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Jodie Marie
Mar 9, 20212 min read

Kiss These Tears Away: Celebratory Track by Track (Day Six)

Celebratory track by track of songs from The Answer: Kiss These Tears Away

I wrote Kiss These Tears Away on my Gretsch electric guitar. I wanted to write a blues/soul ballad inspired by the greats I grew up listening to - Randy Newman’s ‘Guilty’, or Etta James’s ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’. I was very mindful not to make it a cliche, straight up, blues ballad. I love the way those songs sound, but I wanted to put my own stamp on this track - adding a more modern sound world, like something you might hear on a The Black Keys record.


Owain (producer of this track and StudiOwz owner) suggested we run Jimmy Brewer's electric guitar and Dan Moore’s Moog Synth parts through a tape echo - changing the speed and pitch. Sounds to make the listener feel slightly on edge, (which sounds like a strange thing to want), but we wanted the music to describe what the lyrics are about - feeling distraught. For example, if you played the song as an instrumental, the music would give you that feeling, before even hearing the lyrics. I love working with Owain in the studio, he really likes to push the boundaries of a song, “go bold or go home” is often heard - to make it the best it can be, instead of it just being a polite ballad of feeling at a loss, it’s become so much more.

We recorded the song at the original StudiOwz recording studio (on the dairy farm), but I wasn’t happy with my vocal take - it just wasn’t sitting right. It turned out I’d completely over sung it, trying to convey the emotion by belting it out, when in actual fact, it needed to be sung in a much more wounded & reserved way. So, once the new StudiOwz studio (in a converted chapel) was built, I re recorded them in the big live room, using the atmosphere of the chapel space to get just that. I enjoyed playing around with the backing vocals, making them sound like you’re singing down a telephone line - an extreme version of something that Fontella Bass did on a track like, ‘You’ll Never Know’.


Music is like therapy to me, and this song feels like exactly that, “Why won’t you come back and kiss these tears away?”

You can buy a physical copy of the record on Vinyl/CD here: https://www.carumusic.com/jodie-marie


Or on all digital platforms here: - Bandcamp: https://jodiemarie.bandcamp.com/

Carmel Records - a Caru Music Ltd Company

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