Just a humble flag-up about a new single I have released...

[Jinder]

Hi all,

            I'm terrible at this self promotion malarkey, but as you are always so kind about my music I wanted to give you a quick heads-up about a new single that I released last Friday. It's a song called 'I Still Believe', from a new album I have on the way in February. 

My producer Pete and I recorded this with an orchestra which was an amazing experience. Guitars on this were my SJ200 and Maple AJ, although they're some way down in the mix in favour of the orchestral bits!

 

[Lars68]

Jinder, that is wonderful. I really like the smooth, orchestrated sound. Great vocals as always too. I heard it on youtube a few days ago. and I hope it brings some well deserved recognition your way.

Lars

[kidblast]

Jinder, this is great.  The orchestration is perfect for this.   I love your work man.  GREAT job.

[Murph]

This is a great recording.

I truly hope it gains you much commercial success, Jinder. The video is well done also, and fits the mood of the song quite well.

While I really didn't hear any acoustic guitars, and I don't think this would get play on Radio Heartland, or the Acoustic Outpost, WE know you as acoustic player and enjoy your stuff.

Thanks for posting.

[uncle fester]

Wow Jinder,  good stuff and good luck!  A little deviation from other work of yours I heard, and done well.  Appreciate you posting.

[Jinder]

Thanks so much, all! I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and reply 🙂

There are acoustics in there but verrrry low in the mix under all the washing strings...I wrote it with my Maple AJ, it came so quickly it virtually fell out of the guitar!

Lyrically, it's about the end of my marriage back in 2016 and, specifically, how when all seems lost it's important to keep in touch with the things you love best and that matter more than all the petty triviality and negative stuff. For me, it was my children and music that kept me believing in better days ahead, and this song was my way of paying forward the salvation that music granted me. 

It's rare that I release something that, given hindsight, I wouldn't change a note of...this one came out of the oven baked just right, though 🙂

[kidblast]

4 hours ago, Jinder said:

Thanks so much, all! I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and reply 🙂

There are acoustics in there but verrrry low in the mix under all the washing strings...I wrote it with my Maple AJ, it came so quickly it virtually fell out of the guitar!

Lyrically, it's about the end of my marriage back in 2016 and, specifically, how when all seems lost it's important to keep in touch with the things you love best and that matter more than all the petty triviality and negative stuff. For me, it was my children and music that kept me believing in better days ahead, and this song was my way of paying forward the salvation that music granted me. 

It's rare that I release something that, given hindsight, I wouldn't change a note of...this one came out of the oven baked just right, though 🙂

I was assuming the back story was just something like this.  It's a great effort Jinder.  everything is there.  Again, great job.  You sir are a grand master.

[G Mac]

Hey, Jinder! That's a fantastic song, arrangement, performance, and recording! That's real grown folks stuff. Into the Favorites folder it goes! Thanks!

[Dave F]

Jinder,

beautifully written song. Everything was very professional sounding but I would come up with a slightly different arrangement and melody and simplify it. 

[JWG4927]

Hilarious, DaveF. Must be from the British part of Kentucky   

almost as good as the bloke a while back who commented on a song by saying except for the singing and playing, it was excellent.

and I was just going to say "nice shirt"

[fortyearspickn]

Got it off iTunes.   Your best work.  Very touching. 

[Dave F]

38 minutes ago, JWG4927 said:

Hilarious, DaveF. Must be from the British part of Kentucky   

almost as good as the bloke a while back who commented on a song by saying except for the singing and playing, it was excellent.

and I was just going to say "nice shirt"

I didn't mean any disrespect. I think Jinder is very talented. I like his writing, playing, advice, guitars and his voice. From all accounts on this forum he seems like a real nice guy and I wish him a lot of success. I thought the words of the song were very heartfelt and beautifully written. Sometimes when you have the possibility of a great song you need to explore different format ( tempo, arrangements, ....) options  and play around with it and try it out in front of different venues. Maybe he did! I just thought the production of this song sounded like something you would of heard back in the late 70's or early 80's . It just sounded dated to me. Absolutely nothing wrong with the performer. Maybe I'm the one that's out dated 🙂  

p.s. I did download it.

