We've released our first single! 'Mouth Breather' － written, produced & performed by Skev － dropped today in all the usual places. Breathe deep. Stream it now!
Skev creates all the music we use for our reels on Facebook and Instagram. A few months back he devised a killer riff that immediately proved popular with you guys. Each time we've used it, discerning folk like you have got in touch wanting to stream it. Now you can!
Skev has spent the last month playing with his instrument, enlarging the riff to create a full track. Thanks to our distribution friends at EmuBands, ‘Mouth Breather’ is streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and more. It's also on Instagram so you can use it for your reels. Let's get it trending!
Why release a single, given we're a clothing brand? Good question. Three answers:
- One, we like giving you what you want.
- Two, we get to interview incredible bands for our blog, The Winchester, and we thought doing this would help us better understand what it feels like to be a recording artist. It has.
- And three, we thought we'd enjoy the experience. We are.
For the inside track on how this Grammy Award-worthy, guitar heavy, alt rock tour de force came to be, we caught up with its composer, producer and performer George 'Skev' Skevington. Given he’s also our founder and head honcho, it wasn’t hard to set up the meeting. The hard bit was taking it seriously.
For polyrhythms, different bounces and shooting oneself in the foot, read on!
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Hello Skev. Thanks for agreeing to be grilled. Before we talk about 'Mouth Breather', tell us about the fan-favourite riff that spawned it.
SKEV － That original riff was born out of necessity. I create and edit TOC's promo reels, as you know. I had an idea for one that was a rapid montage of images, synced to music.
For the music, I started playing around with a few ideas and landed on that rapid-fire harmonic riff. The chord breaks were just what felt right in that moment. They turned out to be a great idea, because I could choose the best images from the montage to linger a little longer on the screen during those moments, drawing more attention to them.
How much playing around did you have to do?
It took me all of 20 minutes to record the original riff. But I shot myself in the foot because, had I taken time to mix it better and change the strings on my guitar before recording it, I wouldn't have had the issues I did when I came to mix the full song and recreate the exact guitar tone months later.
We’ve used that riff on maybe half a dozen reels. Each time, folk have got in touch to ask if they can stream the tune. How did that feel?
It felt pretty fucking cool, if I’m honest, especially as it was a riff that came together pretty quickly. Out of all the music and riffs I’ve created for TOC over the years, this wouldn’t have been my first guess for the one that would connect with peeps the most. But what do I know!
I've always wanted to write, record and release the music that's in my bones.
－ George 'Skev' Skevington －
TEN OF CLUBS
It didn’t take us long to start talking about expanding it. Why did you want to?
I've always wanted to write, record and release the music that's in my bones. This seemed like a great opportunity to do so. Besides, at TEN OF CLUBS we like to give peeps what they want.
When you started writing 'Mouth Breather' did you have a fixed idea in mind?
No, I didn't start the process with an end in sight. I just ran with it, throwing idea after idea into the Logic session, trying to expand the original riff into a full-length song.
Each new idea I liked naturally led to the next. But there were a lot of ideas scrapped along the way. I think I ended up with 4 different Logic sessions and 29 different bounces of the track before I settled on a structure and final mix.
You play all the instruments on 'Mouth Breather'. Which instruments?
I used my Maton MS503 guitar. It’s the same one I used for the original riff, and all the other TOC riffs too. I borrowed a 5-string Ibanez bass off a mate, because I don't own a bass. I used Logic recording software and I have a little 2-channel Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface. No mics were used. It was all recorded with the amp packs that come as standard with Logic.
The drums were MIDI, again using one of the bog-standard kits that comes with Logic, called ‘Heavy’. I ran that channel through a distortion plugin to try to mask the tell-tale sign that it was a MIDI instrument and not a human in a room playing an actual drum kit. I also messed around with the velocity of notes, and also the timing, to hopefully make each hit sound unique and more human.
Very cunning. Talk us through the song.
