Early in 2017, weeks after George Michael’s death, a video suddenly began circulating online: an 81-minute film of studio footage from the making of The Trojan Souls’ album. It’s unclear who leaked the footage, but the cameraman is clearly George’s second-cousin Andros Georgiou, who George affectionately addresses throughout the footage.
In all honesty, you’d have to be a particularly hardcore fan to enjoy the film, which is watermarked as The Trojan Souls: The Studio Sessions. According to Andros’ voiceover, it’s mostly filmed during the second day of the album’s sessions in Los Angeles. Andros approvingly notes the studio’s swimming pool, before George and his partner Anselmo Feleppa drive up in the singer’s open-top convertible.
So far, so glamorous, but what follows entirely captures the forensically intense and – to the outsider – deeply tedious reality of what goes into making an album. George and his team, including his longtime bassist Deon Estus, try to put together the ballad One Day I’ll Know. Focusing on its intro, George offers suggestions for getting its dramatic swells just so: “Let’s make the drums half as long”, “Take the piano out” and endlessly on.