How Do You Want to Be Remembered

Album: Don't Kill the Magic (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is the closing track of Don't Kill the Magic, the debut studio album by Magic! The Canadian reggae fusion band are fronted by hit-making producer Nasri Atweh (Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never," Chris Brown's "Next 2 You," Pitbull's "Feel This Moment").
  • Before this song came to the table, "One Woman One Man" was earmarked to be the closing track on Don't Kill The Magic. Atweh recalled to Artist Direct: "I was in Barcelona, working with Shakira. I ended up on her album. One of the days she wasn't there, I had this guitar and I thought, 'I want to do a James Taylor meets Bob Marley-esque melody.' We didn't have a hulky kind of song."

    "I always had that melody in my head for 'How Do You Want To Be Remembered,' he continued. "I couldn't figure out the lyrics until after that. Once I figured out 'as a hero or a villain,' I was like, 'This is a song to inspire people.' Once I made that commitment to that, it just started to come to life."

    "I went back to L.A. and said, 'Guys, we've got to do this song," Atweh added. "The guys loved it, and it was done. It was great because I really took the reins. It was the only one on the album where I was like, 'I really want to control this one. I have a vision for this. Let me run with it.' That's it. It just came together."
  • Nasri Atweh is generally a relaxed kind of guy, having learnt over time that there's nothing he can force and the decisions he makes affect the next ones. He sings here about his laid-back state of mind. "In that song, I'm saying, 'Think about the steps you take, because everything, there's cause and effect,'" Atweh explained to Spin magazine. "And I've been through enough and seen enough that now I could kind of see a little bit of the future from my actions. So I have nothing to worry about."

    "I'm in a good headspace and my bandmates are smart and Sony Music and Latium are great," he added, "and I have a very good family and friends."

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