Unbound: Studio Notes
Unbound was produced and recorded in the Carlsbad, CA home studio.
A still from the newly released official music video. Taken from a sunset time-lapse recording a few years ago visiting Benton Hot Springs, CA USA.
Friday is here once again, this week blew by. I may or may not be already en route to Mammoth Mountain for the first snowboarding trip of the season. Like all these posts, I do them in the evenings, then schedule them to be released a few weeks out. On December 6th, I released an updated version of “Unbound“, which is the last song I’ll be releasing in the 2024 calendar year. Currently, I’m mixing and mastering this song and 7 others to release on vinyl in 2025. It will be the first vinyl print I’ve done since 2020, so I’m looking forward to it, and I’m very excited to start promoting the album when it starts to warm back up. If you’d like to see a few live performances of the song as well as the Official Music Video, links are below…
Let’s talk about Unbound.
We can start with the origin story, writing this song started during the pandemic. Years later, on happenstance, I came accross the iPhone video recording of me just ad-libbing with a guitar in hand, to those that don’t know me, that’s my first step in the recording process. I record the guitar neck so I can see what chords I’m playing and I skat. The lenses on my iPhone camera were cracked, as was the world around me. When I finally rewatched the recording, I had no doubt about the song. Sometimes that’s how it works, one lyric and a chorus later, the song was complete. A day later, the rest of the lyrics were written as fast as I could write.
Unbound was first recorded March 14, 2020 at 8:19pm PST, as an iPhone sketch.
Unbound tells an interesting story, interesting because it bends time & reality. It lives in a place where a contradiction, can also be a scientific fact. Writing it, was what I’d imaging getting struck by lightning feels like, it was both immediate and years in the making, which takes us back to spring 2020. Musically I was a conflagration. A few months before, I had just released my first album, “To Love a Wild Fire“, I had put a band together to support the booked spring and summer shows which were to start in April, then it all turned upside-down. Interestingly enough, it wouldn’t be until December 31, 2021 when the song was initially released on a studio-live album called “Sessions”.
Sessions album cover photo was taken by Daniel Hernandez, at my birthday party Aquarius Bar 7 Grill Ocean Beach, CA USA. A full moon that night.
Sessions was the first time my current band tracked songs for release here at the home studio. I had just gotten a Universal Audio Apollo x8p audio interface, along with one of their OX cab simulators, the idea was to track drums with the entire band, while the keys, bass, guitar, and vocals were recorded silently. It worked like a charm. So well, I bought another x8p and barring a few engineering changed followed the exact same procedures we started that day. Each song gets two takes, that’s it. One straight through, minimal solos, on the second take, the boys get to stretch their legs a bit and jam the songs out. I had charts made out for everyone, made sure all the signals were in the green, and pressed the record button in Logic Pro X. Listening to that first recording, it’s clear I didn’t know what I was going. If I’m honest, the EP should have just been a single release for the song “So Lucky“.
I mention this backstory only to give you all context as to why an artist would ever re-release a song.
Unbound is not an ordinary song. I did not know how to perform the song until we put it in front of a live audience. There, on stage, the song shows its teeth and turns into raw power. To the listener, the lyrics of the song ask as many questions as they answer. When I sing the song, the lyrics and message flow through me in what I’d imaging getting struck by lightning is like. Remember the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Ark is opened? Where Nazi faces get melted, and it becomes a chain lightning bbq? That’s what it feels like to play the song live. Writing the song was just as cool, like swimming in the ocean of the collective human soul. because of this, nothing that I can say about this song makes a difference, for it stands on its own two feet and speaks for itself.
I am nowhere, I am everywhere
I am free, I’m unbound
I am emotion, I am instinct
I am music, I am sound
“Unbound” is the voice of all things uncontrollable, the timber of nature personified. The forces locked up inside the human spirit, embattled in a continuous effort to free themselves.
Lyrics
You ain’t ever baby gonna find me
You ain’t never gonna track me down
Heard it said you want a piece of the action- gimme action
Heard it said you trying to take me down- don’t bring me down
I am nowhere I am everywhere
I am free I’m unbound
I’m emotion I am instinct
I am music I am sound
No one ever said it was gonna be easy
You ain’t prepared to bleed? Just wasting time
We pay our dues and maybe baby then some
When the Hurricane comes, look ‘em right in the eyes
I am nowhere I am everywhere
I am free I’m unbound
I’m emotion I am instinct
I am music I am sound
Ain’t no need to go and get religion
Don’t waste time with people that’ll put you down
You’re cash money babe, you just can’t see it
Take my word ‘cause I’ve been around
I am nowhere I am everywhere
I am free I’m unbound
I’m emotion I am instinct
I am music I am sound
Never, never, ever settle for a substitution
My fire burns bright, & lasts twice as long
Nows your chance to get a taste of the real thing
Step right up in here where you belong
I am nowhere I am everywhere
I am free I’m unbound
I’m emotion I am instinct
I am music I am sound
About the Official Music Video:
Originally I was supposed to head home to make a ZZ Top type music video with my brother, and My Uncle Tommy’s Black 57 Chevy. The summer went way too fast, and it looks like Im going to have to have it done this spring and that video is going to have to be set to a different song. That’s the last song of the set. What a great show, and what a great weekend. I hope you all had a great 2024 Thanksgiving weekend. This concert was released in support of the new single “Perpetual Change” (released on November 8, 2024). We started video taping and recording our live shows consistently in 2023, when I took over the live sound. Prior to that the recording sound quality was a bit spotty.
Related stories tied to the December 6, “Unbound” release:
Unbound: Official Music Video
Unbound: Studio Notes
Live Performance of Unbound, First Time We Played It at the Camp Store
About the Ram
Mark "The Ram" O'Donnell is an independent American composer and visual artist based out of Carlsbad, California. He performs original, surf-inspired, West Coast rock-and-roll.
For more information about the Ram and his music, go to www.TheRamMusic.com
Song Metadata
Unbound
The Ram
UPC: 198886813057
IRSC: QZWFG2478193
Release date: December 6, 2024
ASCAP Work ID: 914765056
ASCAP Singer Songwriter IPI Number: 375350750
ASCAP Publisher IPI Number: 375351159
SESSIONS
Unbound
The Ram
UPC: 196512176866
IRSC: QZNWZ2192499
Release date: December 31, 2021
ASCAP Work ID: 914765056
ASCAP Singer Songwriter IPI Number: 375350750
ASCAP Publisher IPI Number: 375351159
More Information
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