On this episode of AOS, legendary songwriter and musician John Oates talks to WBGO's Doug Doyle about his new music and thoughts on staying positive during tough times.
The Rock and Roll Hall Famer, singer, guitarist and songwriter extraordinaire is out with his new single “Disconnected”, a song about never giving up despite all the challenges you face.
Oates spoke about why his two latest singles have a lot in common.
"I released a song late last year, in November of '22, it was called "Pushin' A Rock" and it was about overcoming challenges. It's kind of a recurring theme with me that I've been kind of dealing with in my life, personally and professionally in certain ways, and so it's only natural as a writer that you tend to use the strong emotions and the strong circumstances that you encounter. It becomes reflected in your art or your music or your writing. I think that's what is going on. It's just been something I've been thinking about, trying to deal with ever since the pandemic when I had a chance to reflect on a lot of things. It's very introspective in a lot of ways, but at the same time I try to make something that can be universally appreciated, understood and maybe related to by a lot of people. As a songwriter, that's kind of the secret sauce, taking something that might be very personal to you emotionally, but crafting it in a way that people respond to in their own unique way. It's a little magic deep inside the craft of songwriting."
The pandemic proved to be quite productive for Oates.
"You know it was really a whole readjustment period and then I settled into it and embraced it. Now I have a chance to not only to stay home and enjoy being at home with my family, but to go back into my archives and find stuff, revisit things that I might have forgotten about. All sort of stuff began to happen and good prolific inspirational things began to happen. I began to write a lot."
Oates says he's always used GarageBand on his Mac to help him record and now write songs. He started using the digital editing software in the early 2000's when it was first invented. He says he even convinced GarageBand creators to change its format to allow for songs to be written on the same screen while recording the music. He stress "Disconnected" was an idea he had in his digital archives and he eventually took a reimagined version into Addiction Sound studios in Nashville.
“Disconnected was an idea that I had in my digital archives that I rediscovered during the pandemic...the theme felt even more timely and I produced a reimagined version at home using Garage Band on my Mac. Then took that into Addiction Sound studios in Nashville and assembled an all star rhythm section to bring the home demo to life...a lot of the original Garage Band tracks are still on the finished recording.”
