Member Since: 4/17/2011
Posts: 9,162
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Ester Dean talks Beyoncé, Rihanna & more
Quote:
VIBE: Describe your most intense writing session with another artist.
I’ve always had intense sessions, but first of all Ms. Beyonce is the nicest thing. We laugh, joke and play with each other and it’s amazing. She’s like my secret best friend but she doesn’t really know. I love her to bits. Her and Jay Z are just fun people to be around because you get to be yourself. For some reason, you’re like, ‘How am I able to be myself and not be tense around two people that are huge?’ I get to talk to her about my hair and my boyfriend problems. She coached me through getting a boyfriend and seeing what I wanted, but it’s so intense working with her because she’s like the last Mohican. She’s serious about her craft. She does not want just another hit song. She’s looking for something that says ‘Beyonce.’ She gives you these crazy beats and you’re like, ‘Whoa where am I going with it?’ But in her head, she already knows because she already got the dance moves, sees the vision and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to deliver this great woman something that’s never been done?’ And even if it’s been done, it’s been twisted in such a way that they’re like, ‘That’s new ****.’ Every time I go in there with Beyonce, it’s intense in my own spirit.
VIBE: You’ve been in the writing game since 2007 on Mya’s “Ridin” and even a few years before that. Which song can you say has been your most defining moment?
[Rihanna’s] “Rude Boy.” When I saw that video, I cried because I always wanted that notoriety. That was a real moment. I had different songs before then, but that was my first number one and that was the first time that I knew that [I did a good job]. I tried to walk out of the “Rude Boy” session and my friend, rest in peace Stephanie Moseley, was sitting there. I said, ‘I’m going to leave’ and she said, ‘No, you stay here. You make sure you write this song.’ I wanted to be loyal to the camp that I was with and I felt like I was being unloyal, writing. I asked Rihanna, ‘What do you call boys from where you’re from?’ And she said, ‘We call them rude boy.’ I watched people dance, saw what their bodies do and then I put the [natural rhythm]. That was a time when I was about to give up and it actually worked out.
VIBE: Being behind-the-scenes, you see things unfold in front of you that make your success so genuine.
I like to see what happens. I co-wrote “Firework” with Katy Perry and I literally cried during that movie The Interview. It wasn’t about what they call a “sync,” when you get a song in a movie or somebody licenses it, it’s about somebody taking the words and letting people know, ‘Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind?’ That means, ‘Have you ever felt like you’re so much of nothing that you’re just in the world unnoticed and uncared for?’ People want to just figure out how to get out of a situation and the way that they put that song in [The Interview] brought me to tears because I said, ‘That’s what it was about.’
It’s just a song for the world. I didn’t set “Firework” up. I was there, and sometimes as a songwriter, you have to know how to be a part, get on the passenger’s side and ride. A lot of writers don’t want to ride, they want to drive and when you’re with an artist, you let them drive and be there to support and do your part as a 50% shareholder. But you make sure you know that this person knows what they want on their album. You can’t tell them what they want. It’s best if people write with the artist than anything.
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http://www.vibe.com/2015/03/view-fro...ean-interview/
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The Beyoncé tea