We’re through the first half of the record.
Knock You Out started life as a lyric called Chloroform which was the ‘word of the week’ in the songwriting game that half the songs on this record came from. Melodically I was trying to emulate the big vocals of an artist I loved called Foy Vance. Specifically a song called Closed Hand, Full of Friends was kind of the spirit animal for this track. I’ve got a big voice too, and even though I’ve been doing this writing and recording thing for twenty years, I still haven’t been able to translate those big vocals into songs the way he does. A song always seem to take on a life of its own and you can try and wrangle it and shape it, but a lot of times it’s gonna end up doing what it’s going to do.
Anyway, the demo of this song was way different that what is here now. There was a lot that I liked about it, but the chorus was cheeky and weird and not very singable. Rather then scratch it, I re-wrote the chorus both lyric and melody and I think it worked. Really well. This was one of producer/engineer Libey’s favorite and I think he would have kicked the entire album off with this song if given the choice.
Give it a listen. Let me know what you think. Also, check out Foy Vance. He’s an amazing singer/songwriter. I love his record Called Joy of Nothing. But he’s got two new ones out this year.