Last to Go
- Kindrid
- Apr 15
- 4 min read
Well here we are again, another one with a long time coming. Noticing a theme? But anyway, how this track started was in the late Fall of 2020, I was asked by the manager of a mutual to make a remix for an artist he had. I won't name any of that, out of respect, but the song was pretty neat. Very creative lyrics, very emotional songwriting and harmonies. So, it inspired the original version of this song, Last to Go. I sat on that remix for a couple months and then I get an email.. "Hey just kidding the artist doesn't want to do remixes anymore". Well... cool! More for me! This actually happens a lot, so turning this into an original was something I was a process I was somewhat familiar with. I fiddled with it for , I messed with it, I just couldn't get it to work on its own. I wrote the track around a vocal, it definitely needed a vocal. I reached out to a few vocalists I knew, nobody bit. And then, from the clouds as if sent by the gods, came a DM from SGAR (of the recently created Ash Nova). He had just made a track with Morgin Madison called Far From Home. And, how perfect, because this exactly what I was looking for. I remember him being in Disney World at the time when I sent him over the idea, for some reason, I have no idea why. We were both stoked about it, and I'm still stoked about it now. And here he is on the process of writing this.
"When approaching this track, I began as I usually do…by first immersing myself fully in the music, really soaking it in as a whole. Inspired by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, I started by humming melodies without immediately thinking about lyrics, just letting instinct guide the sound. Once a melody began to take shape and resonate deeply, I gradually transformed those spontaneous hums into coherent words. From there, I found a relatable narrative hidden within those early, mumbling ideas, letting a story naturally emerge. Finally came the relentless part: recording and re-recording, chasing the exact emotional tone, the precise vocal character, until the track perfectly embodied the story I wanted to tell."
What a talented writer (and singer obviously) that one. So grateful to have him on this track.
Last to Go is a track about persevering and celebrating that perseverance. It's the opposite of a lot of this album. It's saying... I can do it, and nobody will stop me. It's about rebelling against your urge to give up on your dreams. I think SGAR perfectly encapsulated that feeling in his lyricism. But, unfortunately, not every story is always so wholesome. Unfortunately, when initially pitching this song (and every other song)... nobody wanted it. I got ghosted, for years, as some of you know. But in the theme of perseverance, I never gave up on this song. I knew what I had here. So, earlier last year we revisited this track. And as Ash Nova was a fully-fledged duo now, we re-visited some of the production and modernized it, and that is how we got to the track you hear now. More subtle drums, less bombastic sound design. I think it fits the theme of calm perseverance much better, and I am grateful to MING (of Ash Nova) for pushing us in that direction. Such a talented producer with an ear like few others. As far as the writing process from myself, I would say this was one of my first attempts at merging progressive/electro house and garage. And, with the guidance of Ash Nova, I was able to really solidify one side of that, so I could focus on the other side. That being said, as far as inspiration goes, I kind of have absolutely no idea where this song/idea came from. It's one of those things where, I was just in a flow in late 2020. Ideas escaped me and turned into songs, and I had very little input on how that happened to the writing part of my brain. Sometimes, you just have to let yourself in a flow state and see what happens I guess. I wouldn't do that now, honestly. I am much more deliberate now. However, I am glad to see this track come about in the manner that it did. With the art, you may have noticed a theme.... more on that later. That being said, with this one, the cold frozen tundra look to me symbolizes that perseverance, again in contrast to the rest of the symbolism of the album. This track is like a frozen time capsule of myself and SGAR from the covid and post-covid times but modernized. So, in that way the pillars here are a frozen time capsule of a time where I once persevered and have a sense of longing for that time. It's the part of the story where you sit still and reflect on what could have been. Soon, I will share the rest of that story
Inspiration:
