Lay It On Me

Album: Nation of Two (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Vance Joy recalled the story behind this song: "I had this guitar riff I had been playing for ages but had never found a home for. When it was glued together with a lyric I had in my phone, 'everything starts at your skin,' the song started to make sense."
  • The video was directed by Mimi Cave (Sylvan Esso, tUnE-yArDs, Jim James) and features Angela Sarafyan, one of the stars of the HBO series Westworld.
  • The song topped Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart. It was Joy's second #1 in a row on that particular tally, following the reign of "Fire and the Flood" at the summit.
  • After countless attempts of incorporating the initial guitar riff over a period of years, Vance Joy had just about given up on it until he found himself in a songwriting session with Dave Bassett (Shinedown's "Second Chance," Elle King's "Ex's & Oh's," Rachel Platten's "Fight Song"). When he played the riff to Bassett, he was surprised the songwriter liked it.

    "I was like, 'Oh, this old thing?" he recalled to ABC Radio. "'I've given up on this!'"

    So Vance added some random lyrics he had lying around. "I think I said, 'Your love's always finding me,' which is something I had in my phone," he recalled.

    "And he's like, "Oh yeah! 'Your love's always finding me out.'" And I was like, 'Oh, yeah! I wasn't saying that but I love that you thought I was saying that!'" From there, Joy was able to finish the song.

    "I wish that moment of magic happened every day and with every songwriting session," he concluded. "It doesn't. But I'm very happy that it happened with Dave and there was that breakthrough in that few hours with him and I'm very happy with the result."

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