Having gone through multiple revisions, eventually being revisited after it was forgotten, "One More Night" came together after a conversation on the way to a gig and the track was built and augmented from that point.
“One More Night” is the latest single from KUČKA, the result of consistent touring and collaboration with Harley Edward Streten, professionally known as Flume.
KUČKA
KUČKA, thanks for taking the time! How did “One More Night” begin?
Harley sent over about 10 demos when he was working on “Palaces”. Out of all of them, the beats for “Escape” and “One More Night” were the ones I was most excited about. At some point we worked on “Escape” together at Harley’s and honestly I forgot about this one for a year or so. When we were touring together in New York, I had the line ‘One more night but it’s the last time’ in my head on repeat and couldn’t remember what it was from at all. I thought it was a song that was already released or something I had heard on the radio, so I searched it into my computer and the link came up from the initial demo. When I re-listened, I thought it had so much potential, so I played it to Harley in the car on the way to the show and he agreed. We organised a session at his place the following week and he went in on the production like crazy, he was so in the zone it was actually so cool to watch. Over the next few months we went back and forth online with the finishing touches.
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Where in the process does recording and producing begin?
I like to start with one really strong idea. That could either be a few bars of production, a concept or a melody and I build everything around that. Usually the melodic lines will come before specific lyrics, but I always have a bunch of ideas/words ready to go that I have been thinking about or find compelling. Sometimes it’s really hard to keep the vibe of a messy demo when you are trying to polish the track, so I try to get the balance right between technical mixing and keeping parts a bit raw or rough around the edges.
Was “One More Night” ever heading in a totally different direction?
We did have a different chorus at some point that we weren’t really feeling. I think that’s why we stopped working on it for Palaces. When we came back to it, we just deleted that section and decided to go with the huge synth stabs instead. That really helped us with the final arrangement and overall sound since it gave the track the intensity that it needed.
The lyrics were really all there from the start. I wrote the first verse initially, then built the rest easily around that.
How did yourself and Flume create this track?
He started the production and I worked on the initial vocals alone. Then we got the production ideas down for the arrangement together. Then we went back and forth online with the finishing touches.
What kind of sounds are we hearing on “One More Night”?
I really like the use of [Sonic Charge plugin] Echobode on the laser kick sample that we use throughout the track – when it gets all modulated at the end of the phrase that’s when we’re using that plugin. Pretty sure it’s all soft synths on this one. I can’t remember exactly the synth we used, but we re-sampled it back into Ableton pretty early and started treating the stabs like samples – just chopping them up and creating different rhythms out of them.
We also resampled my vocal a bunch to thicken up the layers in the chorus which adds to the texture a lot.
Do you think collaborating pulls the best out of you?
Yeah, I think collaborations are great to push you out of your comfort zone and that’s one of the best ways to grow as an artist in my opinion. It’s so easy to get locked into a groove and keep saying the same things with your work, so I think they can be a shortcut to burn through some new pathways.
Thanks again for your time! We’d love a final story about the making of “One More Night”!
When we were working on the arrangement, we originally had the same chords happening for verse 2 but I remember Harley saying “we’ve given ourself a chance to reset when it goes to silence – it’s the perfect opportunity to change this up”, and he suggested we change it to an arpeggiator. I think that really helped to keep the production interesting and breathe life into the second verse.
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