On Spotify only, Exit is available in a track by track version with Darin commenting each song in the album. The comments are in Swedish, so we have translated them into english for you.
Playing With Fire
When I went to the USA last year to write this album, "Playing With Fire" was the first song that I wrote. It was also the first song I wrote together with Jim Beanz, who has written and produced songs to, among others, Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. And it’s fun that the first song we wrote became the first single in the end. I think that you may be expecting a traditional chorus when you listen to the song, because the verse and the bridge seem to lead to that kind of a chorus. But that’s what I think is so great about that song, that we wrote a whole different type of chorus.
Before I Pass Out (feat. Lil Jon)
When we wrote "Before I Pass Out", we started writing the song in a completely different way than I had written before. We did the song melody first of all, and then we found the chords and created the beat. I felt that I wanted a feature that could lift the song even more, and for me it was obvious that Lil John was going to be in the song. Because if there is someone that can make you dance and let loose - it’s him. Like in his featuring in Usher’s "Yeah", LMFAO’s "Shots". So I sent him the song, and he liked it and put on a really nice rap.
Surrender
When I was in the US I worked with many different songwriters across the country. One of them was Sacha Skarbek, who I worked with in LA. He has worked with Adele and Lana Del Rey, among others. Actually we wrote "Surrender" on the same piano that Adele used while writing "Someone Like You". Sacha said there was something magical about that piano, and he was right. It turned out to be a great song. I finished the lyrics in Stockholm, together with Adam Baptiste, whom wrote one of my first songs - The Anthem. The lyrics of "Surrender" are about a story that started out during my childhood up until now. But it wasn’t clear that the song was going to be in the album, although we luckily had time to meet up at Sacha’s studio and record the vocals and finish the song before christmas.
What It's Like
"What It's Like" is one of the songs on the album that I've written together with Jim Beanz. The song is about how it can be like when you're in love with the wrong person. You know about it, but what you're feeling is too strong to resist. The thing that I like with Jim Beanz's productions is that he doesn't need to use so many layers of sound and strings in the songs, he still makes it sound big. And just like me, he was very picky when it came to vocals, which I thought felt good. The musical parts were essential, so we focused a lot on finding nice musical parts.
F Your Love
Jim Beanz and I weren’t meant to write "F Your Love" in the beginning, cause we had just finished writing the last song. It was around 10 PM in Philadelphia, and I was so damn tired because I was jetlagged. The day after I was going to New York, and later fly to LA, so it was mine and Jim's last studio session. But I decided that we were gonna write one last songs together. I wanted to get out as much as possible of the time we had left, so I stayed awake. At 5 o’clock in the morning we had finished and recorded the whole song. I'm glad that we wrote that song, it's definitely one of my favorites on the album. When we wrote the lyrics we joked about that it was the answer to Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".
Check You Out
"Check You Out" is a song with very telling and funny lyrics. I wrote the lyrics together with J Angel, who has written many hip hop lyrics before. One song he has written is "Blame It On the Alcohol". And David Gamson who is the writer of Kelly Clarkson's song "Stronger" has produced the track. The song is about that you go and talk to a very good looking girl, trying to flirt with her. But you fail big time and says the wrong things. We tried to find the worst pick-up lines and I liked "I hope that you know CPR, cause girl you take my breath away". I thought it was pretty funny. It’s probably one of the most pop songs on the album.
Give Me Tonight
"Give Me Tonight" was made when I and the Danish producing team DeeKay were playing around in the studio and played old classic club songs. One of them was Capella - "Move On Baby", that we at last decided to sample. I felt that it had potential to be very good together with my own lyrics and melody. The result became a mixture of ’94 and 2013. Then we just had to get in touch with all of the songwriters and producers so that we could clear the rights. There were a bunch of people who had been in the making of the song, so it took more time than we thought to get in touch with them. We didn’t know if we we’re gonna succeed in time, but thanks to my publishing company everything turned out well and the songwriters liked the song too.
Same Old Song
We were going to start with a new song in the studio, and Jim Beanz, whom I wrote "Same Old Song" with, started looking for nice sounds and strings on one of the synths. He changed sound pretty fast, but I liked one of the sounds he was playing, and asked him to go back to that. That sound is what is heard on the string, and goes through almost the whole song. When we had the string, it didn't take long for us to come up with good melodies to the song. "Same Old Song" is also one of my favorites on the album. I was pretty down when I wrote the lyrics, and had a flashback to the time that the song is about, which is heard quite clearly.
That Love
When I was in LA I got the chance to work with The Jackie Boyz, who are two brothers and two really great songwriters. They've written to Madonna, among others. We had much fun while writing together, which often leads to good music, and That Love became good as well. After I had recorded the first verse and got out of the song booth, I noticed that Steven, one of the brothers, was impressed. He showed me his Twitter on the phone, where he had written: Wowzer, Darin is my favorite singer! The truth, hands down! It was really great to hear, especially from him, who has recorded with great singers, like Chris Brown and Justin Bieber.
Nobody Knows
Nobody Knows is actually the first single from the album, but firstly it was meant to be on an EP, that I decided not to release. The other songs were good, but they didn’t fit me as well in style and singing. I would never be able to release music that doesn’t feel 100% me. So I trashed the EP and started from scratch. I’ve never released a song that have had a longer life than Nobody Knows, that’s been in the top 10 on iTunes during 3 different times during 2012. But on the other hand it was good that it lived so long because the finishing of the album took long. The funny thing is that I didn't like the song when we had written and recorded it. It was a song that grew, and after that we had changed it a few times it felt like an obvious first single.
