It was April 2022 when I, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada based singer/songwriter, James Hardiment, teamed up with Derek Mason, known to his fans as “Chef Mayhem” to work on an Easter Extravaganza episode of his cooking show on YouTube. I wanted to something extra special for the fans of the program, which we had started up a year prior on his Melted Mayhem channel.
We had already completed a Christmas Extravaganza episode in December of 2021, which featured my lip synced performance of an original festive song called “Mistletoe Lady”. I shot everything on my iPhone SE on a greenscreen backdrop I had picked up from Amazon, along with a set of video lights. The kit was from a company called Canadian Studio, and can be packed away easily, if you are on the go. It’s definitely not the most heavy duty kit (I paid under $200 for the lights included) but it does the job, for now anyways. Basically, we had him do the recipe portion of the show first, followed by an interview, then the song at the end. We figured that way people who wanted to watch the recipe only could tune out at the end. One of my biggest pet peeves, is content creators that try to stall and delay, or force something on you for ad revenue gain. If the video is a certain length they can make money off it, so they try to avoid getting to the point.
The song I decided would go on the Easter special was an Italo Disco inspired track, Italo Disco is basically an ‘80s style of dance music from Europe that incorporated synthesizer and drum machine sounds, as well as guitar and sax occasionally. I called it “Rescue Me” and I teamed up with Ottawa based singer/songwriter Sarah Rae. She would sing backups in the chorus, and would also sing the bridge in French for me.
My inspiration for the tracks sound and arrangement came from the Italo Disco being created in Spain back in the 1980s, the music produced out there became known as the “Sabadell Sound”. Dance projects such as “Daydream”, “Squash Gang”, and “David Lyme” are examples of bands and musicians from that period that fit that style. Fast, catchy synthesizer chords dominate the sound primarily, it’s probably my favourite type of Italo, I find it the most interesting and best to dance to.
I recorded my instrumental the usual way, using my iPhone with the GarageBand music studio app that comes with it. I plugged in my Audio Technica microphone for the vocal parts. Then I sent the song to Sarah in Ottawa, and she recorded her parts for me, and sent them online. I love the internet for so many reasons, sure we don’t have privacy anymore, but we can collaborate instantly from around the world!
For the video, I shot my parts at my house near Cornwall on a greenscreen. My friend Jake Adamson and I journied up to Ottawa to film Sarah at her home. I had met Sarah through a cool musician app called BandMix. It’s basically like a dating site, but instead of finding a partner you find a band member or musician to collaborate with. I bought her a cool white retro dress from Zara, and a red beret I picked up from Amazon. I wanted it to look as retro as possible. I was dressed in white chinos, and a stripy red, and white shirt, with a captains hat on. I picked up the Captains hat years ago in Quebec City. The song is very nautical themed so I felt like it fit. Part of the chorus talks about drowning in the ocean and needing to be saved.
For the cover art I had my artist friend based in Ottawa, Jeremy Cybanski, who I had met through one of my sisters friends, design the cover art. I wanted to go with something that blended the cubism art style. A lot of the dance projects from back in the day used that style for e their cover artwork. It was cool to see it all come together!
The song was mixed as usual by the talented Josh Hart over at Josh Hart Recordings up in Ottawa. If you’d like to watch the final video you can check it out below, the first video is just the song, the second is the full Easter Episode. I just posted the song alone tonight!
Pictured: Sarah Rae, James Hardiment, and her cute doggie pose for a picture at her house, where we filmed her part!