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MINE

This is "Mine", the first track of Thank You George's song writing and production project "The World is Mine". Please follow its ongoing evolution on this website.

About

First recorded in May 2016 in Shar-e-Babak, Iran

"Mine" was one of the first songs I wrote for Thank You George. Originally I arranged and played it with Alex Fruendt, the jazz drummer I founded the band with back in 2013. We recorded a demo version in our rehearsal room and uploaded it to our soundcloud profile. When Alex left the band in mid 2014 "Mine" got lost for quite a while. We rediscovered the song when we started establishing the recording project "The World Is Mine" with Ali and Jan and our producer Toby. We even added it to our setlist and played it live at a few of our latest concerts.

Apart from really liking the song we found the project's name in its lyrics. The central theme of "Mine" seemed to describe the next chapter in the band's biography very well. Thus we derived the title for the recording project from the main phrase "This is when the world is mine".

I finished the song back in 2013 during my backpacking trip to Morocco. Before I had been carrying the fragments with me for quite a while. In fact I had started on "Mine" when I left Berlin in 2011 and moved to Hamburg. I left a whole bunch of people and a girl behind and nobody (including myself) quite understood the reason why. A few years later I realized that this is part of who I am. That I need to leave the status quo to find something new, even when things are going well.

In Morocco I finally got around to putting all the pieces together. When rediscovering the song I realized that "Mine" describes my state of mind before leaving on this year-long trip quite accurately. Again everything was going well, again I left, again a lot of people didn't really understand. For me it doesn't feel like leaving though. I am going away for a while to embrace the new and add it to the old when I come back.

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EVOLUTION

From Song writing to arrangement to production

June 2017: The World Is Mine - An EP In Progress

About this version

When listening to this version of the song you will find that its arrangement didn't change compared to the version published in "The Bangkok Sessions". Actually the only differences lie in the mix and master of the preliminary track (which were both done on the same recordings).

Change log

  • Mixing the track
  • Mastering the track (curtesy of Kiezkojote's Toby Lelushko)

November 2016: The Bangkok Sessions

About this version

In early November I stayed in Bangkok for ten days. I decided to use that time to review all the material I had created in the course of this song writing and recording project. To get it in order and to properly prepare it, maybe even for a first release with my band Thank You George in early 2017.

Through my Thai-friend Tui I found a rehearsal room at this cultural centre called Brownstone. I spent a few days there to properly re-record and mix the songs the project "The World Is Mine" had brought to life up until that point.

I didn't make too many changes to most of the songs. When listening to "Mine" you will find that I left the original song-writing and arrangement untouched. However, when it comes to the production, I did spent quite some time on experimenting with drum machines and electronic percussions.

Change log

  • Properly re-recording the lead acoustic guitar and the lead vocals
  • Recording the full-length version of the support acoustic guitar and (which is creating most of the sound scapes you hear in this version)
  • Getting rid of the doubled and panned guitars as they were cluttering up the song's mix
  • Reworking the Ableton Live Setup to clean up the synthies and keys
  • Adding electronic beats and percussion

June 2016: Ableton Live Mixdown

About this version

This is a mixdown of "Mine" when arranged in the Ableton Live set I had created back in Hamburg to put the song up on stage with Thank You George. It includes the essentials (acoustic guitar and vocals), an electric guitar track that I found on my hard drive, a synthesizer covering the lower frequenzies and our band's signature sound scapes originating from running certain notes of the electric guitar track through a chain of reverb and delay effects.

Change log

  • Adding an eletric guitar track
  • Adding sound scapes
  • Adding a synthie to fill the frequencies below the guitar

May 2016: The essentials

About this version

When staying with Iranian DJ Ramin in his flat in Shar-e-Babak I recorded the acoustic guitar and vocals for "Mine" and made a quick mixdown. This is what the song sounds like when dialed down to its essentials.

Change log

  • Recording the lead acoustic guitar
  • Recording the lead vocals
  • Recording the different voices in the choir
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Lyrics

You ask me where I'm gonna go
I point to the far away sea
The soles of my shoes are worn out
Cause this ain't the first time I leave

The streets light up
Your face lights down
Cause all these cities
Have grown cold

The scent of your hair was sublime
Each hour we spent in your bed
Our hearts and our bodies aligned
And light shined past your silhouette

The time has come
For boots and coats
Cause things between us
Have grown cold

Of all the cities I have killed
This one hurts the least and still
I feel those eyes I've left behind
This is when the world is mine

The world is mine
The world is mine
The world is mine