The Story of “Our Love”
Our Love “Single” Cover
For those of you who follow my experiments in “Literary Pop,” you know there’s always a) the STORY in the song, as expressed in the lyrics, and b) the SONG in the story, which relates to how the song functions in a larger narrative, like my novels with songs, Last of the Zacharys and Pop Fiction.
Now I’d like to tell you the Story OF the Song, Our Love, and its journey from Valley Village home demo to worldwide release as my latest single.
It all started about 12 years ago. Yes, that long. After releasing my HALO EP in 2013, I decided to knock out some singles, and this is one of a batch of fun ones from that I wrote and demo’d during that period.
The writing was my usual process, whereby I mess around on my acoustic guitar for a while until I come up with a progression I love, and then riff, often for hours, on lyrics.
For Our Love, the concept was simple: “Our love is… “ then, fill in the blanks.
I filled in a lot of blanks, stream of consciousness-style, most of which made it into the song, with practically no editing.
How did I do?
OUR LOVE
Words and Music by Morty Shallman © 2014, 2025
Flying Bed Music (ASCAP)
Verse 1
Our love is a prayer to beginnings
Our love is a taunt to the past
Our love is a forbidden fortress
Where we can hold out to the last
Chorus
When the night calls our name
And the darkness is falling around us
We’ll need our love to survive
When the fight seems in vain
And the chaos is swarming around us
We’ll need our love to survive
Verse 2
Our love is our secret weapon
Our love is our partner in crime
Our love is the one thing we can count on
To hold back the drones of time
Repeat Chorus
Verse 3
Our love is a dream we can’t wake from
(Tell me, tell me, tell me some more)
Our love is an itch we can’t scratch
(Tell me, tell me, tell me some more)
Our love is lull in the ocean
(Tell me, tell me, tell me some more)
Before the tsunami crash
(Tell me, tell me, tell me some more)
Verse 4
Our love is a fire at sunset
(Tell me, tell me, tell me some more)
Our love is shock to the brain
(Tell me, tell me, tell me some more)
Our love is a flower in the desert
(Tell me, tell me, tell me some more)
Soaking up sand like rain
Repeat Chorus Out
After making my little home demo—drum machine, bass, synths, rhythm guitars, and vocals— at my studio in Valley Village, CA, I brought in my dear friend and “sister from another mister,” virtuoso pianist, composer, and NORY Keytar inventor, Nomi Abadi. Nomi put down a stellar piano track in one take, top to bottom, chocked full of cool ideas that I could mix and match throughout the nearly 5-minute-long original version.
Nomi Abadi and her Invention, the NORY Double Keytar
I made a “drive-around-LA” mix (part of my process), saved it to my hard drive—and then, as sometimes happens, DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WITH IT! Oy. I am nothing if not a great procrastinator. Perhaps the greatest who ever lived. But it’s good to be exceptional at something, right?
Anyway, when the horrific So Cal fires brought LA to its knees last year, suddenly that decade-old chorus began bubbling up in my consciousness. I realized it was the perfect anthem for resilience in the face of adversity, and I felt compelled to finally finish it and release it from the dungeon of my hard drive, where it had been imprisoned for decades, into the world where it can, hopefully, do some good.
I should also note that was inspired to finish the record by the positive response I got from my alleged girlfriend at the time, who shall remain nameless, and who wound up stealing my car shortly thereafter to make a mad dash for the Oregon Border. The Highway Patrol caught her just outside of Sacramento, and I think she’s back in jail?? But, that’s another story… and another song…
The more I listened to my old demo from the mid 2010’s, with its driving but stock BOOM drum machine track, the more I felt it could use REAL drums, especially the kind that only my great friend and MONSTER world-class drummer, Todd Sucherman of Styx, could provide. Thankfully, Todd had some time between tours, and captured an incredible performance in his home studio in Austin: NINETEEN perfectly recorded and edited tracks, including overheads, room mics, and percussion. He also recorded one of his patented video performances, which I will share when I release the extended version.
Todd Sucherman
Next stop was my ace-in-the-hole, in fact, many people’s ace-in-the-hole, Scott Bennett, longtime Brian Wilson Band member and collaborator. I met Scott back in Chicago in the mid-90s when my dear friend, guitarist, producer and engineer, Danny Shaffer asked him to play drums in our band, Minds of Babes. Happily, we’ve been great friends ever since. In fact, Scott and I have been talking about releasing “The Complete Minds of Babes” next year to, as he puts it, “reclaim our ‘90s legacy.” Time to get Danny on board and do it!
Scott Bennett
Basically, with Scott, I just sent him the tracks and asked him to “Bennett-ize it.” First, he recut the bass, added another piano track to complement Nomi’s, and then layered in some epic “Edge-like” guitars that managed to be at once “U2-inspired, “ but not “Me2-on-the-nose. Finally, he recorded some gorgeous multi-part background vocals that give the chorus an incredible lift, and are so good, in fact, I featured them in the intro of Our Love - Reimagined.
For mixing, I chose my old buddy Carter William Humphrey, who mixed my first solo record, Love’s Oblivion, A Novel in Twelve Pop Songs, way back in 2002! That record still sounds fantastic, thanks to him, and he also mixed subsequent songs for my Novel with Songs, Last of Zacharys (2010) and my Halo EP (2013). Carter and his family had to move out of their home in Altadena after the wildfires, and it was great to reconnect and work with him at his longtime gig as the lead Pro-Tools instructor at MI in Hollywood.
Morty Shallman with Carter William Humphrey
Carter did an outstanding job, creating three unique retro-80’s style versions for me: two single options, one of which was the first release in July, 2025, and an extended version that will be released for completeness next year. These are dense, lush, reverb-laden mini-symphonies that have incredible depth and layering. Bravo, Carter!
Finally, for mastering, I went to another great friend and longtime collaborator, Steve Dresser, who gave Carter’s mix a final sonic polish before I sent it off to AWAL for distribution.
Steve Dresser
After mastering the track, Steve and I cooked up a “reimagined mix,” with a modern pop-rock focus: drier, more lead vocal-forward, and bringing the guitars, especially my acoustics, to the fore.
That’s the “Reimagined” version that’s out now, but I love both versions, and hope you do too!
Our Love - Reimagined - Banner
What have I learned from this experience? Mainly, that I must be more present with my art. When I start something I usually finish it, but I need to do it sooner, and with more urgency.
John Lennon once observed that “The Beatles don’t leave anything in the can.” They’d write it, record it, put it out, and move the hell on.
That’s my motto from now on: “Nothing in the can!” Though, for a while, anyway, there’s TONS in can, so expect lot’s of new releases in the coming months and years.
Like the Beatles, my goal is that when I’m shaken from this earth like a flea off a dog, I want NOTHING IN THE CAN!
NADA. ZILCH. It’s ALL coming out, my friends, so stay tuned!
Best,
Morty
