I still owe you one blog in this series. A last story of the beat. The story of the album as a whole...

It was around summer 2008 that I started preparing for a new album. On my tour with Melanie Dekker in the fall of that year, I already played a bunch of new songs with Alex Brackx. In the spring of 2009 I recorded 'Hoping for a miracle' with producer Gert Jacobs, as a first single to be released before the record.
I released it in the fall of 2009. Radio stations in Belgium responded that they would wait for the new album before they would air it. Really, that's what they said. Nothing more, nothing less.
So I started working frantically on the other songs, writing, recording demo's, re-writing, re-recording demo's, selecting songs on the shortlist, throwing them off the shortlist, writing new songs, etc.etc.
All the while, I was wracking my brain on how I would finance this record. My plan was to launch the single, get some attention and shows, and get the necessary funds by launching a crowdfunding campaign.
Of all those things, only the last part, I could do myself. The other steps didn't work out. So I subscribed to Akamusic and tried to get the funds. I already decided to name the record 'The sound of the beat' a long time ago. Almost instantly after I wrote the song.  So the campaign already bore the name 'The sound of the beat'. The problem with Akamusic was that you had to succeed and reach your goal to get the funds collected. I set my goal to 10000 €, what would have been a comfortable recording, production ànd promotion budget for this new album. Unfortunately, I aimed too high...
I already wrote a blog on that story a while back so I won't get into detail here.
Meanwhile, songs were still being written. But I had no money to record them.
I did however start to record at home with Logic (instead of garageband) and that opened up some possibillities in this pre-production fase.
Meanwhile the years passed, good things happened, bad things happened, I worked a lot, I renovated my house, I had a baby. And still the budget wasn't sufficient... But I launched a new crowdfunding campaign with world of crowdfunding in 2013.  This time I decided to pursue a minimum budget (recording budget, nothing more) of ca. 3500. Although I didn't reach the goal either but I did managed to get 2190 €, thanks to some very dedicated fans!!  I added the rest of the necessary funds by dipping into my own savings.
And then suddenly things became possible. We went to record with Ward Neirynck at MM Studio (Geraardsbergen), the studio where I have recorded everything since 1998 (except for Hoping for a miracle, which was recorded at Audioworkx in Hogeloon (NL) . I teamed up with 'my' musicians, my all star team that have been with me for a long time now. I met Alex Brackx in the summer of 1996, right before I was going to record my first record, 'Growing Pains', so we go way back... Eric Bosteels played on my 2001 demo 'Up all Night' and has been my drummer ever since. Bert Embrechts joined the team when we were preparing for the recordings of 'Wolfish Times' in 2005.
So it's safe to say that I feel very comfortable playing music with these guys. Although I'm not the most productive musician out there, and I certainly don't play enough gigs to keep them in business, they have always been very supportive of my songs and music. So thank you again guys,  for giving it your all on this record (and on the previous ones).

The shortlist of songs for this record is obvious. It's the twelve songs you hear. Or eleven, because I decided to make 'Hoping for a miracle' a bonus track, rather than a regular song in the track list. It was recorded almost six years before the other songs and stems from another era, songwriting-wise.
But the other eleven are the ones that stood out and that fit together well. Because in other to choose wisely for this record, I had to kill some darlings. They were painful decisions to make but it had to be done... some songs really weren't compatible with others, or were simply not yet ready to be recorded. So I decided to keep them with me for a little while longer.  That's why song's like 'The Keeper', 'California', 'I know you're leaving' haven't made it onto a record just yet...

