Musician-on-the-rise Maggie Rogers has released the mixed, mastered version of “Alaska,” the soaring, folk-dance blend that blew Pharrell’s mind back in March after he listened to a rough cut of the song during a master class at NYU. Rogers’ newly perfected track has been cleaned up somewhat but hasn’t changed too much from the earlier version—with good reason, since Pharrell, who had been moved to tears by the music, flatly told her he had no notes to offer and praised the singer-songwriter’s originality: “You’re doing your own thing. It’s singular.”
The song takes its title from an Alaskan hiking trip Rogers went on, which she says also served as its inspiration. “I had been creating a natural sample bank of birds, noises,” she told Pigeons and Planes. “A good chunk of the rhythm in the song started from me just patting a rhythm on my jeans. That sample is the main rhythm. Me snapping in a room. I wanted to make dance music, or pop music, feel as human as possible.”
You can listen to the full version of Rogers’ stunning track here:
