Singled Out: Sam Gyllenhaal Band's Ocean Baby

The Sam Gyllenhaal Band just released their new single "Ocean Baby", and to celebrate we asked Sam to tell us about the track. Here is the story: "Ocean Baby" is an infectious summer anthem that paints a picture of wild and young love against a beach-town backdrop. We took our robust, three-part harmony and played it against triumphant guitar riffs to build a giant wave for listeners to ride. Is that ocean metaphor too on the nose? Oh well.

I'll often come into a songwriting session with a melody that has place-holder lyrics, mostly nonsense, that my co-writers will help me shape into the actual lyrics. This melody included the words "Ocean Baby," and I said, "Obviously we'll just replace that." Instead of replacing those words though, my co-writers John Cirillo and Taylor Burke thought we should build the song around those words and see where it would take us.

This is only the sixth song I've been the sole producer on, and the theme of the song led me to explore new sonic textures and to put a tropical twist on our Americana-pop sound. I dug deep into new electric guitar sounds and even doubled them with synths to produce extra ear candy. Alex Schreiner and Alaina Stacey are tremendous background vocalists, and they really help to amplify my vocals. The result, I hope, is a track that listeners will want to listen to over and over again to inject a little bit of ocean into their lives.

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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