naked raven

Firestone - piano/vocal Demo 2021 (J.Maunder) 
This is a bare bones and raw piano/vocal demo from 2021. 

The vocal lines for the instrumental section in the middle of the song will later become the string feature you hear in the final album version. 

Firestone took a long time to write. 
I knew it had good bones and I didn't want to give up on it, but it was one of those songs that I would pull out of the drawer, work on, then put away again because it never felt complete. 
The verses were written but then I just couldn't land the chorus. 
This process of reworking and refinement went on for about ten years. 

I liked the chords and harmonic movement in the piano, but it felt like an accompaniment written for a repetiteur. To my mind it sounded stiff and wasn't serving the heart of the song. 

But by the time this demo was recorded, the song had developed a stronger sense of form and narrative. It had found it's identity, the firestone representing human resilience, self-love and acceptance. It went from sounding hopeless to hopeful. 

When we began tracking Firestone for the album, the piano was still underpinning the arrangement and I just wasn't loving it. It wasn't wrong, it just didn't move me. 
So I asked our buddy and brilliant guitarist, Glenn Cannon, if he would come over and just play through the song on his acoustic guitar. The first time he strummed the chorus was like a sunrise. The feel! It seems so obvious now, but Firestone was clearly meant to be played on guitar. 

Glenn recorded the acoustic guitar and later Kathleen Halloran added electrics to the album version. They brought the special sauce. 

And IMO it's a perfect finale to the album. 

If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's this: 
go back to the drawer as many times as it takes. 

Janine