Steven Curtis - Cold (Produced by Mike Shinoda) / Out January 14, 2022

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We have a date for the first release of 2022! Steven Curtis' song 'Cold' from the #ShinodaProduceMe initiave became available for pre-order on iTunes yesterday with an expected release date for January 14, 2022. Curtis' biography describes him as "a one man band on stage with styles similar to John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and Ed Sheeran." 'Cold' is said to be "A song about losing someone you love." It was written in collaboration with Abigail Neilson, with whom he had previously released a cover of 'End Game' by Taylor Swift. The artwork was created by Russian illustrator Denis Istomin.

 

 

Mike Shinoda produced the song live on Twitch earlier this year, on April 29th and 30th, as the 30th entry on his #ShinodaProduceMe project. The original demo had multiple vocal and instrument tracks, including the main vocals and harmonies, piano, guitar, and strings. Shinoda described it as a ballad, pointing out it would be easy to make it heavier, but he wouldn't do that. He was particularly impressed by the strings, which sounded like real strings.

 

Mike chopped up the strings and added extra to create a beat. He then created more beats for other parts of the song, such as the pre-chorus, added a compressor to make the vocals more uniform, added a tuner on the entire piano chain and recorded guitar, bass and other interesting sounds.

 

In an interview to Occhi Magazine in June, Steven Curtis revealed he is a big fan of Linkin Park and Mike Shinoda:

 

"Before I was playing music I was really into Linkin Park, Avenged Sevenfold, Sum 41, and more rock music. Lately, my musical influence has changed overall and while they’ve inspired me the most for my earlier kind of work, I’m listening to artists currently like Post Malone, Mike Shinoda, Quinn XCII, and just a lot of independent artists trying to get their name out there."

 

Back then he announced a music video would be accompanying the release of 'Cold'.