US singer/songwriter Zander Hawley has gotten his holiday season started off pretty brilliantly this year, releasing his debut EP I Wish I Was on December 1st. Having been consistently working on his music while juggling studies over the past few years, the LA native demonstrates a mature sound, a heartfelt lyrical delivery and some solid production. Working with some of his music idols and best mates, Hawley recorded I Wish I Was down at the studios at Bedrock LA in June last year.
Hawley gives us a track by track look at his debut, which saw him work with talented individuals including vocalist Phoebe Bridgers, Brad Lindsay (guitar, Jamestown Revival, Adam Lambert), Daniel Rhine (bass, Sara Bareilles) and producer Marshall Vore (drums, Ryan Adams).
“Five Things”
“Five Things” was my newest song when Marsh and I were picking the track list for the EP. I knew when I wrote it that I wanted it to feel different from other songs I’d written. I write the genre I write because I love to listen to it, but sometimes the acoustic singer/songwriter vibe can feel too gentle. This was a song I had written because I was angry, not sad, and I wanted to give it some teeth. We went electric, doubled the intro guitar line with a Wurlitzer keyboard effect, Brad got some absurd sounds for the supporting guitar parts, and it turned out exactly like I wanted.
“Daylight”
This is probably my favorite song on the EP. Pretty much from the start of my songwriting career, I was writing for the band I was in and “Daylight” was the first song I wrote that really felt like it was meant to be mine. We actually recorded this song in March, a few months before the rest of the EP as a sort of trial run to see how all the cogs fit together. Once we had the basic tracks down, we sort of just started trying different shit to see what sounded good. We ended up using a Juno, which is a keyboard with a super low register, instead of bass, and when the outro felt like it was missing something we threw on a high-strung guitar, which is just a regular acoustic tuned an octave higher (also known as Nashville tuning). The two things I love most about this recording are Phoebe’s harmony and Brad’s slide solo.
“Shame”
This song ended up being the problem child of the EP, to the point where we actually got back into the studio after it was ‘done’ and did some additional recording. All we had on the original recording instrumentally was guitar, drums, and bass. Right before the bridge, Marsh has that big snare buildup, and it felt like ‘Let’s get ready to rock…nah, never mind…’ We ended up going back to that Juno we used on “Daylight” and turning its weirdness factor up a bunch. It leads perfectly into that solo and Brad’s guitar is all over this song, but I want to make sure people know that that solo is by Harrison Whitford and it is epic.
“Come the Clear”
This song felt Marshall’s influence the most of any of the others on the EP. From the demo I sent him of just me and an acoustic guitar, he had a vision of exactly what he wanted. John learned that piano part perfectly in about ten minutes and we wanted to keep the song pretty sparse until the big finish.
The first thing you hear besides piano is an enormous calfskin drum that Marshall rolled into the studio that morning. Then everything hits in just my favorite way, especially Daniel’s bowed upright bass. Marshall’s snare adds a really nice effect as well. Then it all pulls back and the song ends with maybe my favorite line on the EP, “I never got over, I just kind of got older.”
https://soundcloud.com/user-573613317-425271388/sets/i-wish-i-was/s-oGISx
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I Wish I Was is available now on iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play and Amazon. Keep up to date with Zander Hawley via Facebook!
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