This is the first song that I worked with Lucy R. on. It was an interesting back and forth to get the melodies figured out. I had sent her the melody for the verse and a bit of the chorus and she took it from there. It was clear that she had a knack for writing catchy melodies and would take over that duty going forward.

This was also the first time we worked with Andres Blanco (keyboards) and he provided the energy to the track through some tasty B3. Like Lucy, Andres is also located in Argentina. Tom Cannon provided the drums in our home studio and I performed bass and guitar. As always, Mars put together a fantastic mix.

The lyrics came about in an interesting way... I'll have to expand on this at a later time.

The song made the Long List in the Talent is Timeless song contest making the top 150 out of over 3,500 submitted songs.

While I love the work we have done since this song, our process has evolved and gotten much better. There is something special about this song for all of us involved.

This is our latest release. I had been playing around with the chorus progression for some time on guitar. It had a smooth jazz rock vibe that I thought would push the band in a new direction. In addition to finally constructing a complimentary verse pattern, I thought it would be nice to have a dramatic intro. As we were a lot of songs into this project already, each time out I wanted to mix it up a bit so we didn't always follow the same pattern.

Then came the lyrics... by this time I had written several love songs in keeping with a romantic theme for the band. I felt like I'd hit the wall and decided to look at some of my favorite songs for inspiration. Black Cow by Steely Dan was always a favorite of mine and I picked up a bit of film noir vibe. There are many sources on the web that try to explain Steely Dan lyrics, so I took the time to read as many as possible. The result was a theme of what happened after Black Cow. Steely Dan fans can be a serious bunch. When I posted a link to our lyric video release, someone was quick to chime in that it wasn't even close.

While I laid down some basic guitar and bass. I sent my demo track (built to drum loops) to Andres Blanco and he returned a version with all of his keyboard parts. I soon realized that having a more sophisticated bass line would be beneficial, I reached out to a friend of Andres in Argentina named Marco Toba to play bass. With the new version in hand I had Tom Cannon over to our studio to lay down the drums. This track was really starting to shine! It was missing a jazz flavored guitar track to push it over the top. I contacted Salvo Di Piazza in Italy and he just killed it. Now it was in Lucy's hands. She put together some incredible vocals that in some ways are my favorite work she has done for us. I had sent her Black Cow as a reference and I do pick up some Steely Dan inspired phrasings throughout.

This song ended up having a fair amount of tracks and was going to be a complex mix, which Mars did an outstanding job on.

Being a lifelong James Bond fan and having recently watched several Bond films on a dedicated streaming channel, my desire to write a Bond-sounding song had been growing. A theme popped into my head: did women have the same fantasy attraction to being a Bond Girl as men had to being Bond?

I began working on chord changes with a John Barry feel—darkness, intrigue, and lots of space. Soon, I had an acoustic demo. Before I got too far, I wanted to see if Lucy was on board with my lyrical theme. She was thrilled with the concept, so I began fleshing out the lyrics. While that was underway, I sent my guitar demo to Andrés to begin arranging. I had shared links to several of my favorite Bond themes—“A View to a Kill,” “Goldfinger,” and “Skyfall.” After listening, he wanted to take it in a direction similar to Skyfall. Within a few days, he sent back a beautiful track with some added orchestration.

Next, I had Tom Cannon over to record drums. It was a fun evening in our studio as we explored different vibes—from brushes to mallets—before ultimately settling on sticks. I love how Tom pushes the beat forward while letting the arrangement continue to grow.

Having once been a somewhat competent lead guitarist in my youth, I wanted to add a Harrison-style solo to the track. I'm not as good as I used to be, but my bends and vibratos made it onto the track. I did have my son Alex double my parts for a stronger performance.

The next morning, I sent a rough mix to Lucy so she could get started. Soon after, I received her vocal tracks—and they were stunning! At that point, Mars and Alex suggested the song was a bit too long. We ended up cutting the first chorus in half and removing the synth melody between the first chorus and second verse. Similarly, we trimmed some chorus patterns near the end of the song. In total, we cut more than a minute and a half from the final version.

Mars began working on the mix, and I suddenly had the idea to create a music video for it. I had a background in video editing—albeit from decades ago using tape decks—but I felt confident I could put something together. The big question was whether Lucy would want to participate. She agreed, and I began creating a storyboard, knowing her filming options at home would be limited. With input from my coworker Josh Gear, we decided Lucy would film herself against a well-lit white wall so I could key out the background and insert her into different scenes.

I had already been browsing stock video sites and realized I could tell the story using stock footage. Given the lyrics’ Bond Girl theme and the many different types of Bond Girls, I could switch characters throughout and make it work. I began gathering footage that matched the material. Lucy’s clips soon arrived, and I began a weeks-long process of editing it all together. I didn’t show the video to anyone until it was nearly finished. When I finally shared it with Mars and Josh, I knew I had accomplished the mission.

Much like the “Travis and Taylor” song, I hoped to fill a niche that might resonate with the Bond community. It has received a good number of plays and positive feedback so far. With the upcoming Amazon Bond film, I’m hopeful it will continue to grow.

This song really came together in a nice way. When I was writing the chord changes, they felt familiar but I couldn't figure out what song they were similar to.

