E A R T H L I N G S !!
2024 is upon us and so is our NEW track called NEW DAY!
NEW DAY was written and produced by Mackenzie Kristjon (THIS MAD DESIRE), Carleen Williams (CARLEEN), and Cas Weinbren (SEE SEE BEATS). Saxophone courtesy Kristen Prince. We hope it inspires a feeling of resilience and a can-do spirit as we all get through this thing called Life. Mackenzie and Kristen are in Toronto, Carleen in Los Angeles, and Cas in New York City. If we can somehow all work together, so can you.
ABOUT THE TRACK
New Day came about while I was writing tracks for my forthcoming full-length Passing Lanes of Fate. Cas Weinbren and I had met at an online co-writing song camp and he pointed out that Ceelo Green had given him his sunglasses that he was wearing. We finished that track but it's as yet unreleased (although it's killer!).
Meanwhile, I had met Carleen at a similar kind of online music industry mixer. We started talking about working on something together and thought it might be fun to try writing a topline (music term for “melody and lyrics”) to something that Cas had already written. He sent me a few tracks and we decided to try working on an instrumental with the working title New Day.
Over a few Zoom calls, Carleen and I shared some laughs and developed the melody and lyrics. Lyrically, we liked the optimistic idea of a New Day. We used some mountain-related imagery with the idea of overcoming odds and not just surviving but thriving, always giving it one more try. As we've both overcome obstacles in our lives, it seemed a fitting theme that we felt many people could relate to and hopefully feel inspired by.
We had discussed her own personal history growing up in the Rockies in Utah and the idea of mountain-climbing and always reaching up a little bit more and then even a bit more after that. I had spent a lot of time in Alberta in the Rockies as a child so I could appreciate her idea.
After we tracked our respective parts, I started mixing it and felt it needed something to tie it together a little more and just give it even more lift.
Enter Kristen Prince! She had just done some work with my friend Boxcar Ben in Hamilton and so I reached out to her on TikTok. She wound up sending me a couple of improvised tracks on sax for me to comp. I knew Cas would dig this addition as he does a lot of work in the hip hop and jazz community in New York City.
I would say that for Carleen and me, this song is a bit of a departure style-wise from what either of us normally do but hey, what's a New Day without trying a New Sound sometimes? 😀
For more info, shoot me an email at macsonfire@gmail.com.
WATCH THE VIDEO
Purchase NEW DAY.
Purchase NEW DAY on BANDCAMP.
CAS WEINBREN (SEE SEE BEATS) is a billion-streaming artist in New York City who has collaborated with many artists and written music for hit Disney musical Zombies 3. He also created a remix for Victim Appreciation Night from This Mad Desire's Open Hearts Open Minds album.
CARLEEN is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and educator based in Los Angeles. She was born in Utah, near the border of Arizona and lived on a farm in Idaho. She considers herself to be from all three states. She has just released her debut EP Catalyst, which I really like!! She has also contributed bg vox to TMD track O Come All Ye Faithful.
KRISTEN PRINCE is a Port Credit based saxophone player and singer. She has performed with many artists including the Arkells, Canadian legend Andy Kim, Lowest of the Low, My Son the Hurricane, and 4-time Juno nominee Tom Barlow. Kristen is busy doing live performances, writing and producing original music/videos, and doing session recordings.
-Mac