Song of the Year - 2017

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LOCK88
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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by LOCK88 » Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:19 pm

BigSugarHopkins wrote:Very nice. Congrats on the award.
Right on, thank you Tim!
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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by LOCK88 » Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:00 pm

erynmichel wrote:Robb!!!! What a cool song. This is like Buffalo Springfield and March Playground had a baby with Imagine Dragons. I absolutely want to hear this in a movie trailer or credits someday. That’s where it belongs!! If you have time, may I ask what elements of this (production, singing, etc.) you were most involved in, or if you did it all yourself? I find the background stories motivating and helpful for my own education. Just if you have a spare moment! Congratulations again!
Huge compliment Eryn, thank you! This song came together a bit differently than most of my tracks. The inspiration was a Taxi ad for a percussive instrumental piece (this is why I posted under Taxi success stories, in case you were wondering). My co-writer Chris Coscino, had an idea with the vocal chanting, which kinda drives the entire instrumental piece. When we finished the instrumental, we had immediate success with some forwards & library interest. So we felt like we had a good base for a potential song. We sat around in the studio for a few hours, listening to the finished instrumental, and talking about the mood of the track. When the word Freedom came up, we agreed that it sounded like a Title that fit the right mood for the song. The lyrics are few, and came quite quickly. And the chorus melody was just me singing some ideas into the mic, with a loop record tracking all my takes. Literally had no idea what I was doing. I was using a cheap mic, no windscreen, and didn't even really check any of my eq or compression settings, because i was just recording some "ideas". Then, when we added in the vocal chanting behind the melody on these demo takes, it kinda came to life. All pretty much completely by mistake. My co-writer Chris added his great vocals to the chanting, which added a nice depth to the overall track. The remainder of the production, singing, instruments were played & recorded by me in the studio. A lot of the vocal effects were added to cover up the terrible demo recording i had quickly done, and was now trying to use for the final track. Pops, plosives, over compression. I pretty much hit the trifecta with "how NOT to record a vocal"....but we liked the vibe of those demo takes, which is why we ended up using them.

Thank you for asking about the production of the track. Hope I answered your question :)
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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by LOCK88 » Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:09 pm

songmaster wrote:Big congrats Robb! What a great song! well deserved " Song of the Year ". in any year :)

Tom
Thank you so much Tom. Its a small token, but one that will help push me to grind 40+ hours a week, all year, writing more songs!!
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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by LOCK88 » Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:22 pm

cassmcentee wrote:Staying busy enough to forget! :D
Write, Submit, Forget, Repeat
Love it Robb
Congrats!
Seriously Cass, I've gotta get that Write, Submit, Forget, & Repeat shirt. You know that Mantra is priceless to us songwriters!! I'm gonna hit up my buddy Steven Guiles (Taxi member). I think he sells them somewhere...Ironically, Steven was hired to do the original vocals for this track. He's got an amazing, Black Keys tone and style. Unfortunately he was buried in a recording project when we needed the vocals, so we ended up using my demo vox...
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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by LOCK88 » Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:24 pm

lesmac wrote:Congrats Robb, really well put together song. Fantastic.
Thank you so much Les, very much appreciate your kind comments!
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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by markhimley » Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:32 pm

Wow right on - congrats, Robb!! This is a perfect example (sort of) that it's the ear not the gear. By that I mean to the effect of your "demo" vocals - they absolutely work and compliment the song IMHO. I think you guys absolutely made the right choice to leave them in, regardless of plosives and all that - the track has such a consistent and awesome vibe. LOVE this man. Great start to the year, keep killing it!!

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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by Telefunkin » Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:51 am

Fantastic news Robb! I'm really happy for you. Great song, and I love the 'happy accident' story about it that makes the end result all the more impressive. Congratulations! :)
Graham (UK). Still composing a little faster than decomposing, and 100% HI.


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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by WeWillWriteUaSong » Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:07 pm

Yeaaahhhh mannnn! That's fantastic! Major congrats brother!
Marcus aka CaiNo

"Those with evil intentions or contentious thoughts are instantly vanquished. The Art of Peace is invincible because it contends with nothing."

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Re: Song of the Year - 2017

Post by billhewett » Wed Jan 24, 2018 2:13 pm

Huge Congrats, Robb! It is a well-deserved honor for an AMAZING track!
LOCK88 wrote:I pretty much hit the trifecta with "how NOT to record a vocal"....but we liked the vibe of those demo takes, which is why we ended up using them.
How many times have we all read that when you capture lightning all of the best-case guidelines for recording vocals go out the window :) The vocals definitely sound great, and a huge part of that is the raw quality that you got when singing from the heart rather than endlessly repeating written words.

-Bill

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