Thunderstruck is the Text Book-Owl City Song to me.
It dosen't forge ahead into to many unexplored territories,
But I think it does revisit a lot of the familiar places we've been before,
So I also think it does pulls imagery from the entire Owl City discography.
(Music)
Sarah Russel is this fantastic artist from the U.K I met a couple of years ago,
I remember hearing her sing for the first time and just thinking: Wow, I need to work with her some day
I knew right away that i wanted to colaborate with her,
Because her voice has this ability to make your heart skip a beat.
I finished writing the lyrics for Thunderstruck
And I sent Sarah a demo,
Which she was so gracious to say she enjoyed and
Even more graciously agreed to feature on the song
She sang what i had written, and then she recorded a few other tracks
Which were pure gold, and I used every one of 'em
Throughout the song.
Thunderstruck is this perfect example of a song
Which I never would have been able to pull of the way it exists
Without Sarah,
And without her talent
She just took the demo I had started
Which was really Middle of the road
And she gave it wings, you know?
She made it magical.
(Music)
The production of the track is maybe the most complicated
Of all the songs on the album,
Because it got a lot of fancy production tricks happening
At any given moment
It's really inspired by my love of Electro House,
It has elements of Dubstep, Trance and EDM
It's sort of my hommage to all these genres
Which I really look up to a lot.
There is a lot of funny easter eggs in this song,
Like samples of me doing random stuff,
Like shouting,
Samples of random things around my house, that I recorded
Like doors slamming, even samples of me skateboarding on the driveway and stuff
I love recording those things around my house
And finding ways to work those things into a production
(Music)
The heart and soul of the song lyrically,
Is about feeling speechless when you fall in love for the first time
And how powerful that is
How you feel like you are floating, a few feet of the ground
Wherever you go
And how intoxicating that feeling is
You just want to shout it from the rooftops
The catch is though, the charachter in the song
Has just fallen in love with a ghost
Is also something i tend to write a lot about:
Two characthers falling in love,
And that love being doomed from the start
Because it defies physical and emotional boundaries
I think that is so tragic and beautiful in an Edgar Alan Poe kind of way
Yeah, I like writing love songs, but,
As I get older, and the more I write music
I think I gravitate to writing love songs
That have a sad twist to them
And Thunderstruck is a good example of that.
I don't know why, I just enjoy that blend of bitter-sweet
Having just finnished the record
I'm so excited playing this song live
Because
Some of the songs from the past tend to be very busy with vocals
And, some of the favourite songs to play
Are kind of half-music, half-vocals
Like this song
So I'm so excited to just close my eyes
And let the power of the music take me away.