January First of the Twenty-Twenty-First Year
By Odin's beard its been an adventure!
Two years in the making. Two separate recording studio sessions. Countless hours of mixing. Plenty of drafts, re-do's and re-designs. All because we just couldn't let this song go.
GO was originally conceived from a dream Adam had. The bazouki played the melody that was dreamt of and the song was built around it. From there the guys went to studio and laid down the drums, bazouki and guitar. It was a bit messy but as the old saying goes "we'll get it in post". This is also one of the worst saying in the industry and proved a problem later down the line.
Keeping in mind Adrian mixes our music now, but this was probably his first song of ours to mix. Since then he has produced and sent out final versions of more than a handful of other songs, but GO was his White Whale. The drums proved most difficult to mix, due to recording errors on the day. With this, we took a break.
On the original drum track, Adam had laid down a very free-handed rhythm and improvised most of the structure on the spot. So when Adrian returned to the song a little while later, he suggested adding it to a list of 4 other songs that were to have drums recorded for them. A revised drum plan was laid out and the new drum track was recorded. With fresher ears on the original recording, a re-do of pretty much everything was in order.
Adam had since gained more experience with singing in studio and did a new vocal take. The bazouki was rerecorded. More vocal takes for harmonies and a few structure changes were made. Now with the new drums in place it was time for everything to gel together,
Nope..
More troubles seemed to come out of the woodwork for the craziest of reasons. Eventually, 'GO' slipped between the cushions of the First Day Lions couch. We had an album on the horizon (TIME) and had to focus on one thing at a time.
For some songs, this would have marked its end. But one day Adrian came across the project again and gave it a listen. Invigorated that there was a song to be salvaged he went through all the old files and started applying more knowledge that he had picked up along his mixing road, to it. Vocals were sounding crisper, the mix was sitting better. Things were starting to move forward. But there was one old enemy that kept poking its head up. The drums..
Reverting back to the original recordings was the first decision. Even though they were far harder to tame in the mix, they had a freedom to it that fitted the song ever so rightly. And so began the epic back and forth between Adrian & Adam on every minute detail. You don't wanna hear about it here, but it took a long time.
On what felt like the 50th draft, a version came along that finally sat well. Everything in the song seemed to be finally working together. And so here we are..
If you enjoy this song, send nothing but your love to Adrian. He was the one who pulled it back time and time again and spend an un-Godly amount of said time, shaping it to become what it is today.
We hope you love the song and here's to more music and more adventures in 2021 than ever before!
Play it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7qamyqz2A6Fpj4VynIS2ft?si=hBhL2QIfQ4-a4LmFQY0Ruw
Buy it on Bandcamp: https://firstdaylions.bandcamp.com/track/go
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