Dare is a response to a creative slump. For months I'd been struggling to create music. Whenever I managed to get time to write something it was the same kind of sound, then I was lucky enough to have a two-week stint of meeting some creative and inspiring people, plus watching Brene Brown! Her idea of stepping in the arena, and taking part really resonated with me. I had been hiding, not releasing music, supposedly waiting until it was perfect and not challenging myself. I went to my studio and started recording my log drum into Logic Pro X, which I had never sampled before, just to a click track. I added a number of layers, then started adding shakers, clicks and chimes, still without drums.
Next up added a bassline with my 4 string jazz bass, creating a walking line, then added the drums. The drums have a number of layers of snares, toms, and a rim shot in a syncopated rhythm, leaving room for the percussion to play. I then dug into my found sounds that I'd been recording and found the sound of a peacock from Sri Lanka and the less exotic Breacon Beacons in Wales. I found a trumpet sample which I was feeling, and finally added part of Brene Brown's talk which had helped me to become remotivated. The track all in all took a couple of days to create, tweak and refine.
Dare is about challenging yourself. Over the last couple of years I have really reconnected with nature after a long period of being unable to enjoy being outside due to illness. Since that point I have run a 10K, done lots of walking, water sports and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. The visuals for Dare represent this push, it's a combination of inner strength and nature, self-development and reflection, and ultimately having nature as an inspiration. I want Dare to inspire people, much like Brene Brown was inspired by Theodore Roosevelt with the step in the arena mindstate.
lyrics
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
As recited by Brene Brown
credits
released September 2, 2019
Track produced by James "Vice beats" Kennaby for EQ Music.
Track mixed and mastered by Vice beats at EQ HQ.
For info, press and promo, email eqmusiccic@gmail.com
Graphics by Vice beats. (basically, I did everything this time!)
