Well here it is friends, the end of Covered-20. This is the first time I sat down prior to posting and actually typed this stuff out in advance, as opposed to letting my mind spew out a rambling blog post on the spot. This will definitely still be rambling, and who knows how many of you have read any of this crap, but hey, I have it for me and that’s cool too.

Today’s cover is “Holy” by Frightened Rabbit, and I couldn’t have picked a better song to close us out.

Frightened Rabbit came into my life because of my dear friend, and former roommate Christina. Over a decade ago, she went on a trip through Europe and ended up meeting a Scottish gentleman who she fell for, and eventually moved to Scotland to be with him, and go to Grad School. I’m not entirely sure if that’s where she found them, but around that time, she would give me music routinely, and actually it’s because of her that I got into Hot Water Music, and a bunch of other bands too. She handed me The Midnight Organ Fight and holy crap did it get me immediately. First off, and embarrassingly, I have a thing for Scottish accents. Scottish bands are extremely appealing to me, and now that I’ve been there, Scotland is one of my favorite places in the world, to the degree where I’ve been saying the minute they finally secede from the UK, I’m applying for a Visa. More importantly, the music, and the lyrics especially, just spoke to me in such monumental ways. I remember very clearly loving “My Backwards Walk” so much that I copied the lyrics and posted them on Facebook. Over the next number of years, I followed the band casually, and would pick up their records, but never got to see them live, which is heartbreaking, since I never will.

When Scott Hutchison passed away, I was heartbroken. It wasn’t very long after I had picked up Pedestrian Verse, realizing I somehow never got it, and it’s incredible, so I was going through a resurgence of excitement about the band, and then the news came that Scott was missing. I knew that he had struggles with mental health, and so I feared the worst, and unfortunately, those fears came true. I still cry when I think about it. Hell, I’m crying right now typing this stupid thing. As I went through my own mental health journey over the last few years, Scott’s story resonated even more with me, and it broke my heart even further.

Then one day, I’m fortunate enough to be playing in Glasgow on my first European/UK tour, and I had been playing different covers every night, so I saved this song for that day. I remember being incredibly nervous; pretty certain I was about to make a giant American ass of myself, but it turned out just fine. After my set, my new pal Andy McBride came up to me and told me how he had played “Holy” a number of times, and he knew Scott’s family. Andy then got me in the gut when he told me that they would have been really happy about my performance, and proceeded to give me a pin he got a Scott’s memorial, which hasn’t left my jacket since.

It’s because of all of this that I knew I wanted to do this song last, and I wanted it to be one way to raise money for the charity founded in Scott’s memory, Tiny Changes. I needed to say thank you with a gesture that came deep within my heart, and this was the best way to do so; making one of my favorite Frabbits songs with my friends, and doing so at the current peak of my recording ability. I took my time with this one, and I put in a lot of pieces.

My buddy Ian might have been the first one on board. Ian is the drummer in my dear friends’ hardcore band called Harvey Pekar, out of, you guessed it, Cleveland. When he joined the band, I remember thinking they just upgraded hard in the drum department, so when he asked to do this song with me, I immediately said yes. Ian did a great job and provided such a wonderful and necessary texture to the sound of this song, that I don’t know if it would have sounded right without his ears in the mix. After that, it was easy selling it to both Alex and Matteo, who are both big fans of the band.

Alex is my big old nerd bud, but we have never made music together. I’m so happy that this is the way in which that changed. He got incredible tones and made these disparate pieces fall into place. He capped it at 5 guitar tracks, but I would have taken double that.

Now, you might be thinking, if this song was so important, why did I split the vocals with someone? Well that’s because it was Matteo. I met him when he couldn’t drink legally, and he was the coolest person in his band by far. Since then, he has become one of my favorite songwriter friends, because he brings a lot of heart to his craft and I can feel how real that is. And it’s because of that heart that he did something special in his vocal performance; he captured a little of what Scott was. Vulnerability and raw feeling are so evident in so much of Frightened Rabbit’s music, and Matteo brought that to our cover.

From there, I added my pieces: some additional drums and percussion to give some more punch to the song, a couple rhythm guitars, bass, and the little bells and whistles. This song was easy to track, and super dense with noises, so I feared that I’d be stuck in an unending loop of things not lining up correctly. But somehow, like magic, things kinda fell into place, and I was able to do a bunch of automation to give each part its little moment to shine. I’m really happy with the result, and honestly I can’t believe I did this in my basement.

So, we’ve reached the end of this silly ride, and I have to say I’m really happy. Happy that it’s over and I don’t have a deadline every week anymore, but mostly happy about what I achieved. When I started, I was slightly better than a total ignoramus and now I can send a demo to my bandmates and get compliments on it. I can hear it in this song, versus the first, and I feel it as I’m writing and working on my own projects. I hear the mistakes and the rough steps, and while that’ll bother me forever, it’s really ok. They needed to happen for me to learn and get better. I know that’s a very Hallmark thing to say, but that is fucking real. I am so excited to take these skills and keep improving upon them, through more lessons with my recording guru Kevin Dye, and projects with friends. Hey ma! I learned a thing!

I want to thank, first and foremost, my housemates, for putting up with this noise for the last 20+ weeks. You guys were real champs, and I appreciate it. I’d also like to thank Kevin for giving me a lot of guidance and encouragement, as well as Frank Marra, and Nick Goncalves for doing the same. I have to thank all the musicians who donated their time and talent to raise a couple bucks for good causes, and most importantly all of you who supported it. The idea that a guy like me can do something like this is baffling. I never imagined this would be possible, and you folks made it happen, because you listened. You encouraged me and said kind things. You donated your hard earned 2020 cash, and you did so frequently. Thank you all so damn much.

Well, that’s it for now. Maybe I’ll see you all next year…

Rocky Catanese
November 27, 2020