Massachusetts trio Space Shot sift through the stellar tracks that comprise their sprawling debut album Be With You In A Moment.
Sometimes, a body of work is multi-layered enough to warrant a deeper dive into the impetus behind its sheer artistry. Such is the case with Be With You In A Moment, the debut album from Massachusetts band Space Shot.
Flitting between angular grooves to alternative rock, the 11-track project showcases an restless spirit, buoyed by the trio’s patent talent.
For a closer look into each of the songs, Space Shot swung by Happy Mag for a track-by-track guide through their latest project.
From the funk rock of Hit & Run to the sombre chords of Look The Same, the band dig deep into the album’s creation. Catch the full track-by-track below, and scroll down to listen to Space Shot’s new album Be With You In A Moment.
Oregano
Oregano’s lyrics are about starting new without fully trusting yourself. It’s got a lot of internal turmoil to it. Lines like “I think I know where I’m going” and “I don’t know where I’m going” change depending on where you are in the song.
I initially conceptualized it as a portrait of myself finding my voice as a musician. But, within weeks of writing it, I found myself stepping outside and relating to my own damn song outside of music.
So I think I did a decent job being genuine to myself with it, at the very least. We always felt this would be a highlight of the album, so I figured it would be great to have as an opening track to a debut album.
I went with the name Oregano for the most ridiculous reason. When we used to be just a cover band about 5 years ago, this was the only original song we performed. When I’d quiz the guys on our setlist order, I’d call the songs stupid names.
Like, Message in a Bottle became Massage in a Bootle. We called it just The Original back then, so I would call it Oregano. They found it funny, and it just stuck like that.
I really dig our synergy in the bridge, with James’ riff matching the vocals and Joey’s splash cymbals. I love to play the bassline to this one, especially in the verses.
I had difficulty singing while playing it during our first couple of shows. By the time we finished a weekend of shooting the music video for the song, the issue completely vanished.
Stop & Go
This song’s concept came about through James. He had heard a piece of advice for writing songs that went something like, the pauses are more important than the chords you play.
We took that as literally as possible without having three minutes of silence. We gave it the working title of Stop and Go. But I liked the idea of keeping the name and writing the lyrics around having multiple meanings as an on-and-off-again relationship.
But also constantly pausing traffic, represented by the abrupt stops in the song’s verses. The idea of this and the next song fading into each other because of their similar themes sounded fun.
Thought it made for a way to keep the momentum up at the beginning of the album.
Hit & Run
Hit & Run is an obvious throwback to the funk rock of the 70s and songs used during car chases in movies from that era.
We kept the double meanings going on this track by having the lyrics pertain to a metaphorical hit-and-run or one-night stand type of relationship, and the instrumentation takes the title in the literal sense.
The song started with a completely different style. It felt similar to straight hard-rock, like ZZ Top or something. I thought it still needed a strong opening, so I made the bass riff that starts the song.
I was listening to The Beatles’ White Album a lot at the time. And I loved the bassline for Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey. So I was very inspired by that.
When I brought it to James, he was into it and suggested we shift the song’s focus around the riff. So, I had the idea to turn it into a funk number.
Joey threw a bunch of great varying drum patterns on it. I think it came together great. That siren sound at the top of the track is just me with my Otomatone on the highest setting.
Look The Same
While writing, this one felt like two different songs coming together to form a whole with more complex emotions. The somber chords of the verse still had a great, moody energy to them.
I then wanted the chorus to feel like a release of all that tension the song had built up. This was by far the hardest for me to write lyrics for. I knew I wanted it to be about death and loss in some capacity.
But I struggled for a while to find the words I was okay with people hearing while still being true to how I felt. Over the years, we’ve been incredibly inspired by our high school Jazz teacher, Jerry Sabatini.
He was actually how James and I got introduced to Joey. I’ve always loved the inclusion of horns and strings in rock music, so it became a dream of mine to have our teacher play his trumpet in one of our songs.
He told us in one class that his favorite song was a specific rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In. With the themes of Look The Same, it felt like the perfect match for a free-form Trumpet solo.
Followed immediately by the high energy drum solo over the final pre-chorus. This became both James and Joey’s favorite song from the album.
Dead End Baby
James and I were so frustrated with this cover band that we felt stuck in at the time. We came up with this to vent out the anger. I was obsessed with Green Day around then and thought we’d been missing an uptempo punk song.
