Behind The Music (part 7)

07:"Gone" featuring Che-Fu (produced by Fire & Ice)
I heard the beat early 2008 from Jordan of Fire & Ice, but he told me they'd already sent it to Smashproof for their Weekend album and were waiting to see what they'd do with it. I decided to write the verses to it anyway, knowing I could always adapt the lyrics to another beat if necessary. The original demo was even more stripped back, and the piano loop to me had a real graceful yet sombre feel. I guess the inspiration for the subject matter going with this beat was movies like Donnie Darko and Requiem For A Dream that utilized emotive piano lines and coupled them with images of sadness and pain. The two people in the song are a combination of people I knew or heard of growing up. I kind of describe this song as the anti-"Saturday Getaway". That song was a dedication to the good times growing up in Palmerston North, hanging with friends, club hopping and what not, but this was the negative side I saw. Addiction and violence are the two factors that impacted peers of mine to ruin their lives the most, specifically gang affiliation and meth.

Once Jordan gave me the word that Smashproof weren't going to use it, I started thinking who I could get on the hook and there were a few different people who gave it a shot. Awa recorded a melody drunk as on my Garageband one night. Then when I was chilling with Chong Nee he wrote a hook and laid it at his studio. I decided neither worked completely, so we thought it could be nice trying a talk box version of Neezy's version. We tried to emulate the Roger sound with various plug-ins Evan had, and when that didn't work we actually bought a talk box. In the end we realized with that effect the lyrics became pretty unintelligible so, it was back to the drawing board. In the meantime, Jordan switched the beat slightly, as the original version had some Danja-esque synth chords that seemed a little out of date. He took them out and added the guitar lick.

I thought from the very start that Che Fu would sound right on it, but I hadn't seen him in a while and I hadn't repaid the favour for his appearance on Rookie Card yet, so I felt a bit shame to ask him at first. It was getting close to the album deadline though, so I decided to bounce a version and give it to him anyway to see if he was feeling it. He didn't answer his phone the first few times I rang, and people had always said that Che can be hard man to track down. Funnily enough, when I walked out of P-Money's house to go drop the CD to Che's manager, Che himself was standing at the mailbox. He was helping Pete's next door neighbour (Che's dad) move house, so I gave him the track there and there. Suffice to say, he was digging it and we recorded it the next week.