![]() ![]() After playing through it a couple times we decided to add the guitar solo. We went into the studio with that idea and a bridge that still needed finalizing. ![]() We all the loved the heavy guitar riff choruses and the contrast with the open verses. “Ring” is a song that had a great energy from the start. It’s called “Eggplant” because the day Tony wrote it, he got some eggplant from a local Chinese restaurant delivered to his house. Definitely one of my favorite songs on the new record, and I see it as kind of a tribute to the fans. I also added some bongos, and they sound real nice. We took the demo into the studio and we simplified the drum beat. This is probably the most different song that we’ve ever made. After trying a few arrangements, we settled on the final version. We really focused on the dynamics and letting the song breathe. All of us became inspired to continue building out the song and it started to fill in pretty naturally. We decided to add the pulsing keys and synths at some point and that really gave the song a new life. We recorded the song as we had rehearsed it, but we weren’t super excited when we listened back. I sent it over, and Tony really ran with it to fill out the structure. Almost a year later, before we went into the studio to record You Deserve Love, Tony called and asked me to send him that demo. We weren’t very excited with what we had come up with and shelved the song for a while. ![]() Tony had an idea for the bassline, and then we wrote some guitar licks. Tony and I had gone to our practice space to try and write a song. “Might Be Right” started out as a demo in February 2018. Almost all of this track was recorded live in the studio, and I think you can feel that excitement in the song. I love the energy that this song brings to the album from the first time I heard it I couldn’t wait to play it to an audience. “Raw: was one of the first demos I heard that ended up making it on the new record. This is the first track we’ve ever used an electric mandolin on! - S.W. After a million attempts we didn’t have any luck, so we ended up just using the key sound from the actual demo. When we were in the studio, we tried to find a keyboard sound to emulate what’s on the demo that Tony made. ![]() This is maybe the heaviest song on the album. It’s about seeing a widow who’s late husband has left behind a very well-cared-for Corvette from the 1960s, and how being with her is especially rewarding because you get to ride in that car from time to time. I thought it would make a cool song title, and I just kind of worked up this fictional story from there. On a trip back to Louisville from visiting my grandma in Ohio, we passed a highway exit in Cincinnati that was called 1F, and for whatever reason that stuck with me. I made the fills that go into the chorus up on the spot, and I think they turned out alright. This is another one of my favorites on the record because the chorus is so heavy. The drum beat in the verses didn’t sound good on the kit I played the rest of the record on, so Jay rigged me up am interesting setup with a tiny snare drum with a cloth over it. We went for an Electric Light Orchestra vocal sound in the chorus, too. There were a lot of bits and pieces added in studio, like the bass and drum intro and the key lead in the chorus. This song is a good example of what a producer can do to a track. To me, it’s the musical equivalent of wiping the sweat off your brow and saying, “That was a close one.” A lot of times when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I think about this song and I’m reminded that stressful situations are mostly temporary and that most things will blow over if you can weather the storm. “Headwind” is a song that I wrote about a really specific emotion: the one where you’re surprised that you actually came out on top after a sticky situation. White Reaper (vocalist/guitarist Tony Esposito, guitarist Hunter Thompson, keyboardist Ryan Hater, bassist Sam Wilkerson and drummer Nick Wilkerson) broke down their biggest album yet, exclusively for Billboard. Give some credit to Jay Joyce, who took over producing duties for the new album, bringing with him a pedigree that includes fellow rock radio success stories Halestorm, Cage the Elephant and The Head and the Heart, in addition to his country production work for Eric Church, Brandy Clark, Little Big Town and many more.īut much of what’s on You Deserve Love feels like a natural progression from what came before it, White Reaper’s gritty - but snappy - garage rock tendencies in even fuller force, with added glam rock-esque movements and snaking twin guitar melodies not unlike that of Thin Lizzy. ![]()
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