<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the final scene of Ryan Coogler\u2019s \u201cSinners,\u201d<\/a> an aged Sammie Moore (Buddy Guy) sits at a blues venue bar when Elias \u201cStack\u201d 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\u2019s final emotional punch: \u201cMaybe 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?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNo doubt about it,\u201d responds Stack. \u201cLast time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours, we was free.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAmid the scene swells the opening strings of \u201cLast Time (I Seen the Sun),\u201d the closing credits song for \u201cSinners<\/a>\u201d performed by Miles Caton (who plays a young Sammie) and Alice Smith<\/a>. Co-written with Ludwig G\u00f6ransson, \u201cLast Time\u201d was directly inspired by the dialogue between the characters and came together in just a couple of hours. \u201cIt jumped right out,\u201d Smith tells Variety<\/em> of the lines that galvanized the tune, a hopeful yet reflective ballad in a Blues tradition.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cLast Time\u201d was one of two \u201cSinners\u201d songs submitted for consideration in the original song category at the Oscars alongside \u201cI Lied to You,\u201d co-written by Raphael Saadiq and G\u00f6ransson and performed by Caton. For Smith, it\u2019s the latest in a career powered by soulful solo records including her Grammy-nominated 2006 debut \u201cFor Lovers, Dreamers and Me\u201d and her latest, 2019\u2019s \u201cMystery.\u201d Over the past few years, Smith has branched out to contribute music to visual media including last year\u2019s \u201cThe Book of Clarence\u201d soundtrack, \u201cReasonable Doubt\u201d and \u201cUnderground.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSmith speaks with Variety<\/em> about how \u201cLast Time (I Seen the Sun)\u201d came together, working with G\u00f6ransson and Caton, and what she has in store for her next solo record.<\/p>\n \n\tI 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\u2019t know the magnitude. You get the emails and the so and so says such and such. And you\u2019re like, okay, let me check. And I was like, oh. Right. Yeah, I\u2019ll be over.<\/p>\n \n\tAt 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\u2019s so gorgeous and it literally took me to a particular visual.<\/p>\n \n\tYeah, what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n \n\tIt was very quick. It\u2019s one of those things where you know something is supposed to happen because it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s a big connection, pastoral kind of scenes. The south farm scene. We were just like, okay, well, let\u2019s just sit and write.<\/p>\n \n\tI 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\t\tHow did you first get involved in writing and performing a song for \u201cSinners?\u201d\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tMiles was talking about how the line from the last scene that inspired the song really jumped out. Did you all watch the movie together?\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tSo you collectively agreed that those lines were emblematic of what you were trying to do.\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tHow did you collaborate in the session?\t<\/h5>\n