demo 105: both can be true (*alt version) (Patreon)

hey SDC : ) here's something a little different to round this year off. in the spirit of 'everybody needs a hero', (the record I put out this year) I wanted to give you something related to album 2, a missing puzzle piece from that time and I think I found just the ticket: this is an alt version of 'both can be true' we recorded at Middle Farm (where I recorded the album) whilst figuring out whether this song had a place on the tracklist.

[quick bit of business before we jump in - at 9pm UK time today I'll be active in the 'general chatter' channel of our discord server, so if you're around this evening come say hi]

so those of you who have been here on my patreon for a long time may remember my original 'both can be true' demo from oct 2021 (this is version 1). and it's likely more of you will know the released version of 'both can be true', which appeared as track 1 on the record this year (let's call this version 3). but something I never uploaded was this - this alt version (or version 2) which was recorded in oct 2022 and then forgotten (until now!).

VERSION 1:

I was (and still am) really proud of the initial version of this song, the original SDC demo from when I wrote it. it gives me this dark, almost twilight-soundtrack type feeling (?!!) and I've always loved those programmed drums; the combo of the drums + the piano definitely creates a loop-y/intensity that matches the lyric for me. from the start the song had a v distilled message in the chorus: this relationship is GREAT and HARD at the same time, both can be true. for me a big part of growing up has been understanding that so few situations & emotions in life are as black & white as I thought when I was younger (and as they seem in movies, songs, etc) real life is much stickier, much more nuanced. so I wanted to write something that acknowledged the sticky feeling of realising that a relationship is neither wholly good or wholly bad - both can co-exist - and where does that leave us?

VERSION 2: 

one year passed; october 2022. we're at the beginning of our album-2 recording process, which unlike WOTI happened over many short studio trips (rather than one long stint). when combing through my demos and deciding which to bring to middle farm I decided to spent an afternoon on this one with my little album team on that particular trip (tom, Pete, a drummer called Tim & an all-round great musician called Soren). the first order of business was playing the song in the live room together & seeing how that felt - I had tracked all the parts of the original demo individually by myself in my tiny studio in london, so it was cool to break the song apart & just play it as a band. this pre-production process was something we went through with most songs and it always reveals something useful about the song: maybe the writing isn't strong enough or the structure doesn't work ! or maybe the song is strong, in fact BETTER in a bare bones / playable-by-real-humans form and it doesn't need all of the intricate production the song may have previously leant on.

playing it in the room and making version 2 of 'both can be true' oddly did both for me (deeply on brand for the song): it re-affirmed my confidence in one part of the song (the chorus) but left me feeling lukewarm about other parts (the verses). it showed me the song had merit without the demo production & parts but then left me thoroughly confused about how it should actually be presented. it all felt unclear, so we parked the song for a while & focussed our attention on other songs.

VERSION 3:

another full year passes; november 2023. we are at this point nearing the end of the album process - most of the tracklist has fallen into place, 7 or 8 songs are totally finished & good to go. some writers thrive off setting the theme/intention for their album at the beginning, others write blindly and leave it to chance. the ENAH process had both: I knew from the start I wanted to write about my relationship but beyond that I didn't overthink it. I couldn't plan what the songs would be about exactly - like what feelings & lyrical tone would emerge, what sort of character I might take on, where we'd take the music/production side of the record. for me this balance of intention vs. natural flow worked really well and definitely something I would definitely try again ! writing-wise WOTI had been much looser - that was truly a case of going in blind & figuring out the common threads at the end - but equally I didn't want to box myself in for this one at the start by saying something like "I'M GONNA WRITE 10 SAD SONGS ABOUT MY RELATIONSHIP IN THE STYLE OF PARAMORE" (not the brief - just an example) (but actually tbf - there were sprinkles of that)

so in nov 2023 when I looked at our locked-in tracks & all the potential contenders it seemed to me the record explored the multitudes we can contain, within ourselves and within a relationship. for me relationships (like life) are never black & white ! these songs seemed to highlight & celebrate all those grey areas, the 'I love you, but ______' moments. and when I realised that it made me want to revisit 'both can be true' as that idea was the whole crux of that song! I liked the idea of a simple/pared-back version of 'both can be true' opening the tracklist, almost like: this is the conclusion of this whole record, laid out right at the start. I love you AND this is hard.. now let's delve in! (cue track 2, 3, 4, etc..)

