Never Say Never

Album: Junto (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • In our interview with Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx, he talked about the meaning of this song. "Basically it's about an ex-girlfriend and just the fact that you can love someone and have such an amazing time and it'll all be so perfect, but so wrong," he said. "You'll hold that with you forever, but you don't regret it. It's a pleasure/pain thing. It's coming to terms with that and actually seeing it in a positive light."
  • An industry executive friend of Basement Jaxx named Nick Worthington helped spark the idea for this song. Simon Ratcliffe of the duo recalled to Edge of the Net: "For this album, we employed the services of an A&R guy, who A&R'ed our first two albums. We had went our separate ways and he went on to form his own company. We asked him for his opinions on a freelance basis. He said, 'Yeah, you should do something that's on that tip... that sort of deep house vibe that's going on at the moment.'"

    "So, after that meeting, I went immediately in to the writing room and I played the chords and I played the bass line, the strings and the beat," Ratcliffe continued. "I got the whole thing and felt this feels cool. Then, Felix (Buxton) heard it and he started singing some melody and came up with the words."
  • The song features vocals from the South London teenager ETML (real name: Elliott), who came at the recommendation of Nick Worthington. Basement Jaxx tried a few different vocalists on the track before having ETML give it a go. The duo liked the character in his voice, which had the kind of imperfect sound they were looking for.
  • The accompanying music video was directed by Los Angeles-resident Saman Kesh (Calvin Harris' ("We'll Be Coming Back"). It tells the story of Mr & Mrs. Nakamatsu, who develop the TW3RK-BOT to save the planet from the absence of dancing. Ratcliffe recalled: "We met him (Kesh) for the first time and basically had a Skype conversation with him. We were in London and he was in L.A. and when we played L.A. we actually met him and he came along to the show. He's a great guy who is full of energy and full of ideas. He's a very creative individual and he's made this awesome video. It's twerking robots... that's all I'll say."

    Asked by Promo News what especially frustrates him, Kesh replied; "Getting a Twerking robot to properly shake its ass."

    Years before Miley Cyrus kickstarted the twerking craze with a video that went viral, Basement Jaxx released a track titled after the dance.
  • House music veteran Mark Knight did a remix, which originated when Basement Jaxx and the DJ both arrived at Miami's International Airport after the same flight from London. "We got chatting in the queue and they were telling me about their new album and the music they had on the cards for it," Knight recalled to Billboard magazine. "I was immediately keen to get involved with a remix. I've always admired what they do and when they sent me the track the next day I knew immediately it was something I could sink my teeth into."
  • The song went to #1 on the American Dance chart, the duo's fourth #1 on that tally.

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