I picked my favorite couple of chords and pounded away. I love the way the ride cuts through the mix in the chorus and that bass riff with it. W
hen we were recording the guitar solo years after we first wrote it, I reminded James how well he could solo in the style of The Kinks. When we were in that cover band, we did All Day and All of the Night, and he always nailed the solo.
Thought it would be a fitting tribute to the song’s origins to cut a solo in that style in the recording. With the lyrics, I felt like I wanted to make my own version of Helter Skelter. A love song with a harsh tone and lyrics.
Taking A Ride
A nice change of pace after going all out with Dead End Baby. James had expressed interest in singing in the band as the album was being developed. We went with this song for James’ debut.
I thought his deeper voice would match nicely with the song’s laid back vibe. But I didn’t want to write or speak for him. So I gave David Drouin from the band Cold Engines the general concept and let him freeball the lyrics on the spot.
I’ve been good friends with Dave for a few years, and he helped to produce our album. Anyway, I gave what Dave came up with to James. He tweaked a couple lines to fit it to himself, and that’s what you hear on the record.
There’s a bunch of lead guitar parts doing call and response with the vocals. The breakdown is a lot of fun with the drumstick hits on the edge of the snare.
Mirrors
I wrote Mirrors to be about the struggle to have self-confidence in being the person you want to be outwardly. And with time passing by, not achieving quickly enough.
I felt this imposter syndrome type theme worked well with the chords in the chorus. They have this almost contradictory, mellow, but unsettling feeling. I wanted us to have eleven songs ready for when we made the record.
We had ten, and I was looking through all my voice memos and found an old recording of the beginnings of this song that James brought to me when he came over to my house one day.
I brought it up to him, and he had no memory of doing that, but I was sure it was worth salvaging. We finished it up and gave a demo of it to Joey. He told us he felt it wasn’t that strong of a tune.
So, he came up with the idea to completely restructure it. Cut a third verse and chorus, change the bridge to the intro and outro, cut the solo, and move those chords behind it to the top of the track.
It still felt like the same song but so much more unique and engaging. The best part is the drum pattern he came up with for the intro and verses. James and I immediately loved it and told him to be sure he wouldn’t forget how to do it later.
Run Back
A classic throwback to the type of slow dance song played at a 60’s school gymnasium for a prom. I have a lot of fun playing this on the bass, arpeggiating the chords while James does those stabs.
Joey brings it to a climax at the end, with the drums growing louder during the organ solo. While the lyrics have an element of romance, they still ended up pretty introspective.
It’s got a lot to do with feeling directionless without a purpose and the need for guidance from someone you love. In a way, I see this as the title track.
Because when I heard the final mix, the album cover image instantly popped into my head. That was enough for me to give it that title.
Bedroom Sinks (Castles Crumble)
This is my favorite song on the album. It was me taking as many elements of the music I love and putting them into one song and trying not to make a mess of it.
It was written purely with the heart instead of the head. I had only one month of experience in a music theory class and used none of that here.
I just used every chord that gave me the feeling of romantic loneliness, which were pretty much all my favorites, and felt my way through placing them next to each other in a pleasing way.
I see it very fitting for the song being about what to do with yourself and having new emotions of love that may not be reciprocated. My favorite section is the major to minor chord change in the chorus, with the lyrics of rain and fire clashing.
There’s a lot more vivid imagery with this song. Some allusions to Lewis Carroll’s stories and other fairy tales. That was important to me to have in this. I also told myself I wouldn’t release the song without a B3 Organ.
It’s my favorite instrument, just so old-fashioned analog and magical sounding. Seth Campell, who did keys for us, cut the perfect solo for the song.
Which I know wasn’t a simple task because of how particular I was with this song. James has a great riff he played on his Gretsch. Joey killed it with the splash fills in the second verse. I really love this one.
Fast As It Takes
This is the very first song of ours that was written. It was October of 2016, so nearly 7 years to the day it was finally released.
I had been playing bass for a couple days at that point, and I was just booted off drums because we found someone much more suited for the job. The chorus is pretty much untouched from back then.
We still found it catchy enough to stand on its own. James was hesitant to put it on the record, with it being our first attempt at writing. I pushed forward with it, and Joey added the toms in the verses. They really gave it a fresher energy.
Over The Sun
James came up with the chord progression to this a couple months after Fast As It Takes. I’m a huge fan of surf rock and those Western-sounding guitars.
Those two styles always blended so nicely. We put an acoustic guitar in to match the style of something like Muse’s Knight of Cydonia.
I thought it would be a great closer to the album, with every instrument getting a solo to show off and take a final bow. This and Look The Same are the type of songs I’d like to delve more into in our next album.
