This song was a complete shift for us, and it took a long time to get it sounding right. A few reasons:

• This is the first song David is fully on keys for
• First song that uses the synthesizer and keyboard simultaneously
• Our first time playing jazz
• One of the first songs that doesn’t put emphasis on the bass
• Our first three-part harmony
• Ashleigh’s first time singing in a Downcoast song

All in all, it’s just a totally different beast that we had to tackle differently. We completed it just in time to play for the first time at our Hive show in February 2024.

It marks a more global shift we’re making with our songs – going into more poppy, more jazzy territory. It’s really exciting for us, and it’s been a long time coming. The great thing is, the vibes are still there with the new sound. So the album is continuing as planned, with all the old songs still there. It’s just a little more diverse now.

The song came together after David was listening to a lot of classic jazz fusion records. Takanaka, Return to Forever, Chick Corea, Jean-Luc Ponty, and others. Plus – David had been playing some bossa nova lately with some other friends.

The concept is an old one from around the Oceansweeper era – a duet between a human and a robot who are in love. The chorus is the robot, and there’s supposed to be a vocoder singing it, but we can’t really do that live at the moment, so David just sings both parts normally. The general idea comes from Robot Writes a Love Song by PUP, one of Ryan’s favorite bands.

It’s also heavily inspired by TWRP, who David and Ryan saw live for the first time around this time. Our good friend Slater was doing some tour photography and merch for them, so we got to stand side-stage to watch it. Astonishing show. Really one of those life-changing moments that defines where you take your art. They gave us the idea of the CRT and VCR on stage.

In true Downcoast fashion, it stitches together a couple work-in-progress songs to make one. The outro was from an entirely different song, and was played in a totally different cadence, but it ended up matching perfectly with the rest of the tune.

Just before writing this one together, we had attempted a cover of Night of the Long Knives by Everything Everything. It never quite sounded perfect, but we agree that without giving that a try, this song never would have come together. It was one of those moments where we really got pushed outside of our comfort zones, and primed us to do some more synthesizer-based stuff.

Lyrics are still unfinished as of now, but the concept is there. We think we can make it a little more emotionally potent with some rewrites.

This one is David’s favorite as of writing this (4/3/2024).