The song was actually written a long time ago sometime in the 1998. It was thought up by my project group back in the days when we were studying Music Industry Skills in TAFE Leederville. It started out life with the name 'Consolation Lover' - about a guy who's girlfriend kept fuc*k!n around on him and only comes home to him when she 'couldn't get the prize'. Get it? He's the Consolation! Well it was brilliant at the time but the song never quite made its way into the commercial scene.
Fast forward to 2004 and I re-created the song with the intention to have my group (By'u) sing and release it on our next album. In the midst of its re-creation I realised that the original arrangement was way too bubbly to be a 'depressing' song. It felt more like it had to be a party song. Answering its call I had the lyrics and chorus melody changed to something more relevant.
The song became a girl/guy-duet-like tune so as to accomodate the 2 guys and 3 girls in the group. The story was about how the different genders would prepare for a weekend of partying madness.. and so the song title was fittingly changed to 'Weekend Jam', which derived from 'hiphop jam'. I remembered how much fun I had going to those in the 90's and also thought it'd be nice to bring the word 'jam' back into trend as everyone is just saying 'party' nowadays (boring...). The song had a great hook to it and was catchy... but unfortunately, my group broke up (unofficially) before we even stepped foot in a studio.
The data sat dormant in my hard drive for a couple of years until I finally got off my ass a few months ago and decided that I was going to finally pursue my solo career. I didn't want the song to go to waste and decided it was gonna be my first single. However, because I no longer had a group, I had to turn it back into a solo. Also, the arrangement (the one that encouraged me to change the story) got too old. It was just too '98... so I had to start by re-arranging it to a more current sound. The story remained unchanged, with the exception that this time it was only from one person's point of view.
Somewhere along it's 50% progress mark, I brought the song over to some 'industry' folx to get some constructive critism... and boy did I get it! They opinionated on the arrangement, the melody, the chorus, and pretty much everything else. The only thing they liked was the title! It wasn't that the song was bad, it was just not good enough to make it internationally. It was pretty hard to swallow at first I must admit, considering all the work I've put in, but I was determined to make a really good single so I put their opinions to good use and kept working on it...
By the end of reconstruction process it turned out to be a complete makeover. It's like blowing up a old building block and then building a new one! The melody (verses, chorus AND bridge), the arrangement, even the lyrics ALL changed. It became a 'totally' new song. You couldn't even see the resemblence if you compared it with the original...
Roughly 4 to 5 versions later! I've finally gotten it to a kinda Pharrell crossed Joe crossed Kelly Rowland ft Eve like feel... and everyone's finally happy!
Throughout the phases I was blessed to have somehow hooked up with Constantine - a DJ/Rapper who I reckon is currently the best MC to have come out from North Borneo so far (Pictured below during a break, which we seem to have many...). In the tradition of many R&B hits naturally there was a spot in the song for him to drop his rhymes. We worked many late nights together (though most of them were wasted on drinking and hanging out... hehe) and things were on schedule. We were confident that it would be released on 1st July 2007... but of course, nothing ever goes to plan.
Money problems striked (I am unemployed, remember?) and I had no funds to record our vocals in a proper studio. Worst, I couldn't send it to my good friend Greg Henderson (Multiple winner of ARIA & AIM awards) for the final mix as I had earlier planned (I couldn't afford his fee, not even at 'friends' prices!).Determined to not let it stop me, I attempted to try and record on my own (see 'Wardrobe Records' blog) but that didn't quite work out either. I learned quickly that it was not easy to NOT be in control of my computer whilsts singing at a distance away. It was just too hard when I wanted to edit something on the fly. I had to remove my headphones, crawl my way out from the tight enclosure (which was covered with layers of bedsheets), edit, and then reverse the whole process to continue the recording. As if that wasn't frustrating enough, getting back to the exact angle on the mic was virtually impossible so the quality of my vocals were inconsistent. Adding that to the fact that I don't exactly have the right equipment in the first place kinda makes it all pointless. Arghh!
So what's an unemployed, broke, unsigned R&B malaysian artist to do? I kept to my commitment and still spent my fair share of hours per day composing and producing new material but I wasn't feeling like I was moving forward. My mind started to hint old habits and would occasionally whisper "get a job, get a job". Always the easy out...
A couple of days ago, my dad called and asked how I was doing. I reluctantly told him my sob story, afraid that he might give me the old "I told you so" reply (You know how parents can be when you decide to resign from your day job and pursue an unstable career instead). However, I got the shock of my life when he said to me "well if you need help financially just ask". WOW! I acted cool and said "Thanks, but I'm still gonna try and do it myself for now" but I couldn't begin to explain how it was truly a light in the dark (Thanks dad!). Despite not having taken the offer, it was rather motivational to know that my family had my back, which only meant that I must be doing something right... and somehow or rather, it just felt as if things were gonna move again. And sure enough it did...
Yesterday I met with an engineer friend as I was lending my voice to a commercial that she was doing. After much talking about my intention she surprised me with an offer that could possibly end all dead ends: a partnership! She's a talented upcoming producer/engineer and has been looking around for a 'real' project to work on (she's kinda sick of all the ads that she's been doing) and as fate would have it, we found eachother! Naturally I accepted the offer!
Now studio time is finally not an issue as she has full access to it. She has also agreed to mix and I'm quite confident that the result would be similar to that of Greg Henderson's considering she trained under him. We quickly scheduled the recording for next weekend and finally things are rolling again. Ok so most likely 'Wardrobe Records' won't live up to its proposed unwritten history, but you never know maybe at a later date, when a condenser mic, a compressor and a 2nd outlet system is in place (so that I can edit whilst I'm IN the booth), I may just give it another go... but for now, so long as the song makes its way out I'll be ecstatic! It has after all been almost 9 years!
So hopefully ya'll will get to listen to it by my birthday (19th August)... which would be like 'the best present ever!' I currently have this funny idea of releasing the single with the 4 other versions (I have remix of remixes!)... haha. I'm just being silly... but you never know...
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