Key Lyric: “Like fruit.”
Froot describes the year of bedrotting I did following everything that happened with my school admin & community. My senior year spent in bed. Some fruits go to school to ripen, and some go to rot.
Additionally, I’ve restyled the song quite dramatically from Marina’s original. This is because of the chords I’ve used. See, my version of Froot has the same chords as “Mary Did You Know?” It was not even intentionally done: But I hope it evokes the catholic song! It’s one of my favorites.
Purpose (Why this song?)
Froot is an interesting one here. I originally recorded a demo that speaks more-closely to the original song by Marina and the Diamonds. It was major key, upbeat, and included every lyric (something that can’t be said for the version that made the album). I had been recording this demo while working on another track that was based off a remix of “Your Type” by Carly Rae Jepson I made in grief after finding out my old roommate was getting married to a woman (I know lmfao). The track came together well, but I kept coming back to the thought that I really didn’t want this album to be about any sort of romantic love and a story that doesn’t actually mean that much to me. The thing is, though, I LOVED the beat I made for “Your Type.” It was strange and sexy to me. So I was not willing to let the album release without incorporating its production into something else, somewhere on the album.
Then, one night as I was lying in bed with the project file open, i had the idea: Sing froot. And I did: Lying in bed with my computer’s microphone, I sang froot over and over again. I whispered it, I sang it with the harmony from the chords, I added stupid little adlibs… so on and so forth. The important part was that I was in bed. I thought it was just being stupid and silly, but as I listened back, I realized that it was good enough that I’d be fine with others hearing it… And well, how fun would it be to have a song that I could say I recorded in bed!? And in that moment, Froot went from a simple demo that copied the original to a Frankenstein baby of my cover of my remix of Your Type by Carly Rae Jepson… made while rotting 💋
The Creative Process:
Enjoy the behind the scenes of this song’s construction!
Froot aims to provide a sulty sound that embodies a sort of rot through the seasons. Every 8 bars, the song switches to a different season in order to demonstrate the passage of time. The changes are subtle enough to not read as seasonal shifts, yet are integral to the song’s energy throughout.
Sonic Identity
Core Sounds
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The Ocarina represents the spring. A promise of renewal within the track.
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To represent the summer, I have an electronic synth similar to the one used in Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows. I feel it was a good stand-in for the energy that summer makes me feel. Sometimes, free of the cycle of this song.
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Having a similar sound to a Sitar, one of my favorite instruments to listen to, I enjoyed bringing in this Irish instrument that speaks more-closely to my identity explored through this song. This would be Autumn.
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For winter, I went the easy route. I took some drum loops and processed them to sound like Ice, and then found a synth called “Ice Synth” and played it in the background of the track. It’s effective, but predictable.
One of the key aspects in this story of my PTSD is the misunderstanding that my community had over it. Specifically, in how I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder during the whole ordeal. I’ve come to learn that I have PTSD, not Bipolar Disorder; but for years, I took mood stabilizers and considered myself of that set of symptoms in a way that ultimately did a lot of damage. I look back on that time with frustration, as even in the moment I stood by having PTSD over anything else and was ultimately proven right. But I can’t separate the mania and depression from this story. As Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows is a reflection of my “Mania,” Froot is the resulting depression that happens after the burst of energy.
I spent my entire Senior year depressed, following everything that happened. In my eyes, back then, that depression was a result of the mania and had a mechanical aspect to it. In the time since, I’ve come to understand it as the type of depression that occurs because a person has every reason to be depressed. I was depressed. Through that time, I became friends with my bed. And so this song is paying homage to that.
Storyline
Key Moments
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The fun part of this track is the many lives it lived before becoming what it is now. Some of the old vocals of past songs are used through the chorus of the new production. I thought it was a cool way to honor the journey this beat made to get here, but also demonstrate the way my past is scrambled into my present today.
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During the final chorus of my cover, the song explodes into this bass-heavy, filtered instrumental that aims to give like a dark slowdown. I wanted something fat and SUPER Dramatic to stand against the first-take-in-bed vocals that are ultimately used for the master.
