About 'Thief'
This song has a pretty interesting back-story, and is a good example of how musicians can collaborate from pretty much anywhere in the world. So have a listen, and read how this song came to be. If you’re into that sort of thing…
Where To Listen
Thief is available on all the major music streaming platforms.
You can check it out all of our songs on your platform of choice via this handy page.
Mark's Perspective
Some time ago, I made a post on Facebook about some instrumental music I had been working on for a publisher in the TV/Film licensing industry. A friend of mine from back in high-school (middle-school, actually) saw this, and had some nice things to say about the music. For reference, that stuff sounds NOTHING like this song… or anything else in this project.
I think it was a few weeks (months?) later, that I got a message from Catie about possibly collaborating on a song. You see, she is a creative person, and a writer. In fact, she’ll probably find 86 flaws in my grammar on this page alone.
Anyway, she had some lyrics, which I think started out as a poem, but to my knowledge at the time she hadn’t had much experience with songwriting.
We exchanged some ideas, talked about the theme of the song, and what type of instrumentation might work for it.
I created a rough demo instrumental, and helped make her idea fit into a fairly traditional song structure. We both collaborated on the lyrics, and at this point I don’t remember exactly who wrote which parts. We went back and forth a LOT exchanging ideas.
This went on as time and availability allowed, until we got Catie set up with some real recording equipment and software. Then I basically bossed her around (remotely) until she got everything running and recorded a bunch of takes for me. You see, we live many states apart, and she had no prior recording experience, so I felt justified in my bossiness.
Fun Fact: This was originally going to be something of a duet, but I’m not much of a singer. So without asking for her input, I decided Catie would be the only singer on this tune, and I’m really thrilled with her performance.
Long story short, this song was a ton of fun to work on. It’s always fun to collaborate, and I got to reconnect with an old friend in the process.
I hope you all enjoy the song as much as I enjoyed working on it.
Catie's Perspective
Firstly, Mark and I go waaaaay back to middle school (sixth grade). ?
After reconnecting about twenty years after high school graduation, our communication had been sporadic, but it became steadier when we decided in 2020 to collaborate and co-create music. I’d mentioned to him that being a lyricist would be THE coolest job, so he basically put me to the test.
I love collaborating with like-minded individuals. There’s something about the energy exchange that hypes me up. I enjoy bouncing ideas back and forth and seeing how they morph. It’s invigorating.
Working on this project pushed me beyond the threshold of my comfort zone, as I’m not a singer by trade. We wanted to get the song made, so I donned my #dgaf hat and rolled with it. Listening to our song makes me grateful for the thick skin that gets developed when you’ve been a part of the creative world for a decent chunk of time.
Collaborating on this song with Mark was akin to a saving grace because I was able to redirect my focus on creating again, which had fallen to the wayside, courtesy of ‘Rona. He was a strict but fair taskmaster, as promised. The process went smoothly, especially considering we live about 800 miles apart from one another. As with any creative project, the final version of “Thief” ended up distinctly different from its original version. Lots of back-and-forth written correspondence and a couple Zoom calls later, and we had ourselves a real, live song.
My hope for “Thief” is that people will discover a relatable tune and muster self-grace, understanding that life is a series of phases and that growth isn’t linear.
Collaborating with Mark on “Thief” was one of the most fun projects I’ve worked on. Hopefully, this is the first song of many that we bring into the world.