Gigi Perez - Sailor Song

0:00You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh Hirway. This show is supported by Odoo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odoo at odoo.com.

0:37That's odoo.com. This episode is brought to you by booking.com. I've been to a few national parks over the years, and it's always been a pretty magical experience. I've been to Yosemite and Joshua Tree here in California. Those are some of the closest ones to me. But I've been wondering about taking a trip to one that's maybe not so close. And last year, I started looking at some lists ranking some of the most beautiful national parks. And one that's come up on a few of the lists is Glacier National Park in Montana. Okay, that's the first part of the daydream sorted. The next is, where am I going to stay?

1:10So I went on booking.com to look at some options. And they have all kinds of different places to stay. I found a little cottage that looks incredible. It has a mountain view. It has a balcony. It has air conditioning. It has great reviews. I'm very excited about that idea. Or if I decide I want to bring my dogs with me, I can use the pet-friendly filter, and it turns out there are some really nice pet-friendly hotels on the site too. So go on, book that trip. It's easy. Booking.com. Booking.ya. This episode contains explicit language. Gigi Perez is a singer and songwriter from Florida, and at 25 years old, she's already had so many ups and downs in her music career.

1:53She started sharing her songs on TikTok, where they got enough attention that she got signed to a major label deal, but that ultimately didn't pan out. Soon after that, as an independent artist again, she had her biggest breakout hit with Sailor Song. She released it in July, 2024, and it went viral on TikTok. Now it has over a billion streams on Spotify alone, and it's part of her new album, which came out in April, 2025. In this episode, you'll hear how the song evolved from her first voice memo to the final version, which she recorded in her childhood bedroom. I talked to Gigi about how Sailor Song came about and about all the different parts of herself that she put into it.

2:31Her faith, grief, desire, and more.

2:53But I'm covered in this favor. And when we're getting dirty, I forget all that is wrong. I sleep so I can see you, cause I hate to wait so long. I sleep so I can see you, and I hate to wait so long.

3:14My name is Gigi Perez. I grew up in the church, and the whole nine yards of it, I think everyone in my life was kind of surprised when they saw me starting to play the guitar. But, you know, if you're like a seven-year-old being exposed to the concept of eternity, and you don't really have the emotional intelligence or tools to understand any of it, you know, it causes a lot of questions. And so I think that songwriting was just the way for me to like kind of lay everything out like okay this is what I think is going on right now inside of me and what's happening out there and I was able to for the first time really process what was happening like when I was 15 and I was songwriting for the first time that was the first time that I acknowledged myself that I like girls and that was a whole can of worms that I opened acknowledging that and what it was going to take to really understand that I did that through music.

4:16Where were you when your songwriting first started? I grew up in South Florida. There's not really a music scene for the kind of music that I was making. So I pulled out loans and I went to school for music. I did probably a full year of school. Half of it was online because COVID hit. And then my sister passed away that summer. She passed away. And that was a very dark time in my life and my family's life. And I just hit this point where I just felt like I had nothing to lose. And I was so desperate for connection. I was really desperate to have some sort of distraction from this very massive hole in my heart and in my life.

5:02So I just started posting these songs and then I got signed when I was 20. Go through my first record deal. And there were a lot of really beautiful moments from that experience, but it was also full of a lot of resistance and nobody knows what's going on with TikTok and how it's affecting the music industry. And I was like a guinea pig, you know? So I leave the music business and everything that that meant. And I was grateful that my parents let me come back home and they were very happy about it. And I was like happy to be back, but also there were notes of defeat and of, you know, I'm 24 and I don't know what I'm doing.

5:39And I'm applying for freelance work to like write a happy birthday song for like an eight-year-old and nobody's answering. So I'm not even getting work, but I'm trying. And so in the middle of all of this, How did Sailor Song first start? What was happening that day? It was February 29th. I was on my bed in my childhood room. I go to these chords.

6:08Just messing around. I was like, kiss me on the mouth and love me like Sailor. And then it just immediately came out. Kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor. And when you get insane, can you tell me what's my flavor? I don't believe in God, but I believe that he's my savior. I try to call on him, cause I think that I have flavor. And when we're getting dirty, I forget all that is wrong. I sleep so I can see you, cause I hate to wait so long. I sleep so I can see you, cause I hate to wait so long. I hate to wait so long

7:01It was just the chorus of the song. I made a video of it that same day. And you posted the video on TikTok? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because I was like, I was like, I'm back with this. Like, sorry, I don't know. Can I say that word on here? Sure. Okay. So you wrote the chorus. What was the story in your mind? Like, what was the song at that point, even in that little nascent version of it? what did you think the story was going to be and where was it going to go from there? You know, I really, I loved that I got across that feeling, that like desperate, fervent attraction to someone and like sense of like, let's just get out of here.

