Obligatory promo stuff at the top because it sucks and I hate it and let’s get it out of the way! follow me on twitter where I’m active, check me out on spotify for music, or like my facebook for sparse updates on music stuff. Thank you. The Cover art is by Ellie Tison
At a certain point my college location switched from York University (a big, cool, old university with a thriving artistic and social justice community) to a big cold, literally underground, concrete box. There's nothing outside of class, it's very inconvenient to get to, the food sucks, and you can only smoke in the designated smoking areas (fascists).
During my most dirtbaggy time was also the last time I was truly rocking and rolling at York. This particular day was in mid July. The wind was blowing, the sun was shining, the weather was hot and so were the babes. I was sitting outside having a drink and just generally feeling the vibes. It was an hour and a half subway ride home so I usually hung around at school and did homework for a while to make the trip worth it. At some point this song just kinda popped into my head fully formed. I liked the song and didn't want to lose it so I cut short my being-a-burnout time and did at least a LITTLE something productive.
The song is simple, so it was pretty easy to write out. I got the whole lyric and backing track (except guitars of course) done during the subway ride home. The whole thing is basically 100% me on autopilot. On one hand, it feels good to just knock something catchy out. On the other hand, it's not my proudest moment in songwriting (and especially not my proudest moment in lyric writing). Still though, it's catchy and has a fun beat. I'd never claim to be above that. I just thought it'd be nice to write a classic “gotta get.... my woman back...” 70s egomaniac song.
Recording the guitars came pretty easy as well. My original intent was to have a bit of a sloppy, manic feel to this (again, a little inspired by Fleetwood Mac), so I just really exaggerated my strums. It felt extremely satisfying to get that chunky heavy guitar feeling that I love but don't really have a reason to bust out so often. The main riff was made up on the spot, and I feel it maybe shows a little bit. I don't mind it, but I feel like it sounds a little 14-year-old-who-just-discovered-oasis to me. That's a little bit understandable though because a part of me is perpetually 14 years old, and every few years I will rediscover Oasis and go “oh yeah, I like this”. Shout out to Liam Gallagher who “thought he had the Coronavirus but it turns out his house was just hot”.
The vocals on this track were another story. I was already unsure when I wrote the song in my head. I thought to myself,
“is this gonna be in my vocal range?”
It turns out the answer was “maybe.”
These vocals were a gruelling process. Every SINGLE line is a different take, sometimes each line is made of two takes. Each take is absolutely the result of a couple failed takes. I had originally planned on slowing the track down, recording the vocals at the lower pitch, and then speeding them up. That sounded really bad so I had to do it for real. Doubletracking the vocals made it even worse. There's a few lines towards the end where you can hear my voice flattening, but ultimately I'm proud of this vocal.
I'm not especially thrilled with the drum sound on this track. At risk of the listener being unable to unhear this, I think they sound really synthetic. I rarely use these drum samples because I feel like they're a little too out-of-the-box sounding. Of course I did a little bit of EQ and compression work with it to try and mesh it in a little better, but at the end of the day, it sounds a little fake to me. I also worry that stylistically it's a bit inconsistent with the rest of the album, given the drum sound. Most of the album I tried to go for a very sharp, plinky, poppy 70s soft rock sounding snare. This one has this big idiot slap sound. The jury's still out on if it meshes. I suspect I'll never know because I'll always hear that snare sound and be taken back to my “ugh that sounds so fake” thought. Oh well! It's catchy and it's the kind of thing you can drink beer to and then make a jackoff motion in the air.
