Spotlight (Dance The Night Away) [Original Song]

This is a song I wrote, recorded, and produced called “Spotlight”. This song takes a look into the challenging (but ultimately rewarding) path of making it as a performing artist in this world.

Building a career as a performing artist in music, dance, theater, audio, etc.. takes time and can often feel very discouraging. I hope this song helps remind my friends in these fields to keep the end goal of success in sight.

From a technical point of view, this may be the most tracks/parts I have ever recorded on a song I wrote. It even required a few remote recording sessions this summer from my friends Garrett Fasig (Sax), and Michael Wimer (Congas) to finish.

This song was originally written for and performed by the band Double Standard, a group that I was a part of my first 3 years of college. After that, Spotlight was performed in a few other settings and even recorded as a demo by the A270 audio class at IU (as some of my audio friends may remember). Finally, on a warm fall day in Bloomington, in October of 2017, I initiated a very quickly thrown together recording session for this song and setup all my recording equipment in a friend's basement. Out of this session, the final version of the song arose with the bass, guitar, electric piano, and drums being recorded together as the basic backing. After 2 years of time passed, I finally jumped back in this summer/fall and finished the vocal, organ, synth, percussion, and piano overdubs to complete the song.


Lyrics:

(Verse 1)
Driven to madness, by the life inside the screen.
Living in sadness as you try to chase that dream.
One week its Elvis, and the next a beauty queen.
It’s such a vision, that she hopes to intervene.

(Chorus)
But, fame’s where your bound
and soon you will be dancin’ neath that spotlight.
And way ‘bove the ground, your feet will walk on clouds as you dance the night away.
Dance the night away, dance the night away, dance the night away, whoa…

(Verse 2)
Soon as the phone rang, she packed her stuff to go.
Is this the big break? Hard to say and hard to know.
One week it’s New York and the next a Dallas show.
She’s drivin’ that turnpike, in spite of winter’s snow.

(Chorus)
Cause, fame’s where your bound,
and soon you will be dancin’ neath that spotlight.
And way ‘bove the ground, your feet will walk on clouds as you dance the night away.
Dance the night away, dance the night away, dance the night away, whoa…

(Bridge)
Will her dreams be there in the morning?
Will her life be full in the night?
Will she make a lasting impression?
Will she slowly fade from sight?

(Verse 3)
Lights from the cameras, fall upon a shaded face.
On the red carpet, she has style and she has grace.
Dark nights and bright lights, now the end has come to your chase.
But you’re workin’ hard now, tryin’ to keep up with the pace

(Chorus)
But, Fame’s where your bound
and soon you will be dancin’ neath that spotlight.
And way ‘bove the ground, your feet will walk on clouds as you dance the night

Cause, fame’s where your bound,
and soon you will be dancin’ neath that spotlight.
And way ‘bove the ground, your feet will walk on clouds as you dance the night away.
Dance the night away, dance the night away, dance the night away, whoa…


Recording Equipment Used:

Vocal Mic - Aurycle A87
Guitar - EV PL20
Piano - C414 XLS
Tambourine - Apex 415
Kick In - Sennheiser E602 II
Kick Out - MXL V9000
Snare - Shure SM57
Hi-Hat - KSM 141
Hi Tom - Blue Encore 100
Med Tom - Sennheiser E945
Lo Tom - AT Pro 35
Drum Overheads - C414 XLS
Congas - Lauten Audio LA-120s
Bass - DI From Fender Rumble 100W
Electric Piano - DI From Korg SV1
Tenor Saxophone - C414 XLS

Interfaces
Audient ASP800
Focusrite 18i20 (2nd Gen)

Recording Locations:
Alex & John Valdez’ Basement, Bloomington
(Basic Tracks Oct. 15 2017)

LeMay Studio, Jackson County NC
Vocal/Keys/Percussion Overdubs (Summer 2019)

Garrett Fasig’s Apartment Closet, Bloomington IN
Saxophone Tracking - Sept. 4th 2019

Joey Miller’s Studio, Bloomington IN
Conga Tracking - Sept. 10 2019

Recording Engineers:
Joey Miller - Conga Tracking
Garrett Fasig - Saxophone Tracking
Duncan LeMay - All Other Tracking & Editing/Mixing/Mastering

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