Los Angeles-based artist Chillhum explains the songwriting process behind his newest release ‘Waste My Time’ in great detail (see below) giving us a real insight into this chill-pop collaboration with vocalist Devyn Sawyer.

Inspired by electronic-acoustic hybrid songs, made famously popular by acts like Milky Chance, Chillhum took to his trusty acoustic guitar before adding in a catchy drum pattern. It’s a simple-yet-effective instrumental was then sent to Devyn Sawyer who kept Chillhum’s original lyrics and reframed them into melodies that perfectly suited her voice, giving another level to this minimalist track.

It’s also the first track that we’re hearing from Chillhum’s upcoming EP, to be released via new label SUR:KIT.

Stream ‘Waste My Time’ here and check out the full story from in Chillhum’s own words below.

“For ‘Waste My Time’ I had been super inspired by all the recent acoustic-electronic hybrid songs I had been hearing lately so I programmed an upbeat catchy drum pattern, picked up the acoustic guitar (as is one of my absolute favourite ways to write) and began to come up with some strumming patterns that fit the groove of the drums. This is a super simple instrumental but it really is all about the groove between the acoustic guitar and the drums, which I think is a common thread found through a lot of my music. 

Immediately upon finishing the instrumental and writing the melody for the chorus Devyn came into mind, as I had a feeling this song would fit really nicely in her range and would give her amazing voice a chance to shine because of the track’s somewhat minimal instrumentation. I sent her the instrumental with my scratch version of the chorus (lyrically the same as the final version, but Devyn would go on to make some small melodic/rhythmic changes) and she seemed excited to work on it. She came to record a couple of weeks later and sang what she had written live to me over the instrumental and I was absolutely blown away. I loved what she wrote and my goal was to make the final product sound as close to that first live version that I heard.” – Chillhum

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