It was the summer of 2021 when I, James Hardiment, a singer/songwriter based in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, decided that I wanted to turn an old song I’d been working on, for a sequel to a movie I never ended up making, into something new. I saw an opportunity arise when I reconnected with my childhood best friend (all the way back to the 4th Grade) rapper and fellow musician, Sean Austin!
Sean and I grew up together in Auburn, Maine, USA from the year 2001 until 2004. I’ve been lucky enough to have lived in 3 different countries in my life, the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. My family moved for various reasons, job opportunities, more open space than in Europe, etc. The houses in North America are more spacious, cars are bigger, nature is on steroids, absolutely breathtaking sometimes.
I’d been chatting with Sean, on and off, for the past few years, since I reconnected with him in 2019 over FaceTime. Despite not speaking for a long while, we reconnected instantly, which is one thing I’ve found that tends to happen with old, and dear friends from the past. He was working various jobs over that time period, mostly to get by, while he planned his comeback into the music world. I had always wanted to collaborate with my friend, and now that we lived in an age where you can send audio files over the internet, almost instantly, I figured this might be within the realms of possibility. I had a plan!
Sean used to be known by his rapper stage name, “Young Frost” back in the day. He would regularly freestyle in his home state, as well as record tracks, which he uploaded himself onto the internet to his music page. Rap was never really something I was super into, but I always enjoy blending different styles together. I was always more into dance music, rock, and pop, especially from the 1980s. Sean was big into that ‘90s and ‘00s hip hop style. Time to fuse it all together!
I came up with a track called “Maine” that incorporated that ‘80s sound I love, with a chorus I had penned years ago for a sequel to my original feature film, “Windigo”, which was completed in 2011. The follow up movie was going to be set in Ontario and Maine also, but I never ended up making the project happen. A lot of ideas tend to get shelved for safer ones that can be pulled off easier with a tight budget.
I let Sean write the verses, he decided to make them all about us all growing up together, and the final days of myself, him, and our other tight circle of friends hanging out for one last sleepover. It wasn’t soon after I moved away that our gang would split up. One kid moved to Delaware, I moved to England, and Sean moved to a different town in Maine.
I built the instrumentals using my iPhone SE, as I usually do using the GarageBand recording studio app. I plugged in my pro microphone, an Audio Technica, and we would send the project back and forth. Sean was able to use his iPad and record his vocals for me that way.
The final track was about 3.30 mins long and is available to listen to in the link below:
https://on.soundcloud.com/UmYVi1eHsVQg1FJT6
It was surreal, after not speaking to a friend for so long, to finally collaborate with him on a song. A project has so much more meaning when it’s created with an old, die hard, amigo, who will always have your back. Not to say I don’t enjoy working with the people I’ve got to work with over the years, but this team up was rather special and significant to me as a musician.
Well until tomorrow folks…
James
Pictured: The single cover for the SoundCloud only release. I may get it remastered before releasing to streaming platforms.