Crush

The Story Behind the Song

Crush followed almost immediately after Weightless.

After spending years away from producing music, I suddenly found myself completely immersed again. One idea quickly led to another, and I couldn't wait to start writing the next track. Looking back, Crush captures that excitement perfectly. It was created during a period of rediscovery, when every new studio session felt like another opportunity to learn, experiment, and rebuild my sound from the ground up.

The track began with a simple call-and-response melody played on the piano, accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Those two ideas became the heart of the song and remained largely unchanged throughout the writing process.

At the time, I was still searching for the right sonic identity. After spending years away from music, many of the production tools I had relied on were no longer available or had simply been left behind by newer technology. Before releasing any music, I spent time researching modern alternatives and asking friends for recommendations, gradually assembling a completely new creative toolbox.

Around the same time, I also discovered the online sample library Splice, which opened up an entirely new palette of sounds to experiment with. One of my favorite discoveries was a heavily processed vocal phrase from Splice that I used for the chorus. To this day, I'm still not entirely sure what the singer is saying, but the emotion in the performance was unmistakable — and sometimes that's all a melody really needs.

That also made Crush surprisingly difficult to categorize. It landed somewhere between deep house, progressive house, trance-pop, and melodic trance. I remember asking other producers for their opinion, and one person pointed out that while the musical ideas leaned toward house, the drums felt darker and more techno-inspired. At the time I disagreed. Looking back, I think they were right. But perhaps that uncertainty was simply part of the journey. I wasn't trying to write a house track or a trance track — I was simply trying to find my own sound.

As the arrangement took shape, the music developed an unmistakably uplifting energy. The title Crush came afterwards, inspired by the feeling the song itself evoked: the rush of falling for someone, when excitement, optimism, and possibility seem to color everything around you.

Looking back today, I still have a soft spot for the melodies. The piano and acoustic guitar remain among my favorite elements from that early period, even though I would approach other aspects of the production very differently today. It's one of those songs that reminds me how much I was learning, while also showing that some musical ideas have a way of staying with you.

Interestingly, Crush has continued to find listeners long after its release. When I recently asked my followers which songs they wanted to hear in my upcoming live set, one of the requests was Crush — a reminder that even the earliest songs can continue to resonate years later.

At its heart, Crush is about the exhilarating feeling of falling for someone new. That brief period when everything feels effortless, every possibility seems within reach, and the excitement of the moment makes the rest of the world fade into the background.

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Every release has a story to tell. Follow the journey through the Fredlite catalog, one song at a time.

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Weightless

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Ocean Drive