Song Breakdown: Present Company
Added 2025-04-07 19:16:08 +0000 UTCHello Humans,
This month's music lesson is a short but sweet re-visit into one of my much older tracks—Present Company.
Some of you who've been here a while might remember it from way back when it was first released in 2012 alongside the beautiful slow-mo, boxing-match music video where I get punched in the face for real. Ouch.
I thought it would be fun to revisit the song to give you a proper musical breakdown: chords, structure, melody.
🎵 THE STORY
Present Company was the first "solo" song I ever published, being at a time where Birdeatsbaby was in a state of transition and I had an backload of songs I was desperate to get out.
It was a raw and vulnerable place I was writing from, and I felt this song very deeply, I still do, even on the rare occasions I play it live.
It ties into many emotional things for me - loss of love, broken faith and an absence of hope. I'm still not sure where it came from, I feel like it sort of wrote itself, one of those songs that just came out all at once and I couldn't wait to record it.
I feel like it was a level up in song-writing after Feast of Hammers and a step towards The Bullet Within. What do you think?
(Scene from the music video)
🎹 THE THEORY
In the tutorial, I’ll walk you through the main chord sequences and how just by changing a few notes here and there everything becomes more tense, sad and longing.
We’ll also talk about structure: how the verses contrast with the chorus, and how the middle 8 acts as a bit of relief but still ties in. I’ll play sections slowly so you can follow along, whether you’re a beginner or more advanced.
The piano it was originally recorded on was horribly out of tune (like a whole semi-tone low) and looking back I'm annoyed I didn't record it on something better but hey-ho, it was a learning experience!
🎥 THE MUSIC VIDEO
It’s been over a decade since this came out, and I still adore this video. You can watch it again here – on YouTube, and listen to the song in all it's glorious layers.
I hope you enjoy the lesson. I'll be back soon with a new HVIRESS song... and some Crimson Veil pianos, oh yeah.
Love and left hooks,
Mishkin x
Comments
Hi Chris, excellent question. I think in the early days I was writing mostly intuitively, and just played things that I stumbled upon and thought sounded good. The more I taught piano, theory and studied songs and classical music the more I became aware of these ideas and now I would say although I hear melodies and chords intuitively I am far more aware of what I'm doing!
Mishkin Fitzgerald
2025-04-13 09:30:56 +0000 UTCthank you, I'm glad you feel this song xx
Mishkin Fitzgerald
2025-04-13 09:27:53 +0000 UTCGreat breakdown @Mishkin! Question - is this a conscious thing i.e do you decide to play these chords etc or is a retrospective thing where you play the sounds you hear and identify them using theory afterwards?
Chris
2025-04-13 06:17:15 +0000 UTCI heard this song 2 years ago. That was an emotionally deep time for me, too. The first some times when I listened to it I just couldn't stand to cry while listening. I had to put away the song for a while... But it was in my ears... The beginning of this year, I started to listen to it again... Now, I can sing along with You while listening to it🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂 And I'm sure that the neighbours have already learnt the lyrics.... For me it's one of the songs that brings me back to the real life from my pinky, lying dreams and makes me more humble (in a positive way). I cannot be grateful enough for this song (too) 🫂🙏🏼🫂🙏🏼🫂🙏🏼🫂🙏🏼🫂🙏🏼🫂🙏🏼🫂🙏🏼🫂🙏🏼🫂🙏🏼
Eszti
2025-04-07 20:07:47 +0000 UTC
