Willow Pill has released the full “XL Version” remix of her song “I Hate People.” The singermade herstory by becoming the first out transgender winner of the main “Drag Race” franchise, and is doing it again by becoming the first “Drag Race” queen to be submitted for a song Emmy, for the original version of the single, first performed pm the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” finale in April.
Of the track, which was co-written with Brett “Leland” McLaughlin and Gabe Lopez, Willow says, “I wanted the song to strike a chord between fun and dark humor. The past two years have made everyone not so fond of each other, but also come closer together at the same time.”
In an interview with PvNew, Willow shared that the song took 10 days to write from “idea to the end product.”
For McLaughlin, it began with each queen sending the “Drag Race” songwriter a list of catchphrases, notable moments and anything else they potentially would want included in a song. Says McLaughlin, “Willow’s list was already so out of the box, and so Willow, that I felt we needed a lyric no one would expect.”
The lyrics are not just an extension of Willow’s personality but reflect on bringing people together through hate.
One of the first lines McLaughlin wrote was a placeholder for the “I love a…” lines. McLaughlin says, “After Willow heard the song, they suggested specific words like ‘toaster’ and ‘bath’ which referenced moments throughout the season and made it feel even more customized to them.”
As for the song’s sound, Willow had referenced Deee-Lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart” as inspiration. With that, Lopez thought of early ‘90s house music. Lopez started with a jazzy house chord progression. Says Lopez, “’Groove Is in the Heart’ uses a sample of Herbie Hancock’s 1966 song ‘Bring Down the Birds.’ I made a ‘60s-flair guitar riff and added palm-muted bass. I added some 909 drum machine sounds and created a beat with a very slight swing. Congas and Latin jazz layers were necessary for the party atmosphere. Piano, strings and horn hits fill out the production.”
Listen to the full track below.
