Masterpiece

Album: Caracal (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song features Brisbane-reared singer-songwriter Jordan Rakei, who was discovered through a an old school friend of Guy Lawrence named James who is also into music and DJs. Lawrence recalled to Spin: "He lived in Australia for a year and did some traveling and found loads of wicked music. He found this one guy singing in a bar, bought his EP right there and then, and he told me to get it. It was on Bandcamp. Went and got it and I just loved it. He's like a white D'Angelo basically."

    "We were like, 'Whoa, that's pretty cool.' Then I knew he was from Australia so I was I like, 'If we're ever there, maybe we should hook up.' Then I checked him out on Twitter and his last tweet was that he'd just moved to London. We were like, 'Yes, so ideal!' It turns out he's half-English, so he's got a UK passport, moved to London, and got in the studio with us two weeks later and wrote 'Masterpiece.'"

    Howard Lawrence added: "We sat and spoke music with him for like an hour and a half before we started writing anything, just talking about a lot of jazz. We didn't know if he was going to be a good writer or anything because there is nothing online about him, no way of finding out if he had written all these songs himself or if he produced them or what. So we just got in the studio almost on a whim, hoping he'd be good. He was."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Kristian Bush of Sugarland

Kristian Bush of SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Kristian talks songwriting technique, like how the chorus should redefine the story, and how to write a song backwards.

Grateful Dead Characters

Grateful Dead CharactersMusic Quiz

Many unusual folks appear in Grateful Dead songs. Can you identify them?

Music Video Director David Hogan

Music Video Director David HoganSong Writing

David talks about videos he made for Prince, Alabama, Big & Rich, Sheryl Crow, DMB, Melissa Etheridge and Sisters of Mercy.

Harry Shearer

Harry ShearerSongwriter Interviews

Harry is Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, Mark Shubb in The Folksmen, and Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.

Alan Merrill of The Arrows

Alan Merrill of The ArrowsSongwriter Interviews

In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.

Jon Anderson

Jon AndersonSongwriter Interviews

Jon Anderson breaks down the Yes classic "Seen All Good People" and talks about his 1000 Hands album, which features Chick Corea, Rick Derringer, Ian Anderson, and many other luminaries.