Wonka’s New Mix

FIRST TAKE-

We made this shit up on 9/10/2023, right before my favorite planned holiday! Vinny was fuckin up trying to play something, then Evan started a drum beat, and then I just started whaling on the guitar. Wonka - Willy's Version on Stay Out of the Basement, from our live b-sides album, was the exact moment that shit started.

That first take was completely adlib. The breakdowns, the speed up, everything. It was one of those moments that no one said anything but everyone understood the assignment. That's how most of our jams are.

I remember calling it Wonka because it's just sounded like some kinda whimsical progression.

LYRICS-

Vinny started adlibing lyrics one session and they kinda just stuck because they were sick! We also found out the lyrics also made a lot of connections to the movie funnily enough:

"Think I'm just gonna go. Felt this way since a while ago", all those kids kinda wanted to fuckin bounce too when they realized how sketch the chocolate factory was.

"Goin from friend to foe", Veruca and Violet were fake ass friends haha.

RECORDING AND MIXING-

We were all separated at this point. I moved to Cali and Evan moved upstate. So it was tough.

Since we didn't have a perfect take, I put Evans drums in Bandlab. Followed every snare, tom, etc, and tried to get the tone to the T. I recorded the guitar parts and even added some vocals. I sent the progress to the boys and they were beyond stoked! Vinny recorded his vocals using an XBOX mic. And since I didn't have a bass, I went to record bass at Guitar Center and recorded on a random amp with an Ibanez SR400. It was fuckin great because I used any bass and any amp for free! It was like free, unlimited sounds for free!

This song/mix made me super amped again to make music with the boys even though we're all apart. But it's still possible and we'll keep going! Also John's Basement sucks!

-G