My single “Autumn” comes out one week from today. Because I’m a sucker for album art/inserts, and because vinyl will have to wait for the LP, here are liner notes for “Autumn.”
(These are credits and stray thoughts from its recording. If you want to read the story behind the song, click here.)
--Recorded at High/Low Recording in Memphis, TN.
--Produced and recorded by Toby Vest.
--Mixed by Pete Matthews.
--Drum machine, bass, keys, & noise by Toby Vest.
--Lead guitar by Luke White.
--Cello by Jana Misener, violin by Krista Wroten.
--The cover photo is by Joey Miller. The design is by Andi Crawford-Andrus.
--I wrote the song, sang and played guitar.
The song’s about a breaking point--specifically, a break-up point. I wanted it to feel ominous, woozy. I wanted it to build to its climax. One challenge was to make all the pieces (and there were a lot of pieces) still sound spare, haunting, unobtrusive. In other words: a lot’s going on, but it doesn’t always sound like it.
I remember the strings adding another dimension to the song. I remember the bridge being tricky, and Luke’s guitar lifting it up. I remember raising my arms in the air when Faison played his fills on the choruses. I remember describing what crazy effect I wanted in the second pre-chorus and Toby somehow creating it (this happened constantly). I remember Pete painstakingly mixing to make everything shine without drowning anything out. I remember this song being hard to sing for a lot of reasons.
All that to say: it’s one thing to have an idea, it’s another to execute it. I couldn’t have done this track anywhere else, or with anyone else. I’m excited for y’all to hear it (and for these notes to make a lick of sense).
P.S. Don’t forget to pre-order and rate the song. And don’t let iTunes sign you up for Apple Music--just search the normal iTunes Store and you’ll find me.
