Calvin Harris: ‘More than ever, I want to do edits of my songs’

Calvin Harris joins Zane Lowe on New Music Daily on Apple Music 1 to discuss new song “Miracle” with Ellie Goulding. He tells Apple Music what he loves about working with Ellie, embracing a more uptempo sound inspired by his early Trance days, looking forward to Coachella, musical plans for the rest of the year, and more.

Calvin Harris Tells Apple Music Why He Loves Working with Ellie Goulding…

I mean, with her… I feel like I always want the same thing…. I think that this is something that she’s the only person that can do this, that’s around at the minute, and she’s not doing it the moment, but I thought, ah, come and maybe do I try this? And obviously she does it in an hour, two hours. She knocks it out the park, then goes home. And I’m just like, well, that was obviously very easy for you, but it’s like absolute gold, the best vocal I’ve heard in years of on a dance song. So I don’t know. I definitely have very defined sort of likes and dislikes for music and artists. And one of my likes is an Ellie Goulding angelic vocal. One of a kind. You’re not going to get this from anyone else. Ellie can do a lot of different things, for me, this is my absolute favorite thing that she does, and only she can do it, in my opinion.

Calvin Harris Tells Apple Music About Embracing a More Uptempo Trance Sound on “Miracle” with Ellie Goulding…

I’ve never done it before. I’ve done the, I’ve done the trancey sounding things before, but I’ve never been this fast. So it feels good. when I started making music, I was 14. When I was 14. It was 1998 and ’98, ’99, 2000, 2001 was for me kind of formative trance and house era. So what I did usually was just take bits from that and put it in a new context. But this time I thought maybe I’ll just try and maybe more recreate something that could be from back then… the only thing that I think makes it not sound like it’s from 1996 is the kick drum, because the kick drum’s pretty banging. It’s more than a 909. Do you know what I mean? It’s like pretty heavy, duty.

Calvin Harris Tells Apple Music How He’s Feeling About Performing at Coachella…

I’m feeling really good about it. I’m feeling more than ever like I want to play every single one of my songs, which I don’t usually feel like… But nowadays, and I actually last year as well in Ibiza, I felt more than ever, I want to play everything. And it felt really good. So it’s going to be one of them. I’m not trying to, I’m not reinventing the wheel Zane.

Calvin Harris Tells Apple Music About His Musical Plans For The Rest of the Year…

I think it’s probably a bunch of dance music. I don’t want to do loads and loads. I want everything to exist for a reason, which I mean has been my kind of thing for the last decade or something. So yeah, I’m not in rush. I just want to do something that’s good, with the right people and have it just be there and feel good for it being there. No, I’m not about to do 12 tunes this year or anything like that. I just want them to be good, and I want them to be things that I’m going to want to play on and on and just be proud of. So it’s really just that. But I think it is going to predominantly, or just all dance music, because I do love it, and it is kind of my default, what I’m good at.

Calvin Harris Tells Apple Music About Preferring To Play His Own Songs During His Sets nowadays, like I said, more than ever, I want to do edits of my songs, play loads of my songs, just try and do my songs, and then that’s my value. And it feels much better to do that than play a bunch of other folks tunes however good they are, because I just feel I’m justifying my being there.