What goes into the making of a hit song? This is a curious question. If there was one true answer, everyone would be doing it, and nothing would actually end up being a hit. Right? Conspiracy theorists like to believe that the major labels have some sort of computer algorithm that can predict if a song is a hit or not. As the British say: Bullocks. They don’t know any better than any one else, the different is, they’re in a position of power to sell something.
While recording Till We Meet Again, George, Jesse, and I get into a quick discussion about things that can help make a song a hit song. In this case, we’re talking about a little trick that Jesse and I did with a particular transition of a song from one part to another. We changed something about the song structure in such a way that it makes people take notice. Watch the video about making a hit song and find out what we did.
Making A Hit Song
Did you catch what we were talking about? Think you can go write a hit song now?
There’s one band in the world that taught us all to rock n roll all night and party every day. That would be the legendary band known as KISS. As it turns out I have in my possession a piece of artwork that was commissioned for their original drummer Peter Chris. As it’s told, their management wanted to give each member a very special gift. That gift was a custom piece of airbrushed art that was their face without the makeup and a miniature of their character in front of it. One of them was unhappy with the result and returned it. That was the drummer Peter Chris. I have no idea if Gene, Paul and Ace still have theirs, but…
How did I come to obtain or own the one of Peter Chris? Simple, my father was the one who was commissioned to do the artwork. When it was rejected it passed back to my father. In turn when I grew up a bit it was then given to me. So now I have it. It’s quite a conversation piece that’s for sure. Mostly because people always want to know how I came to have it. Plus it’s a tie to wanting to rock n roll with a legend.
Rock N Roll
You show us everything you’ve got
You keep on dancin’ and the room gets hot
You drive us wild, we’ll drive you crazy
You say you wanna go for a spin
The party’s just begun, we’ll let you in
You drive us wild, we’ll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin’, you keep on shoutin’
(chorus)
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
You keep on saying you’ll be mine for a while
You’re lookin’ fancy and I like your style
You drive us wild, we’ll drive you crazy
You show us everything you’ve got
Baby, baby that’s quite a lot
And you drive us wild, we’ll drive you crazy
(chorus)
You keep on shoutin’, you keep on shoutin’
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock n roll!
Enjoy your Party Day!
A couple of weeks ago I was tooling around in my car running an errand when over the iTunes Radio comes this tune called Life of the Party. I immediately thought to myself, dang this guy nailed it. Not from a lyric standpoint but from a musical standpoint. Then comes a little more research to find out that it was co-written. I still haven’t gone far enough to figure out who actually recorded, produced and mixed it. But said producer did a masterful job at making this guy Shawn Mendes whom I think is about 15 years old, sound like a long time pro. That’s not an easy task.
The real trick is the production on the track. It’s laden with tons of sounds that flow one to another and work extremely well. Shawn’s vocal over the top of it sounds like a great set of takes edited together with the right amount of emotion. The verses are little bit on the lax side, but the chorus kicks it so hard that the verses don’t matter.
Hopefully this kid will get more practice in on his writing and really make an awesome career in music.
Life of the Party
I love it when you just don’t care
I love it when you dance like there’s nobody there
So when it gets hard, don’t be afraid
We don’t care what them people say
I love it when you don’t take no
I love it when you do what you want cause you just said so
Let them all go home, we out late
We don’t care what them people say
We don’t have to be ordinary
Make your best mistakes
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
I’m telling you to take your shot it might be scary
Hearts are gonna break
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
Together we can just let go
Pretend like there’s no one else here that we know
Slow dance fall in love as the club track plays
We don’t care what them people say
We don’t have to be ordinary
Make your best mistakes
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
I’m telling you to take your shot it might be scary
Hearts are gonna break
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
Come out tonight, come out tonight
There’s no one standing in your way
Come out tonight, come out tonight
We don’t care what them people say
We don’t care what them people say
We don’t have to be ordinary
Make your best mistakes
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
I’m telling you to take your shot it might be scary
Hearts are gonna break
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Life of the party
So don’t let them keep you down
Oh you know you can’t give up
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
Not long ago I came across a new form of capos. In galaxy very close by. Actually it was this galaxy. More specifically it was in a town known as Anaheim. The Anaheim that sits in the California region of the planet earth. Capos are a funny business. Lots of musicians use the cheapest products they can find without thinking about how they affect the sound. I always look for the thing that will get the great sound. Oddly enough capos and the kind you use can make a difference. Which is why on such a faithful day where I found out about a company called G7th and their capos, I instantly made the switch. Why? Because they’re awesome. Actually it had a couple of better reasons. First their weight. They have a good solid weight to them. Second, their ease of use. They work on some kind of engineering magic where you can set the tension as simply as closing your fingers. That way it doesn’t clamp down too hard on the strings and push them out of tune. It’s a love thing.
Today I’d taking you into the studio for a little clip about my upcoming song “Till We Meet Again” wherein you see me making use of the G7th’s awesomeness. Click on that video and realize I too use capos to get the proper key and sound for a guitar and my voice.
So if you’re looking for badass capos, especially the one I use – then you need a G7th. You won’t regret it!
Capos And Recording
Yeehaw baby.
I think we’re ready. Let me double check my tuning real quick.
technically with the panning you don’t need to pan the microphones in my headphones
as we’re recording. That’s what I’m saying you can turn them back to center.
Alright. Let’s see if we’re
all set to go. That sounds beautiful my
head.
There’s a little drum pattern that starts at what? Bar 3? You can set the record button to
the song position line to start there
‘Cause that’s a two bar count in for me and I start at 5. Do what? A one bar pre-roll? That’s fine. As long as I know it’s two bars.
We were in love…
and it was magic.
happy