Under the Hood, Episode 4: "Without Your Love" ft. Bill Champlin


The back story on this one starts at my place.

Marc Jordan — a master of lyric and melody — came over and I had a cool riff and chord progression — we jammed out a really cool piece, but it still needed a chorus. Days later, after me grinding away at it, I went over to Marc's house and — wait, I think I've got it — and when I played it for him he said, "Yes! That's it!"

Harry produced the track and helped the song along with an epic bridge melody.

It was also around this time that Bill and I had been working on a co-write on another song that's still in the vault 😉 — and he flew in for a few days. When we were cutting it at Vespa (Harry Hess's) studio, he ad-libbed those very distinct end-outro call-back lines. Bill, Marc and Harry are also in the mix making up the backing vocals.

Working and hanging out with these guys has been one of the highlights of my musical journey.

Another behind-the-scenes cool moment was having Bill play some of his old solo and Chicago songs for me at my place. Hearing an acoustic live performance of "Hard Habit to Break" from the iconic voice that owned the airwaves of radio in the 80's and early 90's was pretty surreal 😊

Written by Franklin McKay, Harry Hess and Marc Jordan. Released as a single on September 15, 2013 — also on the album Invincible (2016).


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