Locked In - Rolanoid Unpacked



This week on Rolanoid Unpacked we explore a popular dance collaboration between Scotty J and Rolanoid. In 2006 I was living in Melbourne and Rolanoid was at #5 on the MySpace dance charts when Melbourne artist Scott Nunan aka Scotty J happened upon my profile and sent me a message. At the time I was getting flooded on MySpace with fan messages, collaboration and remix requests as well as record company offers. Fortunately I checked out Scott's profile and liked what I heard, particularly his voice and creativity. We decided to collaborate on a new track together and met up at Borders for an initial chat. We recorded most of the track over three days in Scott's front room in Flemmington. We had a drum loop going and Scott started jamming some funky bass lines on top. He was coming up with great stuff right from the start but then suddenly I said "That one!" and Scott said "Let's get it locked in" (recorded into Logic). At the time we didn't know it was going to be the title of the song. Next I laid down some electric piano and Scott added some guitars. The track came together so effortlessly and was such a fun and enjoyable process. I remember there was a real buzz in the room and we were totally in the flow. Pretty soon we had a grooving instrumental dance track that we were really excited about. The tracks that just come together quickly with ease are always the best ones.

Later one evening I was at home thinking about what lyrics we could add to the music and had a flash of inspiration that we should call the song Locked In. I wrote the initial chorus that we later refined and took it around to Scott's to record. We didn't have a vocal booth so Scott would run into his room with the mic and dive under the doona as a makeshift vocal booth. He was constantly running back and forth between the computer in the front room and his bedroom laying down the vocals. It was so funny seeing this mound under the doona and hearing this great vocal coming out of the monitors at the same time! A week or two later we added some additional vocal overdubs at my studio in my lounge in Mt Waverley. I didn't have a mic stand at hand and had to string up the mic from the lounge ceiling light. I then spent quite a few weeks mixing and mastering the track at my place. (Pictured right: Scott Nunan aka Scotty J recording harmonies for Locked In - Mt Waverley, 2006)
We were really pleased with the results and everyone we played it to seemed to love it instantly. I recall one friend almost frothing at the mouth saying "Play it again, play it again!" We entered the song into the International Songwriting Competition which was open to both amateurs and professionals and was judged by major record label execs as well as mainstream artists such as Tiesto, Nelly Furtado and Macy Gray. The competition received 18 000 entries from all over the world and we made it into the finals of the dance category with 15 other hopefuls. Sneaky Sound System who were all over the charts at the time had come second in the same category the previous year so we were super excited about the possibilities that Locked In being in the finals might open up for us. Sadly we never became the next Sneaky Sound System though. Scott has since been putting out some great stuff under the name Julian Maverick. Listen to Locked In on Spotify, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, or iTunes USA and iTunes AUS Also check out the Groove Armada style Funk Dub Mix. Tech Specs

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