While we have yet to get any word of a follow-up to the 2011 Miracle Fortress album Was I The Wave?, Montreal's Graham Van Pelt has been kind enough to bestow some one-off tracks on us recently. Next to emerge is the feel-good epic "Let Me Be the 1," the latest instalment from his ongoing singles series.
The arrangement plays out nostalgically via a blur of sugary synths and assorted electronic tones, sounding something like low-key mixing of Steve Winwood's "Higher Love," a beatless house track and the theme song to a '90s teen drama. Van Pelt himself softly sums up a few soulful scenarios, either of him "dancing in the basement" or letting the flame of another burn deep down into his core.
In a statement to Exclaim!, here's how Van Pelt explains the track's origins:
I wrote "Let Me Be the 1" around a period where I was making a lot of new friends, specifically after drifting away from communities like the college scene and the twentysomethings' music scene. I was starting to settle down a bit and really get curious about all kinds of people who weren't necessarily part of those circles.
"Let Me Be the 1" is the result of many memorable nights spent talking late, opening up with a friend, the thrill of learning about their inner life and sharing your own. Many of my favourite memories of friends aren't big parties or major events, but the little moments when somebody wants to slip away and talk, let you in on the things they're thinking about. This song is kind of an anthem for that.
Musically, it's supposed to be structured like those conversations, kind of enticing and rising and lingering and resolving until next time.
Hear "Let Me Be the 1" for yourself below.
The arrangement plays out nostalgically via a blur of sugary synths and assorted electronic tones, sounding something like low-key mixing of Steve Winwood's "Higher Love," a beatless house track and the theme song to a '90s teen drama. Van Pelt himself softly sums up a few soulful scenarios, either of him "dancing in the basement" or letting the flame of another burn deep down into his core.
In a statement to Exclaim!, here's how Van Pelt explains the track's origins:
I wrote "Let Me Be the 1" around a period where I was making a lot of new friends, specifically after drifting away from communities like the college scene and the twentysomethings' music scene. I was starting to settle down a bit and really get curious about all kinds of people who weren't necessarily part of those circles.
"Let Me Be the 1" is the result of many memorable nights spent talking late, opening up with a friend, the thrill of learning about their inner life and sharing your own. Many of my favourite memories of friends aren't big parties or major events, but the little moments when somebody wants to slip away and talk, let you in on the things they're thinking about. This song is kind of an anthem for that.
Musically, it's supposed to be structured like those conversations, kind of enticing and rising and lingering and resolving until next time.
Hear "Let Me Be the 1" for yourself below.