It seems we have a bit of a tradition, albeit one that’s been going for a mere three years (and I don’t know if it’ll continue indefinitely). It’s tradition is to release a cover song around a band member’s birthday. We’ve done a-Ha’s “The Living Daylights”, Placebo’s “Meds” and this year, Lorde’s “Team.”
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An unusual choice, I admit. I first thought “maybe we should cover a song that isn’t 20+ years old”, then after the song was lodged firmly in my head, I decided to cover it, and convinced the rest of the band to humor me. The first instinct was to make it this sort of woozy, fuzzed-out version, but that wasn’t hanging together well (it was also really hard to sing) so after a few iterations we sped it up a smidge (although it’s still glacially slow compared to the original), doused it in liberal washes of synthesizer and shimmer reverb, took a dozen vocal takes, and piled it all together in one giant icy slab of song. Where the original stands on the strength of the solo vocal line and minimal production, this one has lots of vocals (it’s even reframed as a duet) and lots of production.
And it’s free. Did I mention we’re giving it away free? Because we are.