Hope you enjoy what she has to say!
What do you want listeners to know about Summenights?
Summernights was born out of a songwriting session with a classmate, Lukas Vargas. We were together in a seminar for freshmen and the professor kept encouraging collaboration, even if we were a bit shy or we weren't planning for it; to give it a shot in short. I had already worked with Lukas and I felt like our interests could work well together - he wanted to work on his producing skills, I wanted to try and topline more - and so one day we organized a session. We met up in a practice room and from the moment he pulled out those chords I knew it sounded like summer and friends and nostalgia. The song was born in less than one hour.
I think everybody can relate in some way to Summernights. For me, growing up in Italy, it's about the summers spent in that same "holiday" town, with your "summer" friends, a bond so strong and that most people here have in their life and know. Even though personally I had a strong bond with a town but not many friends there, I saw what that felt like thanks to my best friend: she invited me to her special summer town, Oltre Il Colle, and there I saw what it meant to grow up with the same kids, to have these parallel friendships that resumed every summer as if no time passed at all. It was special and precious and I wanted to capture that for her and for all the people that had that in their lives!
How did you come up with the name for the song?
Fun fact, the very first draft was called "Who We Are"! But very soon I realized it needed a more dynamic, special name, with something unique to it. "Summer nights" are the first two words of the song, and I liked their sound and how perfectly they captured the vibe, so I merged them and that was it!
What was it like developing the cover artwork?
Do you have a favorite lyric from the song?
I think the part of lyrics that resonates with me the most is the second verse:
"Summer finally made its way to us
Like when we were young
High school's over, an era's over
Again here we are
Sitting on the same bench in our park
But it's new talk
'What ya doing, where you going
Where will your new life be"'
When I first heard the chords I knew it sounded like summer with your friends and growing up. Back in early Fall, I had just moved out (across the ocean) and a new life was beginning for me, so I felt like I needed to capture this excitement and anticipation and fear in the lyrics too. Everywhere around me were freshmen who were just now starting ro get used to the new life, and it was unbelievable that just a couple months ago we were all still in high school.
Do you have any favorite memories of the recording process?
Unlike The Flow, there wasn't actually much recording involved with this song! The only instruments tracked live were acoustic and electric guitars, bass and voice. I hold particularly dear the first time me and Lukas worked on the first demo, a few days after writing it: we were in Lukas' dorm, where he had set up a small studio, and we were tracking acoustic guitars. That was one of the first times I realized I had some affinity for arranging and production: as we were recording, I started having more and more ideas as to what to add and where. For example, the electric guitars in the chorus were my idea, and they came to me so naturally it felt almost magical to realize I had a vision for the song. Summernights of course also became the second project for my music technology class, which meant helpful feedback and a deadline to finish the demo. The first version included some midi percussion tracks, bass tracked by another friend back home and vocals recorded late at night in a practice room. When it was time to release it, we simply updated the instruments, having bass re-recorded by my friend Sommer, percussions reworked by me and producer friend Raza K, vocals re-recorded at Guscio Recording Studio in Milan and the mix and master finished by Marte Recording Studio also in Milan. So proud of the final result!
Thanks Isa!
No comments:
Post a Comment