Singled Out: Atelo Songs' not in the mood

Keavin Wiggins | 12-12-2023

Atelo Songs, the brainchild of Sam Gleason, just released a new single called "not in the mood", and to celebrate we asked Sam to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

The opening chord progression for "not in the mood." was something I had been toying with for years, trying to get it to fit into a song. I had become obsessed with it because I thought I had discovered a new style of guitar playing. Years later, I finally wrote a song around it I was content with, which is what this single is.

My friend came over to my home studio in The Albany Barn back in February right after I had finished writing the song. He started jamming with me on the bass, and before long we had recorded the bass track to the single. I threw in some punky-tonk piano and some cigarbox slide-guitar, and it was finally getting to sound like what I had envisioned.

About three years ago, I was involved in an accident that I was very lucky to have survived. It resulted in a brain injury, among other things. Throughout my recovery, I had the opportunity to self-reflect quite a bit. Thinking of myself pre-accident almost feels like thinking of a different person, and this allowed me to start writing the lyrics to this song in which I talk about my separate selves interacting with each other.

The lyrics dive into an introspective view of not being content with your past self, and realizing that you are probably embarrassing your future self as you speak. While self-improvement is important, it is also important to give yourself a break every now and then. Simply stated, you won't always be in the mood to improve.

I want people to listen to my music and relate to the feelings that I'm singing about, because the subjects of my songs are often things that don't get talked about in day-to-day conversation. So whenever someone tells me they relate to my lyrics, I feel good, because it means I made someone out there notice that they're not the only one with these difficult inner conflicts that are hard to talk about.

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