Single Release: "Swim With Me" by Unsociably High
The funky soul-duo dropped a reflective track about growing up.
Ottawa indie-soul duo Unsociably High released their third ever single, "Swim With Me"- a somber, introspective soft-rock track about growing up and losing your innocence. The band, Tiffany Wallace and Brendon Bartlett, started crafting the single in February of 2018.
"We generally take a more natural approach to writing music, by not forcing any part to be written first," said Bartlett. "In the case of "Swim With Me", the guitar came first and then we worked out the lyrics for it. The lyrics started with a blurb Tiff wrote while sitting in a coffee shop, and we built on them from there. The guitar was written about three months before, and we tried out so many different approaches to the lyrics over that time. Once we found what we liked, the lyrics took about two nights of tinkering to get them how we wanted. Then the drums and bass were written well after the fact. So long story short, we are looking at about a year of watching this song grow into what it has become."
"Swim With Me" explores moving on from childhood dreams.
"It's a song written about coming of age, and maturing," said Wallace. "How you grow older and realize how naïve you and the world around you can be. The death of childhood and the losing of your favourite pair of rose coloured glasses. Still trying to find the good things, and dancing with them until either you or them fade for good."
The duo prefer writing from the heart. "They hold a very strong connection to us as we try to keep all our music very personal," said Bartlett. "We wrote it at a very tough time in our lives. Knowing well that things could very well get worse, and knowing that life is simply hills and valleys."
Unsociably High recorded "Swim With Me" with Stefan Jurewicz, who also mixed and mastered the track.
"We recorded it along with six other tracks that will be released as a seven-track album," said Bartlett. ""Swim With Me" was an interesting song to record, I would have to say it was probably my favorite to record so far. Our friend Shawn Scissons absolutely nailed the drum track, which I was concerned about for the song has some very fun timing changes and so on. Was certainly a hurdle to get that perfect drum track to 7/4 timing. The bass line that I put down for it was an absolute joy as well. Stefan and I also had a great time working on the solo- trying out different guitars and tones, panning them, blending them and adding in harmonies."
The band stumbled as they approached a new way to record their vocal tracks.
"One of the biggest stepping stones in the whole album recording process was the vocals," said Wallace. "It was my first time recording vocals in a studio and obviously that takes a bit of experience. In "Swim With Me", Stefan actually tried a new way of recording vocals where he would line me up with studio monitors and play the music back while I sang into the mic. When done properly he was able to remove the music from the vocal track, using reverse polarity, leaving just the vocals. This gave it a much more relaxed, natural feel to both the recording and the finished product. This is also the only song Brendon joined in on some back up vocals. It was very fun doing " Ohhhs" and "Ahhhs" together."
Unsociably High wants their listeners to appreciate the things they have, while they still have them.
"We hope it brings them joy, a smile, and an urge to dance!" said Wallace. "To give people the idea that no matter how troubling times could get, hold onto something or someone you love and enjoy that moment as long as you can. We all want to be able to turn back time and go back to when we thought it was simple, but what fun is it if we only stay in one place?"
You can help support the artists by visiting the links below.
"We have a Bandcamp, where our album will be for purchase," said Bartlett. "All our music will be on major streaming platforms as well. We also have a website, where we'll be getting our merch shop up and running soon. We always appreciate a simple follow on social medias- and never be afraid to spark a convo with us!"
Upcoming gigs:
(Postponed due to COVID-19.)