first songs written by Gaga, Ronson, Dirty Pretty Things' Anthony Rossomando and Miike Snow's Andrew Wyatt. She had played the melody to her collaborators two years earlier in a recording studio in Malibu. When Lukas Nelson came on board during the soundtrack's development, the track's sound evolved. Nelson used his own band, Promise of the Real, as Jackson's band. Inspired by Eric Clapton, he added a short acoustic guitar intro at the beginning of "Shallow", feeling it would contrast with Gaga's loud belting which follows later in the song. Gaga went to EastWest Studios to help Nelson with the track and direct the band. He recalled that with some of the instrumentation, like the cymbal crashes, they "did that live in the studio based on the vision that we had". As well as producing the track with Gaga, Benjamin Rice recorded it at EastWest and The Village West studios in Los Angeles, assisted by Bo Bodnar and Alex Williams. Tom Elmhirst mixed the song at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. It was engineered by Brandon Bost and mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound Studios. Ronson also re-recorded a 1980s version of "Shallow", accompanied by big drums; it was used in the film during a sequence when Ally plays at The Forum, while Jackson kills himself. Gaga described "Shallow" as a pivotal moment in A Star Is Born, since it spoke about Ally and Jackson's conversations and their "need and drive" to go deep and move away from the shallow area in their relationship, an interpretation recognized by critics. The singer explained on Beats 1 they wrote the track from the point of view of Ally and how it became part of the reason they fall in love. "When I was writing music for the film I had to think about Ally as if she wasn't me. I went with a sound for her, even in the pop realm, that's unlike anything I've ever put out before," she clarified. The songwriting sessions included Gaga at the piano and Ronson, Wyatt and Rossomando on guitar as they tried to come up with the verses. Ronson explained the original draft of the script had Jackson dying by drowning, which led Gaga to write the lyrics, "I'm off the deep end watch as I dive in". Initially, "Shallow" was an end credits song, but when the script changed it became a