Dua Lipa had to postpone her Future Nostalgia tour three times, but once she got on the road, inspiration for new music came to her quickly. In fact, she began writing her latest song, “Houdini,” while she was on tour, she tells Rolling Stone for the latest episode of “The Breakdown.”
Lipa returned to London’s 5DB, where she wrote a lot of her upcoming third album, to tell the story of how “Houdini” was put together. She explains that she had been spending time in Los Angeles, where Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker invited her to his home studio.
“Kevin was on the computer, and he was working on the monitors…and he just played a track,” Lipa recalls. The sound was the riff that launches the single, which made her feel “instantly inspired.” The “essence” of the track was born in the first two hours of hearing that riff, and the chorus quickly took shape with the help of Caroline Ailin and Tobias Jesso Jr.
During a different session back in London with Danny L Harle, Parker had been struck with the idea for the song’s middle eight, which changes the chords and tempo before escalating into a synth solo. It helped bring together the dark, clubby euphoria that Lipa wanted out of “Houdini.” She shares that there’s a secret extended club mix that builds out the psychedelic outro that she hopes to release in the future.
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