Tucson, Like It Or Not
August has swooped down upon us like a fiery but also vaguely damp phoenix, and you know what that means, or at least you SHOULD know what that means...wait, what does that mean? Oh, it means it's time for new music from The Wirelight.
Since August in our great state of Georgia is typically the month when traditional summer-y things start winding down, kids start buying pencils or iPads or whatever and panicking about going back to school, and individual tolerances of extreme levels of heat begin to dangerously dwindle, I figure it's about time I slow down the tempo a little bit. August is no time for upbeat music - that's ridiculous! No, August is the time for my new single, "Tucson, Like It Or Not." Sort of an unwieldy name, maybe, but I already have another song on deck named after a city, and I need to keep things interesting.
What can I tell you about this one? Well, first, here's the requisite demo from 2011:
As you can probably tell from the demo, this song started out deep in alt-country territory. I didn't have a pedal steel available, but you know damn well this demo would have been drenched in pedal steel if I had. As it is, it still has a pretty thick twang to it, and I liked then and now how menacing the piano sounds when it drops in way at the bottom. When I actually got around to recording a legitimate version of the song, I opted to strip out the alt-country vibe and insert humongous drum loops and buzzy synths instead, and I think the end result is pretty cool and unique.
If you're into esoteric but fun trivia, here's some: the wavy percussion part that shows up around 0:22 is a slowed-down sample of the percussion from the intro to "Ghost" by Howie Day. Here's some more: the lyrics at the end of the chorus are "You said that Tucson wasn't safe", but because of some overlap with the drums, the "f" syllable in "safe" isn't really audible, so it sounds like the lyrics are "You said that Tucson was insane", and I almost like that better. Really adds to the mystery. Like - what the hell could have happened in Tucson? Some kind of drug-and-crime-fueled rave like in the movie "Go"? Let me know if you find out.
But that's enough background information. Now it's on to the main course, so grab you a fork and let's eat. You can click the cover art to be linked on through to Spotify, iTunes, etc., or you can listen to the embed right below the cover art LIKE MAGIC. IT'S LIKE MAGIC.
And don't forget that I've been steadily cranking out (two) live studio performances of the singles that are already out there. Here's the most recent, a really vibe-y version of Brace for Impact.