riding into the sunset piece.

1:14 It's also like as people leave the cinema that's the song they leave on and yeah they basically played us the movie and just said pick

1:20 for me how was feel a tempo I think we knew it was sort of this rock and bang and then Ed said what about this and he kind of hummed the semblance of a guitar riff the first thing I think I played for you was you went okay and you got to know about Ed just starts writing there's no well let me just kick this around The distance between not having a song and having a song for Ed is a millimeter for me. Ed's ability to in it a song. I've never seen anyone like it really.

1:55 Thanks, man. It was basically John coming up with that riff essentially. First, we just had a mic and we're just freestyling over it and a lot of the uh it's just scatting. I really feel like um a lot of the times when I write lyrics, it's kind of phonetically done already just from singing along to it. I I know that sounds weird, but you sort of like sing gibberish and then you hear words in it. But I also find from John playing the riff, I hear melodies in that as well. It's very much like when music starts, you it's almost mathematical. You see things just kind of fall into place.

2:33 This is within 10 minutes of the session starting, Ed saying to John, "Give me a rock riff." Kind of humming something. the first thing that Ed sings on the mic. This is

2:43 I also think like John's got this like toolkit of unwritten rock riffs that you

2:49 haven't really like dug into cuz I wouldn't say that you're like out and out AC/DC rock the music that you make but you could easily

2:58 do it. Yeah, I can play a lot more than I write. So that's always really fun to get into these projects because if they're not for my album then I have a lot more freedom to pick things that I can do. So, there's a lot more pieces that I have than I have songs.

3:11 First day demo. That was the first time you ever played the riff and that's what stayed on the record too.

3:27 You got to understand what it's like to sit in the room and have this man just rip through the city like it's it was electric.

3:34 And it also got tuned down. It got tuned down. So, this is the first time Then Ed was out of town. This is something that I quite like. Uh in England there's a place called Butlands which is a uh budget holiday camp where I'd gone on my mates stag. You call it a bachelor party. And when I say like budget holiday camp, it's like 60 quid for all of us to stay there or you can drink booze. And it was fun but yeah [ __ ] full on. But I wrote this there. We had a time that we were supposed to write lyrics together and I sent it to Ed and then he was eight hours ahead. So I woke up and he was like, "It's already done. I'll call you." And then he just sang it. And then here,

4:15 go to Butland's though. It's [ __ ] lit. Here's where that went. Still just guitar and kick. So, there's this sound that's like this harmonic kind of whistling thing, and it's rhythmic, and it's you can't tell what it is, but it's got this harmonic kind of, you'll hear it. It's the speakers of Ed's first take of the vocals coming through that guitar part.

4:46 You could hear Ed singing through John's guitar pickups. That's in the final. You can never get it.

4:51 Yeah. I think when you're working on a song like this for a movie like F1, you're afforded very cool calls. And obviously when we thought who should drum on this song, first name was Dave Gro. John, I think you texted Dave.

5:10 I texted him. These things are too intriguing to say no to if you're in town. Same way it got passed to me initially. Hey, do you want to write a song for F1, the big summer movie coming with Brad Pitt, which I'd heard about, right? I think everyone kind of knew this movie was coming. I'm pretty discerning. I like staying at home. I like doing minimal stuff. And that's one of those things you go, "Yeah, that's too cool."

5:34 Here's Dave Croll. When he plays drums, it sounds like the room is going to explode.

5:43 We've uh just played this song live with him for the first time, and he was saying he doesn't really play drums that often, which baffles me because he's Perfect. And I think

5:53 what's cool about these drums is we had recorded a different drummer on it before and when we had the different drums as a demo, we went back and forth on is the song too slow, is the tempo weird, and the second Dave played it, it was like, "Oh, this is this is perfect." And

6:11 can go can make the feel change. Also, let's get into how Blake, you and I got really granular on the symbols. I have this theory that rock and roll distortion, that rock sound comes from guitar amps and the symbols. They create this kind of white noise that gels together between the guitar and the symbols. But what it was doing was turning it into this like unhinged, untethered rock and roll. Like it just wants to break out so large. It was like, well, this also still has to be to some extent a pop song

6:46 and we need room for ad. And so a lot of that was like where do we put the symbols? So the symbols are actually quieter in the mix. If you play it again, they're actually quieter than you would assume you'd want them if you were listening to a drummer.

7:01 That's just Dave's drums with the symbols brought down quite a bit. And to even enforce that more, we added some samples. So, with it all together, I want to solo Ed's vocals first because this is just like a generational vocal performance. I remember when Dave came in, he was like, "That's Ed on the vocals right now." He was like, "I didn't know he could rock like that."

