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| First things first, Brand New Reason at some point became our top song |
Brand New Reason was the first song that we released last year, without our longtime vocalist Thrina, doing the vocal chores. The whole story of that was shared here. But to keep the long story short, we had to improvise by featuring different guest artists to interpret our songs. We've released a couple more songs since then but I feel Brand New Reason could be something more. I mean this is not to knock the older version. In fact, just as I was starting preparations for the release of the remixed version, the song all of sudden experienced a surge in listeners and streams (see photo below). Currently rising as the number two most popular song on our catalogue (of course, Runaway Angel continues to take the top spot). Plus, the algorithms seemed to put the song in front of an audience that took a liking to the song. Giving the song a huge lift in playlist additions by those who were able to listen to the song. Honestly, the number of people playlisting the song is the highest that I've ever experienced among all of our songs. And getting those numbers for the Pre-Save campaign is something that I feel is very daunting to reach. So yes, Brand New Reason has it's own charm. Of course, you could never fail with my long time songwriting partner Wilbert helming the musical composition of the song. Even if he just decided to use sparse instrumentation to highlight Kai Huyno's vocal chops.
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| Sudden rise of streams for Brand New Reason |
But while the original version is a very good song in its own way, I feel that there's an opportunity to turn this song into something sort of an EDM (Electronic Dance Music) type of song. Somehow, being exposed to Spotify's wide range of music genres opened my musical tastes. And it is of great privilege of mine to be able to have worked on this song with Dud Lemon. A very talented and rising beatmaker and artist who is just starting to explore his own art and music. Dud Lemon has so far released an EP collaborating with another talented rising indie pop artist Jonah Agas (you should check out her dreamy lo-fi, indie/synth pop EP). And though their collaboration just feels like magic (there's more coming from them), I wanted to "borrow" Dud Lemon and take his talent to explore something outside his comfort zone with Jonah. And this is how BNR came to be. Though admittedly, I was not really a fan of EDM/Disco music back in the day, but what Dud Lemon did on this song totally blew my mind.
BNR is a very chill and breezy song that would take you to the retro disco music years while evoking beach music vibes. Just perfect for a hot summer release. I'm actually surprised with the finished product. For I have lived the disco years and listening to the song made me feel a bit nostalgic of my younger years where disco music lorded it over the traditional radio airwaves. Of course, I actually told Dud Lemon to own the song like it was his. And sure enough, the end product made the song sound totally new. You'd actually think that this is a different song from the older one. Of course, the lyrics remained the same. Though Dud Lemon took the liberty to experiment on Kai's vocal tracks. This was totally a fun project to work with. Couldn't be proud enough to have worked with Dud Lemon for this song. As far as a Thoughts And Notions song is concerned, this is going to be another first in our song catalogue. And I could probably say that this feels like a first for Dud Lemon's own catalogue too.
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| BNR Album Artwork mixed in with some Korean words |
I also had fun conceptualizing the artwork. I researched on various disco colors that I could work on to keep the album cover art a complete representation of the song. And even put some Korean words up front. K-Pop music is so huge all over the world now, so I just thought of putting a Korean title in there as a homage to the successful rise of K-Pop music. Of course, Kai looks a little bit Korean if you come to think of it. And I'm hoping on one end that K-Pop music fans would take a liking to the song too. Maybe we can bring back the glory years of Disco Pop music and have it integrated to Pop music now.
The song is simply called BNR, the acronym for Brand New Reason. I feel it fits the song nicely. But the Korean words on the album art cover is the alternate title for the song (if google was able to translate it correctly). But I'm not saying what it means. You'll have to figure it out yourself. 😉
Help us Pre-Save the song on this link and be the first to hear this totally new song that we are very excited to share with you:
And one more thing. I just remembered that I actually didn't write anything about the song's message, in the blog entry I wrote when the original song first came out. Well it's just a very simple hopeful and inspirational song, that encourages us to always find a Brand New Reason for you to live each day. There are a lot of things worth living for. You'd just have to put on your dancing shoes and dance to the beat that life takes you to. Of course, with HIM above being the great comforter that he is to bring direction to your life.
