Crumbling Hearts - new song!
Isabelle had started writing Crumbling Hearts while she was still singing with Sex With Strangers last winter. SWS was compiling ideas for their fifth album and Isabelle had put forth this idea as an option. The SWS gang had a lot of songs to work on and though they made some nice progress on the tune it kind of fell to the wayside over the months of writing. In the spring, when Isabelle decided to focus solely on CtV she asked if she could take the song back so we could work on it. Of course her former bandmates were only too kind to comply.
So, we started working on it over the summer. In seeming coincidence we were talking with a director about songs for her movie (Random Acts of Romance - it comes out this October) and suddenly the song took a new direction: it occurred to me that maybe we could take inspiration from the plot and shape the lyrics from the movie. It can be amazing how quickly a song can come together with the right impetus.
We worked out an arrangement and debuted Crumbling Hearts at our Electric Owl show back in July. I knew we were on to something when I had a long conversation the next day with a person who'd never seen or heard us before but was convinced it was a hit (always nice to hear)! So with some confidence we moved forward and began recording it.
Once again we set up in our newly refurbished studio, Imaged Aire Studio, and asked Jim Berry to lay down some drums. Jim had performed with us at the Electric Owl, so he was already up to speed and therefore laid down some nice clean parts that helped bring the track to life. Isabelle had her voice all set too, and the song was quite simple to capture. I took a bit of time, passing ideas back and forth with Stefan Sigerson about arrangement and instrumentation until we finally arrived at this mix. Gotta say we're both extremely happy and excited by it. It's one of the most fun songs we've ever recorded and I'm hoping a lot of people embrace it. There are some nice hints of Primal Scream and Black Grape in there, my love of the '90's dance scene entwined with my respect for the '70's.
Please have a listen, it's available for download from the player below, pay what you want. If you do enjoy it, please click the like button, share it, and leave us a comment. Word of mouth is still the absolute best form of advertising anyone can get, so we'd both be very appreciative for your support!
Crumbling Hearts by Combine the Victorious
Dunlop, Henning
Co-produced by Combine the Victorious and Stefan Sigerson
Recorded and mixed by MRH
Vocals: Isabelle Dunlop
Backing Vocals, bass, keyboards, guitar, programming: Mark Roland Henning
Live Drums: Jim Berry
Artwork: Robert Edmonds
Original Photography: Klee
Great - really like it. John
ReplyDelete