the original verses of the song simply weren't doing it for me by this point and now that I saw the track as an album opener I felt less pressure on the final version being a fully structured SONG. the focus was less about 'both can be true' as an individual track and now more about the album & the sum of its parts. I took 15 mins to write a super simple verse and we recorded a piano-and-vocal one take version - 1 verse and the chorus, coming to a length of about 1 minute. miraculously we realised afterwards that both can be true (track 1) and SOUND OF LETTING GO (track 2) were in the keys of G major and G minor respectively, which meant rolling from one to the other should be pretty satisfying for the listener (we tried some versions which had some atmospheric layers and milked this transition a little more with a swell/drone but I decided against them - I attached one below so you can hear what I mean!).

one fun fact about the released version of 'both can be true' is that is no radio/clean version of this song in existence (as there is for every other track on the album). this practice doesn't just apply for versions of singles for the radio anymore - nowadays an artist is required to submit 'clean' versions of every song they release to streaming services (so for example if someone has a child-mode on their streaming service or Alexa speaker etc it will automatically play the clean versions of songs, rather than explicit ones with the curses in). you can generally throw together quick clean versions of your songs after the fact by simply muting the vocal for a word or placing a beep/sound effect over the curse but I find this pretty jarring - so to fight this my co-producer Tom & I have got into the habit of always recording a clean lead vocal option for every song when we record the main vocal take. (a clean lyric highlight from ENAH for me is "some voodoo doll THING" in the chorus of the hit, instead of "some voodoo doll shit". dang - it really doesn't have the same punch, but it's better than a bleep!). however, for 'both can be true' we recorded the piano & vocal at once rather than separately, so even when we muted the vocal for all the curses (both a 'fuck' aaaand a 'shit' lol) you can still hear the words in the piano mics!

so the only way to get a clean version of this song would have been to have recorded a whole other take of the song with some clean lyrics.. whiiiich.. we didn't. so if you have child-mode on your speaker and you say 'ALEXA PLAY EVERYBODY NEEDS A HERO BY ORLA GARTLAND' you'll find it just skips this song and jumps straight to track 2, sound of letting go ! THE F BOMB AND S BOMB ARE BAKED IN, an integral part of the song as it turns out lol

.........................

so that's it, folks. the A to B to C version of this song! these are the kind of stories I love to tell on here - I feel it's a key mission of the SDC to peel the curtain back and show these winding, sometimes messy parts of the process. for me the right songs always find their way by the end - they just need a bit of airtime now & then, a little thought, a little curiosity, a little being honest with yourself. and the coolest thing about aLL of this is that music is totally subjective; there's every chance that you may prefer version 1 or 2 of this song over version 3 that was released and there's just no right or wrong to it. this is one of many things I simply love about music, even after all these years : )

if you're new here a quick guide to the demos :

you can stream the song from this post (on desktop, mobile or within your fave podcast app, if you set that up in your RSS feed) or you can download the attached mp3 and own it forever

let me know what you think :)

and here are the lyrics of this (version 1 + 2) of Both Can Be True:

you make me feel high

you make me feel blue

i’m stuck in between

frozen, and feeling everything

oh make no mistake

i fucking love you

but this shit is hard

I guess that both can be true

good god

i hate the feeling of letting you down

but i taste it every day

i’m caught

at the end of the phone with nothing to say

stunlocked

i’m going nowhere

but does that make it worse in a way worse in a way

knowing that i’m going nowhere

you make me feel high

you make me feel blue

i’m stuck in between

frozen, and feeling everything

oh make no mistake

i fucking love you

but this shit is hard

I guess that both can be true

I breathe it in, I know you’re there

I feel so tired from the weight of caring far too much

I’m miles away but I’m next to you

I see it now, I guess that both can be true

(chorus)

.........................

check out my demos collection here to go back & listen to any demos this year you may have missed; I've been really proud of them this year. I can't wait to continue this - truly the fave part of my job - in 2025

LOVE YOU FOLKS : ) OG xxxx