One of my favorite people to work with is Daniel Moore, and he put a call in to the Clarks and we were just like, “Wow, this is amazing.” They’re just the top of the heap with everything, I love them.

INTERLUDE #1: “The great thing about M is she’s a ‘Honey,’ as much as she is a ‘Hero,’” says Daniel Moore, Carey’s musical director.

Moore initially joined her team as a keyboardist in the mid 2010s. In recent years, he’s become one of her chief songwriting partners, especially on more introspective album cuts like “Portrait.”

“Usually, she just starts singing the melody,” he says about their songwriting process, “then I try to find chords that match this melody. And then we kind of go back and forth on what feels like a verse, what feels like a chorus.”

Through the years, Carey has used her album tracks to write songs that are more directly personal, discussing her traumatic family history (“Close My Eyes,” “Petals”), the difficulties of growing up biracial (“Outside”), the breakdown of a relationship (“Camouflage,” “Breakdown”).

“When I first worked with her on Caution, she told me upfront that [on] those deep cuts, the lyrics are hers,” Moore says. “She has a diary where she writes all of the lyrics down. It’s really her personal thoughts and just whatever she’s feeling at the moment.”

On 2018’s “Portrait,” for example, their first songwriting collaboration, she sang: “Where do I go from here? How do I disappear?” “Only she knows that part of her life,” Moore says. “Only she knows that God-given moment. I don’t think it would feel as authentic if it didn’t come solely from her.”

Moore was Carey’s co-writer on the song “Here For It All,” perhaps the new album’s emotional and musical climax, a soulful ballad reminiscent of early Carey songs like “Vanishing” that then transforms into a radiant, triumphant gospel song just when you think it’s about to end.

“[We started writing that] during the COVID era and we were doing The Butterfly Lounge,” he says, referencing an intimate studio set-up that Carey used during the pandemic to stage performances and record material. “The first thing we released from that was a Valentine’s Day mix of ‘We Belong Together.’ We kind of re-imagined it and we went into these vamps. Those kind of felt like jam sessions… “Here For It All” was kind of birthed in that same space. It kind of feels like a love song, but then it does take that turn because that’s what we were doing when we [were] in The Butterfly Lounge. It was like, no more rules, no more ‘It has to be three minutes and 30 seconds to make the radio.’”

Until now, Moore is floored by his boss’ prodigious songwriting skills. “My predecessor, Big Jim Wright said they had just finished [recording the Emancipation of Mimi album cut] ‘Circles’ and she was getting ready to leave. She goes to the restroom, he’s packing up and she comes back. ‘Hold on, I got one more thing.’ She sang, da-ra-da-ra-ra-ra. And that’s where ‘Fly Like A Bird’ came from. It was just in the moment. That’s who she is.”

GQ: Speaking of collaborators, you do have this great roster of regular collaborators, people like Bryan-Michael Cox and Jermaine Dupri, but then also every so often you bring in new people into the fold. What do you look for in a new producer or songwriter when you’re bringing them into the fold? When you met Dev Hynes or Anderson.Paak, what made you feel like there’s someone you want to collaborate with?

Carey: Somebody had mentioned Dev Hynes to me, and I reached out to him because I really love Blood Orange. And we were just vibing and whatever, me and Dev Hynes, and it became … That’s a tangent! That’s a tangent on that song “Giving Me Life” and that outro.

That is one of my favorite songs of yours. When he just starts shredding at the end?

Yes, I love it.

I mean, when I think about someone like Dev Hynes playing electric guitar on that song, and how you’ve always through the years covered a lot of rock songs, it’s almost not a surprise that you once had a secret rock band.

Have you heard it?

No. I mean, how are we going to hear it? When are we getting the album?

I don’t know! I don’t know when we’re going to hear it.

Is it still in the archives?

It’s half in the archives, half outside the archives.

Well, that’s good to know for now—at least we know half is with you. You said in an interview that your daughter listens to Olivia Rodrigo…

Mm-hmm.

[Laughs] ‘She’s kind of very Someone’s Ugly Daughter.’ I love that.

I feel like you need to get her to cover one of those songs.

I feel like I need to get her a T-shirt, my daughter, that says, well… not ‘Someone’s Ugly Daughter,’ she can’t have that. [Laughs] I’ll wear it! I’ll wear the shirt.