Singled Out: The Captain's Son's Will It Last?
The Captain's Son recently released their new single "Will It Last?" and to celebrate we asked guitarist/vocalist Paige Byrd to tell us about the track. Here is the story:
?"Will It Last?"...There was a lot going through my head when writing AND recording this. Firstly, I wanted to write something more simple - music first then the words too, rather than try and make the chords and structure too complex. I loved the simplicity of it at the core, a frustrating love story that asked a pessimistic question - and the words were true and literal. Matt McCluer was a huge influence on this one. The 3 main notes (in the key of G) ringing out in the beginning came to me so naturally while playing the 2 chords, I thought it was a sort-of Tom Petty sounding type of hook in between the hard, pronounced chord hits, aka the "thump - thump"...
I think the first time we really jammed it out with that feeling was at Ron's studio, just us 3 and when it was just the bass and simple drum kit playing when the verse came in you could just feel each individual hit SO good. I'm pretty sure Will pointed this out first (I remember because I still have the old rehearsal recorded somewhere).
The song took on a country feel rather quickly on certain parts. They just fit so perfectly. Probably because of how simple it was And because we're from the Midwest/South and we grew up with that stuff all around us. We were also listening to a lot of Natural Child, so I wanted to do stringy 'classic' country sounding riffs throughout (Probably from the Petty influence I mentioned too). While recording the vocals I decided I'd give it my all on the space between verses with a grimy, sharp edge, like The Rolling Stones if I had too, with strong character, but be more relaxed on the chorus vocals. I kept changing single lines vocally and adding harmonies at different times. Like the ones at the very end of the song were done wayyyy into the recording process. Same with some between parts in the chorus (if you listen real hard) weren't even written 'til towards the end of finishing it. Luckily we were recording in the bedroom at home so I had ALL the time in the world to adjust or try anything different or spontaneous at any point to see if it sounded good. A lot did, some didn't, ect... This was also the case with keyboards. This was only 1 of 2 on the album that I did keys on, and I had to write the part once the song was done and recorded. I almost exnayed the keys in the middle because I thought it took away from the rawness. I almost didn't put any keys on it period at the time - they were extremely impromptu. But everyone liked it and it needed something, and I love how they have a watery/Aqueous sound (there's 2 parts together btw). I didn't know what I was going for at first, but found it in a day or two.
The songs lyrics were a true feeling I had, as I said. I felt like I lived it. So that made sense and felt easy. The whole song is pretty easy actually, which is why I really liked it. Hope you do too!
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself right here!
Singled Out: The Captain's Son's Will It Last?
