Martino's creative process reflects those experiences, beginning with a stream of consciousness as she experiments with melody and lyrics simultaneously until something starts to feel good. “If something feels potent, I'll just be repeating it over and over again when I find that thing,” she says. “I'll find that one phrase that was the nugget of the song and then I'll edit, I'll build and structure once I find what that core is.” For “I Promise,” that core phrase came toward the end of the songwriting process: You can never go back. Yet the creative process itself was a continuously changing experience, as the song's direction shifted several times going into the recording process. “You go through so many emotions when you are writing a song,” Martino says. “For me it was finding a balance between having fun in the studio and telling the truth, which isn't always fun.”

     Like Martino's songwriting process, the recording session for “I Promise” was an evolving process. With only 48 hours to record and mix a song that was written just days before the session, Martino, Stevens, and Powell embraced experimentation and let the song develop as they worked. For Martino, the quality of the company made all the difference in turning a potentially stressful session into a great experience. “There is something about the studio, the people involved, that makes artists want to come back. The vibe is good and the work is good. They are all about the right things,” she says. With so much incredible talent in the room, the song came together in great form as the three entered a mindset of “concentrated playing.”

    “It's sort of like being a kid, playing with figures in a castle or building legos,” Martino explains. “They are so focused on what they're doing, but it's playful. I want that energy between the other people in the room—the communication that we are all there for the same purpose.”