Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today The Sleeping's frontman Douglas Robinson tells us about "Young Vibes... Don't Run Away From Me" from their brand new album "Big Deep," which was released this week. We now turn it over to Douglas for the story: The first single off of our new record is called "Young Vibes... Don't Run Away From Me" and it's basically the realization point that we are all inevitably getting older. I've always been inspired by the topic of growing up and I don't mean that in a completely positive way. We all know getting older is a scary thing and in the lyrics to this song I touch on that, heavily. It's a song about not wanting to let go of your childhood and all of the memories of innocence.
Musically, this was one of the first songs we had written when we began the whole writing/recording process. Paul had this really cool riff out of a jam session that had a bit of a Michael Jackson vibe to it. Very clean and fast with a dance like energy. We played off of that and finished it within a few days. Maybe even a couple of days. It was actually one of the songs I remember having trouble with, melody wise. I remember singing early ideas of the melodies that are on the track now and everyone being a little unsure. I tried a million different choruses and whatever else I could think of to make it come alive... but I had nothing. The funny thing is in the end... I went right back to the first idea I had and now the song is our first single, haha. I just felt it and tried everything I possibly could until I realized.. "Hey, I loved the original s*** I was doing... let's just stick with that and make it the best."
Now lyrically.... Right before I moved to LA (from NY) I had met up with a ton of my childhood friends and as amazing as that was, it was also a pretty scary turning point in my life. We all talked about what we do now and how great the old times were but there was something missing in everyone's' eyes and I could see right through them. It was very depressing. Even though we (most of us) do what we love every single day... there is still a longing for innocence and I can tell everyone felt like that when we all got together in one room. Some people couldn't stay too long because of their new families at home and it really made things hit a lot harder. So we drank and talked and drank some more and we all knew that after that night we, most likely, wouldn't be seeing each other for a long time.
Anyway, I moved and experienced truly getting away for a while until I came to the conclusion that I needed to move back to NY. There were a mixed number of reasons for this but one of the main ones was the fact that, I don't want to keep floating away from my friends. Yeah, I needed that time to myself but a lot can happen when you disappear for a while. Blend that with all of my confusing thoughts on getting older and a flight back to NY seemed pretty necessary to me.
I returned to NY and went through all of the thoughts on the subject that I had put to paper... and then "Young Vibes..." was formed.
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself as you check out the video and learn more about the album, grab tour dates and more - right here!
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