Behind The Song: Zayde Wolf – “Born Ready”
Grammy-nominated producer Dustin Burnett has seen a lot during his music career–from fronting The October to writing and producing for bands like Augustana and Us The Duo. Now under the moniker Zayde Wølf, Burnett is getting back into making music for himself.
“Born Ready,” off Wølf’s debut full length album
I had been sitting on this lyric for a while that says:
I don’t believe in no devil,
cuz I done raised this hell.
I’ve been the last one standing,
when all the giants fell.
cuz I done raised this hell.
I’ve been the last one standing,
when all the giants fell.
There is at least one moment for everyone, that they’ve been in a hell, and they’ve managed to pull their self out of it and overcome. That lyric is gritty and tough, so I knew I was going to have to get my hands dirty again musically to meet the expectations of that lyric.
Every single Zayde Wølf song starts with a big heavy beat. In this case, I had just purchased two new huge vintage bass drums that are 28″ and 32″. I recorded them, sampled them, layered, and distorted them to start to lay the heavy foundation of the main beat for the song. Then I recorded some claps and stomps, and then added more drum sounds from the drum sample company that I own called That Sound.
The arrangement of the song started coming together with a small guitar part and a bass synth, and then I wanted to add in strings so that it felt really cinematic. However, at this point I hadn’t written much more of the lyric. My team at lyric house heard where the song was going, and brought up a few song titles. One of them was Born Ready. Now the direction was clear of where I wanted to take the song.
The last thing that took it over the top though, was having my buddy Jason Eskridge, my wife, and my daughter all sing on the chorus to give it the huge Gospel choir thing. Giving us a powerful, soulful feeling of overcoming that first lyric that I wrote.