I recorded my guitar part to a drum loop and sent it off to Andres Blanco to begin work on the keyboard parts. When I got Andres' tracks back, it hit me. The chord changes were very similar to those in the Spice Girls hit "Say You'll Be There". I was a bit bummed and part of the reason I connected the dots was a similar sounding synth in Andres' melody line. What to do? I liked the progression and his piano parts were very tasty. I decided to have Marco Toba play bass. He is a friend of Andres in Argentina and they occasionally gig together. (I've seen some live clips and they are very impressive musicians). Marco immediately gave it the vibe it needed, pulling it away from the funky pop to a more jazz based progression.

It was then time to have our drummer Tom Cannon come over to record his drum tracks. Like he always does, Tom locked into the bass pattern giving the track some live energy and excellent flow.

We sent it off to Lucy R. And as I mentioned with White Lies, I had hit the wall on lyric ideas and decided to again write some lyrics related to a Steely Dan song. Dr. Wu had long been a favorite song of mine from the Katy Lied album. I thought it might be fun to respond to the story from Katy's perspective. Searching many internet sites for lyrical interpretations of what Dr. Wu was about helped me flush out the idea. Lucy soon returned her beautiful vocal tracks that lifted the song even further. Her chorus delivery still reminds me a bit of something Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music) would do.

Proud of the song in its rough mix stage, I played it for our son Alex Malnack who really liked it. I asked if he'd want to add a lead part to it and he grabbed a guitar and started messing around. Upstairs we could here a really nice melodic line he had constructed. I ran down to tell him we loved it and to continue and within the next 30 minutes or so, he had completed the track.

Even though we had several older tracks yet to mix, this one was so close to feeling done that I had Mars knock out the mix and it was soon released.

Back in 2017, we opened a pub and live music venue. We stayed open for three years, closing just before the pandemic shut everything down. In that time, we hosted over 600 live shows. While there was a lot of stress running it, we had some remarkable times and made some lifelong friends.

As I was writing songs for this project, there was a stretch where I was listening to Burt Bacharach songs and was amazed at how complex the underlying structures were. I started down the path of writing such a progression and, by the time I was done, I think it had somewhere around 24 different chords.

I wanted the song to have a somewhat chaotic vibe but still convey a sense of joy and excitement. Once I recorded my demo guitar parts to a drum loop, I sent them off to Andrés Blanco to add the keyboard parts. He filled in the structure nicely and added a synth melody that brought a bit of whimsy.

Next, I wrote the lyrics, which ended up being pretty lengthy. In fact, the last verse was cut because of length. Lucy thought it had gone on long enough :) Because there were so many names mentioned in the song and Lucy's primary language is Spanish, she requested that I read the lyrics to her so she could work on pronunciation. She began work on the track and delivered a great melody and performance.

We then had Tom Cannon over to record drums, which he pounded through with lots of energy. In fact, right at the end of the song, his drumstick hit the SM57 mic on the snare drum and broke it! If you listen carefully, the last three snare hits at the end sound different because they were only picked up by the other mics at that point. I decided to leave it that way—along with the noisy guitar at the end. It definitely matched the frustration we felt having to close.

We started work on the mix, and Mars had a thought: even though Lucy did a great job, it might be even better to have our friend Sarah Land sing it instead. Sarah had performed on our very first night at the pub (a friends and family night) and was a regular performer there. She accepted the challenge and sang on the version we released—a beautiful job by Sarah!

We finished the mix and then made a slideshow video with images from the pub. While most people who don't know us won’t have the same sentimental attachment to it that we do, fans of our pub really enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

Having owned a software company in the 1990s that focused on 3D animation, I was always looking for the next gap in the market to fill with a new product. Maybe it’s the entrepreneur in me, but throughout my life I’ve often had ideas pop into my head about potential new products. I suspect that’s part of the reason this song came to me. Late in 2023, when the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce relationship was blowing up in the media, I thought, “Wait a second—there could be a song opportunity here.” Being a romantic at heart, and thinking she may have finally found the right type of man, I went to work.

When I had a framework of the music and lyrics developed, I contacted Lucy with my idea. Taylor Swift is huge worldwide, and she just happened to be touring in Argentina while I was discussing it with her. At this point, I had recorded the music, which featured me on guitar and bass, Andrés Blanco on keyboards, and Tom Cannon on drums. After I sent it to Lucy, I had second thoughts, feeling a bit icky about the whole thing. A couple of days later, I sent her new lyrics with a completely different theme—something about how good it feels to sing along to your favorite songs when you’re seeing your favorite band live. (Maybe someday I’ll make another song out of those lyrics.) Lucy immediately responded that we were sticking with the original Travis and Taylor lyrics. A few days later, I received the vocal tracks from Lucy and was pleased that we stayed the course.

I was hoping that, with all of the Swifties out there, the song might catch on—and it did. We achieved the most streams we’ve ever had for a Novel Romance track, including the highest play count we’ve ever had for a video. And, so far, my instincts about their relationship—nearly 18 months later—appear to be correct.

Still, I can understand why this might not be a favorite track for some Novel Romance fans. It’s a bit cute and lightweight. However, the guitar chords and bass parts were both challenging for me—so there’s that.