SMILF.
Season 1 · Episode 3 · Mikey Mike — “Doin’ Me”
The session.
This kids choir session was for Mikey Mike’s album Life On Earth Vol 1.
Later, Doin’ Me got synced for an episode of SMILF! We recorded at Shangri-La, Rick Rubin’s Malibu studio.
The time Rick Rubin had me hire a kids choir to sing a swear word.
Most album session calls come with very little warning.
One day I got a call to put together a kids choir for a track produced by Rick Rubin for an artist named Mikey Mike. Like most music industry requests, it was happening fast, so I rounded up seven neighborhood kids, called a handful of parents, and headed to Rick’s Shangri-La Malibu studio.
Easy enough.
Until the artist hit play. That’s when I discovered the song’s hook featured a very enthusiastic F-bomb.
Repeatedly. Loudly.
And now I had seven children standing in front of microphones waiting for instructions.
Thankfully the parents were cool, the kids thought it was hilarious, and the session turned out great. But I learned a valuable lesson that day:
Always ask for the lyrics before hiring a children’s choir.
The song, “Doin’ Me,” went on to have a surprisingly long life. A few years later it landed in a scene in the TV series SMILF. Then I got another call to bring the choir back in for additional edits when the track was licensed for a Canon camera commercial.
Not bad for a song that nearly gave me a heart attack during playback.
To this day, it’s probably the only session on my résumé where my primary responsibility was coordinating a group of elementary school kids to sing the word “fuck” in perfect harmony.
— Charissa