Los Angeles-based guitarist, singer-songwriter, and veteran touring musician Micheal Fordays released his heated and thrilling new single entitled "Where The Wild Horses Run."
From the alternative underground, Micheal Fordays learned his chops from vast experiences like playing with ultra-experimental 'Mind Over Four,' alongside Mike Jensen, his residency as a guitarist with KMFDM, where he appeared in the video for 'Juke Joint Jezebel,' and the documentary 'Beat by Beat.' The Les Paul wielding guitarist never fails to tear up the ground beneath him and turn heads.
Micheal Fordays' recently released his fiery new single, "Where The Wilded Horses Run," the first lead single off his forthcoming album, 'Faces, Voices and Souls.' The song perfectly showcases Fordays' skilled guitar arrangements while also demonstrating his warm vocals and conceptual lyricism that sings of the free spirits roaming in the sun where the wild horses run, sending their prayers down the mountains towards the people of earth.
Expanding on "Where The Wild Horses Run," the song opens with Micheal Fordays' layered guitar arrangements that blaze our speakers with a solid and mighty riff. Then, as he begins singing of the precious tribes in the mountain tops who shine their holy light on the rest of the world, he honors such sacred rituals with his beaming and brilliant guitar work.
This song has a gritty and crunchy edge but perfectly contrasts with a feel-good alternative tone on the hook that leaves us moving and grooving to every beat. We're definitely in for a treat if Micheal Fordays' forthcoming album is anything like this single.
Feast your ears on the broad and exciting sounds of Micheal Fordays' latest single, "Where The Wild Horses Run," now available on all digital streaming platforms.
We admire the skilled and complex creations you've delivered in your new single, "Where The Wild Horses Run." Did anything inspire you to create this conceptual tune?
This song came to me over time. I had the lyric “All the work to be gathered in the fields” which means, “all the hard work you’ve been doing is finally paying off, time to reap the benefits. ”It’s a lyric that’s been haunting me for a long time. In B, I had this guitar phrase with a drone that was, to my ear ethereal, maybe dream-like.
A simple repetitive movement. I put some notes over that phrase that I could play while keeping the motion of the phrase, just four notes that created a movement, and I started singing that lyric. Soon I had the verse, and another verse, and then a big chorus came out that I tried to voice in a different way than predictable “power chords”.
What was your creative process like forming the intricate guitar arrangements for "Where The Wild Horses Run?" Do you have a particular method, or just let things flow naturally?
What was your creative process like when forming the intricate guitar arrangement for “Where The Wild Horses Run”? Do you have a particular method, or just let things flow naturally? I had what felt like a solid song arrangement that I would play and sing repeatedly and flow very naturally.
So when I decided to work with Dave Klein (drummer for Agent Orange, Bomboras) I recorded an acoustic version and sent it to him to write a drum part. I used the same recording to write the bass line and the electric guitar parts, at home at night with the song playing on my phone, jamming with an unamplified bass and electric guitar. We used the original acoustic recording as a guide when we recorded the drums and bass.
When I took home the rough mix and listened to the backing tracks I was inspired to write the fuzz lead guitar parts by jamming with the basic track. 1st the intro/outro with a Thirdman Bumble Buzz pedal and later the verses with a Beetronics OctaHive guitar pedal.
Could you enlighten us on what sort of scene you wanted to set with your conceptual lyrics in "Where The Wild Horses Run?" What did you want to make the listener think and feel?
Could you enlighten us on what sort of scene you wanted to set with your conceptual lyrics in “Where The Wild Horses Run?" What did you want the listener to think and feel? I could see this scene with all the tribes of humanity in their various stages of ideas and beliefs coming together to celebrate life. And I wanted to illustrate that despite our differences, “The people of the Sun”, “The people of the Stones” ( which I pictured in an ancient ceremonial dance around the perimeter of Stonehenge) we want/do the same basic thing. (They send their prayer down the mountain) They meet “at the mountains request” or nature’s request for the good of Earth and mankind, for peace.
How does "Where The Wild Horses Run" relate to your upcoming fourth album? How does the single prepare us for what's to come?
How does “Where The Wild Horses Run” relate to your upcoming fourth album? How does the single prepare us for what’s to come? The songs for this record and all my releases were written on an acoustic guitar. When I studied music in school the professor would say, “If your song doesn’t work with one instrument and a vocal then you have nothing” which I’ve stuck with and believe in. I started with the acoustic basic structure on this record and enhanced it with bass and electric guitars. It’s the first solo record in a while that I’ve decided to play all the bass and guitar parts.
My musical background is rock, but my writing style isn’t influenced by anything rock guitar-heavy, with no cliche themes or styles. I play what I would like to hear, powerful music in a well-formed melodic format. I’m bored easily by “straight-ahead power chords” and always aim for something innovative, a different way to rock the parts. So ultimately this new record “Faces, Voices and Souls” is a set of, hopefully, a novel approach to guitar voicing and song arrangement that has contemporary lyrical themes influenced by what’s been happening during these crazy times.