Singled Out: Adem Dalipi's Sixth St.

Keavin Wiggins | 02-21-2021

Adem Dalipi released his new, self-produced single "Sixth St" earlier this month and to celebrate we have asked Adem To tell us the story behind the track. Here he is:

"Sixth St". is one of the most recent works that I've written and is a great representation of who I am as a musician since I composed, tracked, and produced the whole song in my home studio.

I started writing "Sixth St." back in May of 2020 when it was just a simple chord progression on guitar and the melody for the chorus. With those in mind, I usually think of a story-line for the song. We were a few months into quarantine at this time and at this point I had been reflecting a lot on my past few years of high school and all of the memories I made. That's when I knew I wanted the song to be about the street I grew up on and some of the memories I made in my hometown.

I had thought of the memories like night drives through town with my friends and how much fun we would have, blasting music on the way to grab some food somewhere. I tend to jump around structurally when I write, so I always write down whatever ideas pop into my mind. I was getting stuck trying to put the melody for the chorus into words, and that was when the meaning of the song became about falling in love in a small town.

When it came to the production of the song, I originally put down a funk pattern on my guitar. I messed around with the vibe of the song between August and December, but finally found the sound I was going for when I sat down to fully track and produce the song. Initially, I had not planned to sit down for over twelve hours to track and produce the song, but I had gotten into the zone. I started producing the song around 9 PM and had recorded and mixed all of the instruments by around midnight/one AM. After this, I recorded the main vocals and was then brainstorming harmonies and started laying background vocals.

At this point, I felt the track was pretty consistent but still had not decided how to end the song. I messed around with the verses and pre-choruses by removing or changing some of the instruments. By the time I had done all of this, it was around 6-7 in the morning. I wanted to complete the song in one sitting, and this is when I was hit with a few ideas. I added some dreamy background vocals on the pre-chorus and chorus and layered them to make chords. This really added some space and buildup going into the chorus.

My final idea came when a friend of mine sent me a voice text in the morning. I told her how I stayed up all night producing the song and was stuck on the ending and was struck with the idea to add a voice memo to end the song. I asked her to record that line, which ultimately completed the story arc of the song and wrapped up the tune.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about Adem here