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He easily turned it into something amazing by changing out the hideous horns for synths and adding special touches like guitar in the second verse, snaps, shakers, and the incredible bassline. I recorded the vocals into the microphone connected to some Beats headphones at 1am on a random weeknight in my dorm room, added them to a novice GarageBand demo with all the default instruments (including horns!) and sent them off to Peter. Peter Wellman produced and engineered “Canary” and did an incredible job. Who’d you work with on “Canary”? What influence did they have on the overall sound of the song? I wanted the bass to be a prominent feature on “Canary” as well because it just makes me want to dance, and I wanted to walk the line between a few different types of music to create the perfect mood concoction to house the melody and lyrics of the song.

#Kaleidoscope song courtney lyrics how to#

The guys turned me on to several bands that really know how to blend genres, including Vulfpeck with their incredible basslines. However, Silver Retriever has definitely influenced my current sound. This project has really allowed me to grow in as many directions simultaneously and expand the way I think about making music. I love being in a rock band, it’s been my dream since I was a little girl.

What inspired you to take your solo sound in this direction? Your debut single “Canary” has a more R&B and funk sound to it when compared with Silver Retriever. We don’t know what our future looks like but if at all possible we’ll try to play some gigs in Charlottesville in the fall with whichever members are in town. Due to everything going on in the world at the time, we had to push our release date back from March 20 to May 15, but it ended up being a wonderful celebration of our time together and of the graduation of 5 of our 6 members (I’m the only one returning to UVA in the fall). On the day we recorded the EP, it was the first time most of us had set foot in a studio and it was an incredible, 13-hour experience and we left dog-tired. Each person in the band contributed to the writing of the music, and our keyboardist, Tom Shaw, and I wrote the lyrics. We knew we wanted to release something as a band to express our creativity in a different way (we started out as a cover band playing in bars). How’d this project come together? What are your future plans for the band? You’re the lead singer of a Charlottesville band Silver Retriever and you just released your debut EP, Valley Days. I didn’t know I was capable of writing music until the summer after my second year of college, which was a few months after joining Silver Retriever. I joined Silver Retriever during my second year in college kind of by chance (a mutual friend introduced me to the rest of the guys) I had no idea what I was doing but I knew it was right for me. Yet after seeing Pitch Perfect I knew I had to be in an a cappella group in college, and I ended up joining the Flying V’s, which is a rock a cappella group at UVA. The funny thing is, I was always a shy kid and I rarely wanted to be on stage - I got so nervous I would shake before my dance recitals.

I’ve been singing since I was a child but I never was able to take any lessons, so I taught myself guitar, piano, and ukulele (poorly, I might add). What were some of your formative experiences playing and creating music? You’re an active musician in the Charlottesville, VA music scene, but take us back in time a little bit.