Truth & Salvage Co frontman Scott Kinnebrew has recently released the debut album "Loving Is Breathing" for his solo project Sounding Arrow and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the title track. Here is the story:
Hey everybody, Scotty Kinnebrew here. I've got a new project called Sounding Arrow; it's my first solo debut. The album Loving Is Breathing was released in September and is getting true love, check it out! The whole album and project was conceived after years of touring and recording with my harmony rock band Truth & Salvage Co. For years my schedule was locked with the band, we were a force! The band dynamic was strong, we co-wrote a lot, and everybody brought their thing to the songs. The result was great. We had the opportunity to work with some great producers as well, which was an incredible learning experience. After years on the road, the band needed to take a break. This changed things. We got jobs, scattered across the country, some of us started raising families.
I live in LA and got a gig working on TV sets. I'm a set dresser. Long hours, early mornings. You would think that there was no time for music, and indeed it does take a lot of time. But it was in the early mornings, and on drives to work, and doing a mindless task that I started getting some great melodies coming to me. Like my mind was clear and free enough to receive the inspiration. I have a little recording rig, I started recording demos and got one song really close, but my space is really small, and it was hard to get work done. I made a new friend Joel Jerome, an Indie LA wizard. He had a fun small studio with a nice console and gear all mic'd up and ready to go. He works with a lot of young bands and has a fun, super casual way of engineering and mixing. Unique. I reached out to him about recording, and we got together for a song. The result was rad; it became the first single "King Size Heart." We ended up tracking four tunes together, and I was inspired to make a record. My inspiration was to be able to hear my tunes on my old student model turntable.
The rest of the record was recorded at my little house in Asheville, NC. My wife and I spent winter 2016 working on it and doing art. She is an incredible painter. I brought my recording rig and a 25 dollar guitar I found at Goodwill. We drove across country to get there, and during this drive, I began writing the title track "Loving Is Breathing."
This is the song I want to talk about. We were in Albuquerque visiting the in-laws, and I started playing this riff that reminded me of "Agua de Marco" by Antonio Gilberto-Jobim. I liked it, it was totally unique just had this vibe, I started humming a melody with it. Concepts to songs and lyrics for me often come from whatever phonetics my mouth utters out. It's a sound first, and then my mind latches on to the words that fit. It's not effortless, but the ember comes from the ethers. And then I start finding the lyrics that make sense to me, and often I can't find anything until finally, the right words come to me. I was mouthing vowel sounds that ended up becoming "Everyone, everywhere knows that living is grieving, loving is breathing."
I didn't really pick the song back up until Asheville, but when I did the song came pretty quickly. The verse has this nice Crosby, Stills, & Nash vibe; it reminds me of the song "Cathedral" on CSN. And then the bridge kicks in, and it goes into double time with a
Petty-esque beat.
I was inspired, I set up my recording gear in a bedroom. Tuned up the Goodwill guitar and started tracking. I have a box of kids toys there for guests, which includes a tambourine and a Fischer-Price "Pull-A-Tune," (some of you may remember the xylophone on wheels you could pull a string, and it would play?) My wife brought her ukulele, so I had that too. This was my arsenal, a thrift store guitar, a kids Tambo, a Fischer-Price xylophone, and a ukulele. And my voice, And my wife's voice. Oh and a shaker too.
I was just having fun, I layered up lots of everything, made a wall of harmony, flanked the stereo with double guitar parts doubled. I was being totally free with it.
This was around Christmas, and another batch of in-laws came to visit us in Asheville. My brother in law plays drums, so I got to thinking� Next day right next to the Christmas tree I borrowed and set up my neighbor's drum kit, slapped some mics around it and began recording. Before starting my brother in law listened to a couple of times, and that was it, he nailed it. I had borrowed a bass a week earlier, so I had that already overdubbed, so after laying the drums, the song sounded very much like a complete band grooving together.
I sent the recording session to Joel Jerome back in LA to mix. I wanted to see if something I recorded in my bedroom with doors open and classical music on the radio down the hall could sound big and beautiful, stand up next to something done in a studio. And damn if it didn't work. So cool. Such a great experience.
Gotta say that was a super casual and fun easy approach to recording a tune, and I loved it. Least amount of expectation went into the recording, such a pleasant few minutes of sound came from doing so.
I'd be stoked if you checked out the record if you made it this far reading I bet you will dig! Thanks! Peace & Love.
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!
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