Hi friends, welcome to week 8! I'm sorry that I'm a day late in putting this up, but this week was a little taxing for my brain, so it took me longer to do much of anything. This week's song is "Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts" by Brandon Flowers.

I had heard songs from The Killers for a number of years, and never really got super into them, but still thought they were pretty good. The most notable thing I heard a bunch, and thought was great, was their cover of "Romeo and Juliet" on their compilation album, Sawdust. When this record came out, as well as the video for "Crossfire", where a helpless Brandon Flowers is repeatedly saved by badass Charlize Theron, my ears perked up a little more. Maybe it was just the way that song hit me, or finding the video really entertaining, or just where I was in my life, but I decided to start looking deeper into Flowers' record, and the Killers catalog. After that point I became a real fan of the band, and think they continue to make really wonderful pop-rock songs.

When deciding songs for this project, I thought that this one was a nice challenge, and a bit of a departure of what I normally do. It's a lot of subtle layers playing together, and I knew I'd have to be smart about each part. I immediately knew I wanted Jared to sing it, because he loves The Killers and I knew he'd kill it (Hehe). Brad was open to doing pretty much anything, being the lovely gentleman that he is. I thought this one could be something cool for him to do, knowing his deep knowledge of all things guitar would be able to create some really wonderful sounds. I have to say, I am immensely proud of what we were able to make.

I spent a bunch of time making small adjustments to make sure that things popped out properly. This song has so much weaving together, it can easily become too dense, and somehow still feel empty. Little things like the acoustic guitar, or the pulsing synth chords in the verse became hugely important, as well as giving the instruments proper space in the choruses. Brad crafted some amazing tones, so much so that I immediately asked what he used, and to my amazement, he used mostly digital plugins; just another indication that he's so damn good. I got a lot of miles out of a plugin of my own: the ANA 2 synthesizer from Slate Digital. That thing has some of my favorite sounds and I've actually improved as a faker of keyboard because of it.

Jared was able to knock out these vocals in almost no time. I've just been so fortunate to spend this much time making music with him, as he's a total pro and up for anything. Plus, it's just great that even though we're mostly separated these days, that we still get to sing together and make cool things. I honestly can't wait until we put some of the tools I've gained, over the last couple months, to some good use for Mercy Union.

Once again, I have to thank you guys for listening to these, and the kind words you've shared. Like I mentioned earlier in this rant, I had a bit of a crazy week, and this time is obviously very stressful for almost all of us. Our country is a really dark place right now, and it's hard to have hope, but getting to make music with friends is one of the really good things I can hold onto. I'm excited that we're beginning to have more and more friends involved, and there are plans for even more collaboration in the future. This is gonna be fun.

As a reminder, all proceeds for this month will go to the Trevor Project. If you would like more information on their work, check out www.thetrevorproject.org

Thanks for checking this out, and I'll see you next week!