Singled Out: Carry On Band's Three and A Half Minutes

Keavin Wiggins | 08-12-2024

Carry On Band just released their new single "Three and A Half Minutes" from their album, "No Time For Warning", and to celebrate we asked Mark Prudeaux to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

Back in the early days of recording we would get together every weekday to work on material. We had just recorded a song that was over 11 minutes long. Though we really liked it we knew it had to be edited down. We managed to reduce the song to 6 minutes 7 seconds. But we could tell that because we enjoyed writing together so much, and because there were so many ideas coming from everyone, that it was likely to occur again. I started preaching that we couldn't let this continue. If there was gonna be any chance for these songs to succeed they were going to have to conform somewhat to a typical song length. After all, we were recording our first album. That alone would make it hard to get recognized. Imagine trying to pitch a 6 minute song to some suits that weren't likely to listen to more than the first 20 seconds. It didn't seem to be a viable approach.

But you know musicians. Though we have no problem listening to ourselves play for hours, when it comes to listening to someone preaching why what we want isn't gonna work, we have very short attentions spans. So while I was talking, Pete started playing a riff and Adam put some time to it. And since it's hard get a singer with a mic to shut up, I just started singing what I had been saying.

When we got to the second half of the verse I went to my main pitch about how 3 & 1/2 minutes was the standard length of a mainstream song. All the while, I was writing down notes to discuss after we stopped screwing around. Those notes roughly became the lyrics for the next verse and the rest of the song. We threw in a guitar solo, threw in a breakdown, then sang a second half of a verse, went back to the pre-chorus, gave it a double chorus vamp. Then Adam went into an extended drum fill. But before anyone decided to add another section to the song I yelled out, "Times up!". And Three and a Half Minutes was written. The first time through.

Of course we went back and tweaked it over and over and over again for a couple of weeks after that. But the main structure stayed the same. It was pure coincidence that the song actually ended up being 3 minutes and 34 seconds. I guess the 4 extra seconds is bonus material. This is the first single from the new Carry-On band album out October 25th. This song, Three and A Half Minutes, made Apple Music - New In Rock - playlist when released in July.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here