Friends,
I hope this finds you all relatively well.
As you can see by the title, I’ve included a demo for my song Is It Serious. For the uninitiated, the studio recording the song is on my new LP Sunny, I Was Wrong.
This song is a bit different than those I usually write. That happens every once in a while. A tune strolls in from left field.
My phone recordings tell me that I had started sketching this one out about five years ago, but quickly dropped the ball and forgot it existed. I would have included that sketch here today, but it is literally one run through the verse chord progression, me humming the melody and singing, Is it serious a couple times.
Not too long before the sessions for Sunny, I Was Wrong commenced, I discovered the sketch on my phone and finished the song. The demo included today is the only one I made.
The demo arrangement is pretty close to the studio version as far as the shape of the song and the vocals go. The most obvious change is the acoustic guitar. I write most everything on acoustic, so when I’m writing I tend to drive the rhythm as well as accentuate the bass. In the studio, when there’s an actual drummer and bassist, I try to keep the acoustic guitar out of their way. Which is what i did. The acoustic part was dramatically simplified. I let bass, drums and piano do their thing.
The demo has a momentary vocal part that didn’t make the LP track. On the second verse of the demo, when I sing, Was it one of those things I made a nod to one of my heroes Burt Bacharach and copped a backing-vocal-response moment from Walk On By. I don’t recall if I actually recorded the part or not on the studio version and decided to scrap it. But at the end of the day, it was a bit much. Now that you’ve heard it on the demo, consider the part implied. Add it if you like when you’re shower singing.
Another vocal arrangement difference from the demo to LP version is the part sung by Laura Stein. While my bud Warren Zanes and I were pouring over the studio recording we both agreed that something had to happen at that moment. I was pretty wedded to the vocal part I’d written, but me singing it just wasn’t landing. Then it hit me that I ought to let my wife have a crack at the part. Once the idea struck me I knew it was going to be what the song needed, Stein has a super-evocative voice, and she knows how to make it work. We didn’t even go back into The Warm Factory studio. We cut her vocals in my home studio from where I currently write post. Good chance we went out for ice cream immediately afterwards.
Another little note about the studio version. The song is screaming for a string section, which is why I didn’t use one. I had hired the great Burke Carroll to play pedal steel on a few tracks, and when he arrived at the studio I sprung this one on him as well. I wasn’t exactly sure pedal steel would be right, but I had a pretty good feeling about it. Anyway, Burke was into it. I don’t believe I even wrote out the changes. He just kind of went with it, which I have to say, is a very cool thing to witness. Watching a great player come up with stuff on the spot, stuff that elevates your song, is a unique thrill. His part was the last to go on the recording, and it really sent the song in a direction I was digging.
I think that’s all I have to say about the song. Oh, not true. The song was the last to make the record. It was a bit of a coin toss. It’s different than the others, but it’s a nice bridge between the surrounding songs. We wanted to make an album and not simply a collection of stand-alone songs. There had to be a flow, and Is It Serious does its job in my humble opinion.
As always, thanks for listening and reading. If you enjoy these posts, maybe you’ll consider becoming a paying subscriber at the rate of $5.00 USD per month. I’m trying to become one of those trillionaires because they seem like wonderful people, and who doesn’t want to be a wonderful person?
Like you often hear billionaires and now trillionaires say: Take care of yourselves and those around you.
JP
