I was thinking of a few things when writing this one. First, it’s a clear “Get Pumped” song in the vein of “Dare” or “The Touch,” both excellent bangers from the 1986 animated Transformers film. But underneath the surface layer of “Be awesome, use your power for good, prevail in any fight,” I was thinking of a couple other things. One is about my first grader, who is becoming quite adept at video games, which I wanted to celebrate in the corniest way possible. The second thing I was thinking about was generations younger than my own, who seem to be a bit more accepting and diverse than older cohorts, which gives me a little shred of hope about the future, which otherwise has looked pretty bleak to me. Musically, I was playing around with sus chords. The intro is built around an Eb_sus2 to Cm vamp, but with a uke playing it there’s a bit of harmonic ambiguity on that first chord. Since ukes have a small range their chords don’t tend to be “properly” constructed with the root note in the bass, like on a guitar where the lowest note in an open chord is also the root note (for chords in root position, obviously). In a major key, the I_sus2 and the V_sus4 chords share the same notes but are spelled differently — Eb, F, and Bb vs. Bb, Eb, and F, respectively. So your bass note choice here could lead to the chord being perceived differently. Adam Neely has a video about this which he talk about as the power of the bass to re-frame harmony.

This one has tenor uke and Hohner acoustic guitar recorded via the XY condensers on the Zoom recorder. The rest of the instruments are electric ones recorded using the BOSS interface (except the drum, which as always are arranged, this time the Blasting Room kit). Vocals were captured using an SM-58 into the Zoom. I spent entirely too much time recording the guitar parts and mixing them. Creating big, multitracked, power chord-filled choruses is just so addictive! I also enjoyed playing the “filler”  Given more time, I think I would definitely add some snyths to this, as well as a powerful piano. And a full-size, steel-string guitar. Since Eb is a rough uke key, I played this one in C with capo on the third fret, and it made fretting chords a bit of a pain. I had originally written this one in C as well, but the verse vocals parts were a bit low for my liking.

Lyrics

I know you’ve had your struggles
But your life has built to this
You’ve taken your chances
You’ve aimed exactly but missed
But now you are ready
To face the perils head on
You’ve awoken perfectly early
And you’re staring down the dawn

You’ve got the power, you’ve got the will
You’ve truly grown into your skill
You’ve got the courage, you’ve got the might
And you’re ready to take up the fight
Give it your best and give it your all
Show the world how you stand tall
Tell them you… will answer the call

So join me and we’ll venture
Into the very turmoil we fight
Together we’ll triumph
Steal the darkness from the night
We know it won’t be easy
With so much malice to face
We’ll fight the dark powers
And put the evil in its place

Don’t give up now!
Don’t give up now!
We’ve come too far to capitulate
Don’t give up now!
Don’t give up now!
There’s still so much danger to dominate