Mikey James, the former drummer for Longwave, is back on the scene and releasing work under a new name: Singing River. Within this career shift, James decided to jump from his old genre of power pop to an Americana feel. His latest release, “Everyday Love,” especially embodies his new chapter as Singing River. The track, exclusively premiering on American Songwriter today (August 5), will be out on all streaming platforms on August 6.
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The Americana tune features James’ gritty and emotion-filled voice as he sings about longing for how the world used to feel. The lyrics amble on about missing the feeling of normalcy when society felt steady and non-chaotic.
Discussing how the song came to be, James comments, “I wrote the song in April of 2020 when things were looking pretty rough. Yeah, things were not good at that time. Just by chance, a good friend of mine’s dog had passed away. So I was on the phone with him, and he’s like, ‘When a pet dies, it’s like having your heart ripped out. I just want to go back to the feeling of the way it was.’ I think between the pandemic and him saying that to me, it just clicked in my head. I was like, ‘Oh, you miss everyday love.’ Putting your two feet on the ground, waking up in the morning, and it not being a disaster surrounding you. So we just cultivated that idea.”
James continues, “It took a while to get the lyrics the way I wanted. Callan [Saunders] (from The Demos, a band I produced for a while), helped me with getting the sentiment right. This is one of those rare occurrences where the song ended up sounding like I imagined it would when I wrote it. That almost NEVER happens.”
“Everyday Love” describes a world in which simple pleasures are cherished, yet it doesn’t narrate a complete utopia. James also comments on the song’s similarities to John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and how his tune feels a little more realistic in its sentiments.
“So ‘Imagine’ always bothered me because you’re just imagining fiction, right? It feels like Disney to me. It’s like a Disney song. I like the notion; it’s a nice notion. You can imagine the fantasy in your head and imagine, but it may be impossible, right? So I think about ‘Everyday Love’ more, in turn as I wrote a poor man’s ‘Imagine.’ When I was done thinking about that… I thought, ‘Wow. I don’t think everyday love exists. Or does it?’ And that was my take on it,” James says.
You can listen to the exclusive premiere of Singing River’s “Everyday Love” here now, and ponder what everyday love looks like for you.
