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Singled Out: Space Elevator's We Can Fly

05-26-2018
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Space Elevator

Space Elevator just releasing their new album "Space Elevator II" and to celebrate we asked guitarist David Young to tell us about the song "We Can Fly". Here is the story:

The idea for this song came from playing two chords on a keyboard. I cannot play the piano or the keyboards, but because I understand chord structures I can fiddle around on keyboards and come up with something that I'd never think of on the guitar.

The sounds of those opening chords and then the guitar tuned to a low D with a wah instantly made me think of Physical Graffiti era Led Zep for some reason. However, the sound of the slow groove and the combination of keys and guitar sounded "spacey". The working title was "The Spacey song".

The double tempo chorus was in complete contrast to the verse and I had the idea for the half time end section immediately as it would sound very grand.

Elliott Ware who played keyboards on the recording used his moog to generate retro/prog type sounds over what is in essence a pop/rock sound. We added the keyboard, guitar solo Q and A last and the song ended up having a bit of everything.

It immediately became the obvious single and a great track to shoot a video for at the home of Thothx the Canadian space company who have pioneered a real life space elevator.

The lyrics we wanted to be uplifting and inspiring. To get the message across that if you believe in yourself you can be whatever you want to be. No one is "ordinary", we're all incredible. Just keep going.

We had the idea for a bit of fake film dialogue to reinforce this; the heroine saying to the overlord "I can't do it!" "Of course you can do it!" This became a fun part of an already bombastic video!


Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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Singled Out: Space Elevator's We Can Fly