Production-wise my motto is always 'why make it hard when you can keep it simple'. I'm a big fan of records/music/artists where things are not being made too complicated, where you can still hear every instrument or track that has been recorded. that's why this record is mostly a fourmanband-record. That's why we are able to play the record live without too much compromise or without leaving out too much. The only problem is the backing vocals. I recorded all vocal tracks on this record out of economic reasons but also because I could. I am a vocalist. My voice is my best instrument. So it seemed logical that I would record them all myself, partly in the studio and partly at home.
I had a blast at the recording sessions in january 2014. I was six months pregnant and very tired, but that didn't matter. I loved making music, and singing (although the singing part was getting more difficult every day - I even stopped recording the vocal tracks at one point and decided to continue recording after the baby was born, because I was short of breath almost instantly one day.) Recording the accordeon was quite a challenge, imagine a big belly and a big accordeon on top of that.
But somehow we managed. After the baby was born, in may 2014, I started recoring overdubs at home in the summer and fall of 2015. In january 2015 Ward started mixing the record. Uwe Teichert, who I already worked with for 'Wolfish Times', mastered the album and on may 1st 2015 I released it on my own label, Superjane Music.
No big promo stunts, no bells and whistles. I just put it out there. And ever since then I have been gradually making it known to the world that I have a new record. I've played a few smaller gigs but I'm putting together a live tour as we speak for 2016, so stay tuned for that.

I cannot promise this record will get a follow-up soon. This is my fourth album in 20 years time so I will not commit or make promises to release anything within five years. But you never know...
As for sound, this record goes back to my folky roots. To me it almost feels like the sum of all my previous records sound-wise. In this record it all comes together.
I really hope you enjoy it because I gave it all I had, and then some...


Read more here
Album credits here

Last official Stories of the beat-blog. Next week I will talk a little more about the album as a whole and how it came about, but this week it's the story of one song.
The song.
The one song that I decided should be the title track of the album.
The sound of the beat.
It could easily be the title of a nineties dance compilation. Yet it isn't.
The line 'we all have to move on, we all row to the sound of the beat' always gives me visuals of eighteenth century boats powered by chained slaves rowing below deck to the sound of a drum, rowing for dear life, rowing because they are forced to, rowing because they cannot do anything else.
Although I'm usually very optimistic and chipper, and I love all the things I get to do in music and museums, sometimes I do feel like I'm the rat inside the wheel, just running around like crazy without any clear goal, forgetting I took the same turn albeit a thousand times. The song is partly about that.
But it is also about not needing to prove yourself anymore. Every story has already been told, every song has already been sung.
For me the song is a kind of crede, a testimony to how I feel I stand in life (at this point in time). I wrote the song most likely 5 or 6 years ago. I wanted to make a new record, not for the critics or to prove my own legitimacy as a songwriter. I just wanted to make it for the sake of the music itself. I'm not sure I would write the exact same song today, but I am very proud of it lyricwise, the song comes full circle, from beginning to end. For a long time it didn't actually, not until I wrote the bridge.
Furthermore l feel that this song is the sum of all the songs that come before it on the record. It could not have been anywhere on the record but at the last position. (not taking into account the bonus track 'hoping for a miracle').

The song's arrangements was quickly determined in a very early stage. It's one of the more 'loaded' songs, in terms of amount of tracks. There are several guitars and vocals, organ, drums, bass, backing vocals.
Yet it's not a rock song. It's very clearly a roots song, with a clear and defined place for every individual instrument. I particularly had a lot of fun recording the vocals in the outro, as it the chorus becomes a group chant. There are no less than sixteen vocal tracks (if I recall correctly) in the outro....
All singing the same mantra... 'we all have to move on, we all row to the sound of the beat, of the beat'

Lyrics here
Listen here

Credits:
Marjan Debaene: Lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, hammond organ, percussion
Alex Brackx: Electric guitars
Bert Embrechts: Bass guitar
Eric Bosteels: Drums

How about a story on thursday for a change?  Let me take you back to the wild West today!! A short blog for a short song!


I can't precisely recall when I wrote The Wild West, I think it was early 2009, but it was one of the songs that defined the direction I wanted to take with this new album and pursue  a back-to-the-roots-sound.
This song talks about going back to your roots. I left my 'roots' some 20 years ago when I left Ypres (Belgium) to go and study in Leuven. I never came  back... I grew some new roots there but everytime I'm back on my birthground, I'm happy to be there. I'm home. That's what this song is about. The  West-Flemish hills of my youth.

