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The Weeknd · S1 E5
Jeremy Rose
A producer hands Abel beats that will become the foundation of an entire genre
A Toronto producer named Jeremy Rose hands a flash drive of beats to a couch-surfing dropout. What comes back is R&B sung over post-punk samples, and it sounds like a genre that does not have a name yet.
Siouxsie and the Banshees -- Happy House (official music video, 1980). This is the song Jeremy Rose sampled to build the beat for "House of Balloons," the track that would give The Weeknd's debut mixtape its name. Listen to the original and then listen to what Abel built on top of it.
Happy House -- Siouxsie and the Banshees (1980)
"Happy House" is a post-punk track built on a hypnotic guitar riff and Siouxsie Sioux's icy vocal delivery. The song is a darkly ironic portrait of domestic life, with lyrics about pretending everything is fine while the walls close in. Jeremy Rose took this riff and reconstructed it into the instrumental foundation of "House of Balloons." He was pulling from a genre that mainstream R&B had never acknowledged, and Abel sang over it like the two worlds had always belonged together.
The Sound That Didn't Exist Yet
Jeremy Rose was making beats that sampled Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cocteau Twins, and other post-punk artists that most R&B producers had never heard of. He was working in Toronto's indie underground when mutual friends connected him to Abel. The collision of Rose's atmospheric production and Abel's dark falsetto created a sound with no name, no precedent, and no obvious audience.
TAP TO REVEAL: How quickly did Abel record the vocals that became The Weeknd's first songs?
“When I heard what he did over my beats, I knew it was something different. Nobody was making R&B that sounded like that.”
— Jeremy Rose, interview with Vice/Noisey
Loft Music -- The Weeknd
"Loft Music" from House of Balloons is a five-minute atmospheric journey that showcases exactly what this episode describes: bedroom production stretched to its breaking point, with Abel's voice floating over layers of samples and texture. The track builds from a whisper to a full-body immersion, and it remains one of the best examples of the production style that Jeremy Rose helped set in motion.
What happened between Jeremy Rose and Abel after House of Balloons was released?
Abel has a voice, a batch of beats, and a bedroom full of recordings that sound like nothing anyone has ever heard. Now he needs a name, and the one he picks will have a letter missing.
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