david hugo On His New Song, "Dangerous"
DAVID HUGO ON HIS NEW SONG, “DANGEROUS.”
David Hugo dropped out of college and made a deal with his parents—that he had one year to make it in the music industry or it was back to school. Since then, the 19-year-old artist has been working relentlessly to promote his music and jump-start his career. And his hard work has paid off. Hugo’s song, “Dangerous,” dropped last Friday and has already amassed over 1.2 million views on Tik Tok, which has translated into upwards of 80,000 streams. I got the chance to speak with Hugo about the song, and you can read our conversation below.
“DANGEROUS” IS OUT!!!! HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
I feel motivated. I have a big to do list and it's time for me to work. I want to make sure the song gets listened to and is heard by as many people as possible. As excited I am for the song to be out, I’m definitely not kicking back and relaxing. I’m trying to do as much as I can to get people to use the song on Tik Tok and work on a bunch of other promo stuff.
ARE YOU A BIG TIK TOKER?
I started Tik Tok back in October, and had some success with Shawn Mendes covers and King Julian impressions. It’s been good to me, and it’s important because it converts to streams. But I need to be more diligent about it and focus on making good videos.
SPEAKING OF VIDEOS, WILL THERE BE A MUSIC VIDEO FOR “DANGEROUS?”
No video yet, but it’s going to happen.
I JUST WATCHED THE VIDEO FOR YOUR SONG “9TEEN,” WHICH ALSO CAME OUT RECENTLY. WHAT WAS THE PROCESS OF MAKING THAT VIDEO LIKE?
We worked with a couple film grads from UCLA. It was pretty zero budget. The only thing we spent money on were the props— the champagne and cake.
THAT MUST HAVE BEEN SUCH A FUN COLLABORATION. WHEN YOU WRITE, DO YOU PREFER TO WORK WITH OTHER PEOPLE OR DO YOU WORK BETTER ALONE?
I collaborate a lot with the typical session trinity, which is a producer, co-writer, and artist. “Dangerous” was actually the first song I made in an LA writing session. JBACH, who's another writer, DM’d me and asked to write. The producer of that session, Grant Sayler, is who I pretty much do everything with. It took us two sessions to finish the song, which is so crazy to me. I’ve never taken so long to finish a song, usually things come together in a few hours; but I guess it was just one of those difficult ones. We wrote the whole thing in that first session, and then decided to re-write the chorus in the second session.
THAT'S ALL YOU HAD TO CHANGE?
Only the most important part of the song!
WHAT MAKES THE CHORUS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A SONG?
You can’t have a great song without a great chorus. The chorus is the melody that is most frequently played throughout the song—just from a time perspective it takes up the majority of the song—so it has to be good.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THE CHORUS OF “DANGEROUS?”
One of the quirks of “Dangerous” is that the chorus isn’t dynamically bigger than the pre-chorus. It’s just different. I really like the pre-chorus because it's so dramatic. It’s really fast and wordy. And then the chorus is so spacious. I think what makes it is the production. We’ll see how the world reacts.
HOW DO YOU HOPE THE WORLD REACTS?
I hope they like it and that they listen to it.
WHERE DO YOU IMAGINE PEOPLE LISTENING TO THE SONG?
H&M. It’s such an H&M song. Or maybe Forever 21. Anywhere that’s a moderately relaxing environment, like a cafe or somewhere outdoors. That could work too.
IF YOU COULD PLAY THE SONG FOR ANY CELEBRITY, WHO WOULD YOU PLAY IT FOR?
Maybe Taylor Swift. I would hope that she would like it, but if she didn’t I could use it as a marketing tactic—like I could make a Tik Tok about how Taylor Swift doesn’t like my music.
IT ALL COMES BACK TO TIK TOK!
I guess it does. Tik toks are great. I’ve been trying to relentlessly push “Dangerous.” I’ve posted three Tik Toks to “Dangerous” today and it’s not even 4 PM. It's the song that I’m most proud of.
GO CHECK OUT DAVID HUGO’S NEW SONG, “DANGEROUS,” ON SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC, AND MAKE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE TO TWENTY MINUTES LATER FOR MORE INTERVIEWS LIKE THIS ONE.
