Notes on No Summer Without You

OK, some songs spire from the depth of emotion, of the need to express happiness, or love, or the lack of love, or despair or any other deep emotion. But this one, I must admit does originally not. It simply started as a desire to write a “Sha-na-na-na-na” song. Nothing deep, nothing profound, just “Sha na na”. When I die, I thought, will my life be complete without having written a song using those simple words. And the answer was no, so I went up to the studio and did just that.

And we found the perfect singer for it in German singer Sonja Hewer (from the band Sonic Season), who made us very happy when she accepted to do the vocals. We usually like to record vocals in our own studio but this time, owing to the distance, they where recorded on location in the Twin Music studio in Germany by Chris Simon and then sent to us to be added to the rest of the tracks when we were mixing.

And then maybe, along the way, the song transformed into something else. The lyrics turned and twisted a bit. The melody fell in place. And it became a sort of modern rain dance song. When I close my eyes I can see Sonja dancing, facing the skies, begging the gods to unleash a rain storm to clean her soul.

Early demo versions of the song had a much larger soundscape, but when Pär and I was doing the mix we was looking for a sort of smaller and intimate stage as a counterweight to the melody and lyrics. I think we did pretty well and for me its the perfect starting song of the album.

Make up you own mind. Listen and download it here:

/Lasse

——–

Now a year has gone
And summer, summer’s here again
And I hear they play our song
On the radio

We still thought we had the whole world in our hands
But we never understood that we were running
We were running out of time.

(Sha na na na na na na)
So let the rain fall
(Sha na na na na na na)
‘Cause the sun won’t shine
(Sha na na na na na na)
Now let the rain pour down
There’ll be no summer without you

Blinded by the light
I’m hiding, hiding in the night
But when I close my eyes
I still dream of you

I always thought that we were shining, like stars
But I never understood that you were falling
You were falling out of love.

(Sha na na na na na na)
So let the rain fall
(Sha na na na na na na)
‘Cause the sun won’t shine
(Sha na na na na na na)
Now let the rain pour down
There’ll be no summer without you

And I
(You’re in the dark, you’re in the cold, without a shelter from the storm)
I wish that I could make you see
As long as you are gone
(Without a shelter from the storm)
The sun will never, ever shine on me

(Sha na na na na na na)
So let the rain fall
(Sha na na na na na na)
‘Cause the sun won’t shine
(Sha na na na na na na)
Now let the rain pour down
There’ll be no summer without you

Oh, no
Let the rain pour down on me
There’l be no summer without you
For me