It's also the song where I play the most fun guitar solo I've ever played. This solo has stayed with the song since the very first demos. It's a country lick that I played on my Fender Telecaster plugged into my 1978 Twin Reverb. I also play accordion on the song and Alex plays the mandola. These instruments give the song the zydeco-touch I was aiming for. 
Enjoy!!

Read lyrics here
Listen here

Tuesdays are overrated :) On this happy wednesday, another Story of the Beat.
This time it's a spooky one. Let me tell you all about the ghost of Seville...`

I've only been to Spain once (yet). It was the summer of 2012, the year I can still call one of the worst years in my life, for many reasons. My 3 andalusian weeks in Spain however were some of the best weeks of that year, although it was searing hot (sleeping in a tent at 35 degrees Celsius at night is not all it's cracked up to be...) Thank heavens for swimming pools and mediterranean beaches. 
We visited many of my 'bucketlist' places including Còrdoba - the Mezquita! -  and Granada - the Alhambra! - and slept under the stars in the Sierra Nevada.  Also on the bucketlist was (and still is) Seville. Severe car trouble prevented us from going to Sevilla. 
Because of the heat there were many forest fires in Spain that year and driving on the highway you could smell it in the air, miles before you would pass a charcoaled hillside, that was still smoking. 
So, we never made it to Sevilla -for now it remains the ghost of that trip- but somehow Spain crept under my skin and a few months after we got home, this song came to me while I was improvising on the piano. 
I guess 'the ghost of seville' can be a metaphor for anything you have on your 'bucketlist', whether it's a place you want to visit of something you want to do, a person from your past you want to get in contact with...You name it, something that keeps haunting you, like a ghost. 
I will get to Seville one day, of that I'm sure, don't know when, but until then I have to settle for the 'idea' of Seville that nested itself, hiding  in the back of my mind, haunting me from time to time... 

Musically, I wanted the song to have a hint of spanish music, but not too much, because all too soon it can be come a gimmick. So we deliberately didn't use the castanets or the handclaps, or even the spanish guitar. 
That would be too cliché. Instead the chord scheme already is very Spanish with the classic transition from the Am, to the E, to the F chord. Alex plays some subtle 'spanish' strumming, but that's it. I wanted to use a trumpet solo in the outro, a 'calexico' kind of melody, but in the very last moment decided that would also be too cliché. But still,  I felt the outro was a little too 'empty' and boring, so I dug up my old friend, the E-bow, one night, when I was doing some overdubs at home and started to put some  guitar layers on top of the outro.  That made me very happy :) Mr. E-bow always puts a smile on my face, although I hardly used him before on my records. But I'm glad he made it to this one. It really adds a little bit of 'haunting ghost', I feel...

Read lyrics here
Listen here

Credits:
Marjan Debaene: Lead and backing vocals, piano, electric guitar E-bow solos, percussion
Alex Brackx: Acoustic guitar
Bert Embrechts: Bass guitar
Eric Bosteels: Drums

I wrote the State of Absurd a few years ago. I cannot remember what exactly triggered me to write the lyric, but it must have been something I saw on the news, probably the election results in Belgium that put a right wing party in control of our country. I found it so absurd because I voted for another political party, and  I felt that my voice was not being heard. Or so it seemed. I know that my vote mattered, and that my political party as an opposition party makes sure that the government doesn't get away with everything. Or at least not without a fight. But, it made me want to write and expand about our  so called 'first world problems', in a western civilisation where everybody focuses on the 'I', their own self (whether it is in a materialistic way or in a 'mindful' way).  
People these days have the tendency to complain a lot. Vocally and verbally, on social media like facebook, twitter, etc. I wanted to shake them (and myself) up. You-are-allright! You have food! You have clothes. You have Ikea plates! You get to complain on facebook about your political party losing the election. There are people who don't have free speech. They don't get to complain. And you can love. In my case, I live in a country where any love IS love, regardless of race and gender. I get to love my wife. I get to marry her. I get to have babies with her. I get to do all of that. 
Yet so many people don't have the same privileges as me. That brings me great sadness sometimes. Especially today, where religion wars rule the world, where innocent people are being beheaded for propaganda reasons, where refugees are being welcomed one minute and clubbed down the next, where babies drown and dentists kill wildlife for fun, I feel we live in a state of absurd. It's in times like these that I turn to love. Love, for me is a safehaven, a place where you can take a breath. Where you can re-gain yourself, regain composure. Therefore I love how the song ends.  Every minute with your true love is a minute well-spent....