7:27 I definitely lost my voice doing this. I remember you losing your vocals. Ed has a overdrive in his voice when he wants it that you don't normally hear. And when it comes out, it'll shock you. So, I played this on tour just before the movie came out and it was like my shows have sort of crept up to being like 3 hours plus and this added to it. It just completely took my voice from me. So, uh yeah, it's a once in a while.

7:52 Yeah, once in a while. All right, so here's Ed soloed on the hook. Six harmonies.

8:04 Yeah, six layers. can fly out of this burning fire. Just take me anywhere. And when you sang halleluah, was that a placeholder in your mind as you sing?

8:21 Yeah. Yeah, totally. I sometimes find that uh vowels in general are quite fun for people to sing. So I never fight if there's a cool vowel sound, you know, like if you listen to Browneyed Girl, just Van Morrison going, like it obviously just sounded really [ __ ] good. And that's the part that everyone can sing along to. So I I never like shy away from

8:40 Here's you doing it in the OG demo the first time you ever got on the mic with it. beginning

9:00 also that comes in on the bridge is the last thing to be added on the song which was

9:06 I put this big dive bomb. You know the guitar's got the whether they people call it the whammy bar or the sort of Eddie Van Halen style whistle. There's acoustic there as well, isn't it? It's sort of like sirens.

9:26 This feels like tires screech into a stop. And that's your guitar. That's my guitar. Yeah.

9:35 Oh, this Oh, it's there, too. Yeah. Oh, cool. Will you play just the guitar doing those chords?

9:39 Yeah. down in it's in the same note as your vocal. I didn't put another guitar on top of that.

9:59 That's the thing that I'm always uh kind of shocked at is how big it sounds with how little it has. When it's right, it doesn't need I've learned that in in my career now that more tracks is not better music.

10:12 We do have Ramy Jaffy from the Foo Fighters who played some organ. I added some Juno. I think this is this to me thickens up the hooks a little bit.

10:21 You can't really hear it when it's in, but when you take it out, you feel you notice it's gone.

10:26 Also, Pino Paladino playing the bass. Can you solo some of his playing? I've made records with Pino for years and nothing's more fun than sitting in a chair watching him do bass takes.

10:38 Oh, he's got a distortion. It was two track. There's a separate distortion track that I guess is baked into this stem.

10:46 Is there a part in the song he does a fill, I think. Yeah. It doesn't hammer on like you hammer on.

10:54 Just hammers on the last one. That's interesting. Yeah, it's probably a conscious choice.

10:59 Yeah. Yeah. Hearing him play the bass, I go, I want to learn how to play the bass.

11:02 Pino does like this sort of natural side chain where he plays right after the kick hits. So Dave sounds better so the drums hit harder because the bass and the drum and the kick drum aren't fighting. So you can literally see on the grid right after every kick comes Pino just slightly after. So he's perfectly in the pocket.

11:21 That's cool. You guys are so locked. They've also played together for how many years? Yeah. Uh, many years. That's cool. I want to keep listening to that.

11:34 And that's important, too. My chunking through is making something happen on the drum side, too.

11:39 Sure. When we muted it, you lost the magic. There's really no tricks on this song. It's just humans in a room, which I think is is really special. And not to get granular with it, but we did all see the movie and like see Brad's character in the movie and have this be like rough and tumble kind of scruffy guy and it's like this to us embodies this. There's really there's nothing really going on besides just the musicians.

12:05 Honestly, since the day I've met both of these guys, anytime I would get a call from them, I'm there.

12:10 Yeah. And likewise, I'm in the I'm in the bullpen. Anytime that I've worked with John, he can take an eight out of 10 and make it 10 like instantly. But he is like honestly one of the greatest musicians of all time. And to be able to like work with him and by the way other greatest musicians of all time. I'm sort of sat in the middle of this just kind of like grinning like Yeah. It's been great. It's been a really fun process. I'm really like grateful for Apple like letting us do our thing cuz no one gave us notes. They just were like you do you. And uh yeah, it was fun.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Ed Sheeran & John Mayer - 'Drive' from 'F1: The Movie' | Behind the Song"?

John Mayer (Guest), Ed Sheeran (Guest), Blake Slatkin (Host).

What is "Ed Sheeran & John Mayer - 'Drive' from 'F1: The Movie' | Behind the Song" about?

Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, and producer Blake Slatkin discuss the creation of their song "Drive" for the soundtrack of "F1: The Movie," highlighting the adrenaline-infused inspiration from the film. The collaboration features insights into their creative process, including how they selected scenes to accompany the music and the spontaneous nature of their songwriting.

What is mentioned in this Variety episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, F1, Blake Slatkin, Atlantic Records, Dave Grohl. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Ed Sheeran & John Mayer - 'Drive' from 'F1: The Movie' | Behind the Song"?

The episode runs 13 min; the transcript is about 2,281 words in 47 timestamped sections.

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