Carpe Diem
Dream Big, Little Girl
Hong Kong, China
BACKGROUND
Carpe Diem is a two-piece band with a guitar (Keith) and vocal (Ada). Both acts work on the music arrangement together." Carpe Diem" is a Latin expression meaning "seize the day". Their latest track titled 'Dream Big, Little Girl' relates to the dreams that we have as children and their ability to make their ideas and fantasies come to life through imagination. Something that we tend to lose as we grow older. The duo make it clear that dreaming isn’t just a kid thing. Their philosophy for the track is based on their belief that a few things define a human being like its ability to dream, to go beyond its reality in order to fix its aspirations and longings. "To dream is to touch the moon while keeping your feet on the ground. And you…have you stopped dreaming? Don’t lose that inner child that allows you to always see the bright side, the sunshine, and the smiles on people’s faces." The group invited a little girl, Roselle, to sing the harmonies with them. So, let's have a listen!
DREAM BIG, LITTLE GIRL SINGLE REVIEW
'Dream Big, Little Girl' opens with the voice of a little girl who quotes the title of the track. This adds a personal touch to the story that Carpe Diem are trying to tell through this piece. Indie rock guitar takes precedence in the mix in front of the drum loop. As the track develops we hear the appearance of bass guitar and melodic piano. The main vocals are sang solo in the main verses with backings from a little girl with a dream. I love the concept behind the track and what this duo have tried to produce. I would say that the instruments are a little too quiet in the mix. There are some amazing guitar solos in this track that stand out but the drums are maybe a little too quiet. The song starts in strength through the mixing of strings, we can really hear all of their productive elements and where they fit in the mix. When the main verse comes in there's a slight imbalance between the different elements which makes it sound less effective than I know it could be. The spaces in between the vocals are great, I think it's just a matter of finding how the vocals fit in the production as more instruments are added into the mix. I really like the track and I'm looking forward to hearing more from this duo for sure. The main message of the track is clear and we know exactly what the story is behind it. This track has massive potential. Click the link below to hear it.
INTERVIEW
What would be your ultimate achievement for your latest single? Is there a particular vision that you had when putting the song together?
Our songs are quite experimental to search broken pieces in our life. In this single “Dream Big, Little Girl”, we invited a little girl, Roselle, to sing the harmonies with us and to connect with the inner child of audiences.
Kids dream and make their ideas and fantasies come to life with games and make believe. We, on the other hand, obligated to maintain our seriousness and discretion, dream silently and with our eyes open. Dreaming isn’t just a kid thing. Few things define a human being like its ability to dream, to go beyond its reality in order to fix its aspirations and longings. To dream is to touch the moon while keeping your feet on the ground. And you…have you stopped dreaming? Don’t lose that inner child that allows you to always see the bright side, the sunshine, and the smiles on people’s faces. Have hope, open yourself up to the world and let it show you the best things in life. Let's sing with your inner child, the little girl in your heart. Dream it big. Life is a continuous dream that we have to keep building daily with happiness, optimism and joy.
If you could define music in one short sentence (no cheating) what would you say?
Spiritual food for the soul – to scoop up the pieces of our spirit and painstakingly put us back together, piece by broken piece.
When did you first realise that you had the potential to be an artist? Is there a memory that has stuck in your mind as the turning point for you?
We have had the belief to go for it in the past 5 years. We tried to write songs we like. Sometimes alt/dream pop, sometimes quite experimental, but yet the narrative/poetic lyrics always reflect the meaning of life. Our songs are set like a story-telling journey with thought-provoking/ soul-searching cinematic themes.
How would you define your sound?
Alt. Pop, in general. In this project, we intentionally let the little girl sounds like the lead and keep the innocence and imperfection. Like, life is not perfect.
Cubase, Protools, or neither?
Our mixing engineer has been a user of Protools for years. However, for us, we have been using Logic Pro for vocal and guitar recording as the samples in the library were quite inspiring to us during music arrangement.
This might be a tricky one but Studio vs Live - Which do you prefer and why?
“Live”, for sure. Live can be unique and flexible with different arrangement every time.
Even if we play the same song, mood of the song would be altered with various interactions with audiences, and even in different weather and venues.
How do you collaborate with vocalists and other artists?
Expect the unexpected. Every collaboration is a new conversation with sparks. We talk about how we think about the song, build relationships and work towards a common goal.
If you had the opportunity to work with one of your favorite musical artists, who would you most like to collaborate with and why?
We’d love to work with other dream-pop bands like Warpaint. Love their way to build up the ambience, emerging from plaintive moods into harder rocking. That could be another sparks in our story-telling journey.
What are your future plans? What can we look forward to for the rest of 2022?
We would continue making and releasing experimental/ dream pop/ alternative pop music and love to try collaborating various music instruments like handpan and ocean drum. We actually have a lot lined up the rest of the year and aim to release our first album with a concert in 2023.
Where can we find the track? Links to socials and distribution handles
Find our songs in Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc. Here are the short cuts:
https://ffm.bio/carpediem
Stay tuned with our songs and updates. Subscribe and follow our socials:
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗜𝗚:
https://www.instagram.com/carpediem.hkmusic/
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸:
https://m.facebook.com/CarpeDiem.hkmusic
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝘂𝗿 Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/CarpeDiem_HKG