In My Life

Album: Safe In Sound (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • This soothing ballad from Frances Luke Accord's sophomore album finds the indie-folk duo reflecting on the challenges they've faced throughout their lives. It was a difficult track to write, and they credit guest performers Darlingside, a folk quartet from Boston, for helping them bring it to fruition.

    "It's one that we struggled really hard with," FLA's Brian Powers told the Songfacts Podcast in 2023. "Having those dudes who are like our older brother band helping us out with that tune and also singing on it, they just did beautiful work. It turned out in a way that we both are really proud of and it took many iterations of failing to get there."
  • In particular, the duo singles out Darlingside singer/guitarist/banjoist Don Mitchell, who mixed the track and produced the majority of the album, for pushing them in the right direction. Powers explained: "It took us a long time to make this record, and he was really instrumental in shaking us in the right ways to get us to pay attention to the right details and ignore some of the things that we thought were important, but in reality were just tripping us up and leading us down the wrong path."
  • It's not unusual for the duo to seek outside feedback on their songs. In fact, it's essential. "It's gotta start somewhere, it's gotta start in one of our heads. But it doesn't really take shape until it's shared," FLA's Nicholas Gunty told Songfacts. "And I don't mean you show it to somebody and they give you feedback. I mean handing over the reins to somebody else to say, 'Yes, no.' That's a huge part of our process."

    Gunty walked Songfacts through the process of getting a song off the table and onto an album: "Even before a song gets on the table for a record, there's the process of sifting through the various ditties and voice memos that capture certain components of a song, like melodies or riffs. And then before we even develop it, we take it to the other songwriter/producer and do a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, and an initial critique to figure out what we want out of that tune - what we're hearing, other artists that are inspiring us, stuff like that. That lasts through the whole process with all of the songs that we make and has come to really define how we work, and in some ways it's also why we are so meticulous. But the best way to be meticulous is when you get to the point where you feel like you've done what you can or you're hitting a wall, that's where the other person comes in and can really pick the piece back up. And that was the story of every single song on this record."
  • The original demo was around 15 beats per minute faster than the final version.
  • Powers and Gunty are both from South Bend, Indiana, and started performing together as students at the University of Notre Dame. In 2013, they relocated to Chicago and, a few years later, issued their debut album, Fluke.

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