‘Smile’ is just what it is. There are gonna be bad times, and those bad times can do two things: they can get you in a place where you’re stuck in a rut, or it can make your future that much better because you’ve experienced these things.

I want to let him tell some of that [story]. [But] he gave me the Stevie Wonder song, ‘Love’s in Need of Love Today,’ on the playlist and I made a piece of music. I just typed an email about smiling no matter what. He immediately went in and wrote these words. When he got to that part about his mom—[‘Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian/had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian’]—I immediately knew this was way deeper than anything I was saying. He had that line and he ended up playing it for his mom. That’s where he can tell the rest of the story.

[Smile] was recorded at a different time. So it did sound a little different and it was just a matter of how much to poke it through. That was the biggest issue for me. Do you make it like a big hook? ‘Hey! Smile!’ Or do you make it like ‘…smile.’ I mean, these are all choices that one has, you know? I picked one or the other and everybody was cool with the way it sat. And I had to raise it actually, now I’m remembering that the first pass was even lower and they were like 'Nah, nah, you gotta’ bring it up some more than that, bro.’