This song had to be a small one. This song had to be just me on the guitar, with some subtle, trickling piano notes and double bass. It just had to remain that simple. For in the town of 'Regain' there could be no room for baroque, no room for drums, no room for electric bombast. It needed to stay pure, and airy.  
Check it out for yourself! 

Listen to 'the state of absurd' here
Read lyrics here

Credits
Marjan Debaene: Lead vocals, acoustic guitar, piano
Bart Parmentier: Upright double bass

A few years ago, I bought myself a second hand accordion. I decided to learn it, by myself. It couldn't be that hard, right? Turns out, after 7 years, I already know 5 chords fluently (on the left hand buttons, the right hand is a piano keyboard).  And in theory I guess you could add 6th or a 7th, but my left hand just won't cooperate. Not that impressive. I lack the time to really practice it well.
But, to me it's enough because I wrote one beautiful (in my opinion) song, with just four of those chords, on the accordion from scratch.

The road to Wonderland is about trying to find your way. Out of the wrong place where you are in right now.  Whether you want to find your way home, or to some other place, far far away. Whatever is your wonderland.
It's not the most positive song on the record, it contains hints of despair, of not believing, of not being able to achieve your goals. Still, I believe hope sounds in the final chords of the song.

I really love what we did with it musically. It always was a two instrument song (accordion, guitar) plus three vocal tracks. I almost asked some guest singers to record it with me, but time and budgetwise, I decided to record all vocals myself. In the studio we changed the guitar to mandola, which has a deeper, warmer and rounder sound. We also added the wonderful banging drums. They push the song forward. The way the accordion and the drums are mixed, with basses coming and going in the song structure, really give an added value here.
I really like this one.
Hope you do too :)

Listen to the song here
Read the lyrics here

Credits:
Marjan Debaene: Lead and backing vocals, accordion
Alex Brackx: Mandola
Eric Bosteels: Drums

The song 'It's about to go down' came about after I was scrolling through my Twitter-timeline one night. Somebody tweeted something like 'it's about to go down. someone should write a song about it.'
And so I did.  Cause you don't have to challenge me twice with something like that :-)

The song lyric is a spielerei, a lyric exercise, a word play. The words have a kind of hiphop-attitude,  'yo man, it's about to go down, you better take cover, it's gonna blow'... It makes sense.
Saying something is about to go down, means something big is about to happen. It's an urban 'slang' phrase. For me it means you think it will be great, awesome, mindblowing.
The song can be about anything good, great, huge anywhere for or by anybody. I always feel like it was my promise about the new album.
'It’s gonna be all the things you wished for and you hoped for'

Musically though it's everything except hiphop. I always describe the song as 'lana del rey meets mumford and sons'. I guess, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The country shuffle rhythm  keeps pushing the song forward and the banjo adds to the drive. The high guitar notes always give me a 'le vent nous portera' (Noir Désir) vibe. The song, lyric and music, was written in about 30 minutes tops. It really felt like a power exercise and ever since I wrote it, I couldn't get it out of my head (especially the 'oohs'). So it was a keeper for this record.

Allright, a penny for your thoughts... ;)

Listen here
Read lyrics here

Time to tell another story...
This one will be an easy one because the song in itself is a story. It is however based on a real place, the Tunnel Museum somewhere in the outskirts of the city of Sarajevo (BiH).
I've had the unbelievable privilege and pleasure of going on tour to Bosnia i Hercegovina two years in a row, with my good friend Bruno Deneckere.  On those tours, we went to play in the wonderful town of Sarajevo. (We also played in Travnik, Konjic, Brcko, Boracko Jezero, Mostar, Srebrenica,... - check the gigs archive for 2007 and 2008 if you want to know more. Check my old blog if you want to read and see pics of both tours).

