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Artist Interview: “Floating” by Rebel Kicks

Q: I definitely hear a bit of “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors and I love joyous “Floating” sounds. Tell me about the process in making the song.

REBEL KICKS: We’re so happy that you got a joyous vibe from the song, because that’s exactly what we were going for! The process of writing and recording “Floating” was interesting, because the initial idea for the tune was actually started several years ago. Steve was on his way to visit a friend’s apartment in Manhattan, and the melody for the song hit him as he was walking down 1st avenue. When he got to the apartment, he immediately went to his friends piano and recorded the idea on his phone. A band demo was made but never released, and so it sat around for a few years on a hard drive collecting dust.

Finding ourselves in quarantine last year, however, gave us a chance to revisit and rework some older material, and this was one of those songs. This updated, newly recorded version has kept many of the core elements of the original demo, but the lyrics are pretty much a complete rewrite, reflecting a part of our state of mind during the 2020 lockdown. While we wanted to write a song that expressed our feelings during that time period, we also deliberately tried to stay away from anything too depressing; there was enough of that going around pretty much everywhere you turned. With that in mind, we set out to write something hopeful and cathartic that conveyed a feeling of moving forward. 

Q: What was the best part about making this song?

REBEL KICKS: One of the positive things about being in quarantine was that we suddenly had time to revisit and rework some older material that had been around for a few years, and “Floating” was one of those. It was nice to listen back to some of the older songs to hear how much we’ve grown as writers and performers. In many ways, however, the original demo of “Floating” still held up, so updating it, re-recording and re-writing the words and parts of the melody flowed naturally and quickly for us. It also felt good to be working on a song with such a positive vibe and message.

 

Q: How has the song “Floating” affected you? What do you want listeners to feel?

REBEL KICKS: During quarantine we both got back into meditation, so inevitably, finding some inner peace amongst all the chaos of the outside world became a theme of a good chunk of the material we were working on. “Floating” is an up-beat reflection on the power of turning inward, and quieting the noise through meditation. Instead of dwelling on the negative during these dark times, we wanted to focus our energy on conveying a joyous, positive message, and we hope this song does just that for whoever is listening. 

 

Q: How has the pandemic impacted your music positively and negatively?

REBEL KICKS: A major negative side of the pandemic was the effect it had on our state of mind. Having to push through the gloom and bleakness of isolation, as well as navigate through the impact the pandemic was having on not only our profession, but the state of the entire world, made it difficult to try and stay inspired and productive. Inspiration comes and goes in waves under normal circumstances, but like so many other artists and musicians, we found solace in creating. So we started writing, re-writing, re-working and making demo’s nearly every day to stay productive (and to try and stay sane.) Another negative was the fact that we couldn’t physically be together to write and record, so we did a lot of skyping during that time. We’re both also extremely fortunate to have home recording studio setups, so we were able to record all of our parts separately, and send them back and forth to one another.

Q: You’ve had many successes like your music on the MTV show “Teen Mom: OG” and “Shameless.” Walk me through how that felt. What were your emotions?

REBEL KICKS: It’s truly an amazing feeling to hear your song on TV, and it was especially exciting to hear our song “It’s You” used on the Season 10 Finale of “Shameless”, because we’ve been huge fans of that show since the beginning. Knowing how difficult and competitive this business is, especially as an independent artist, being selected for any of those opportunities is always a humbling experience, and we’re honored whenever it occurs.

 

Q: What do you want to say to your fans out there? What do you want them to know about Rebel Kicks?

REBEL KICKS: We want to say thank you to anyone out there who’s following what we’re doing and listening to our music, we can’t even begin to express how much that means to us! Our dad is a professional musician, so music has always played an extremely important role in our lives from as far back as we both can remember. We’re always trying to grow artistically, and it’s important to us to be as real, authentic and true to ourselves, and our vision, as possible. We think, or at least hope that that comes across in our songs. We’re also always trying to be as productive as possible, and we’re currently working on new music that we’re really excited about, so please sign up for our mailing list through rebelkicks.com, and follow us across social media @rebelkicksmusic for all the latest updates and newest releases. Thanks again for listening!

Interviewed by Taylor Berry

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