"The Way You Call" (Demo)
Added 2021-05-12 18:13:37 +0000 UTCThe very first recording of "The Way You Call" is very much like it appears on the album. Mostly me singing while playing an acoustic guitar. As we were preparing to record the album, we decided to try some different approaches to the songs just to see what we could come up with.
One of the most valuable things that our producer Jeff Aderman did on our album If/When was to encourage us to push ourselves, but to also let us know when he thought that we were "overcooking" something. This demo recording of "The Way You Call" is an excellent example of this.
I was thinking of Jon Anderson's solo album Olias of Sunhillow when I started to come up with this vastly different "full band" approach to "The Way You Call". The sparsely played but giant sounding percussion, fluttering vocal flourishes, and epic, almost Celtic vibe.
But when we showed it to Jeff, he thought it was entirely the wrong direction. He felt that the power of the song was in its intimacy and simple arrangement. He thought that, while cool, all of these additions did not ultimately make the song better.
Ultimately, we agreed that less was more with this song. But I still really enjoy listening to this version. Joe's piano playing is beautiful, Pat's additional guitar is moody and melodic, and I had a lot of fun playing the drums.
I'm happy to pull back the curtain and show this curious demo to you. I hope you enjoy it. And please let us know what you think in the comments!
This recording of "The Way You Call" was performed by:
Dan McGowan - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Drums
Pat McGowan - Electric Guitar, Mandolin
Joe Dorsey - Keyboards