Sarajevo, as I said, is a wonderful town. There a very few places in the world (other than my home) where I truly felt relaxed and in place. Up to date they are Iceland (the country as a whole), New York and Sarajevo.
The buzz radiating from the city that lies on the crossroads of East and West (and therefore has been through a lot, politically, throughout the centuries) is energizing, almost in a 'we survived and we're still kicking' kind of way.
In 2007 the band decided to visit the Tunnel Museum, a little place where the tunnel ends (or begins) that provided life support, guns and oil to the besieged town of Sarajevo during the war in  1992-1995. The Tunnel was dug under the airstrip and therefore was guaranteed a safe passage, as the airport area was in control of the United Nations and was not being bombed. For more info on the tunnel, visit the wikipedia page about it.
When we visited the site, it was a warm, sunny day. The Museum is located near the Sarajevo airport but there was not a single airplane lifting off that afternoon. All I remember seeing was the city of Sarajevo in the distance, snuggling against the hillsides that surround it. All I remember hearing was the wind.

When we arrived the museum wasn't open yet, but a little old lady came to the door and spoke to us. She smiled constantly, while she was standing in the doorway of her shot-to-pieces house....
The bullet holes were chilling. They gave me chills ever since we passed the border and entered Bosnia in the tourvan. But, the houses we saw there - although chilling -  remained impersonal, passing by them at speed. When we exited the car, the first time in Maglaj, it became hauntingly real. The ruins, the bullet holes, the half-rebuilt houses, the booby trap... Although  I grew up in the WOI war zone of Ypres, that war was fought 80 years ago.  The traces are almost completely erased. The bullet holes in Bosnia were from a war that just finished only 10 years before. They were practically still warm...
That's partly what gave me chills. The other thing that gave me chills, or rather goosebumps, was the intense smile, that expressed so much joy, that the old lady gave us.
It made a huge impact on me (on us), similarly to the impact playing on the town square of Srebrenica gave me.... It's almost impossible to put into words. And yet, a few months after our first Bosnian adventure the words and melody of 'The Sarajevo Tunnel' came to me.
The song tells the story of the old lady, in which I also added some fictional elements. I can't be certain that she lost her husband and one of her sons, or that she's seventy-three (since she didn't tell us). But I guess it doesn't matter if I fantasized since the story probably fits one or many old Bosnian ladies if not this one...

It saddens me enormously that there is still war based on religion in this world. It saddens me that so many people are fleeing their homes looking for safety. I saddens me that many are not surviving that journey. I know one song about survival and hope (because I guess that's what it is in a way) won't change this at all. But I do know  that it symbolises the change I went through. Before Bosnia I was more focused on what the world could bring to my music, and how it would be relevant to me. After Bosnia, I felt like it was the other way around. How could my music be relevant to the world? Even if this song only affects one person, or brings some kind of perspective to their thinking, then I am very content.

I do want to stress one point because people asked me before. The song is not about taking sides. The song is not about choosing for Bosnia and against Serbia. The situation is much too complicated. The song is mostly description of that situation and how people use coping mechanisms and try to survive during wolfish times...

Read lyrics here
Listen here

Credits

Marjan Debaene: Lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion
Alex Brackx: Electric guitar 
Bert Embrechts: Bass guitar
Eric Bosteels: Drums

Week #4 of  Stories of the Sound of the Beat.

When I wrote 'Oh my love', it was a solo piano song. The song was very loaded, lyricwise (more about that later) and it needed some more melodies other than the piano and lead vocal to ‘clear the air’.

On the first demo I recorded of it, I kind of set the tone  (oooh, I love how that metaphore fits here…).
I added an acoustic guitar and the backing vocal tracks. For the bridge I chose a keyboard sound that sparkled a little more, but the weary chords kind of balanced the sparkles and the heavy mood. Yes, Dminor (the ground chord in the bridge) is by far one of the weariest chords in the book, in my opinion at least.