7:38Like this life and all this shit is so crazy, but you're my focal point in an otherwise very chaotic world. Was that something that you were feeling at the time? Yeah, fully. Very clear. Like I was waking up yearning for this person, you know, going to sleep yearning for them, you know, that fun little game. So yeah, it was very much like real. And it's just a feeling of relief to be able to get it out. Like saying something in a way that explains exactly what I'm feeling and in a way that I just didn't expect myself to be able to describe is the relief for me. After you'd written those words for the chorus, where did you go next?

8:17I knew that I wanted the song to grow. You want it to get smaller and sweet, and you also want to know that you're climbing to that more explosive moment that comes in the chorus. I remember the melody following me from this song that I had written a while ago. Little baby on the wall I don't know that I am small I probably don't think much of it all It all Okay, so you have this older song and you kept the vocal melody, but you changed the lyrics? Yeah. Was it hard to reimagine it with new words? certain melodies that I write become so easy to write words to. With Sailor and the verses, I was like, I saw her in the rightest way.

9:15It was funny because I was like, I said it and I was like, that's not really, you don't say that. But it like happened. I saw her in the rightest way looking like in Hathaway. I saw her in the rightest way Looking like Anne Hathaway How much do you feel compelled to make it as close to your actual experience versus fictionalizing it? Which is a roundabout way of me saying like, do you think that the person that you are writing about actually looks like Anne Hathaway? Or are you like, that's a nice rhyme? I love to write about the real things, but it's the feeling of it. So for Anne Hathaway, it's just like the beauty.

10:04It's like, oh my God, like she's gorgeous. Like I grew up watching Princess Diaries and Devil Wears Prada. So it's the sentiment of like that unbelievable, breathtaking beauty that, you know, reminded me. At that time, I had been messing on Ableton and like every single day I'm learning how to record and produce. And I knew that I wanted to take it seriously. So I bought a MIDI keyboard. I knew how to record acoustic guitars and my vocals. And I think that's like the heartbeat of what makes it mine is how I record guitars. And doing that, I think, really set the bed. And so I think there were like five guitars on there.

10:56The vocals for me, that was just the biggest learning piece of like, how do I like my vocals to sound and to sit? And so there's one in the center. And maybe I tried other things, but nothing can capture the state. one on left and right.

11:26What made you decide that the right approach was multiple guitars, multiple vocals? So I have this friend, Eric, his producer name is Arceus, and he helped me a lot when it came to learning how to record and produce. Like he was the first person I was ever in the studio with when I was 19. And at the time he was doing like EDM music. And so I would go over to his studio and he would just give me lessons on things. And he taught me record a guitar on the left and record a guitar on the right. And I was like, okay, that's cool. He makes very different music than I make, but I kind of applied the things that he taught me in a different way, if that makes sense, like in a different context and took that and ran with it.

12:06I remember I found that like sizzly, deep, brooding bass. The depth and the feeling like it felt dramatic. It felt traumatic. All the addicts, you know, like it felt like I just was like making a sonic movie in my mind out of like intense feelings that I live with. so the song the way that it's sung is from a place of like just feeling so out of control and you know i did i did worship team growing up what's that worship team oh what is worship team i'll tell you there was an american church and then there was also a spanish evangelical church most of my life i was in the spanish one and before the service you sing worship songs I did that and I felt very connected to this divine thing and I knew it through the medium of Christianity.

13:02And it was always very intense. Like there's people praying, people speaking in tongues. It's very, very heavy. And I'm on like the stage singing while this happening. You like put your hands up. You're like feeling the Holy Spirit. And it's such a relief to sing. It's such a spiritual experience for me. then I started to think maybe the reason why I sing the way I do is because I'm desperate to connect and I feel that divine thing that may have affected the sonics of Sailor Song I feel like I was just desperate to connect to that thing She took my fingers to her mouth The kind of thing that makes you proud

14:01I just want to ask you about the lyrics here. Because how do I put this? It's not, not an explicit song. Yeah. Did that cause any ripples for you with your Christian upbringing? You know, I think I like really swept all that under the rug when I came out with my first song and I said, fuck me right in it. So I feel like I got everything out of the way. Yeah, I could see that. So I don't fear being explicit. Sometimes I'm like, do I have like a potty mouth? They're like, I don't know. I understand like why that would be upsetting. Not upsetting, but like, are like the pastors going to hear that?

