Before We Were Estranged

by @plushbaby

Liner Notes

It’s half term, so I am off with the family for a few days by the sea. Where I’m staying has a guitar with a missing tuning peg, so the guitar is tuned to the string I can’t tune (if that makes sense).

I wanted to write a simple song that had some interesting parts and felt melodically pleasing and easy - using the lower register of my voice. It’s kinda influenced by Kissing Lessons by Lucy Dacus, but only in that I wanted to get a sort of yearning in the story/vocal. Her song is wonderful!

In this song I’m not sure if they do get back together at the end or whether that is just his hopeful thought and she thinks he’s moving on so includes him in her life again. Or maybe it’s about the constant evolution of relationships and the changes they go through. Or maybe it’s all a dream - who knows!

I had the hooky part down as a kind of pre-chorus, so thought I needed a chorus. In the end I wrote two bridges instead… I think? The first is disco inflected (melodically inspired by redacted). The second is a more rock-type bridge, with a crashing Em halfway through I quite enjoy. So I’m not sure if the structure totally works.

Playing it live taught me a lot about how useful it is to know a song before recording in one go where you can’t use production to hide/emphasise certain parts. I think this would sound slightly more interesting in a month or so, just from leaning into certain sections and making it less chuggy.

It was recorded in the bathroom on 4 devices through voice notes positioned in different places in the room. Not sure it made much difference than just using one phone to record, but I have always kinda liked the sound of a voice note recording. Something about them is very pleasing, like just hitting record on a boombox.

I do feel sad that we couldn’t give this song more in terms of production, but February is rolling on and times a wasting!

Lyrics

Oh hold me Like you used to Don’t tell me It’s not like it used to be

When we were When we were When we were in love

You’d call me On your way home You’d call me For no reason at all

Because we were Because we were Because we were in love Before we were Before we were Before we were estranged

Your friends say I sound a bit deranged, My friends say cheer up mate it’s not too late

Confess to me How you filled your day Avoid me But you eyes betray

That we were That we were When we were in love Before we were Before we were Before we were estranged

And you said We were sleepwalking backwards Maybe it’s our time? And you said There were other factors And I was in denial

Invite me Over to your place Delighted To celebrate the day I’m nervous It’s just like our first date But I’m learning To be a friend of fate

Cos If you want to If you want to We can Fall in love again I said If you want to If you want to We can Fall in love again

Comments

[avatar]
@burr Mod

so was this a mix between 4 different synced up voice memo recordings? i don't ever do #acousticonetake songs but i should do more. i just need to write a whole damn song instead of doing it piecemeal. 🙃 there's a rawness here that's both intimate and... unhinged, which works. "sleepwalking backwards" is a great image. good use of repetition, too. and yes, as @wynia pointed out bathrooms can make for great studios! 🛁

[avatar]
@wynia

Recording in the bathroom for that natural reverb, yes! Once for a friend’s song, I recorded a very memorable trumpet line in the bathroom, and still about 18 years later when that song comes up on a playlist I sing along with it perfectly syllabically “trumpet in the bathroom!” My kids do too now 😆 (just going to shout out to @burr and see if he remembers this from “Answers Come” 🎺)

Anyways. Back to your song. I LOVE your vocals. The deep lowness gets so much fullness from that echoey resonance. Great guitar playing too. Loved listening to this 💚

[avatar]

I’ve heard a couple of bathroom songs this year and it gives a lovely bright vibe, so I totally get it. Either that or people or hiding from their families and sneaking off to get FAWMing done. Sometimes it’s all you need - a voice, a guitar, some tiles, and time away from the family. I like the chuggy feel to it and it works well with the low register vocal. I liked the ‘cheer up mate’, especially as you sing the opposite (‘it’s too late’), which subverts the meaning a little. Probably unintentional, but I liked it. Do you work on stuff after Feb and release it somewhere? This would be excellent news if you did!

[avatar]
@max

Love the recording! What a great song this is. And the lonely bathroom voice adds a lot to the emotion in the lyrics that can be interpreted in many ways. Hopeful, sad, miserable, sentimental. Even though it's a pop song there's a lot of jazz in it.

[avatar]

Love the bathroom vocals! Interesting idea on the multiple devices - I did something similar once with a phone, digital recorder, dictaphone etc. dotted around the recording space and liked the results but also it was too annoying to ever do again 😀 anyway, well-written song and it's always nice to hear a mix of the produced and the lo-fi, IMO - the song doesn't suffer for it!

[avatar]
@klyma

Love the title. Love the pace of the music and your vocal delivery. This line -- My friends say cheer up mate it’s not too late -- is so relatable. Sorry to say, I didn't follow the narration all the way though, but reading along, I enjoyed the way your characters start out in love, become estranged, and could fall in love again. If they want to. Excellent!

[FAWM]
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