We’ve been taking a listen to the smooth sounds of Derry Fillin’s latest single, Excuse, here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today. We have to say, that if you’re looking for a piece of slightly jazzy nostalgia, then this is the track for you.
Excuse is the tale of the dialogue inside a slightly delusional person’s head. It follows the story of a person who sold their soul to the devil in order to achieve fame and fortune.
Excuse has a wonderful jazzy feel to it, with simple drums and a piano led melody. In places, the vocals and piano melody are duplicated, helping the song to feel like something you can really sing along to by the second listen.
There’s some beautiful, brief, moments of piano solo and also reverb drenched guitar solos before you’re led back to Derry’s inviting vocals. Sounding vocally a touch like Gordon Gano (Violet Fems) and perhaps Rufus Wainwright, this track feels like it could have been something written by Paul McCartney during the later Beatles era. Perhaps Sergeant Pepper/ Mystery Tour era.
Excuse is a wonderful mash up of influences and genres. For a Russian born artist, now (we think) living in New York who is influenced by the Beatles and 90s Britpop, you were pretty much guaranteed to find something that bends genres and styles very effectively. You kind of feel that perhaps this style is the culmination of years of different influences and feels very much “home” for Derry Fillin.
From a production perspective, this is a great track. We might suggest a high pass at 35Hz to alleviate some rumble in the track that most speakers can’t handle. A wide boost centred around 8kHz will add some more presence and definition and a shelf boost of the top octave will add just a touch more glisten to that lovely swing hi-hat. A gentle extra compressor will add some more volume and warmth in the low end. These are personal suggestions to our ears; the track is stunning as is.
Excuse is a simply marvellous, easy listening, slightly jazzy track with some fantastic use of brass to accentuate the nostalgic feel. A truly unique and exciting artist who we’ll be keeping a close eye on for future releases. Great stuff!