“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise don’t even start.”

This was the quote that inspired me to compose my latest single – Full Measures. This track had been in the making process for about 3 years. Back then, the structure of the track was already more or less assembled: the melodic idea, the bassline, the back vocals and the mood in general. But I felt that something was missing and as it often happens to me, I left the project on standby and I started producing other tracks, the same tracks that would later become part of my first album Yin Yang.

It turns out that I was almost to delete the project permanently. In fact, I deleted it but years later when I was organizing my stuff on Google Drive I saw that the project was still there and I decided to restore it again.

Almost every producer knows this cycle:
1. Start a new project
2. Spend some time and effort to build the first loop with the main elements of the track
3. Listen to this loop infinitely because it’s fucking awesome
4. Start developing the track
5. The song no longer makes sense because after all it doesn’t sound so fucking awesome
6. Back to step 1

And one day, maybe weeks, months or years later, we listen to this project again and we say “Hey, this shit is awesome”. And that’s what happened to me in this case.

So I decided to finish this track. I was developing the track very well, having good ideas but still I felt that the “story” of the song was missing. The name of the song was already defined by the time I started the project, three years ago (maybe more).

You probably know that I’m a big fan of Breaking Bad. The name “Full Measures” came from the name of one of the episodes. Basically, Mike tells Walter White (Heisenberg) a story in which the moral of the story is that he chose a half measure when he should have gone all the way. And he concludes the sentence by saying “No more half measures, Walter.”

So that was the story I wanted to tell in my track. We all want something, we have our goals, but for some reason we often don’t get what we really want. We only choose “half measures”. And I was angry because I wanted to change. I was sick and tired that the life and circumstances we are experiencing right now across the planet were dictating the direction of my life.

And when I was researching more about this kind of mindset, I discovered Bukowski. Charles Bukowski. A writer, a poet, an inspiration.

I don’t see myself in his behavior at all: he smoked a lot, drank a lot, he just wanted “putas e vinho verde” as we say in Portugal. In the end, he had self-destructive behaviors…

… but, his philosophy of life is simply fascinating. His poems “Roll The Dice” and “The Laughing Heart” are the most inspiring for me. In a shitty year like this, discovering Bukowski and especially these poems, was a breath of fresh air.

The voice you hear in “Full Measures” are excerpts from the poem “Roll The Dice” (click here to read the full poem).

“If you’re going to try, go all the way”, said Bukowski.

“No more half measures, Walter”, said Mike.

Different quotes but the same philosophy. As you can see, it’s not so much other songs or other producers that inspire me. Moments, quotes, moods, philosophies… These are the kind of things that inspire me. Melodark is simply the way I tell the story.

“Full Measures” is available on all major digital platforms and you can listen here:

Go all the way!

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