Les Stroud reminds us all to cherish what we have in his new single When It’s Gone — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Between his various vocations as public speaker, TV personality and musician, Stroud has seen much in his life. With When It’s Gone, the latest alternate mixed and mastered single from his Mother Earth album, he offers up a fulfilling, richly textured environmental ballad that serves as a caution to listeners around the world.
“This was, in some ways, a difficult song to bring to fruition and finality,” Stroud says. The demo “was a very Supertrampish-sounding song… That rendition contains a second half, completely missing from the final version, that was big and bombastic and powerful”.
Producer Mike Clink helped him craft the arc and feel of When It’s Gone into a moving, evocative track about loss and regret. “All of the piano parts were written by me but then Mike, in his wisdom, brought in Jamie Muhoberac to actually play the piano properly,” he says. “Along with Tim Pierce they crafted that hauntingly beautiful and patient opening. It sets the mood for all that is to come in the sentiments of the tune.”
The opening piano and strings recall the latter-day Pink Floyd song Marooned, before Stroud’s passionate voice takes When It’s Gone to another level. Some sparse but precious guitar accents give the single a greater gravitas, as Stroud speaks to how one should cherish and protect nature before things get worse:
“It’s all gonna change
This world you’re so used to
It won’t be without pain
When all your big plans have fallen through
So I walk on sand
I walk on frozen lands
I walk in forests
Where I feel home.”
Stroud says Clink, who liked When It’s Gone “perhaps the best” of all the Mother Earth material, was instrumental in this finished version. Clink even asked Stroud to develop this song essentially from a clean slate after much of the songs were already recorded. “In fact, for this one he asked if we could start from scratch,” Stroud says. “He slowed down the tempo and brought it to a place of reverence.”
Also crucial to Stroud’s vision was Bryan Potvin, a member of Canadian rock group The Northern Pikes who previously collaborated with Stroud on music for his show Beyond Survival. “I had the verse’s piano section written when I brought it to Bryan Potvin and he loved all of it,” Stroud says. “But he had in his head some kind of melody we could go to that would be more major-keyed in its tone. I love minor keys and Bryan loves major keys, which is why I think the songs we wrote together work so well.”
Once he adjusted the lyrics from “Even when it’s gone,” Stroud says the song fell into place. “It was much later in the studio with Mike Clink that I switched to ‘When it’s gone’ both for the better syncopation of my singing but also because it was a stronger statement, albeit a depressing one. I actually have a hard time playing this song live as it chokes me up every time.”
Stroud, who splits his time between Ontario and Oregon, released the alternate mixed and mastered single Ancients Call in April, followed by One Giant Farm in June.
Check out When It’s Gone above, hear more from Les Stroud below, and join him on his website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
