Romantic [H.S.] (Book 2)

01 | The Stage

Four Months Later

April 24th, 2014. Bogota, Colombia.

An overwhelming mixture of emotions swirl within me as I find myself in a reminiscent position. Excitement, pride and a little anxiousness take the forefront of that emotional swirl as my boots clacking on the concrete echoes in the hallway, with the faint buzz of activity outside growing louder with each step. As always, Paul is leading me through the twists and turns of the venue hallways. But this time, instead of an arena, it is a stadium we are walking through, which is still a little difficult to believe. We have had a busy but wonderful first few months of the year leading up to this moment.

It was only a few days into the year when Harry followed me across the pond for work in Los Angeles, where over a few weeks, we became a force to be reckoned with in the studio. I have also finally become qualified as a producer, and finally feel I have found my confidence in the studio. Even so, my strength will always remain in the songwriting side of things, and that is how Harry and I have become the perfect team. Our ideas bounce off of each other when we write, and most often than not, Harry just has to mess around on the guitar a little for a line or two to come to me.

Together we wrote countless songs with and for other artists in those couple weeks in January. One artist that particularly stands out, and felt like an out of body experience to work with, was Ariana Grande. I don't even recall initially meeting her. I was just suddenly sitting across from her with Harry at my side. A lot of that day remains a blur to me. But I do remember having a conversation with her about my background and experience, and Harry explaining our process to her before he started to play a few chords on his guitar and hum a melody. From there, I was able to pull myself together for the two of us to write a song for her on the spot.

Next minute, Harry was in the booth recording the demo when Ariana declared her love for it, and she almost didn't want to touch the song after we played Harry's demo. Long story short, he had to practically shove her into the booth to get it done. The whole experience of watching Ariana -- Voice of an Angel -- Grande record vocals to a song that Harry and I wrote in such a short space of time was an entire pinch-me moment. The girl doesn't have talent, she has a gift, and it was a dream to work with her. We have since heard from her that she has chosen to put our song on her next record, which is just insane. Julian showed up at our home in Beverly Hills with a bottle of champagne after we called him with the news.

Julian continues to be the best boss to ever exist, as well as one of my dearest friends. We're constantly in contact with each other with song ideas, organising studio sessions with others in the industry and just your average friendship talk. John and I also have strong work relationship and friendship even though I don't see him as much -- he and Julian work apart quite a bit outside of certain projects. In addition to having strong cowriting relationships with Julian and John, they have also brought me into the fold with Jamie Scott. Harry already knew Jamie quite well from previous writing sessions and together we spent a number of days in the studio with Jamie, writing for The X Factor US winners Alex and Sierra's debut album.