THE LOVEPOOLS – WHITE LIES AND PALM TREES
This song was written by myself, Anthony Shea and by co-writer Taylor Ravenna. We started writing this song by first having a conversation about what it felt like to first arrive to LA, living that daydream of not knowing where to go but being too young to care. Quickly, imagery took hold of us like: palm trees, dark eyes, broken glass on the streets.
The first verse was quickly written by Taylor and I. A week or so later I texted a complete second verse to Taylor after writing it on my phone laying in bed. After a few more short sessions the song was basically finished sounding like a folky acoustic duet and we felt it could use a different direction.
Taylor suggested “Stranger Things” type sounds for the track. Within a few days when I was at home alone, I bought some cheap “Stranger Things” software synth patches and quickly became inspired to fully demo the song out. Within 6 hours the demo was finished by me and it sounded pretty close to the released version you hear now. Many instrumental takes remained from the original demo and after I unsuccessfully tried mixing it myself with around 50 failed mixes or so, I decided it would be best to hand it off to someone else.
The song ended up being mixed by John McLucas. Most of the lead vocal and background takes were recorded the night before the stems were handed off to McLucas. It was by far the most hours I ever put into a single song’s recording and production.