Mike Gill and the making of "Lately"
I normally don’t go into the back story of most projects that I work on, but this one was kind of fun. The story is better than your normal, “Well, we wrote and song and then went in the studio and recorded it.” No – this story has high drama, pranks, and funny hats. A story that demands to be told!
But first, we must step back and introduce the main character, Mike Gill. This takes us back a few years. I was in London, doing… things. Like you do. I had brought my guitar with me, with the intention of hitting an open mic. I hopped the train and landed at the Red Cow[1]. There it was that I met Mike, as he was the host of the open mic. Mike made me feel comfortable straightaway and he was very encouraging for all the artists. Mike and I got to talking on the breaks and made a great connection. When I came back to the States Mike and I connected on social media and whenever I was in Europe, I would make a point of it to popover to London for a visit.
Fast forward to COVID-19, lockdowns, and all the nonsense associated with it. At that point in time Mike didn’t write many songs. Mike has a great voice and is a master of the loop station and if you ever get a chance to see him in London, you won’t be sorry. But he played, mostly at that time, cover songs. But I like to think I had given him some encouragement on that front - since this adventure he has turned into quite the song writer!
At the start of the lockdowns, Mike writes the song, “Lately”, and posts it to Facebook. “What a great song!” I thought when I heard it. I loved it straightaway. But… and here’s where the pranks kick in… I haven’t worked with Mike on a project, and he hasn’t really recorded something before so… I take the video, pull the audio off it and take it to the studio (The Sound Lair[2]) to get MiAH Lajeunesse on the case. We take that stripped off audio, design some drums, and I add bass, and some lead guitar. I wanted this to be a surprise - so this was all done without telling Mike.
Ok – we have song in hand, now what? Video! I start poking through Mike’s Facebook photos to pull some that I can intersperse with me playing the bass and guitar, with clips from Mike’s original video. And then… hats. I have a lot of hats. Some of them are quite fun. Just to be funny I change hats throughout the video clips.
High drama… I post the video to YouTube – flagging Mike and… nothing.
I wait a day. The suspense is killing me.
Still nothing.
Uh oh. You see, you never can tell how people are going to take it when you mess with their stuff. I thought I had crossed a well-intentioned line.
I wait another day. I send Mike a note via social media.
Still nothing.
Agghhhhhh!
I contact Mike’s wife Amy. She reveals that although they have been in lockdown, Mike hasn’t been on the computer. Mike finally see’s the video and loves it.
Success!
It is really a great song and one of the most fun projects I have worked on. Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAb5P6x8AT4
