Rhys Hurd On the Making Of “do you miss me.”
Credit: photo by @lucysianphotography
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind "do you miss me." and the story it tells?
“do you miss me.” was the first song I wrote after taking a break from writing music as a solo artist for nearly 2 years. It came after a troubling 6-months post-university, where I played some difficult shows, was losing money playing music and just struggled adjusting to life after Uni. I decided to take a step back to remind myself why I’m doing this and to understand what sort of artist I wanted to be.
After lots of experimenting, I began writing this song. When I got the basis of the instruments together, I felt like I was finally finding a new sound I could explore. I began writing the lyrics as a bit of a cheesy “comeback song” but the more I wrote, all the emotions I felt after taking a step away from writing came pouring in and helped shape the song into what it is today.
Was there any challenge that you encountered while making the track?
The challenge with this song was all the steps before hand, I wanted to blend more modern sounds and bring in a wider range of instruments into my songwriting, but I didn’t know how. I went out and listened to as much music as possible, I began recreating beats and sounds from songs outside of rock, and I also began writing for other bands as well. This period was so important for my development, as when I finally sat down again to start generating new songs for myself, I had a much wider range of skills I could use to craft these songs.
What impact do you hope this single will have on your audience?
The song’s message is to not give up. I hope that this song finds people who feel like they’re not good enough - whether this be at school, at music, or their job – so it can remind them that good things are just around the corner if they keep trying.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started in music?
I don’t come from a musical family, I’m the only member of my family who plays an instrument, but music was always around. I grew up listening to a lot of my dad’s music, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Rush etc. One day when I was 11, my school handed out letters advertising guitar lessons and I took one home to ask my parents if I could start learning guitar. I wasn’t expecting a yes, we didn’t have loads of money and neither of my siblings had lessons like this, but to my surprise they said yes. Within 6 months, I had absolutely fallen in love with playing the guitar, I told everyone I was going to be a guitarist when I grew up. Over a decade on, I’m lucky enough to have a job working in music at an Arts university in the UK, and the love and passion for music still hold strong to this day.
Can you walk us through your creative process when writing and composing music?
My process has shifted loads over the last few years. When I started writing music, I wrote instrumental guitar tunes as I couldn’t sing at the time. I used to always start at the guitar, write a riff, chord progression etc and build from there. As I’ve expanded my abilities as a singer and producer, I now start writing from many different places. I’ve set myself a rule that I can only write a certain amount of the song before I have to tackle the main melody. Like many guitarists, I have written dozens of riffs and instrumentals that have never seen the light of day because I just couldn’t come up with vocals. At the end of the day, it’s never going to be a song until it has a strong melody to lead it.
