Pop, Indie Folk, Alternative

This song already existed as a demo Joe Sly had recorded in his home studio when the drummer and bassist came together to track their parts. The thing was, they were not allowed to hear it!

As an experiment for his YouTube channel, Mike Malone suggested the idea of recording drums to a song he'd never heard, using only the songwriter's verbal instructions. Mike was already a seasoned studio drummer, but he'd never done anything like this!

Intrigued, Joe jumped on board with his latest creation to try it. Dave Jerabek joined the session on bass, and the two players took notes as Joe talked through things like song form, tempo, chord movement, and some specific unison rhythmic parts. He blanketed all that with an instruction to summon South African vibes akin to Paul Simon's seminal "Graceland" album, along with some Afro-Cuban flavor.

With that, they recorded the drums and bass together, hearing only themselves and a metronomic click track ticking the tempo. Everybody had some suggestions afterward, and they were finished by the third pass through the song. Joe pointed Dave to some vocal harmonies to try, and then everyone went into the control room for the big reveal.

They all listened with delight as, for the first time, Joe's vocal and guitar tracks were combined with the newly recorded drums and bass. After the session ended, Mike went further by recording several tracks of percussion instruments and sent all the new tracks to Joe for mixing and mastering back at his home studio, where Joe also added some new guitar and piano tracks, as well as recording Kurt Shipe on some trumpet parts inspired by the new fleshed-out arrangement.

The entire process was documented and can be viewed HERE