Alice Smith on Writing ‘Sinners’ Track ‘Last Time (I Seen the Sun)’

In the final scene of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” an aged Sammie Moore (Buddy Guy) sits at a blues venue bar when Elias “Stack” Moore (Michael B. Jordan) and Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) stroll in, frozen in time and looking like the day they were turned to vampires. As they get up to leave, Sammie stops them to land the film’s final emotional punch: “Maybe once a week I wake up paralyzed reliving that night. But before the sun went down, I think that was the best day of my life. Was it like that for you?” he asks.

“No doubt about it,” responds Stack. “Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours, we was free.”

Amid the scene swells the opening strings of “Last Time (I Seen the Sun),” the closing credits song for “Sinners” performed by Miles Caton (who plays a young Sammie) and Alice Smith. Co-written with Ludwig Göransson, “Last Time” was directly inspired by the dialogue between the characters and came together in just a couple of hours. “It jumped right out,” Smith tells Variety of the lines that galvanized the tune, a hopeful yet reflective ballad in a Blues tradition.

“Last Time” was one of two “Sinners” songs submitted for consideration in the original song category at the Oscars alongside “I Lied to You,” co-written by Raphael Saadiq and Göransson and performed by Caton. For Smith, it’s the latest in a career powered by soulful solo records including her Grammy-nominated 2006 debut “For Lovers, Dreamers and Me” and her latest, 2019’s “Mystery.” Over the past few years, Smith has branched out to contribute music to visual media including last year’s “The Book of Clarence” soundtrack, “Reasonable Doubt” and “Underground.”

Smith speaks with Variety about how “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” came together, working with Göransson and Caton, and what she has in store for her next solo record.

How did you first get involved in writing and performing a song for “Sinners?”

I got an email from Ludwig, and he said that he was a fan of mine. Turns out he had been a of mine for 15 years or something, since my first album. He said he was working on this project and asked if I would come and work on a song or see what would happen. When I got there, Miles was there, but [Ludwig] already had the string part. I knew his name, but I didn’t know the magnitude. You get the emails and the so and so says such and such. And you’re like, okay, let me check. And I was like, oh. Right. Yeah, I’ll be over.

Miles was talking about how the line from the last scene that inspired the song really jumped out. Did you all watch the movie together?

At that point we watched some little bits to give me kind of an idea of what was going on. And then, yes, he played the scene that the song would be in and that string thing comes in, it’s so gorgeous and it literally took me to a particular visual.

So you collectively agreed that those lines were emblematic of what you were trying to do.

Yeah, what it’s about.

How did you collaborate in the session?

It was very quick. It’s one of those things where you know something is supposed to happen because it’s so easy. It just falls. Everything just goes along. Got there, they had the strings, the strings were so gorgeous. I was like, oh God. I had a scene in my head, a place in my head, which is basically my grandmother’s place, which is like a farm in Georgia. And the particular time of day, it made me think of the mornings there. And then of course, that scene is basically the movie, too. There’s a big connection, pastoral kind of scenes. The south farm scene. We were just like, okay, well, let’s just sit and write.

I wrote some stuff that I sang and Miles wrote his part that he sang. The piece was already there, whatever the format that it was in. We did a couple of little spacing things that Ludwig adjusted and changed around for us. We basically wrote all the lyrics, me and Miles, which of course, he was there the whole time. But I will say that when we finished the song, and it was such a joy because Miles is such a joy. He’s just very present and professional and young and everything. It just went together so well and then we were able to sing it so easily. At the end of the day, we probably took an hour or a couple hours to do the whole thing.

“Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” is rooted in the Blues tradition. Did you find yourself immediately connecting with the musical aspect of it from your own experience?

Of course. The blues is so natural that it’s almost like I… not I overlook it, but I kind of take it for granted. I never spent a lot of time on it, studying it or anything like the guys did. Having the Southern roots is really just a part of who I am or what I am or what I come from. It’s like a thing that always informed my thing, maybe even more leaning towards like the gospel-y, the spiritual, that side of the thing. It’s very easy. It’s so deeply ingrained in my history, in my personal life. I grew up with a gospel band rehearsing in my grandmother’s house. So it’s kind of like the root of certainly my singing, if not my singing style.

How was it hearing the song in the context of the finished film?

I thought it was crazy. You could tell that song was supposed to be just the way it came out. Because the way it sat in there, the timing… I mean, we didn’t do the timing. I don’t know, maybe Ludwig went back in. I’m sure actually that when they edited, they did whatever. But it just sat in the scene perfectly where it sat. And then it shows them driving through those fields. And I was like, this is like the same thing in my mind, you know? And the lighting and the whole thing, it felt like such a perfectly placed song.

Since your last project, you’ve focused more on doing music for soundtracks. How has it been writing music that’s particularly for a visual medium?

So much easier. It’s a fucking dream. I’ve been doing some installation art stuff. I did a couple of pieces, finished my second piece with Isaac Julian, which is really amazing. I did some stuff for Cauleen Smith. And I got a couple other things that I’m working on for people. I think the hardest part of writing the song is like, what’s it about? Like I start writing and it’s a melody and then it’s some words that just come out of the melody, but then you have to really figure out what it’s about. What are you really trying to say?That’s the hardest part for me. The interfering that you can do is kind of cut out because it’s somebody else’s vision. And you don’t have to, guesswork. At that point, it’s just sit here and let it come down, you know what I mean?

Are you working on another solo project?

Yes. I actually even have a deadline, which is massive. I’m working on something that I’m hoping to be certainly done with top of the year, end of the year, top of the year, next few months. I’m hoping to be like, have the stuff then figure out when the best time to put it out. Hopefully I’ll put something out, even if it’s just one song around January, February.