“Are you feeling cool?” Van Plating asks on her latest single, a smouldering number called ‘The Way Down‘, which chugs at the speed of slowly swaying hips, with irresistible percussion quirks that hook you in for a listen, and just maybe one more listen. It’s just Bryan Elijah Smith on bass, drums, guitars and backing vocals; and Van Plating on vocals, violin, and viola. There’s a cool story behind the song: it came together at the end of a recording session when Van Plating and Smith weren’t quite ready to call it a night – jamming over a bottle of wine came up with a sad tune over which Van Plating scat sang before declaring “Dude I don’t think I can come up with anything good lyrics wise right now. I’m fried.” Fortunately Smith pointed out that the scat actually was words – and voila! a song was born.
Photo: Bethany Blanton
