Britney Spears Songwriter Reveals What It's Really like To Work With Her

Ian Kirkpatrick isn't a household name, but the songwriter's tunes for pop titans like Britney Spears, Dua Lipa, and Selena Gomez have infiltrated Top 40 radio airwaves. Now, in his new feature with The FADER, the famed songwriter revealed what it was really like to work with Spears on fan favorite, "If I'm Dancing" off of her 2016 LP, Glory. 

"Oh my god. Even thinking about it makes me crazy. The track for 'If I'm Dancing' was actually made three years before a song was written on it. It just sat on a hard drive forever and then I played it for [co-writers] Simon Wilcox and Chantal Kreviazuk," he revealed of the song's creation. "I did get to go into the studio for Britney to do the vocals and I took an anti-anxiety medication before because I was absolutely freaking the f**k out."

Kirkpatrick described the session as "crazy" when the titan hopped on the mic, admitting that hearing her little nuances and little rasps in her voice was "insane." "I tried to use everything. I tried to get her laughing so I could have little samples of that. She was like an artist that just got signed," she said, adding, "She was so happy and so f**king cute."

As for how Spears fares as a professional, Kirkpatrick said that she knows exactly what she wants to do when she records and she does it quite fast. "The thing is, she doesn't have to stay long because she's a pro when it comes to being vocal produced,” he said. "You'll say, 'Try it like this,' and she'll just do it. There's no ego, she just f**king delivers. She's a real one."

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