BACKGROUND

“Heaven” is a special collaboration, and Embers’ sixth official release. This song was also revived from the vault; it was written and recorded back in what would probably be the early '90s in NYC, with my great friends Rob Zion and Carlos Savetman.  Back in the day, we did it on either a 4 or 8 track Tascam PortaStudio (Google it, kids!) with a drum machine and lots of cool guitar parts.  Recently, Rob and I decided to take a crack at re-recording it. Rob sent me the vocals and bass parts while I programmed the drums and added guitars and backing vocals.  I mixed the song here in Kill Room Studios, and there you have it!  It definitely evokes some of our prog rock influences (certainly I owe Alex Lifeson some sort of tribute offering) as well as our overall penchant for moody vibes and big hooks.  There's also an easter egg somewhere in the song, courtesy of Rob, but you'll have to see if you can hear it.  

LYRICS

I had a nightmare last night

It was a dream, I saw a world crashing down in front of my eyes

There's a place I hide from

A place where I go when I'm down

Down from people who sell the truth like you

And I swear that it was heaven

And I swear that it was for you 

Things were swirling I've been told

Swirling as if things were new

New like gold and silver, just like you

I hear stories of these worlds

Worlds are new and bold I'm sure

Sure because that I was told

And I swear that it was heaven

And I swear that it was for you 

And I swear that it was heaven

And I swear that it was for you 

THE MUSIC & THE MIX

Lots of layers.  Lots of guitar parts playing off one another, definitely a lot of double-tracking.  The good 'ol Strat and Tele did pretty much all the work, through various Neural DSP amp sims, primarily the Archetype Cory Wong and Archetype Nolly, along with the amazing GGD Zilla Cabs.  Lots of vocal harmonies stacked and EQ'd for airiness to get that spacious, heavenly feel.  The drums are courtesy again of Superior Drummer 3, which is an essential part of the arsenal for me on.  As almost always, things like Waves CLA-76, SoundToys Decapitator, FabFilter ProQ3 and other staples are in the mix for vocals and other tracks.  Ozone (EQ, Imaging, Compression) and Mongoose are on the mix bus for glue.  The playing hearkens back to using a lot of Alex Lifeson-esque open string voicings, drenched in a good amount of delay, verb and chorus.  There are some slide guitar ear candy bits, and all sorts of spacey panned double tracked stuff for the lead guitar section.  It was a blast to re-envision this tune, and I think it sounds great!