Playing With Fire
When I went to the USA last year to write this album, "Playing With Fire" was the first song that I wrote. It was also the first song I wrote together with Jim Beanz, who has written and produced songs to, among others, Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. And it’s fun that the first song we wrote became the first single in the end. I think that you may be expecting a traditional chorus when you listen to the song, because the verse and the bridge seem to lead to that kind of a chorus. But that’s what I think is so great about that song, that we wrote a whole different type of chorus.
Before I Pass Out (feat. Lil Jon)
When we wrote "Before I Pass Out", we started writing the song in a completely different way than I had written before. We did the song melody first of all, and then we found the chords and created the beat. I felt that I wanted a feature that could lift the song even more, and for me it was obvious that Lil John was going to be in the song. Because if there is someone that can make you dance and let loose - it’s him. Like in his featuring in Usher’s "Yeah", LMFAO’s "Shots". So I sent him the song, and he liked it and put on a really nice rap.
Surrender
When I was in the US I worked with many different songwriters across the country. One of them was Sacha Skarbek, who I worked with in LA. He has worked with Adele and Lana Del Rey, among others. Actually we wrote "Surrender" on the same piano that Adele used while writing "Someone Like You". Sacha said there was something magical about that piano, and he was right. It turned out to be a great song. I finished the lyrics in Stockholm, together with Adam Baptiste, whom wrote one of my first songs - The Anthem. The lyrics of "Surrender" are about a story that started out during my childhood up until now. But it wasn’t clear that the song was going to be in the album, although we luckily had time to meet up at Sacha’s studio and record the vocals and finish the song before christmas.
What It's Like
"What It's Like" is one of the songs on the album that I've written together with Jim Beanz. The song is about how it can be like when you're in love with the wrong person. You know about it, but what you're feeling is too strong to resist. The thing that I like with Jim Beanz's productions is that he doesn't need to use so many layers of sound and strings in the songs, he still makes it sound big. And just like me, he was very picky when it came to vocals, which I thought felt good. The musical parts were essential, so we focused a lot on finding nice musical parts.
F Your Love
Jim Beanz and I weren’t meant to write "F Your Love" in the beginning, cause we had just finished writing the last song. It was around 10 PM in Philadelphia, and I was so damn tired because I was jetlagged. The day after I was going to New York, and later fly to LA, so it was mine and Jim's last studio session. But I decided that we were gonna write one last songs together. I wanted to get out as much as possible of the time we had left, so I stayed awake. At 5 o’clock in the morning we had finished and recorded the whole song. I'm glad that we wrote that song, it's definitely one of my favorites on the album. When we wrote the lyrics we joked about that it was the answer to Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".
Check You Out
"Check You Out" is a song with very telling and funny lyrics. I wrote the lyrics together with J Angel, who has written many hip hop lyrics before. One song he has written is "Blame It On the Alcohol". And David Gamson who is the writer of Kelly Clarkson's song "Stronger" has produced the track. The song is about that you go and talk to a very good looking girl, trying to flirt with her. But you fail big time and says the wrong things. We tried to find the worst pick-up lines and I liked "I hope that you know CPR, cause girl you take my breath away". I thought it was pretty funny. It’s probably one of the most pop songs on the album.
Give Me Tonight
"Give Me Tonight" was made when I and the Danish producing team DeeKay were playing around in the studio and played old classic club songs. One of them was Capella - "Move On Baby", that we at last decided to sample. I felt that it had potential to be very good together with my own lyrics and melody. The result became a mixture of ’94 and 2013. Then we just had to get in touch with all of the songwriters and producers so that we could clear the rights. There were a bunch of people who had been in the making of the song, so it took more time than we thought to get in touch with them. We didn’t know if we we’re gonna succeed in time, but thanks to my publishing company everything turned out well and the songwriters liked the song too.
Same Old Song
We were going to start with a new song in the studio, and Jim Beanz, whom I wrote "Same Old Song" with, started looking for nice sounds and strings on one of the synths. He changed sound pretty fast, but I liked one of the sounds he was playing, and asked him to go back to that. That sound is what is heard on the string, and goes through almost the whole song. When we had the string, it didn't take long for us to come up with good melodies to the song. "Same Old Song" is also one of my favorites on the album. I was pretty down when I wrote the lyrics, and had a flashback to the time that the song is about, which is heard quite clearly.
That Love
When I was in LA I got the chance to work with The Jackie Boyz, who are two brothers and two really great songwriters. They've written to Madonna, among others. We had much fun while writing together, which often leads to good music, and That Love became good as well. After I had recorded the first verse and got out of the song booth, I noticed that Steven, one of the brothers, was impressed. He showed me his Twitter on the phone, where he had written: Wowzer, Darin is my favorite singer! The truth, hands down! It was really great to hear, especially from him, who has recorded with great singers, like Chris Brown and Justin Bieber.
Nobody Knows
Nobody Knows is actually the first single from the album, but firstly it was meant to be on an EP, that I decided not to release. The other songs were good, but they didn’t fit me as well in style and singing. I would never be able to release music that doesn’t feel 100% me. So I trashed the EP and started from scratch. I’ve never released a song that have had a longer life than Nobody Knows, that’s been in the top 10 on iTunes during 3 different times during 2012. But on the other hand it was good that it lived so long because the finishing of the album took long. The funny thing is that I didn't like the song when we had written and recorded it. It was a song that grew, and after that we had changed it a few times it felt like an obvious first single.