Heartbeats (The Knife Cover)

When I first started playing music in my small town in MD, I remember having a certain reserved disdain for cover bands. Making money from someone else’s music didn’t sit well with me. It seemed uninspired and lazy and I had apparently glossed over the heart of the idea, which was that people were just trying to have a good time. I carried that idea with me for a long time, ironically missing that my own early bands were mostly regurgitating our favorite punk and hardcore songs, and not exactly reinventing the wheel in any way. 

By the time Circa started, I was a whole ass grown boy and didn’t really feel so weird about playing another bands’ music.  Our first cover was Duran Duran’s Ordinary World, a song eerily akin to the mood of our washed out guitars and a fitting range for Anthony’s vocals. It was fun. We did a few other things along the way before eventually, essentially becoming Nirvana for an entire night and playing only their songs to a packed room of music fans in California. HOLY SHIT. IT WAS FUN. 

It’s impossible to determine the effect that memorizing and practicing a song has on a musicians style or creative output but it’s certainly something. I wish I would have realized that when I was younger. I played a few of my favorite albums when I was learning to play guitar, Nirvana, Toadies, Clutch, Silverchair, Deftones, Soundgarden, Tool,  and then never bothered with other people's songs after high school. People would always yell shit at me like, “hey man play Freeboard or whatever”. and i’d be like “nah man i just came up with this riff that sounds weird without a band, but also i don’t have a band so leave me alone please”. I missed out on a lot of influence that I could’ve added to my skillset. 

Doing cover songs for the Patreon has been informative, inspiring and motivational. I love every song that we’ve worked on but it wasn’t until we did “Heartbeats” that I felt I really wanted to discuss one of them. This song. man. OK. so. hold on.

In 2014 I was at Coachella playing bass with Anthony. I was wandering the fields in the evening alone. the rave tent was raving behind me and i think i’d just caught Woodkid put on an inspiring show on that other weird stage. In recent years, I have found that my favorite live show is the one I stumble into with no expectations. And so it happened on that evening that I heard a dancy sort of sound and wandered toward it like a dance moth to a dance light. And when I arrived I simply could not dance I just attached myself motionless to the dance band transfixed. 

There was a sort of Barbarella flavored theatre production happening in front of me with ten or so people in topaz, teal and purple space togas. It was mesmerizing. I had never heard of The Knife. I couldn’t tell if people were playing instruments or if there was a DJ somewhere. It was a lot to take in and I was captivated by the oddity of it set against what had largely been a day of rock, rap, and dj sets. It was performance art. I’ve always struggled with the idea of being a “performer”. Circa toes the line. We obsess over art and aesthetic and production and yet there’s a punk background for all of us that doesn’t want the performance itself to feel rehearsed I suppose. It’s always amazing to see someone else just nail it. The Knife nailed it. I had know idea if there were ten people in the band who had just decided “fuck it let’s not bring instruments this time”, or if there was one person that just made all the music or if someone had perhaps slipped me an elephant dose of LSD in my last beverage. Anyway, it happened and I went home. It was around that time that I bought a pretty amazing home stereo system and really started falling in love with listening to music again. seriously, if you’re starting to get bored with music stop listening to it through your iPhone headphones. Upgrayed.

Now listen, we’re finally to the thing I wanted to talk about. 'Heartbeats' by The Knife, is simply one of my favorite songs of all time. (Further research has informed me that I’m not all that into the rest of their catalog, but that’s ok.) I’ve listened to this one song probably a thousand times. 

So covering 'Heartbeats' seemed like an amazing idea at first. "Guys I love this, let’s fuckin do it." When we got rolling with it, I realized that it presented a few problems for me. The first thing is a concept, which is this, when Circa covers a song there is a certain amount of “let’s make this ours” that goes into the process. With Nirvana it was different. It was let’s play these fucking nirvana songs as they are and rock and not think about it. These new covers we aren’t attempting to play live and they’re amazing songs already so why record them in the exact same way? Right, so we have fun and tweak them and take them somewhere new. Now the problem that essentially presents itself with 'Heartbeats' is that one of the most amazing things about the song is the production itself. I can’t tell you how many times I put this shit on window rattling volume in my house just to hear the perfection of the synth bass and drums together. It seriously fucks. 

So right from the beginning, we have Steve record really cool drums and Nick record that synth line one a bass guitar. It’s super cool. It’s also already something different. Man what year did we release “On Letting Go” because it really never ends. There is always something new to get attached to. We fall in love just to fall apart. So I start riffing and then I’m like word and "Colin is like yeah that sounds cool but this isn’t a dance song anymore. It feels weird to have guitars only pop in for that riff". And i’m like "oh shit. you’re totally right". . . Now i know that’s a quick two sentences but like I said I’ve listened to this song a thousand times. The synth bass line and the beat together create a massive hook. As we start filling in guitars to make the song flow better as a rock song that bass hook became, well, not the hook anymore.  It still rips but it’s not an in your face thing like it was. Then we have sections of the song that were just that bass hook and drums which made sense when you were up dancing but seem random as hell now. So we edit structure. After a few tweaks I’ve let go of whatever I thought the song was. I’ve spent 3.5 hours recording a single guitar riff, trying to get it perfect and at the last second I add a plugin that makes it sound like morse code instead of a guitar and send it off to Colin cause fuck it. And Colin sends back an amazing mix. And now it’s a different creature than The Knife intended it to be. It highlights the vocals in a more focussed way in my opinion. And well, I’m really proud of it.  I just wanted to throw a bit of insight into the process I’ve been going through for these songs and also to ever present conversation of letting go. Really hope everyone enjoys this.

Brendan

Tracked By Circa In Our Respective Homes

Mixed By Colin