Tinderlinderlover

tinderlinderlover is the debut song and 1st single by Stanley Ray, released on January 4, 2020 from his debut album BabyBoy. The song was solely written by Ray and was produced by Matthew Olden. The song is a heavily defined R&B Soul ballad song and also the only ballad on his debut album of this type of style. It talks about wishing for and manifesting a specific lover that one's been waiting for a majority of their life. This was the very last song recorded for his album and despite it's heavy soul R&B sound, Ray revealed this was not his original ideal sound for the ballad. He originally planned on giving the song more of a soulful 80s R&B ballad sound, much like the sounds of Babyface and Anita Baker. He searched on YouTube for a beat for a cheap price that he felt satisfied his ear for the type sound he was going for but with only a couple month's left to work on the song and in order to meet his set release date for the month of January, Stanley ended up settling on a 90s R&B Dru Hill/Jodeci type beat, produced by Olden, that he had saved on his channel and layed down his vocals. After 2 nights of recording, Ray finished a rough stripped cut of the song and instantly fell inlove with it. So much so that he instantly decieded to make it the 1st single for his album BabyBoy, replacing Lavender Boy as the albums original 1st choice. But just like all his other songs from his debut, he had his own personal criticisms and dissatisfaction with the songs final mixing and production. During the recording, because he originally wanted an 80s styled sound for the song, on the original rough recording/demo he kept alot of his original main/lead vocals but he had to later go back and re-record alot of the adlibs and alternate harmonies he recorded during the songs chorus because he sung them in an 80s sort of style and it didn't fit or blend properly ontop of the songs 90s styled instrumental. Plus, he had alot of rough scratch vocals that he really needed to fix and re-sing. Once he re-sung and polished all the vocals he needed to he went in and sharpened the audio quality to take away the slight muffle and closed sound and then finally he brightened the songs sound, making it the record we all know of today. "I recorded tinderlinderlover inside this tiny little closet at the house I lived in when I 1st moved to LA and I remember before mixing it you could hear air and static behind my voice that got picked up on the mic while I was recording and that was because the air was so thick because of how tiny that closet was. But that was one of those things where I felt it made the song raw and authentic and that's exactly what you heard on the original version." Ray was very excited about the songs original demo but others around him that he'd let hear snippets of the song would tell him the song needed more work and should be further produced in order to be considered a good fit for his debut release. The demo/rough cut version, just like all his other songs on his debut, was alot more stripped and very raw and had a slight muffle, which was simply because of the specific IOS version of the Bandlab studio app he used at that specific time lacking alot of needed tools, thus saving all his recordings in a muffled and lofi format, making him limited on what he could do to make the song sound more crisp and bright. Because of this, in order to mix and master the song, he had to use 2 or 3 other apps to do so but he later expressed that he over produced all the songs and made them sound sloppy and all over the place. None the less, the song carries a unique spot on Ray's debut album because of his style of singing, which he was always known for having a soprano/alto range, as the song starts out with him singing in a warm alto tone and then gradually building into soprano once he reaches the bridge/climax of the song, where you can also hear a solid whistle note slightly buried behind his main vocal. It's also the only song on his debut to have that particular type of ballad sound and style of singing, ultimately making it a great first song choice for Ray as a new artist because it showcases his range and unique singing styles/techniques right off the bat. tinderlinderlover is the 1st song of Stanley's career to reach major milestones for him as a brand new indie artist. It was his 1st song to recieve over 1k streams on both Spotify and YouTube within it's 1st few weeks of being released and it's music video on YouTube was the 1st of all his music videos to reach over 100k views within its 1st 9 months of being released. It was also his 1st song to recieve airplay on a few indie, internet, and college radio stations. It remains as one of Stanley's top songs to date.