The story of "Now I Know What I Want"

This is going to be a bit long winded so bear with me!  I'm just super excited because this song is coming out on Tuesday next week and I want to tell the story of how it came to be.

First off, this is a huge milestone for me as this is the first song to be released from the full band Devin Tait & The Traitors.  My last output was solo material, my album "It's Never The Way You Imagine It," which I produced mostly by myself, with a lot of help from my brother Brandon, and some superb contributions from Hoagie Hill and Dolly Dagger.  After I had recorded the album, the band came together mainly for the purposes of playing the songs live, but after a couple of years and some lineup changes, the Traitors came into their own and we are now a five-piece rehearsing, recording and performing entity!

The song itself was basically born at G.A.Y. Late in London.  I was dancing with my friend David at this club where all the guys looked like members of One Direction, and they were playing the cheesiest pop songs and videos and it was so much fun.  I thought, "I should try to write a cheesy pop song that you can dance to."  I noticed almost all the songs were about love.  I had recently gotten engaged to Dylan, my partner of 10 years, so I thought, yeah - I should do this.  I started coming up with the chorus.  It needed to be something simple, repetitive, catchy - just like the songs David and I were dancing to.

A few nights later I was alone in my hotel room in Dusseldorf.  I bought some beer from the store down the street and recorded a demo on my iPad.  I wish I still had that so I could compare it to the final version, but I think it got deleted when I synced my iPad to my new computer.  It was pretty much the same structure, notes and lyrics although I hadn't quite figured out the pre-chorus and I don't think I had written the bridge yet.

Once I was back in the States, it was quick work to start recording it for real.  I started making it in Logic Express 8 on my iMac and I pretty much got it the way I wanted it to sound.  Then it was just the (not so) small matter of recording the live drums, bass, guitar, and backing vocals.  This took a great deal of time, as it was the first time I recorded and mixed a song with a full, live band.  During the process, I also upgraded my recording system to Logic Pro X on a MacBook Pro, so there was a learning curve to deal with in addition to trying the learn-as-you-go method of full band production.

Myles and I drove out to Simi Valley to Ditch Road Studios where Ryan Canestro recorded the drums, and as an added bonus, decided to record some guitars on the track, spur of the moment!  It took me quite awhile to figure out how to mix the drums in with the electronics in the track.  Once that was pretty much done, I added a final vocal and Liana's vocals quickly so we could film the music video.

The video was filmed at Jarod's house (actually, it's not his house, he is housesitting for the owners but it's a huge dilapidated mansion in the Hollywood Hills).  We came up with a concept based on the available settings in and around the house and filmed two different days; the first was a night shoot in the master bedroom where we did a live performance shoot.  My friends Melodie and Rick were available to come film which was a godsend as they brought the whole production up to a very professional level.  Several days later we filmed the greenhouse scenes and the party scene (again in the master bedroom), with Melodie and Rick once again doing the filming.

It was still some time before I finished the actual song (the video was edited before the song was finished)!  There were lots of tweaks to make after repeated listening.

Today, I drove around the Hollywood hills on my lunch break listening to the final, mastered version that Brandon sent me late last night and I was so happy I clapped and giggled all by myself after playing the song for the third time, when I knew it was finally the finished version!

So there you have it, from a London nightclub to the Hollywood Hills, the story behind "Now I Know What I Want."