Song Exploder - Raleigh Ritchie - Time in a Tree

Episode Date: May 29, 2019

Raleigh Ritchie is the musical alias of Jacob Anderson, a musician and actor who’s probably best known for playing the character Grey Worm on Game of Thrones. Raleigh Ritchie released his first album in 2016, and he’s put out a handful of EPs. In September 2018, he put out the single, “Time in a Tree.” He made the song with Grammy-nominated producer Daniel Traynor, aka Grades. In this episode, the two of them take apart “Time in a Tree” to explain how it came together, and how it was influenced by classic Hollywood movies, Billy Joel, and overwhelming anxiety. songexploder.net/raleigh-ritchie

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. My name is Rushi Kesh Hereway. This episode contains explicit language. Raleigh Ritchie is the musical alias of Jacob Anderson, a musician and actor who's probably best known for playing the character Greyworm on Game of Thrones. Raleigh Ritchie released his first album in 2016, and he's put out a handful of EPs. In September 2018, he released a single Time in a Tree. He made the song with Grammy nominated producer Daniel Traynor, aka Grades. In this episode, Raleigh Ritchie and Grades take apart time in a tree to explain how it came together

and how it was influenced by classic Hollywood movies, Billy Joel, and overwhelming anxiety. My name is Riley Ritchie. I have anxiety. So I just started therapy, which is something that I tried when I was 19 and I didn't really respond particularly well to it the first time round. But I was like, I'll try it again.

And therapy was forcing me to think about my past a lot more. And for me, this song is all about connecting one thing that might happen in adult life to something that happens when you're a teenager, to something that happens when you're a child, and like how you kind of have to reach back in order to help yourself in the present. We wrote and recorded this song in Gradesia's Studio in Brixton in London.

I was thinking around on the keys for a little bit, trying to find some cool sounds, and I started to play with this kind of riff here. My name's Dan Trainer, aka Grades. We'd done a couple of songs before this. We were both sort of mutual fans of each other's work, and the powers that B kind of hooked us up together. It's a really scary thing to share. your ideas, especially when they're like really personal things

that you may not have told people that you're really close to. And this is why it's so important to have a really symbiotic, trustful relationship with a producer. And me and grades, we just really got on. We get excited by the same sounds, and he knows his way around a keyboard. When I started to play the progression that ended up being the progression on the song, Jacob's, oh, I like that, he's kind of caught his ear.

I wanted the song to feel contemplative, because that's kind of a song. where my head was at. And that's when he started to sort of hum a few ideas that turned into the melodies and stuff that ended up on the record. I kind of use voice memos to just throw down ideas. Maybe, maybe you know, wait for me. One of the first things in the song was, that I had was, did Billy Joel have self-esteem?

Maybe Vienna wouldn't wait for me. I loved Billy Joel's album, The Stranger. I was listening to Vienna, which is normally a song that's really inspiring and really comforting. You can't be everything you want to be before your time, although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight. Ooh, when will you realize Vienna wait? But it just wasn't working for me. that thing of like, just be patient. I couldn't be patient.

I was just like, but I don't have the self-esteem that I need to implement what the song is telling me to implement. Just feeling like every single direction that I turned in, there was a wall in front of me. I couldn't hold down a positive thought if I tried. I get wound up from the ground up, and I don't know why. Turn the sound up, trying to noise out, swallow up. Don't cry.

Got an anxious heart and his stowmate can't take paper a heartbreak. Did Billy Joel have self-esteem? Maybe Vienna wouldn't wait for me. So I was having a bit of a Billy Joel moment when I wrote this song. Each verse has a different flow, and each verse is about a different place in my mind and a different time in my life. And in verse two, it's about hopefulness. It's about trying to work out what are the steps I need to take

to just worry less, to find a bit of contentment and peace. That whole verse is about being a child and feeling like you could be a real life. There was never doubt and now I'm kind of like riddled with doubt. And so it's just about reaching back. And so it's just about reaching back and trying to find the things that I still care about and I still want to do from when I was a child. So with the drums on the second verse, we thought, why not let's just like switch the rhythm up completely? Lyrically and his delivery, it completely switches up there and becomes much more aggressive. Swimming against the current, I'm all wrong. Can you show me your warring? Honestly, I'm a barring. I'm on it. I get it. I've got it. I want to be 10 again.

Just me and Sonic. Can nobody telling me I should be more than I am. Back when I had a plan. So it was kind of like trying to create a beat that would support that. It's like a trap rhythm, really. It's just that what the hi-hats would normally do, the kicks doing instead. Essentially like inverted trap drums, which kind of has quite a frenetic quality to it. I want the drums to feel overwhelming. I think that suits the song and what the song's about really well.

