Amanda Meta Marshall (born August 29, 1972 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian pop-rock singer.
She grew up in Toronto in a biracial family to a Caucasian father and a Black Trinidadian mother. In several of her songs, Marshall has reflected on her racial identity "as a woman who looks white but is also half-black".
Marshall studied music extensively during her childhood, including at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
Below there is a little "behind the scenes" of this song, told by Eric Bazilian, Marshall's colab, on his website:
Well, let’s see, there’s one, it just popped into my head. It was recording Amanda Marshall, which was just… She was the one who ignited my producer gland, ‘cause up until her, you know, I was on the production team with Cyndi, Joan and the Hooters stuff, but I didn’t really feel like taking on that heartache of being responsible for a whole thing. I think, I love writing songs, playing stuff, putting in my two cents, but Amanda was the first time I thought, you know, I want to do this thing from soup to nuts. Uh, with her I really wanted to get into it. Part was because I liked her so much and part of it was because she was the best singer I ever heard in my life. She’s just an amazing, phenomenal talent. So, the last thing we did here was a song called, "If I Didn’t Have You," and she was on a flight at noon back to Toronto. This was it, this was the end and we had this track. We had it for the last run of the song writing. We loved the track, but we didn’t like the song, and we started and we punched the track up, got all this cool stuff going on and it wasn’t until about three or four in the morning that we started addressing the- OK, how did the song really go, and around seven or eight in the morning was when we really landed on the chorus, on the big hook, and we were ready to go- ready to record that vocal. I remember, I had a new mic I was trying out and I set it up at the end of the room downstairs ‘cause I had some acoustic treatment there. I remember, she did this vocal and there was one point at the end when I said, "I want you to hold this note as long as you possibly can and then do a dazzling malysma riff afterwards, and she did. And I remember, at the end of that take, I was just as out of breath as she was and just thinking, being actually sad, because it was very possible that I would never record a better vocal than that for as long as I live.
She grew up in Toronto in a biracial family to a Caucasian father and a Black Trinidadian mother. In several of her songs, Marshall has reflected on her racial identity "as a woman who looks white but is also half-black".
Marshall studied music extensively during her childhood, including at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
Below there is a little "behind the scenes" of this song, told by Eric Bazilian, Marshall's colab, on his website:
Well, let’s see, there’s one, it just popped into my head. It was recording Amanda Marshall, which was just… She was the one who ignited my producer gland, ‘cause up until her, you know, I was on the production team with Cyndi, Joan and the Hooters stuff, but I didn’t really feel like taking on that heartache of being responsible for a whole thing. I think, I love writing songs, playing stuff, putting in my two cents, but Amanda was the first time I thought, you know, I want to do this thing from soup to nuts. Uh, with her I really wanted to get into it. Part was because I liked her so much and part of it was because she was the best singer I ever heard in my life. She’s just an amazing, phenomenal talent. So, the last thing we did here was a song called, "If I Didn’t Have You," and she was on a flight at noon back to Toronto. This was it, this was the end and we had this track. We had it for the last run of the song writing. We loved the track, but we didn’t like the song, and we started and we punched the track up, got all this cool stuff going on and it wasn’t until about three or four in the morning that we started addressing the- OK, how did the song really go, and around seven or eight in the morning was when we really landed on the chorus, on the big hook, and we were ready to go- ready to record that vocal. I remember, I had a new mic I was trying out and I set it up at the end of the room downstairs ‘cause I had some acoustic treatment there. I remember, she did this vocal and there was one point at the end when I said, "I want you to hold this note as long as you possibly can and then do a dazzling malysma riff afterwards, and she did. And I remember, at the end of that take, I was just as out of breath as she was and just thinking, being actually sad, because it was very possible that I would never record a better vocal than that for as long as I live.
I don’t know what I was thinking
'Til I was thinking of you
I don’t remember a thing before I opened my eyes
And you came into view
I don’t know what I was doing
When there was nothing to do
Must’ve been waiting for someone, baby
Now I can see — I was waiting for you
I’d give up my sight just to see you
I’d beg, I would borrow and steal
I’d cut off my hands just to touch you
And tear out my heart so you’d know how I feel
There’s nowhere that I wouldn’t follow
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
'Cause I wouldn’t wanna be me
If I didn’t have you
Driving myself to distraction
Until you got in my way
I was just whistling Dixie 'til you struck up the band
And they started to play
I don’t know how I was living
Until you came in my life
I always knew there was something wrong
Then you came along
Baby, you made it right
I’d give up my sight just to see you
I’d beg, I would borrow and steal
I’d cut off my hands just to touch you
And tear out my heart so you’d know how I feel
There’s nowhere that I wouldn’t follow
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
'Cause I wouldn’t wanna be me
If I didn’t have you
I was alone in the silence
'Til I was hearing your voice
I couldn’t see my way clear until you parted the clouds
And you gave me a choice
I couldn’t pick up the pieces
'Til I was falling apart
I didn’t know I was bleeding
'Til your love fixed this hole, baby, here in my heart
I’d give up my sight just to see you
I’d beg, I would borrow and steal
I’d cut off my hands just to touch you
And tear out my heart so you’d know how I feel
There’s nowhere that I wouldn’t follow
There’s no place that I’d rather be
This life without you would be hollow
This love is a gift, and you gave it to me
All that I am, you have made me
And baby, I know that it’s true
I’d give it all up in a heartbeat
Just to spend every moment with you
There’s no place that I wouldn’t follow
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
'Cause I wouldn’t wanna be me
If I didn’t have you
look at this!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQQ5sEOhbjQ
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