Ready for some karaoke? Me too.
Welcome to the world of the Lucky Cat. It’s fast cars, pink wigs, lots (and lots) of smoking, drinking and loud - possibly out of tune - singing. It’s pure pop, people.
Which is where I started from on this song - I wanted to do something a bit more ‘pop’, whatever that means nowadays. For me, it took some of the sensibilities of Air, throwing in some Daft Punk, a teaspoon of Tame Impala and various other bits and pieces of musical stylings I’d heard along the way and mixing them up in a big bento box. To be honest, I don’t think it sounds like any of them, but is it the sound of the summer? Of course! Stick it on your Ibiza mix, people.
Production-wise, quite a bit of chopping up of samples for the ‘in my heart’ vocal refrain and some good old-fashioned analogue synths abound adding to a slight 1980’s vibe. The biggest thing I wanted to get in was some Nile Rodgers funk guitar, which isn’t my natural style, but I had a crack and it’s (of course) much, much harder than it sounds - that man’s right hand is a machine. Click, click, click.
The video was once again put together with footage from Artlist. I knew this had a slightly Asian party vibe right from the off and some karaoke footage would suit. The narrative is pretty straightforward: when lots of young folk get out for a good time there’s always the possibility of something magical happening at the end of the evening. Lucky indeed.
Which brings me to the title. I’ve always loved seeing the Maneki-neko or Lucky Cats out and about, so the music, video and funny name came together all quite nicely.
This is genuinely a new style of track for me. I’m not sure how it’s going to fit on the album, but it’s some light relief and I’m really pleased with the way it panned out.
The big question this raises of course is one for you guys - what’s your karaoke song? Leave me a comment and let me know (oh, and if you haven’t already, hit subscribe…!)
Lucky Cat (In My Heart)