[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.] Firm Handshake and a Winning Smile
Last Chance Dave
David Motel Demos

Firm Handshake and a Winning Smile: I pulled this one out of the ‘vault’. Kyle and I started working on this song several years ago when we set up our studio in the basement and we were running on Protools. Over time it just fell off our list of songs to complete (like several others). A few weeks back I was pulling up the old computer we were using and grabbed several in process songs including this one. I ported it over to Logic, did a little editing, and here it is. Thematically the song is about moving away from home with the dream of being a rockstar and coming to the reality that you have a ‘real’ job. I go back and forth on being frustrated about that time and really the chorus was a way to tell myself “It’s okay. Life goes on…” We did want to get real horn tracks in there but now I’m too lazy to follow through with what we recorded. Plus, I’ve grown used to the midi trumpets now. I want to give credit to Kyle Harvey for the awesome guitars and Stuart Lang for the very, very sweet bass. Also, while not in this version, I need to give props to Nathan Wright and John Hooten for the saxophone and trumpet tracks, respectively (as stated before I’m too lazy to salvage those parts). This version clocks in around 4 1/2 minutes (down from the 6 minutes we recorded). The outro was too long and it took Kyle reminding me how long it felt to finally trim it back considerably. Thanks to Jeremy Johnson again for the sweet art! So here it is…demo #4!