Story Behind the Song: Kameron Marlowe, ‘Sober as a Drunk’
Kameron Marlowe's single "Sober as a Drunk" is a traditional-leaning country song with clever wordplay and barrel-chested baritone vocals. The North Carolina native and former The Voice contestant -- who began singing in church at the age of 10 and later became a worship leader -- was drawn to the track instantly, he recalls.
Written by Marv Green, Justin Wilson and J.T. Harding, "Sober as a Drunk" struck Marlowe during a publishing meeting, even though he wasn't particularly interested in outside songs. Still, he remembers, it was undeniable.
Below, Marlowe shares the story behind "Sober as a Drunk" -- and how his version of the song differs from its demo -- in his own words.
I was in the BMG office, and they were pitching some songs, and to be honest with you, nothing was sticking at all. I wasn't really looking for outside songs ... but out of courtesy, I was going to listen to them and see if anything stuck.
I think this was the second-to-last song they played me, and from the very first 30 seconds of it, I was like, "I'm in. Go ahead and put that on hold" ... I fell in love with the song immediately ... When I was listening to it, the transition from the verses ... when I heard that flip and that idea and how they did that, that was the turning point for me for the song. I was like, "That's it. That's cool."
The demo was a lot slower -- it didn't have a lot of [tempo] to it -- so we cranked it up a little bit, [and we] added a big guitar thing. In the demo, they didn't have a drum kickoff like we do, and I thought it would be cool to kind of start out that way and have that big guitar moment ... so that's what we really shot for in the studio, was just to make it bigger and faster.
I try and not focus on singles until everything's recorded ... but this one kind of came pretty quick. After we started getting the mixes back, I was like, this might be the one to take ...
I never really thought that I would do any of this as a job, so being able to wake up and see a billboard that as my face on it, or wak[ing] up and hear[ing my] song on the radio, it's kind of -- it's a wild thing. I'm very blessed that it's been this way, and I'm very excited about it.