The cynic in me feels there aren’t too many great new love songs made these days, Inside Voice from Joey Dosick certainly bucks that trend. Joey is part of the Vulfpeck collective and released his EP Game Winner back in 2016, pointing out this was recorded while he was recovering from a basketball ACL injury.

The video for Inside Voice was released back in 2013 and to my knowledge has not seen a proper release before. Perhaps he’s holding it back for an album? Tantric. My thoughts on the song are summed up by this one YouTube commenter:

Good lawd this is going to get flagged for sexual content

Hmmm!

From the video we can clearly see the synths used in the recording (more on this later) so I’ll attempt a mini-transcription and replay. I’ve cobbled this together through various live recording that can be found on YouTube, each one bringing something new to the table. So this isn’t a perfect replication of the above video, more the spirit of several versions with various passing chords and improvisations. Let’s get down to the chords first…

*UPDATE 25/06/18* Joey has up uploaded a comprehensive tutorial for the track on his YouTube. Turns out I’m mostly correct and he even admits he doesn’t play the same voicings in each performance.

Inside Voice

The song is built from 8 bar sections in a typical verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus format. The lyrics, below are lifted from genius.com however I’ve had to correct some obvious spelling mistakes, so if I’ve missed any, berate me in the comments section.

As a pseudo-jazz ponce I much prefer working in flat keys, but out of posterity I will opt to use the more enharmonically correct terms.

[Chorus]

E∆13 D#-7, F#/G#

There are things I can only tell you, quiet-ly

E∆13 A#-11, D#7

That’s why I wanna get inside, And use my inside voice

E∆13 D#-7, F#/G#

Ain’t too proud to tell you, Girl, I hope

D#+7* A#-11, D#7

That you get the message, When I use my inside voice, On you

* After seeing Joey’s tutorial it turns out I was wrong and this chord is actually E-∆7 (E minor with a major 7th degree). They contain similar notes and either works with the melody.

[Verse 1]

E∆13 D#-7, F#/G#

This moment together

E∆13 A#-11, D#7(#9)

What will you hear in my voi -ce?

E∆13 D#-7, F#/G#

All the things unspoken

E∆7/F# D#+7*

Won’t you come a little nearer, ‘Cause in hear it’s so much clearer

*In his tutorial he describes it like an F7 chord with a G (9th) B (#11th). Again the function in a similar way. In some life recordings you can hear an F# at the top of the chord (b9).

[Chorus]

[Verse 2]

N.C B6/9, A13, E∆7*

I ain’t gonna scream and shout it

E∆13 A#-11, D#7(#9)

Ain’t gonna send it to your phone

E∆13 D#-7, F#/G#

Just get in the same -room

E∆13 D#+7

I ain’t gonna write a letter ‘Cause in hear it’s so much better

*This A13 should be F7(#9).

[Chorus]

[Bridge]

A∆9

Outside, Trouble nearing

A9(b5)*

Outside, Trouble feeling

G#-9 G+7(#9)

Inside, There’s a way to make you see

E∆7/F# Fø7

What you mean to me, Oh, oh oh

*He calls this #11 not b5 but enharmonically they are the same note. I called the last chord an Fø7 but his tutorial clears it up as as an Eb+/F.

[Chorus x3 w/ ad libs]

So, let’s look at some of these chords. I’ve going to include the left and right hands together even though they’re played on separate instruments just so we can get a clearer feel of what’s going on.

The nice thing about this song is it’s actually dead-easy to play and the chords sounds lush. Let’s start with the chorus. The chorus and the verse are near identical, so I’ll just list the chords I’ve used:

As you can see, the right hand consists of some tightly voiced cluster-like chords, shifting just one or two fingers each time. The D#7 suggests we’re in G# minor rather than B major, but as neither chords crops up that often it’s hard to be certain one way or another.

The only significant change is the bridge, a descending pattern starting with A∆9 and ending on an Fø7 chord, which functions a little like a dominant chord. I’ve transcribed this section in A major for simplicity with sharps/flats.

Synths, Recording and Production

Joey plays a Roland Juno-6 for the chords and what looks like a Moog MicroMoog. There’s also a drum machine which could be coming from the Wurlitzer’s built in drum machine or some Roland CR-78-type emulation.

We can emulate the Juno-6 with most any subtractive synth, I’ll opt for the excellent (and reasonably priced) U-he Diva.

Load the Juno-60 preset and enable a sawtooth with a low-pass filter, shaping the amplitude envelope to taste. Diva has some great ways to add a natural detune, ensure the detune amount and voice drift are cranked in the “Trimmer” tab. I’ve added some classic chorus to finish it off. Here’s the first chorus:

The bass can be approximated again with most any subtractive synth, but the Arturia Mini V will get us close. Use a narrow pulse wave on oscillator 1 and add in another square tuned one octave below. The key to this is a short, sharp filter envelope, so turn the cutoff and decay down until it’s snapping nicely. The patch should be in mono-legato with last note priority.

Joey’s vocals are run into a short slap-back delay. Virtually every DAW under the sun will have this feature. Sorry, no vocal demonstration from me 🙂 For the drums I’ve used the CR-78 patch that comes bundled with Kontakt.

There’s a healthy dose of noise in this track, a neat trick I’ve been using recently is loading an instance of the Arturia Farfisa V and turning the amp volume right up. It’s adds that perfect background hiss and hum you recognise from every band rehearsal you’ve ever done.

We can clearly see a Mic’d amp in behind Joey, so route all of your tracks into a bus and add some Fender-type amp simulation. I’m using Logic with the Silverface amp and cabinet with a condenser microphone and a touch of spring reverb. Lastly add the classic Goodhertz Vulf Compressor using the Sad Wurli preset.

Here it is. I’ve faded out before the last chorus as without the lyrics it can get a bit repetitive, but I hope this had shed some light on this beautiful track. It’s not perfect but it’ll do for a morning’s work. Ta ra for now!

Update

Joey has since released an official video for a different arrangement of Inside Voice, check it out: