Without letting quarantine hinder their creativity, the two UK-based Artists and Singer/Songwriters Howard Rose & Robbie Cavanagh release a song to get us out of our everyday routines with, "Greetings From Paradise."
A rather interesting concept inspired the single, Howard Rose & Robbie Cavanagh found themselves wanting to steer away from the many quarantine songs, which struck their idea of creating a piece that takes listeners away from their everyday isolation and into the island's bliss.
"Greetings From Paradise" takes listeners through a broad array of instrumental elements, hailing from genres like Rock, Alternative, and Blues/Soul.
Howard Rose & Robbie Cavanagh mentioned that the island symbolizes the imprisonment of lockdown and the freedom of getting away from it all. Coming through with calming lyricism that depicts a peaceful place, we love what the single has to offer.
"Greetings From Paradise" opens with spacious instrumentals through sweet and mellow electric guitar, minimal and transcendent keys, and punchy rhythm guitar. Once Howard Rose & Robbie Cavanagh begin vocalizing the serene island vibes and taking each day one laidback step at a time, we must note the incredibly textured vocal filters and added layers for depth.
Diving deeper into the song, Howard Rose & Robbie Cavanagh's lyricism question why a recurring sensation of loneliness still haunts them on their journey to freedom. Going back and forth from Howard Rose & Robbie Cavanagh's picturesque lyricism to the song's dreamy instrumentals, we love the swing and grip that this song offers through each melodic element.
Howard Rose & Robbie Cavanagh have taken quarantine songs to the next level with their single "Greetings From Paradise," as the boys bring a 180 spin and take listeners away from their recurring cycles.
We adore each gripping aspect of your textured single, "Greetings From Paradise." How did you take your idea of not wanting to create a traditional quarantine song to find inspiration for this single?
Every co-write starts with a catch-up. A conversation in which both parties are discussing their lives, but also vigilantly searching for a thread of an idea. A common ground to start the song. Naturally, at the moment that conversation takes us toward COVID and the Lockdown we've been experiencing. But upon landing on the subject, we both discussed our keenness to avoid the inevitable, and try and search for another idea.
A little more conversation took us to escapism. The exact opposite of being stuck in the house during a pandemic. We talked of a desert island, bottomless bottles of rum. Absolute bliss. As we started to write the song though, we felt that there was a darker side to what we were writing, and through our conversation, we both agreed that perhaps escaping to a desert island wasn't necessarily paradise, but maybe just as imprisoning as being locked in the house. From that point the song took on a more cynical approach, with a call and response of "you should know better" almost being the voice of doubt in your head.
Seeing as "Greetings From Paradise" was created over a Zoom meeting, is this a routine that you might continue with future songs? How do you maintain your creativity's unhindered execution when you're not with each other in person?
It's definitely a different skill, writing over the internet. It will never quite feel the same as having that connection with someone in the room with you. That said, there's a real value in being able to meet online, start a song, then go away and work on something alone then rejoin the call to work further. Numerous times during the process I and Howard would mute the call to work on certain sections alone, then return to the call to share what we had figured out. Of course, it also means that we can write with people all over the world, without having to cross paths physically, which ordinarily is pretty rare when we are both out on the road.
Though I would still certainly prefer to meet in person, I definitely wouldn't shy away from an online cowrite in the future. It works really well and we definitely wrote a piece of music that I don't think would have been created if we had been in a different place, or in the same room. That's the thing with cowriting, you create something you never would have written alone, or with any other artist, or even if the same two artists had met up under different circumstances, in a different room, at a different time of day, etc. Every single factor makes a huge difference, so I'm so glad that we got the opportunity to work in exactly the way we worked because I think we would have written a very different song otherwise.
What has been keeping you both inspired in 2020 and what can we expect to see next from you?
Hope mainly. It's definitely been a tough time, seeing not only my career but also my hobby and my passion disappears. It's been difficult at times to find the inspiration to keep going and try to build momentum during a time when there's little to boost my morale.
Definitely living with my partner has helped alot. It's so important to have someone else to lift you up on your down days and to push you on the days when you're feeling positive. I've been focused on working on my new record, which I am recording in January, so that has been a big thing keeping me going.
We can't help but feel as if there is a deeper meaning behind your lyricism on "Greetings From Paradise." What did you want listeners to take away from your lyrics?
As Robbie mentioned previously the original idea was to write a song to give us and the listeners a chance to escape for 3 and a half minutes and hopefully it does that on a level. However, digging into the lyrics, from as early as the first verse we have "fresh out the water, bored, in the evening sun" alluding to the fact that everything may not be as peachy as it seems to be, I mean, we're already bored on this paradise island. I think the lyrics are a daydream about how best to waste your time and the self-loathing that can come with improper use of free time. It's about feeling good, and then feeling lost, then found, only for the cycle to begin again. The instrumentals within your single "Greetings From Paradise" are incredibly dynamic. What did your creative process look like between the two of you, the session musicians, and producers, especially seeing as it was over Zoom?
When we first talked about starting the project Robbie sent over a couple of ideas he'd recorded on his phone. I then went about creating a musical setting for the song, putting down some guitar, bass, and drums so that one the afternoon of our first Zoom call I could share what I'd done and see what Robbie thought. The arrangement of the song and the whole production is centered around those initial ideas. Those ideas or that arrangement may have been time-stretched, chopped up, pitched down, or reversed, but those initial ideas are the foundation of the song.
As the piece grew and we developed the different sections (over another Zoom call), I started to add the keyboard and synth parts. Once I had a fairly developed track I sent it over to Robbie to record his verse and chorus vocals. He came back with beautiful performances, really delicate but powerful lead lines, and a great selection of backing vocal parts.
I kept developing the production of the song, taking influence from producers like Kenny Beats, Benny Blanco, and George Martin. I knew that for the dark climax at the end of the song I wanted a powerful and striking string arrangement so I got in touch with the incredible Harry Fausing Smith.
We had a zoom chat of our own, I think the main points we found ourselves coming back to were "James Bond, beach vibes" which you can hear throughout the song, the sweet depth the strings add, and the way they play almost on a tightrope through the song so perfectly, I couldn't have asked for a better string arrangement. I then mixed and mastered the song, lots of mixes, lots of pulling sounds around but I'm really happy with how it turned out!