We’re back at it with the stories behind Love Bites. (Now available on Cassette & CD!)
Today’s installment: Track 5 – The Proposal
[stream it here]
This song was the last one added to the EP. I’d actually had another song planned, recorded, and nearly finished, but I had to scrap it at the last minute. “Why?”, you ask. Well, I’ll tell you if you’d stop interrupting. Geez…
Originally I had a duet planned for Love Bites. I’d written a good song, wrote lyrics (something I’d not done in a LONG time) and even recorded most of my parts, but I couldn’t get a female vocalist in time to make the release date. So, in a last minute decision, I took an old song of mine, and “updated” it by making it sound older than it was. Ah, the kookiness of making retro music.
The name of this song is apropos, because that’s exactly what it is. I wrote this song (with lyrics, not included) to propose to my wife. Spoiler Alert: She said yes.
I remember sitting on my bed with her, I played her the song, and then we sat there for a minute or two because I was scared stiff that I was going to screw something up. And of course, my hesitation was what made it weird. She later told me she was thinking, “Man, this would have been a really good way to propose.” After the LONG pause, I pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me. This was back before the most important thing in a proposal was social media impressions, so there is no actual record of these events, sorry.
But The Proposal as you know it was made completely from scratch, designed specifically to tweak our favorite nostalgia buttons. It’s interesting taking an existing song and adapting it, especially when it goes from having lyrics to not. I often wondered if people would notice that the melody sounds almost sung. Cause, well…it was, originally. But turning vocal parts into synths, backing vocals into guitars, it’s like building a something out of LEGO: You’re reinterpreting something with what you have (or what you choose to work with.) It’s an interesting experiment.
So that’s the story behind The Proposal. Tune in next week for track 6: The Cough (where a little blood comes out)!
Keep being awesome!
Vlad, your Vampire Step-Dad
