There is quite an interesting story behind my new song ‘Our Story’.
So, it all started after the release of my song ‘O My Friend in Word’ which got some positive feedback.
It wasn’t long after when I attended the Baha’i National Convention (the Baha’i National Convention is an annual meeting where delegates elected from different parts of the country at the Unit Conventions consult upon the situation of the community in their country, and at which they elect the National Spiritual Assembly) and I came across a friend who informed me of a year-long campaign that would honor the 10 women of Shiraz who were executed for their beliefs.
I was given much notice before the campaign started and was encouraged to write a song for this special occasion. I gladly accepted the challenge, but I was also a bit anxious about the pressure and timeframe that it needed to be completed as I didn’t know where to begin. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to produce something in that amount of time that I’d be happy with. I also had other songs I was working on that I wanted to record and get out of the way.
I prayed a lot for confirmation and assistance.
Time went by after many months and I was working on my song ‘Utterance’ whilst in the back of my mind I was thinking the time was ticking and I still hadn’t come up with anything for the campaign. I thought to myself “I don’t think I’ll be able to come up with anything”. It had been halfway through the year, so it was getting closer to the deadline. I’d already told a few people that I was going to make a song, but I hadn’t come up with anything.
One day, from out of nowhere, whilst playing around with some chords on my guitar, a chorus popped into my head. I was like “This is it”. I’d finally found a chorus that I’d loosely written, but I knew it needed to be worked on. It was about January and I knew that I needed to get the song finished before June. I began to work on it day and night to get it finished. I made a lot of improvised melodies before I arrived at my final version. Originally, the music was fairly upbeat and fast, but I decided to slow it down and make the melody more darker. Surprisingly, the lyrics came to me fairly quickly. I had written the complete song in a matter of a few weeks.
As I began to record I decided I wanted to make it an acoustic song that incorporated eastern sounds. I searched for a Santur and Oud player. Initially, I was looking for a Kamancheh player but I couldn’t find one, but it didn’t matter, I had a cello player and I’d programmed violins over the top.
I was watching a short documentary about Prince on YouTube. It mentioned that his work ethic was incredible and that he would work on songs and produce them very quickly, sometimes leaving imperfections to give them that emotion and human feel. I must admit, I took on board a bit of his approach; work hard, be less perfectionist about it.
On this song, I had a Celloist from Venezuela, an Oud player from Israel, and an English Santur player. A truly unique combination.
I wanted to make this song sound like an anthem. So, I tried making it repetitive so people could easily remember it and sing along to it. When writing the chorus, I was picturing the people of Iran singing it at the top of their lungs, marching the streets, side by side, thumping their fists in the air as they remember the other individuals who lost their lives for standing up for the same beliefs.
Enjoy the music and spread the word.
