Americana Highways presents this premiere of Peter Donovan’s song “Sweet Trouble,” from his forthcoming album This Better Be Good, due to be available on April 29. This Better Be Good was produced by Bradley Laina.
Peter is also member of the band The Rose Petals, with Elijah Ocean, in addition to his solo project and other bands. “Sweet Trouble” is Peter Donovan on vocals and guitar, Bradley Laina on mellotron flutes, Dune Butler on bass and Prophet synthesizer, and Kate Dinsmore on harmony vocals. Lines like “your story wasn’t straight, it was swerving all over the road….” together with bright vibey instruments and broody piano identify Donovan’s signature style.
“Sweet Trouble” is about chemistry — attraction, reaction, and inevitable combustion. This song lives at the very beginning of a relationship, the “meet-cute,” the juncture when dysfunction can still be fun. Randy Newman and Brandy Clark (particularly her conversational lyrics) heavily influenced the songwriting. We originally planned for one guitar solo, but after it was pointed out that “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses has two, we decided to add a second.
The meat-and-potatoes of the track is the band playing live together in the studio with just a couple of additional overdubs — Mellotron flutes played by producer Bradley Laina and a Prophet synthesizer contributed by bass player Dune Butler. Kate Dinsmore stopped by at the end to add some harmonies, giving voice to the other character in the story — the second element of this ill-fated chemistry experiment. — Peter Donovan
Find more information and music links here: https://www.peterdonovanmusic.com/