The sonics of the song changed as we went on. And they definitely changed when the chorus came about. He started just humming this idea and I was like, whoa, that sounds really cool. I just want time in a tree. I need a place just for me. He was sort of almost putting this kind of slight character on. So it sort of sounded like an old sample and we were both like,

oh, it'd be cool to try and make this sound like an old record. We started playing with effects on his voice, distortion, loads of compression and like a little bit of chorusy stuff and there's two different layers of the vocal there's the same audio file on a duplicate track that's been pitched up an octave and then the formant added to it gives it that kind of deeper throaty sound

that makes his voice like not so recognisable so sounds like this. Most people who I play the song to you now are like, oh what's the sample? It sounds like a famous record but I've never heard what the sample is. And I really enjoy that and I did that intentionally. I was like, I love the idea of people

trying to find this sample that they'll never find. And people have been Googling it and trying to find it out. And it was just something that came up in Mali's head. His acting background is what makes him such a versatile musician and artist. There's almost like a few different moods throughout the track that he can access and really like deliver because he has that background. So I guess he can sort of tap into that performance and create the character for the hook. I just one time in a tree.

I need a place just for me so well. The whole thing of time in a tree really is like climbing trees when you're a kid and being above the ground and not being attached to the world and to the earth. You can dream. Listening to that piano line along with that doo do do makes me think about like Casablanca, you know, as time goes by, that kind of thing. And I think that's probably what,

what gave me that very traditional movie romance sort of feeling. And I always associate strings with like very cinematic moments. My connection to films and that type of storytelling, I think is why some kind of orchestration feels like a really important part of my music. Rosie Danvers, who arranges all of my strings, is one of my musical heroes. Rosie's incredible arranger. I send Rosie these voice notes of me humming different melodies,

like string melodies over the song. And then for the second verse, something. I actually got to go down when they were recording the strings. That was like mind-blowing, like seeing and hearing a full orchestra, like essentially playing some stuff that we'd written. And then me and Grange were talking about putting nature sounds in there. It's like building things into the song that can work on that subconscious level. So you listen to it and hopefully it helps build an image.

And hopefully you can put yourself in that image. Jacob, when he was writing it, he was saying, I can kind of imagine a guy sitting like with an old guitar like in a tree writing this song or singing this song. I imagine like a 70-year-old singing it because the song was so much about reaching back through points in your life. I thought there was something kind of romantic about. the chorus being like an elderly person sitting in a park singing this melody to themselves.

And then there's like those clicks and the percussion in the song. The ticking of the clock. The song's about using your time well. And I often feel like I am against the clock. There was a particular point in my teenagedom where I was very depressed. and I couldn't do anything. I stayed indoors for a week without talking to anybody.

I didn't go outside. I just got like delivery. And it was a very dark part of my life. And I've got this weird complex about that time in my life where I feel like I really wasted valuable time. I feel like I haven't done enough with my life all the time. I feel like I could always be doing more. I don't easily articulate myself.

particularly when it comes to things that are really personal. So writing a song is how I access that part of my brain that I wish I could access when I'm face-to-face with somebody. The song's called Time and a Tree, partly because one of the realizations of the song, I think, is that time is the biggest currency. That's the only thing that you can't get back. And now, here's Time in a Tree by Raleigh Ritchie in its entirety.

break, but I'll make mistakes like they were handed on a play. And I try to leave sometimes I'm standing in the way. I'm on the edge of crying all the time, because I can't human write. What a state? I get wound up from the ground up, and I don't know why. Turn the sound up, trying to noise out, swallow up, don't quite. Got an anxious heart and it's stowlame can't take paper. Can't take pay for a heartbreak

Do bitty Joe have self-esteem Maybe Vienna wouldn't wait for me I just want time in a tree I need a place Just for me Somewhere that I can be Do you ever feel like You could live a real life

Like everybody else in the real world You could be a real girl You could be a wizard You could be a nasso You could write fiction You can tame raptors Most days I struggle I get snapping

Fuck who that I just wanna be happy Swimming against the current I'm out Can you show me a warring Honestly, I'm a bummer barring I'm on it I get it I've got it I wanna be ten again this me and sonny And nobody telling me I should be more than I am

Back when I have been So when up I can be Things that I never Too many things I've hurt myself too many times to count You need to let it out and just been liking to myself too long I'm trying by myself too long I can't relax I'm too distracted

I can't have it I'm needy greedy Love me, feed me Let's be a family Take a village to make a mind of me. So why couldn't you love me? So Lani. I just want time in a tree.

I need a place just for me. Somewhere that I can be just be. Visit songexploder.net to learn more about Raleigh Ritchie. You'll also find a link to buy or stream this song. Song Exploder is made by producer Christian Coons by guest. host Tao Wyn, who's filling in for me this whole year but just happens to be out of town this week. And me. I'm Rishi K. Sherway, creator and executive producer.

Carlos Lerma is our illustrator. He makes a portrait for every episode, which you can see on the Song Exploder website. Many thanks to Daniel Traynor and Jason Lee for all their help with this episode. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collective of fiercely independent podcasts. You can learn about all of our shows at Radiotopia.fm. You can also find Song Exploder on Facebook. Instagram and Twitter at Song Exploder.

My name is Rishi K. Sherway. Thanks for listening.