Music: A Taste of Heaven by Radio Drive ft. Kevin Gullickson – St Paul, MN

Radio Drive 2012 promo color“A Taste of Heaven” is the brand new single from Radio Drive featuring Kevin Gullickson. This song is simply catchy well written and a must listen.  Check out our interview with Radio Drive about this single released at the start of the year.
Why did you select this song as your current single?
I was working with someone from a production company at the time. We were reviewing some of my recently written songs and “A Taste of Heaven” seemed to stand out as the one to go with.  When we presented it to our producer, Chris Garcia, he agreed.  He took a liking to the song right away and confirmed this is the one to work up as a single.
How does this single relate to the rest of the Album, EP or Mix-tape?
This single is totally different from my previous recordings because of the production.  All my previous recordings I did at my home studio and played all the instruments and did all the vocals.  This production for “A Taste of Heaven” was done in Los Angeles with Chris Garcia (his credits include Celine Dion, Katy Perry, Santana and several other amazing artists).
The song is similar to my other songs in that it has an alternative, pop rock feel to it, although it’s more on the “alternative pop” side of my writing.   I’ve got other songs lean more toward the heavier   “alternative rock” side.
What was the writing process for the song?
I was messing around with some guitar FX one day, working on some riffs.  That’s how I came up with the opening riff for this song.  Then I worked some chords around that.  I already had the idea of the lyrics, but they weren’t finished yet.  After getting the basic chords, I began adding the melody and lyrics and they fit together perfectly.
As for the lyrics, I think I wrote the lyrics all in one sitting with a little fine tuning along the way.
After finishing the song I captured it as a rough mix with vocal and acoustic guitar at my home studio.  Then over a few weeks I developed it further by adding the other instruments and arrangements.
Once I had the arrangements made with Chris to produce the song, he was sent the wave files to work on.  He kept the arrangements the same and re-recorded the instrumental parts.  He brought in Nick Lashley (guitarist for Alanis Morrisette and other major artists), Chris laid down some synch parts and the bass tracks and then brought in LA Session drummer Ben Rose.  Chris later told me he kept in some of my keyboard parts because he liked them so well.  The final mix was done by Tom Polce, who works for CBS Records.  Then the final mastering was done by Grammy award winner Gene Paul at G&J Audio in New Jersey (Gene is the son of legendary Les Paul).
What does this song’s lyric mean to you?
I wanted to write a song to capture an amazing time in my life when I lived in New York City.  I was in my mid-20s and took a risk and moved from Minnesota to New York City.   A couple weeks after moving out there, on a cold November day, I met the girl of my dreams and two years later we got married.   It’s all in the lyrics.
I loved it out there in NYC. There’s no place like it.  We were care free, loving life, having a great time.  The refrain sings of it being like a taste of heaven.  Then the chorus is about that taste of heaven invading my life, filling up and saturating me.  That’s what it’s all about: Heaven invading earth.
What would it be like to see you in person performing this song?
Right now I’ve been doing some shows unplugged with backing tracks, kind of lighter renditions of my songs with guitars and keys.  So if you saw me now that’s what it would be like.  Having said that, I am working on putting a band together and hope to have something going by fall.  Then you’ll be able to see a live performance of the song with a full band.
Could your fans summarize who you are as an artist by this song?
Yes, most definitely.  It’s an Alternative Pop Rock song, which is my style completely.  I’ve heard people say they can hear my influences from the Beatles in the bridge with the harmonies.  The guitar style is a heavier U2 style (thanks to Nick’s excellent playing).   There’s some synth orchestration going on throughout the song, which encompasses my influences from big production bands like ColdPlay.  And of course the positive message that people pick up on.  It’s all there in this one song.
 Is there a video planned and or completed and if so, what was the idea behind the video?
Yes, I did release a video for “A Taste of Heaven” in July.  I hired a video production company named Green Elephant Productions out of Russia to edit the footage.  We met online at a job posting community. We were on a budget, so there was a small amount of footage shot of myself. That was sent to them and they put it together with some great footage of New York City including Central Park and footage of  a couple walking and riding through a country setting.  For a small budget  it turned out great.  I’m pleased to say it won a Bronze Award on the Beat 100 site and it’s going to be included on the “Bongo Boy Rock n Roll TV Show” Indie Music Video Show in August, airing on NBC Comcast stations across the USA.
One last question, what is your motivation behind your music?
There are so many things that motivate me. Sometimes I’ll just start playing guitar or sit at the piano and come up with melodies, riffs and songs ideas.   Quite often observing things going on in myself, like intense emotions and things that move me (love, compassion, sometimes indignation).  Of course people and relationships  motivate my songwriting.    Sometimes books inspire me, a good motivational or inspirational message that I hear gets me fired up.  I think I can find music in most anything.

Kevin CD Cover cropped2
Social Media:
http://www.facebook.com/radiodrive
http://www.twitter.com/radiodrivemusic
http://www.reverbnation.com/radiodrive
http://www.youtube.com/radiodrivemusic

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