Bourbon Therapy - Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes...

Ever wonder how a song actually comes about? Well for us it's a very iterative process. And it's not all magic and beauty from the get go! As you'll see, there are a lot of warts and bumps along the way, but the goal is to express the framework of the song as soon as it strikes and to keep working at it until we have the finished product.

Here's a peek at the development of the song, "Say Hello Say Goodbye."

“You're a little pitchy, but I like where this song is going”

— Rebecca, upon first hearing Aaron's voice memo for "Say Hello Say Goodbye"

It all begins with a musical idea, often without words, and usually on an iPhone voice memo as that's the quickest way to record an idea before it disappears. "Say Hello Say Goodbye" began as just such a voice memo, originally titled "Acoustic in D"...

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Acoustic in D (Say Hello Say Goodbye voice memo) 1:04

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Next we spend time working on the arrangement and lyrics. The lyrics for this one were written pool-side while relaxing on a 4th of July weekend. I came up with the idea of who and what I wanted the song to be about and the lyrics flowed from there. Once it's ready we record a more complete demo, usually utilizing Garageband (with a basic drum track), so that we can share it with the rest of the band...

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Say Hello Say Goodbye rough demo 1:10

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Finally, we spend time rehearsing the song, discussing the demo arrangement, thinking about what instruments we want on it, considering the texture and tone we want for the final product, etc. In the end we hit the studio and record something like this. And we hope you love it!