[fortyearspickn]

I'm reminded of one of my Top 5 Favorite movies  - Tin Cup  with Kevin Costner.   A big reason I love it - is the soundtrack. 

Now,  as scene enablers - several songs are used to describe the feelings of the main character - a  'down on his luck' golf pro running a shooting range in Far West Texas.

One song --   "A Little Bit Is Better Than Nada"    Texas Tornadoes    is juxtaposed with  "I Wonder"  Chris Isaak.   Two VERY DIFFERENT  songs. 

My point -  a movie, art, life - is not best represented by a single style.   Some actors (and musicians) get  'type cast'  by the people in Central Casting.   But some resist it and overcome all attempts.  Take Steve Martin, for example.    So -  it's good to get outside of your comfort zone - Kudos Jinder !  

I agree, DF,  on my first pass - my first reaction was  "Where's The Guitar?"   Then,  where's the banjo.... etc.  

Then I was reminded of a quote from my Top 5 Cartoons - Dilbert.   "That Was Then, This Is Now." 

[dhanners623]

Great job! Well-written (sorry for what you had to go through to write it...) and the arrangement fits the song. As others have said, I hope this gets the attention it deserves.

[Jinder]

Thankyou so much, all!

This song, like most of the material from my new record, is indeed something of a departure for me production wise. From 2008-2013 I was with Sony BMG and then Universal, and made two very "shiny" high production albums for them, but soon got tired of making records that way, and as soon as I started my own label I was keen to release more gritty, lo-fi acoustic based records, which I did in 2015 with 'Traditional Dark' and in 2017 with 'Kingsize Blackfoot', both recorded in under a week, warts'n'all and not commercially minded at all.

With the new record, we took nearly ten months to finish it. I wanted to find a sonic space that gave my songs a sympathetic setting rather than forcing them to walk unaided, and didn't require "pop" writing to make the songs listenable. To achieve this we recorded the entire thing on a song-by-song basis, finishing each song before moving onto the next... the upshot of this is that whilst each song is totally fully realised, the album is wildly diverse...there are Floyd influenced moments, Stax horns, string arrangements, Satie influenced piano, moments that sound like Philip Glass, allsorts. 

The arrangement for this particular song IS very '70s, particularly on the outro. The production on it came about because the song borrows the syllable-by-syllable melodic metre as used in the classic French "Chanson" style of writing, which I strongly associate with Jacques Brel, but it is lyrically reminiscent of one of my favourite bands, The Blue Nile, whom my former drummer Liam Bradley and my friend PJ Moore played with...I suggested to my producer Pete Millson that it would be a trip to produce it in a way that brought to mind both Wally Stott's glorious orchestrations for Scott Walker's Brel reinterpretations and, somehow, also The Blue Nile's melancholy, dramatic synth-blues ballads. 

This was the end result...our sort of soupy synthesis between the sound of those glorious late '60s/early '70s Walker sides and the tone of The Blue Nile's classic '80s singles such as 'The Downtown Lights' and 'Tinseltown In The Rain'.

I realise it isn't for everyone, but I've always loved the way that music divides opinion and I really appreciate your thoughts! Thankyou so much for listening, all 🙂

 

[dhanners623]

Townes Van Zandt said the instrumentation has to serve the song. You've certainly done that.

You have more tolerance for a studio than I do, though. When I'm recording (and it certainly has never been at your level) I just wanted to get in and get out. It wasn't a question of money and studio time, it was just that I'd rather be anywhere else.

I have a good friend who takes forever to record his records. It is because he hears a lot of music in his head and it takes awhile to make it a reality in a studio. What he comes up with is great, even innovative, but spending that long making the sausage would drive me bananas.