Songfacts®:

• "Exes" is Tate McRae's anthem on breezing through breakups. Instead of dwelling on lost love, she flips the script, celebrating her knack for moving on like it's a piece of cake. She flaunts this chill attitude, acknowledging it might come off as cold, but that's just her pride talking - her self-love in action.
• McRae is matter of fact about describing the ups, downs, and the ending of a relationship. Just because they're done talking doesn't mean she's on the same page - hence the phone numbers and keepsakes she's holding on to.
  
  In the outro, McRae drops a hint that her icy demeanor might be tied to her youth. She owns up to maybe playing a bit rough with some exes but throws in the reminder that she's not even 30 and it's not as if they're married.
  
  "It talks about my flaws in a relationship," said McRae, "and some of my self-deprecating and self-sabotaging tendencies."
• McRae released "Exes" as the second single from her second album, Think Later. According to press materials, the record "explores the all-too-relatable feelings of falling in love and embracing the raw emotions that you experience as a result of leading with your intuition and heart."
• Ryan Tedder, who has previously worked with Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Paul McCartney, produced the project. McRae and Tedder wrote the song on the last day of the album-making process. "It was kind of like the last hurrah that Ryan Tedder and I wrote in legitimately 30 minutes," said McRae.
• Tedder co-produced the song with Tyler Spry. It took them just 90 minutes to produce the whole thing.
  
  Songwriter and producer Tyler Spry contributed to nine tracks on Tedder's group, OneRepublic's 2021 Human album. He also co-wrote and co-produced their hit single "I Ain't Worried."
• Spry engineered the track and played all the instruments (keyboards, guitar, bass. synthesizer and percussion).
• McRae teamed up with director Aerin Moreno and choreographer Sean Bankhead for the song's visual. The Canadian singer also worked with Moreno and Bankhead for her "Greedy" video. Both visuals showcase her dancing skills.
  
  Tate McRae's dance training began at an early age with recreational classes, and she later transitioned to more intensive training in Calgary, Alberta. She joined YYC Dance Project, a dance company owned by her mother, and started taking ballet lessons at the prestigious School of Alberta Ballet, the training school for the Alberta Ballet Company. These two institutions provided McRae with comprehensive dance education in a variety of styles, including contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, and classical ballet.