i keep going
I Keep Going is a pop rock song that talks about the unfair expectations on women today, inspired by the female musicians that MIREYA grew up with in the 2000s such as Avril Lavigne, Hayley Williams, and Kelly Clarkson.
behind the writing
MIREYA: Before my brother even came up to me about making songs together, he already had this idea of a song in his head. He had a list of things he wanted to say in it (we still have that piece of paper to prove it), not just from his or from [what he thinks] my experience is being in our twenties, but from a lot of different things we heard from our peers.
He didn’t quite know how to put it into a song however, until one day it work, the words just fell onto him — one verse at a time, during breaks over the course of the day.
The entry point was this idea that you should have already “made it” before you turn 30. That’s why they make these “30 under 30” lists. How you should already be married, be having kids, and have figured it all out by then. And then he knew it — the answer to all these pressures was just to admit defeat. Say sorry, this game is not for me. We’re doing it our own way, on our own pace.
This core feeling, of building up pressure (the verses), going mad about how preposterous it all is (the chorus), and admitting defeat (the bridge), was also what informed my brother about how the melodies should go. And by the end of his train ride home on that fateful day, he had the whole song finished, and he played it to me. I loved it.
We hope you’ll love it too.
behind the production
Our producers Tandr duo specialize in German pop/rap music so it came as a surprise to us how much they connected to this pop-rock vibe that we were going for on this song.
The backbone of the music is the electric guitar, arranged and performed by Nico Zeitz, and the drums and synths produced by Henri Schweizer. We listened to a couple of early 2000s pop rock songs by Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, and Paramore to get some inspiration. But we also wanted it to feel modern like Gayle’s abcdefu. In the end, I think we found our own unique rhythm.
The bridge is as always another focal point, and this is where Nico whipped up a beautiful arrangement that sounds so classic like a Scorpions guitar riff but also sounds like nothing you’ve heard of exactly before.
We also discovered new things about what my vocals could do, now that we’re on our third time recording. One, that this kind of high energy chorus is effortless to me, we almost made it in one take. Two, that I still struggle with the very low registers, such as in these verses. And three, that my whispery vocals sound pretty great. So we did a bunch of it in the harmonies.
Usually, the first master that tandr sends to us is already 90-95% what we envisioned, just a one or two very minor revisions here and there. But this time around, we had no notes. It was already perfect. And it’s already out there ready for you to hear, rock along with, and feel all the feels of being in your mid twenties.
