Today’s episode is a new song of mine called “Eye to Eye.” This one is going to be on my album, which will be coming out later this year. With the podcast recording above, I thought I’d start by playing you the acoustic demo version of this song then we’ll get into how the album version was recorded.
After the song was written, I got to thinking about how I wanted to approach the song for a full band rock sound. Elvis Costello’s song “Pump It Up” came to mind.
I tried to capture the same type of drive and energy with my song. First, the drums follows the same type of pattern with the quarter note snare hits. This same sort of beat is also found in Roy Obison’s song, “Oh, Pretty Woman.”
The electric guitars took on more of a straight quarter note strum to follow that beat. I felt like there needed to be a little more of an accent on beat so I added a lead part that sort takes jabs on each quarter note.
As the arrangement was coming together during mixing, I felt like a little messiness would help serve the song. For the vocals, I added some slapback-style delay. You’ll also hear 4 background vocal tracks where I tried to do sort of a call and response thing, which was inspired from Elvis Costello. I took the bass part and added a massive amount of distortion to give it sort of a 60s fuzz bass sound. With the guitar solo, I added even more distortion and boasted the treble to give it a really thin sound so it cut through the mix.
Lyrically, the song is about the frustration of trying to get people to see things the way you see things (which is sometimes next to impossible). This was written long before the election and I didn’t really have that in mind at all at the time it was written but now, it’s seemed to take on a new meaning with the state of things.
Lyrics:
You think you’re on a roll this time
And you can’t help but put your best foot forward now
And you won’t see it but you’re on the edge
and I won’t stand aside and watch it crumble down
But you refuse to budget and see me eye to eye
I’m begging on my knees to see things eye to eye
I fall apart a hole in my heart it’s eye to eye
I think I waited much too long to say goodbye
You’re gonna raise the stakes this time
And you won’t change your mind with anything I say
You won’t believe it but you’re on the edge
If you won’t get behind me, then get out of the way
But you refuse to budget and see me eye to eye
I’m begging on my knees to see things eye to eye
I fall apart a hole in my heart it’s eye to eye
I think I waited much too long to say goodbye
But you refuse to budget and see me eye to eye
I’m begging on my knees to see things eye to eye
I fall apart a hole in my heart it’s eye to eye
I think I waited much too long to say goodbye
And you won’t stand beside me and see me eye to eye
My Eclectic Workout Mix (which, incidentally includes Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up”).