It’s been a while! I’ve been working on this one for a few weeks and finally got a drum take that’s workable. My guitar and bass could use new strings. I want to add lead guitar, maybe even some light piano.
I’m not sure if I want to do a bridge or do a musical chorus with some solos and end with a big sendoff chorus. Open to ideas!
Thanks for listening!
Hi Ryan, just listening at work on crud speakers, but I really like this song - it reminds me a little of Fountains of Wayne.
All the parts are in place - I love the riffs, the bassline and the melodies. Wow, this thing has more hooks than a charter fishing boat!.. It’s really just a matter of arranging it all in a way that builds toward the payoff.
In that respect, my first suggestion would be to sing the first chorus down the octave, maybe waiting until the second to go “up there”.
Great work so far!
Great start, the harmonies are nice. With a little spit and polish this will turn out really well.
Listening on decent headphones, I’d like to hear the mix a little brighter altogether, and also get a little more shine on the vocals, since they are the focal point. I might consider simplifying the bass track just a little to let the vocals have more room if you can keep the drive of the track going.
It will be fun to hear the finished track.
This is awesome! Great tune. Lots of great details in the various instruments. I’d just tighten up the vocal volumes. A little loud at times. Maybe pull the treble back just a tiny bit on the vocals too…but it might be ok when the volumes are brought down and evened out. Are you backing off the vocals a little when the harmonies come in? If not, they might be stacking up and getting too loud.
Being an avid lifelong “how do I get my drums to sound good” guy, I’d love to hear about how you’re recording your drums.
Good stuff, hopefully you have more to share in the future, and might be up for a collaboration at some point.
Thank you all for the feedback!
@ColdRoomStudio - More hooks than a charter fishing boat 
I messed around a little on singing the chorus down an octave. While I can’t comfortably do a full octave down, I’ll see if I can work in a different melody.
@StylesBitchley - I’ll try brightening the mix and add a little shine to the vocals. I wonder if new strings and a little eq cut will help the bass sit under the vocals more.
@flyguitarfish - Thanks! I tried to give the song an interesting texture. I’ll definitely work on the vocal volume. I recorded the harmonies farther away from the mic, but I think I still need a little work on my singing volume; the frequencies can get pretty harsh!
I “cheat” when it comes to drums. I laid down the midi notes using my e-drums and feed it through a plug-in. This time I tried to give it more of a natural sound and made sure there wasn’t more than 3dB of compression anywhere.
Ooh, a collaboration sounds like fun! Color me interested
When I said “backing off” the vocals I meant volumes, not distance in relation to the mic. Sorry, that was pretty confusing. I was just saying that when two or more vocals are stacked the volume jumps up. I’m in no way a pro at this. It just really stood out when I was playing your tune in my car and that later chorus harmony section came in and it was a little loud.
I also like to back away from the mic for different vocal parts, especially backup vocals!
Your vocals sound great. What’s your chain from mic all the way to post processing? There’s always something I can learn!
@flyguitarfish Ah, okay! No worries 
I’ll check on the volume levels, thank you!
My chain is a Neumann TLM 102 > Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2nd gen > Cakewalk > Nectar 3 Plus