Bruno Mars – Locked Out of Heaven
Album: Unorthodox Jukebox
Writer: Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine
Producer: The Smeezingtons, Marks Ronson, Jeff Bhasker, Emile Haynie
Released: 2012
Genre: New wave, funk, reggae rock
Length: 3:53
“Locked Out of Heaven” is a hit if there ever was one. I feel like it transcends genres as well because it combines the 70’s or 80’s pop/rock like The Police with modern production sensibilities. The catchy vocal and guitar riff coupled with the synthesizer sound so common in today’s dance music really makes it unique. Simply put, it’s a great combination of electronic production and killer singer/songwriter
That said, if you hate Bruno Mars you probably wouldn’t care less but looking at it from a production standpoint there’s quite a bit to learn here.
Chords and song structure
The song is really three kind of distinct parts: the groovy verse, the driving chorus and the breakdown parts in the end.
If you want to play along the chords are simple enough:
Intro/Verse parts: C-Dm C-Bb F-Gm
Final part of the pre-chorus: F A
Chorus/Bridge/OutroChorus: Bb-Gm-F-C
Feel free to omit any of the minor thirds when you’re playing the song and just focus on playing power chords. It’s easier that way.
Arrangement
It’s always nice to hear some evidence of modern pop being actually recorded in a studio together so the count-off is a nice touch before the song starts.
The gracenote/upbeat start of the guitar riff sets things in motion immediately with a groovy drum foundation, a somewhat jangly electric guitar riff and a middy, Pixies/Sting sounding bass sound. The memorable parts of the intro, and which recurs throughout the song is the “oh yeah yeah”/“dep-dep-dep”/“ooh!” vocal riff. It’s catchy and the dep-dep-dep sound actually reminds of the “woof” sound you can hear in the intro to “Head Like a Hole” by NIN. The third pass of the riff has a different atmospheric vocal riff cooing in the background. I completely missed this until I’d listened to it about 15 times. And that’s not counting the times I’ve heard it on the radio.
The arrangement continues into the verse, with a fairly sparse arrangement of drums, guitar, bass, vocals and the vocal riff. The pre chorus introduces a new percussion element that sound like woodblocks being clapped together. Definitely a little more original than the normal handclaps to create energy and excitement in a prechorus. The vocal has a harmony in the pre chorus that serves not only as an additional melodic element but adds extra rhythm to the voice. The final line of the pre chorus serves to build up the arrangement into the chorus. It’s less rhythmic and does a sort of “hold and release” to add dynamics to the song. The swirly synth parts also play a part in moving the arrangement into the chorus.
The chorus does a complete 180° on the arrangement by introducing a few synthesizer parts that act as the lead instruments. The guitar is lowered in the background and plays jangly chords higher up on the fretboard. A filthy synth plays a thick pad in the foreground with a Moog-like synth playing a countermelody to the vocals. The drums also do a complete 180°, replacing the groovy verse drums with a straight build from the kick, snare and floor tom on every beat. To add an extra layer to the drums as well as the second part of the chorus a tom fill beat is added on top of the buildup to create even more momentum. Another very subtle production element is the effected vocal line that builds and increases in register more than an octave throughout both passes of the chorus.
The interlude between the first chorus and the second verse is the same as the intro except for the “woop woop” part that now plays every measure, not just after the third one like in the intro. Simple production elements like this keep each part interesting and fresh.
The kick and snare drop out in the first line of the second verse to add dynamics and punch to the second verse. A new harmony enters in the third line of the verse, adding another layer to the vocals. The pre chorus and chorus follow the same arrangement as the one before.
It’s the bridge that makes the arrangement, tempo and feel choices very interesting. The bridge follows the same exact chord progression as the chorus and certain elements play the same parts as the chorus but because the drums change so drastically and the vocal has a new melody it’s a really well built bridge, production-wise. It’s a great way to add another part but you don’t want to change keys or stray too far away from the main hook of the chorus.
The breakdown part gets very interested because it’s essentially the chorus without the drums. The bass, guitar, synth and vocals are all playing the same thing with a completely different end result. But wait, there’s more as the drums come in with a half-time, breakdown feel that builds up into the outro.
And then just as quickly as it began, it ends.
The Production
The vocal riff – The recurring vocal riff that might sound like a synthesizer or something like that is actually just Bruno Mars singing into the microphone and then the producer chopping it up. Like they said in an interview, “On ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’ Bruno was like ‘we need a dep-dep-dep-dep’ sound,'” Ari Levine recalls. “I said, ‘Sing it into the microphone’ and then I chopped it up. It sounds like it’s a instrument, but it’s really his voice. We do that a lot.”
I think this is great and really creative for when you can’t find a patch that sounds like you want but you can sort of make the sounds in your head. Also notice the automated panning with the riff. The riff moves from one speaker to the other with the final “ooh!” doubled both left and right for emphasis.
The main vocal delay – I really like the creative delays on the vocal phrases in the verse. One might easily overdo the delay on every phrase but keeping it dry every other phrase or so makes it actually more memorable and exciting to listen to.
The delay in the chorus is also heavily filtered, with a low-pass filter eliminating most of the highs. This gives the delay a smoother sound that doesn’t interfere as much in the mix. It stays audible while staying in the background.
The guitar sound – The guitar sound is a little choppy and is either double-tracked or has a slight delay that’s panned to the right. The guitar plays the main riff in the verse but acts as second fiddle in the choruses when the main instruments are the huge synths and vocal melody.
Different Compression on the master-bus – Here’s the ultra cool but highly dangerous mixing secret that glues the three parts of the mix so well together. Manny Marroquin used different compressors and compression settings on each part of the song on the main bus! He made the verse and chorus tighter with various compression settings but then eased off or bypassed the compressor on the bridge to make it breathe more. Doing this sort of compression can be dangerous territory so make sure your bypasses and automations are spot-on so it’s not noticeable. Another way you can do it is by using parallel compression with the stereo bus. You send the whole mix to an aux send and add a stereo compressor there to thicken things up. Combine the two tricks and you can get very different feels throughout the song. Perfect for when you’re struggling with radically different dynamic parts in a song.
Key Take Aways
Change up the instrumentation – Switch it up from verse to chorus. If your main riff is coming from the guitar in the verses, do something different in the choruses. Making the guitars take a backseat from the synths in “Locked Out Of Heaven” is a really good example.
Sudden changes in rhythm – Make the listener expect the unexpected. Leaving the drum beat out at the start of the second verse or adding a random part that never returns is an example of throwing the listener off. You want to give the listener a perception “wow, that was cool!” and not just more of the same.
Same chords, different parts – From the bridge to the end of the song the song follows the same chord progression. But you would never know it because they go to great lengths to structure completely different parts around it, going from bridge to breakdown to a half-time chorus. Don’t sweat it if you can’t find a new chord progression to add to your song, just jazz up the same one with a different feel.