14:42Granted, I think the most explicit thing that I could have said was not even the sexual aspects. It was me saying, I don't believe in God. I don't believe in God, but I believe that you're my savior. My mom says that she's worried, but I'm covered in his favor. And like, that's a whole thing. Like, it caused like, in my life, a very big discourse of conversations about faith and religion and all that kind of stuff. But to me, like, I love the conversation that it put me in, you know? Yeah. It doesn't, like, make me wince because I just, I don't let myself be ashamed that I thought that or that I said that, you know?

15:23There are people that think that way, and if it makes you uncomfortable, then, like, that's okay. It's not for you, you know? Yeah. The thing is, like, I don't know. I think that if, like, my parents can get over it, everybody can. Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah, but what did it mean for you personally to put it in this song? The crisis of faith was very fervent. It's probably like always been that way since I grew up that way. But I think after my sister died, I just really started to, like, you just slowly lose your reality. It's not like you wake up one day and you don't believe in Jesus.

16:00It's many thoughts over many years. and you kind of just wake up and you're like, I don't know what to believe anymore. And every night I would be laying in my bed till 3 a.m. crying because I'm like desperate for a God. I was having fun with the production and learning how to record it. Like that was my outlet, but it was also a very painful time because of the silence, because I still feel like that 12 year old trying to understand truth. And so I think that for me, it was like, shameful to say, but it was the truth. It was the truth in the moment. And I felt very scared of that. And I knew that that was going to be in the song because it needed to be because it was how I felt.

16:43And I'm okay with that right now. My conversation with Gigi Perez continues after this.

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19:15The song starts with this sound.

19:20What is that and where did that come from? That is a splice sample. I was like, these feel like pelicans. They sound like birds to me. When I heard it for the first time, I just felt like something's about to happen. When I started the song, I was like, okay, this drum is like, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. That strumming pattern felt so powerful that it almost felt like there needed to be, like, a call.

19:56That's what my voice wanted to do. Had you sung like that ever before in a song? No, but I think in the last two years of my life, I started to implement more of my classical training. My oldest sister, she was an opera singer, and I think that maybe there are pieces of like me that want to feel closer to her, and so I used that part of my voice that I didn't use when I was younger. That's beautiful.

20:31So Noah Weinman, he is a producer and a mutual friend of ours connected us because I was looking for a friend that was down to collaborate, someone that was interested in co-production. Yeah. And so I sent it to him and he was like, oh my God. He heard it. He immediately knew where he wanted to take it. And he was like, oh, like, I think adding like light percussion. I was so excited to see what he brings to it because I knew that I wanted piano on it. One of my favorite parts about the song and what he added was just that like, dun dun dun dun dun. It's kind of like one note, but it like propels the song into the next part of it.

21:12It gave it a very intentional phrasing, section by section. And can you tell me where this part came from?

21:30That is also a Splyce sample because I knew that I was interested in trumpets, but I don't know anybody that plays a trumpet. So I was just looking for stuff, and I came across that on Splyce, and I was playing it right over the chorus.

21:59And do you remember how you felt when you first heard those parts together? My mind was blown because I had never even used a sample in that way. Yeah. But it felt like once I heard it, it was super integral that I was like, I can't just not use it. That is the sample. So how was the song feeling to you after you had the samples and all the tracks from Noah and everything that you'd done? Oh, I was like over the moon. I was so happy with it. I remember dancing like crazy.

22:47The desperation that you were so happy to capture in this song, the desperate yearning and also the desperate feelings around faith and loss of faith. Is that a feeling that you still have these days? I think that that was scratching the surface. Like that was just the start of the desperation. Unfortunately, I think that it was acknowledging it through music for the first time because it's hard sometimes to find the words. But for some reason, if I do it in a song, I can see things a little bit more clearly. So do you think the experience of writing this song has changed you? This song completely changed my life and my circumstances as I knew them.

23:34I haven't been home all year because I've been touring. Honestly, my life has changed very, very drastically. But the biggest thing for me is that this song put me in a place to find my community. there are people who feel the same and people that are listening. It's helping me feel less alone. And that I find beautiful.

24:13And now, here's Sailor Song by Gigi Perez in its entirety.

24:40I saw her in the brightest way Looking like I'm happy Laughing while she hit her bed And called and called And then she came up to my knees Begging baby would you please To the things you said you'd do to me To me, oh Won't you kiss me on the mountain Love me like a sailor And when you get a taste Can you tell me what's my flavor? I don't believe in God But I believe that you're my savior My mom says that she's worried But I'm covered in this favor And when we're getting dirty, I forget all that is wrong I sleep so I can see you, cause I hate to wait so long Sleep so I can see you, and I hate to wait so long