Put the “Pedal To Metal” and rock!

“Pedal To Metal” is a good example of lyrics and genres I would have never tried without having some random weird ideas and the right people. Ready for some vintage fun? Here’s your new favourite rock’n’roll song.

The idea for “Pedal To Metal” came on a sunny afternoon in 2022 while practising guitar. I slightly modified a standard blues progression and had the strong urge to try rock’n’roll. No idea what made me write lyrics about drinking and driving, but it ended up in some dark humour blues. And I love it.

Turning the draft into a full band production took many months. It’s been not easy to find a guitarist who is into rock’n’roll and rockabilly. I am very lucky to have stumbled across Joe Liberty on SoundCloud, who recorded his own ideas on Dragondreams‘ rolling bassline. In comparison to the original write, the song has been speed up and pitched down to match DJ’s sweet spot for the vocals. After recording all the stems, we still missing something. That’s where Mark (that you may recognize from “High Noon”) joined us with a harmonica improvisation. Everybody added their own flavours to the song, so it diverged a bit from the original. But that’s alright, I really love how it turned out. Some happy careless rock’n’roll fun!

As usual, you can listen to the song on YouTube and SoundCloud.

Lacking of photos and illustrations for cover artwork, I drew my own. Luckily I recorded the process video. It took me 7,5 hours to draw a youngster in the style of a vintage 1950s commercial. The speedpainting is also available on YouTube.

Big thanks to the band. I couldn’t have finished this song without you, and you turned my draft into a very cool rock’n’roll song. I’m happy to take a ride with you!