benjaminkoll

Shockwave (Early Instrumental Demo)

Added 2023-12-21 15:41:09 +0000 UTC

Hey guys! Here's a demo that's close to my heart. This particular early instrumental demo of my song Shockwave (you can find the final version of the song on my album Osito) was finished on July 22, 2021, a year and 2 months before the album release.

It was the third demo I did of the song, I had started working on the groove and writing the melodies on June 4th of the same year, and the initial theme was inspired by a conversation I had here with Cody about how the perception of popularity and fame can be so isolating and frustrating from the perspective of both the fan and the artist. The first title of the song was "As Lost As You" and the first chorus line went something like this: 🎵"Hey, think about it, maybe I'm as lost as you." 🎵

Musically I wanted to go back to the sound of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, those grooves they created for Alexander O'Neal. The harmonies. So I experimented with that, added a little bit of Patrice Rushen and 40% of my own take on that kind of funk. It got a little baroque, but so much fun to play...

When I wrote and recorded the first vocals, I had to bring everything down a semitone because it was a little high for me. I also ended up adding some "Beautiful Nothing" drum sounds and keys (which I'm not sure was a good idea in retrospect, this demo has a classic vibe to it that I love now that I'm listening to it for the first time since), and adding new parts, including taking out the flute (why???).

So that's a quick reminder of the moment I recorded the demo, hope you enjoy it, and remember that as a subscriber you can now listen to all my audio content on Spotify as well. I guess Patreon gave you the link (let me know otherwise to investigate how it works). Have a great Thursday 😘 ❤️