As the song builds up towards the last verse and chorus, I knew it would need the backup of drums and bass. So that’s what we did in the studio. We recorded the song as an acoustic 'powerballad' in which there would and could not be a single electric guitar. Because I felt that would have been too much. It’s a thin line between a powerballad and a Scorpions song, so I decided to stay far far away from that thin line…
(Don't get me wrong, there is a time and a place for 'The wind of change' but it wasn't on my record...)
 The only real power in the outro comes mostly from the vocal parts anyway. And that’s just fine, as far as I’m concerned.

Now, the lyric. 
It is in fact a very melancholic song. Not the most cheerful on the record. Actually one of the saddest songs I’ve ever written.  I’ve doubted if I should tell you the true story behind this song, because it might take away the mystery. Many people might think this is a song based on a true story, something that happened in my own life maybe, or to someone I knew. It couldn’t be further from the truth.

As a songwriter, I get inspired by stories. Mostly things happening in my own life or in the lives of those close to me. But every so often I get inspired by things I read in newspapers or in books, or by things I hear on the radio or see on tv. This song is very heavily inspired by something I saw on television. In a fictional tvshow actually.

Yes, it’s true. I’m television lover. I love television series. I love criminal shows, I love science fiction, I love political series, I love medical shows.  And though it may not be considered ‘cool’ by some musicians to openly admit to my love for popular tv culture, I really don’t care. I love it! (in an Icona Pop kind of way :-))

This song in particular was inspired by a story line in the ever so popular ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, the medical drama that the world (including me) cannot seem to get enough of. You can give me some McDreamy, McSteamy (may their perfect haircuts rest in peace in tv-heaven), Twisted Sisters, Calzona, Jolex or Japril any day of the week.

For all you Grey’s lovers out there, the Calzona-aircrash-aftermath was the direct inspiration for this song. For the 'I don't know what you're referring to' - people out there. Two lovers are almost literally ripped apart by the devastating greatness of what they have experienced, an air crash. Of course I kind of went my own way with it whilst writing the words. I didn’t want to be too exact. I never am in songs, I take a story and then I run away with it and make it my own. Sometimes that also creates some distance when lyrics are a bit more personal. And remaining vague also takes away some banality.

As you read the lyric, you may get the impression that it is a dialogue. And it kind of is, in a way. Both sides of the story are told, although maybe not completely or exhaustively. I deliberately did not specify who says  what nor did I use any punctuation because you would get a duet-feeling, and I didn’t want that.
It’s also not important which words are said out loud by which character in the story and which ones are only in the mind.  It’s only in the outro that the two voices come together.

'Oh my Love' is a song about something so big, so traumatising, so heavy on the heart that it’s almost impossible to keep the love alive, to survive as a couple. Towards the end, one of the characters still has hope, and almost begs for the other to not leave yet. To keep trying. To not give up the fight.
And that’s where the song ends. The answer of the other character is not revealed. In the tv show it is, but by the end of the song, I do feel like it’s not about those specific characters anymore. They became someone else. Who’s to say how or when the songcharacters’ story end? Nobody knows where they might end up... (;-)

Lyrics here

Listen here

Credits:
Marjan Debaene: Lead and backing vocals, piano and keyboards, percussion
Alex Brackx: Acoustic guitar
Bert Embrechts: Fretless bass guitar
Eric Bosteels: Drums

Ok, you know the drill. Another tuesday, another story...
Today I will tell you the tale of the oldest song on the record.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away,  I was a student in Leuven and in between records. Ok, so this may not start out as your typical fairy tale, but for the song 'I want it all back' there sure was a fairy tale ending in the making, even though I didn't know it back then in 1997 or 1998. 
It must have been around that time, anyway.
I had released my first record, 'Growing Pains'(1996), a collection of songs I had written between the age of 12 and 16. After the release, I had been playing a great amount of concerts around Belgium and Holland while also trying to be a thriving student.... Well, that didn't work. The student part anyway, the concert part was great. I loved it. It gave me energy. It gave me air. It gave me life.  But as everything, also a tour must come to an end eventually. And then it hits you. Hard. The silence. 

