Singled Out: Tommy Douglas Keenan's Oh Melody

Winnipeg singer-songwriter Tommy Douglas Keenan recently released his new single "Oh Melody" and to celebrate we asked him to tell us how the track came about. Here is the story:

I was recently back from tour, and bummed that it was over. I entered a "Song Every Week" club, where you have to upload a new song by the deadline, or you're out of the club. Predictably, I'd procrastinated till the last day of the week, and was now under the gun. I went out and picked up a Fulltone Supa-Trem and brought it home; this guitar part was literally the first thing I played after plugging in. Pretty sweet pedal. Not that I'm advocating for retail therapy as a creative stimulator, but sometimes there's a man...

I started singing the first words that came to my head: I was taken back to a raucous night on tour the previous year, when I found myself bar-hopping arm-in-arm with a fantastically unavailable woman. We both knew it wasn't going to go anywhere, but we couldn't let go; we didn't want the night to end. The words came out all in one go.

I recorded it with my favourite collaborator, Matt Peters (Begonia, Royal Canoe, Dead Men). He's amazingly talented; he's got the best attitude, the best taste, and some nice gear. We wrote the Moog solo together, each of us taking a pass at it and then Frankensteining them together. Natalie Bohrn (Slow Spirit) came in to play bass and sing backups; we got her to improvise a vocal melody over the third verse, and I repeated the lyrics from the first verse in duet with her, to give it a sense of two people having a great night together, not necessarily having the same experience.

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

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