“Looks Like I’m Living Now” Behind the Song

Looks Like I’m Living Now is one of two songs written before 2021 (ok one of three if you include the Madonna cover 😛 ) and I wrote it back in 2017 with a female vocal in mind. At the time I wasn’t writing a lot of non-comedy songs but I came up with a groove that I liked based on a sort of slow dance hall beat, and when I started putting the backing tracks together the idea of a breakup in the era of social media took shape. I thought it could be a good song for someone in an alto range, like Miley Cyrus or Lana Del Ray.

I put a nice track together and sang a terrible guide vocal that was way too high for me, but I never got a female vocalist to record it. The song lingered in my rough mixes playlist and I still really liked it and wanted to find a way for people to hear it. Every once in a while I would give it a listen and think I should do something with it; but with my main focus being comedy music and trying to write more material for my cruise show sets, getting an introspective ballad out into the world wasn’t a priority.

When I started working on The Green L.E.D.s album earlier this year I decided to give the song a try in a lower key to see if it would fit in with the feel of the rest of the songs. Originally in Db I lowered it all the way down to F which made the vocal sit in the sweet spot of raspiness that I was going for. I also completely rearranged the song to feature electric piano and tremolo guitars for The Green L.E.D.s version over the more electronic and contemporary pop arrangement I put together for the original. The electric piano groove really helped convince me the song would work on this project and it was one of my favorites to work on.

That’s not to say the song came together easily, I had trouble finding the balance between a sparse, flowy arrangement and keeping it interesting and moving. And at the last minute I decided to swap in a brush drum kit instead of the one I’d used on the rest of the tracks.

It’s also the only track without a live bass guitar which, if you’ve seen my bass video on TikTok, was a tough decision for me. I used a virtual upright bass instrument in Logic when putting the basic tracks together and the more I heard it in the mix the more it felt like the right fit. There are also some bleeps and bloops from synthesizers and, if you listen closely, an accordion in the verses, which I added because the song gave me some French café vibes.

I’m glad this song is finally seeing the light of day. It’s one I’ve been proud of for a while and I’m thrilled it found a home on the new album.