This track was recorded at Blackbox Studios with Jeff Lovejoy (Screamfeeder, Sahara Beck) - with Marc (songwriter) doing some “essential and tasteful” overdubs in his dodgy home studio. Like much of the band’s recent material, the song was recorded live in the studio - yes, even that guitar solo - with the main vocals and some other bits and pieces added later.
Prior to heading into the studio, the band had been performing this song in a way that suited their live shows - faster, louder, heavier. When preparing for the studio recording, however, Jeff (producer) and the band listened to an old home-recorded demo which was much more mellow and featured mostly acoustic guitar and hand percussion, and decided to split the difference and aim for a slightly softer version for these studio sessions. This turned out to be a good choice because it left more room for vocal harmonies and other textural additions.
“My favourite overdubs were the beard scratch and tea cup,” says Cheeseman. “In the chorus you can hear a raspy and rhythmic, scraping percussion sound, that’s me with a microphone in one hand (Shure SM57 I think) and a cardboard drink coaster in the other, scraping the coaster across my face. The tea cup is also in the choruses, and the outro as well I think. That’s the tinkling little click you hear on those off beats, it sounds like a tiny wood block. It’s me tapping a little old porcelain tea cup with a coin or a lighter or something. I tried lots of different things to get some interesting sounds in this track.”
Musically, this song evolved quite a lot from the writing process to then performing it live (and then recording). But although the music changed quite a bit, the lyrics stayed the same right from the beginning. The song is about being in emotional turmoil, going through something, but finding it really difficult to put that into words, to actually tell someone. “This line from Bram Stoker’s Dracula kept coming back to me while writing it - something about a ‘painted ship in a painted ocean’, it just fit so well and I felt that it summed up the feeling I was trying to put into the song.”
lyrics
Can I walk your way
Can I give my face away
Yes today, not tomorrow
Have I words to say
More than enough to fill the night
Yes today, not tomorrow
Yes today
Living day to day
It's enough to drive a woman wild
Yes today, not tomorrow
Feeling still today
As a painted ship in a painted ocean
Yes today, not tomorrow
Yes today
Yes today, not tomorrow
Yes today, not tomorrow
Yes today, not tomorrow
Yes today, not tomorrow
credits
released March 7, 2024
Marc Cheeseman - vocals, guitars, percussion (beard scrape, tea cup), keys
Warwick Epiha - bass, backing vocals
Jonny Pickvance - drums, backing vocals, percussion
Produced and Recorded by Jeff Lovejoy and Marc Cheeseman
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