When it came to structuring it, I went through loads of options. In the end, I settled on starting the song with the original riff, but added the guitar feedback ‘plugging in’ noise. That was inspired by the song ‘Trophies of Violence’ by While She Sleeps.
The verse, for want of a better word, that comes next was the best way to transition from the main riff into something else. After the break, everything kicks back in again.
Then, to transition back into the original riff, I programmed the hi hats to play the same pattern they play in the main riff. I kept the rest of the drum kit unchanged, until the moment when the riff kicks back in again. That seemed to work.
What about the rest of the song?
For verse 2, which is a kind of altered verse, I kept the feel of the original riff but wanted to mess with it a bit, to make it sound different and interesting. A way of doing that was to introduce polyrhythms, so that’s what I did.
I kept the hi hat and snare in 4/4 the whole time, then changed the guitar chords to play in 3/4, then 4/4 along with the kick drum. For the lead riff over the top, I started in 5/4 and changed to 7/4. For the outro, I chose some uplifting sounding chords for the progression and slapped a ‘drunken stumble’ Mixolydian solo over the top. Bob's your uncle!
Clear as mud. Thank you. Tell us about the title. Tell folk how you chose it.
It was surprisingly hard to come up with a title. I've always been drawn to bands, like Alpha Male Tea Party, Cleft, and Town Portal, that give weird names to their instrumental songs. I wanted to follow in their footsteps.
For years I’ve been making a list on my phone of stupid and funny things I’ve heard people say. This seemed like a great time to use it. I looked through the list, drew up a shortlist, and got the Collective to vote on their favourites. ‘Mouth Breather’ won. Second was 'Janet of the Apes'.
How are you feeling now ‘Mouth Breather’ is about to be unleashed?
I'm nervous about releasing something so personal, but I'm pleased with how the song turned out. That’s all I wanted. Whether people like it or not is up to them. There's nothing I can do about that. I just have to write the music I like. If others like it too, fuck yeah!
Have you released music before?
Yeah, I released a single with my first band, Kapelle. It’s still on Spotify. We actually recorded a whole EP but, sadly, the band fell apart before we could finish and release it.
I also wrote, recorded, produced, mixed and released an acoustic album on my own during Covid lockdowns. I put it on Bandcamp and YouTube, but I didn't really tell anyone about it. I did it for me.
When did you first start making music?
I started learning guitar when I was 7. I had lessons for 2 years. I didn’t enjoy them. Then, both my guitar teachers quit teaching guitar. Still not sure if that was a reflection on me!
I always had my guitar in my room as a kid. When I was bored, I would pick it up and mess around with it. That's when I started to love it, not learning scales and theory, just finding sounds I enjoyed.
Then, as I started discovering music I liked, I started learning those songs. I remember the first song I learned, that I stuck at learning even though it kicked my arse, was Jose Gonzalez’s cover of ‘Heartbeats’. That taught me what was possible and that the skills were there to be learned. It was a snowball effect from there.
Who are your musical heroes?
Josh Homme, Chris Cornell, and Dave Grohl, to name a few. It seems anything they touch turns to gold, with a few exceptions here and there. Those three have probably been the biggest influences on me and my writing.
Please give us your three favourite albums.
That’s impossible to answer.
Give it a go.
Okay, it’s a long list, but there are some strong contenders for the top three:
- ‘Superunknown’ by Soundgarden
- 'Jar' by Superheaven
- ‘Songs For The Deaf’ by Queens of the Stone Age
See, that wasn’t so hard. Thanks Skev. 'Mouth Breather' is bloody marvellous. Any final words?
Thank you. I hope people will like the song. Big thanks to everyone that got in touch to ask about the original riff. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity.
Enjoy ‘Mouth Breather’ and here's to the next release!
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▶︎ 'Mouth Breather' by TEN OF CLUBS is streaming now on Spotify, Apple Music and elsewhere.
▶︎ Photography by Richard D'Costa.
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