So there I was. Starting a new university year, as a future art historian, I might add. I didn't know right there and then that I would actually graduate with flying colours and would be celebrating my ten year anniversary next year working at one of the coolest and boldest museums this side of the Channel. But that's another story...
For a while, I reveled in being a student, studying art, soon developing an endless love for the Middle Ages. 
But, somehow, you can take the girl off of the stage, but not the stage out of the girl...So soon, I developed a serious case of concertitis. A real and severe aching in the deepest part of your musical heart, an itch to perform and sing music in front of a crowd. 
And I started writing songs again, while feeling the pressure of the 'second album'. The song 'I want it all back' was written at that time. I loved it instantly. The lyric was so 'me', and the melody was one I could really 'sing'.  But.... it didn't work. Somehow, it didn't fit the list of songs that was selected for my second record 'Humanoid'. 

Time went by, 'Humanoid' (1999) was released, concerts were played. Tours ended and the song just lay there, on the shelf. After 'Humanoid', I studied some more (yadayadayada) and felt some more itching and aching for playing. 
I also did not have a record deal anymore since my record company ceased to exist and my distribution company went bankrupt a few month after the album was released (yeah, my album sales didn't go through the roof...) So it hit me twice. And even harder than the first time. It kicked me to ground. I didn't even want to be a musician anymore. But I still was. I will always be. I realised as long I had songs and music in me, I would be doomed (and blessed) to stay a musician forever. (aww... can you hear the violins too? seriously, I hear them. All the time ;-))

So I picked myself off from the ground, wiped my knees and started writing again, and recorded my EP 'Up all night' (2001). And started over as an indie artist. Time sneaks up on you, and I tried to read and learn everything there was to know about being an independent artist. I also wrote and wrote and wrote. I finally had the perfect list of songs for my next album 'Wolfish Times' (2006). But, you can guess, 'I want it all back' didn't fit. Didn't work. Didn't make the cut. Again. 

After that I kind of gave up on the song for years. You can't keep beating a dead horse, right?
Time was a serious bitch after that. It went by so fast. I started working in said cool museum and soon was swamped in museumstuff. I started writing for the next record around 2007, 2008 and already recorded a first song in 2009 ('Hoping for a miracle') but I didn't find the time, or the money to record and release my newest record 'The sound of the beat' until 2014.  I had a heap of songs ready and made a very strict selection. This album would be a coherent one.

And then, just when I stopped looking, I found it again. There it was, on the shelf, the lyric to 'I want it all back'. I still knew the melody and chords by heart, as if I had just written it the day before. I decided to take a chance and record a demo for it. I started with the bassline, oddly enough. I like playing bass. I love it. So I started working on it. Because I started with the bass, I guess I changed the groove of the song and it moved away from the typical 'depressed young songwriter girl with acoustic guitar'-song and became something more, something greater. Suddenly  I injected a sort of Bruce Springsteen meets Anouk meets Melissa Etheridge meets Texas kind of drive in the song. After a few hours, I played it back and I liked it. Instantly really really liked it. Goosebumps kind of liked it. So, there it was. The illegitimate child, hidden in a backroom for years, suddenly standing in the light and shining! And I realised it wasn't the song that wasn't ready or good enough for so long, it was me... I needed those 15 or 16 years to come to terms with it. 

The rest of the story is pretty straight forward. We recorded the song almost exactly as I arranged it in the demo (bassline, riffs, backing vocals,...), as a classic rock combo (drums, bass, guitars, piano, vocals). At first, I did have an awesome idea to use a horn section in the bridge (I recorded it on the demo) but it turned out it really wasn't that awesome after all, so we skipped the horn-idea. It would have been too much. Trust me...
I did keep the horn-melody and changed it to a string part. I also added a twin piano part to the strings that wasn't on the demo. With the strings combined, you get a little touch of Vanessa Carlton there...

All's well that ends well. I want it all back is now one of my own favorites on the new album. 

Listen to it here

Lyrics here

Credits:
Marjan Debaene: Lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards, percussion
Alex Brackx: Electric guitars
Bert Embrechts: Bass guitar
Eric Bosteels: Drums


Next week another personal favorite: Oh my love