5 min read
Dulce · Reality . Sand of Love . Paradise
Reality
Sand Of Love
Paradise
I wake up one morning hungover in the understated Areeiro neighborhood. After stepping outside, I settle at a table for a one euro espresso shot and a cigarette before returning to my tiny apartment to tackle pushing a flat song into something more interesting. “Sand of Love” had a basic structure, Intro/A/B/A/B. On this trip I had brought a basic Keystep MIDI controller, a Beatstep Pro, and some good Sennheiser headphones overseas to attempt to dive deep into long electronic sessions. I did anything but that, and on arrival “Sand Of Love” was already done and just ok. Frustratingly, nowhere near where I thought it could be. I stared out the window onto sunny clear blue skies, green trees, and a deep admiration for the ocean. As usual it’s a calm sunny day in Portugal. As a former hardware synth addict, I had bought the extensive Arturia synth pack so I could use the full extent of sounds. I tried maybe 40 different synth patches and melodies. I knew the chorus had to dramatically change. It was a simple transition but I was desperately needing to feel like I was being warped into a new reality. I wanted that feeling of pure mind altering psychedelic and I thought synths were the way to go. But Linndrum has some more interesting tones in the toms, and I thought why not switch the rhythm. The transition was simple enough; a rhythm would change the entire feel. And so I attempted a couple variations of toms and settled on something that didn’t fit but transported me somewhere authentic, and that’s when the direction of the song started to make sense again. It was like I revived something dead and brought it back to life. That was truly one of the best breakthroughs of any song I’ve ever had. I also brought a Warm Audio microphone on this trip and tried different vocal melodies and that was it. Brought the track back home to Chicago to show the band and there was some lukewarm reaction to it. We gave it almost a year of shows before bringing it to full studio ready recordings. Brandon and Gio nailed the lead guitar and bass, but the ultimate transformation was the Roland JC-120. One late night a few days before heading into Andrew Humphrey’s studio, Brandon plays the most beautiful outro solo we’ve ever recorded to date and that take made it to the final cut. Even after some more polished takes, there was a perfect charm of the notes played in a order that I couldn’t get out of my head. Instead of a long fade out, I decided a tight fast fade out halfway through the solo relieved the ears a bit better and resolved nicely. We did end up using a synth, of course the mighty Prophet. With a combination of the drums, Brandon’s guitars, and a few Prophet patches, we were able to achieve exactly what I was yearning for during my Portuguese days.
Lyrics
reality
In a dream
We could be
Together forever
Together forever
But this is reality
You were in my dream
In a dream
We could be
Together forever
Together forever
But this is reality
You were in my dream
Sand Of Love
Carried me off the road
Down the path
I tripped on stones
Found an ocean
Fell down
Stayed down
Through the sand of love
How does it feel?
I know it’s hard
To say goodbye
Down the water
Slept there all night
Found a beast in my dream
Held tight
Held tight
Through the sand of love
How does it feel?
I know it’s hard
To say goodbye
Through the sand of love
How does it feel?
I know it’s hard
To say goodbye
Paradise
Wanna travel the world with you
Leave it all behind
Living in paradise
All the roses will bloom for you
Never need to cry
Living in paradise
Never need to cry
Never need to hide
Never need to cry
Never need to hide
Always locked in away from you
Leaving me behind
Living in paradise
Morning sun will shine for you
Soak it in with time
It will be alright
Always falling apart from you
Leave it all behind
Living in paradise
Never need to cry
Never need to hide
Never need to cry
Never need to hide
Cover up me in your soft love
Cover me up in your mind
I’ll always be in paradise
I’ll always be in paradise
Cover me up in your soft lies
Cover me up and you’re mine
I’ll always be in paradise
I’ll always be in paradise
Credits
Adrian Gracia
Brandon Garrido
Giovanni Gracia
Andrew Humphrey
Recorded and written by Dulce band
Mixed and mastered by Andrew Humphrey at Palisades Studio