Andrew Waite’s latest single comes at you with all the energy of a Bruce Springsteen sports anthem, complete with horns a’blazin’. Rather than the ‘rah rah’ of a team determined to win, “Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” is a little more pointed. Instead, it’s a rallying cry for someone who is determined not to lose and certainly not thanks to someone who isn’t pulling their own weight.
Waite, who recently received the coveted SOCAN Songwriter of the Year award from Music PEI and a 2020 ECMA nomination for his album Tremors, began performing “Aint’ Goin’ Out Like That”—or at least a version of it—during his live shows. The song took on a new like when it was treated to a re-write with Colin MacDonald of The Trews. The pair “tore it down to the studs and reconstructed it,” but that’s just the tip of the iceberg on this team effort.
The song offers a good gassing up with a side of constructive criticism, apparently, at the eleventh hour, like some locker room narrative being delivered by a more melodic version of Craig T. Nelson. It’s a refusal to lay down and die with a ripping sax solo to get you over the finish line.
“It’s supposed to be defiant to that sort of negative energy. It’s really saying to that person that they’re not going to bring you don’t with them,” says Waite.
“It’s kind of funny, we wrote it really from the perspective of someone you’re working with or playing in a band with, that really brings the whole team down, or is giving up but it also seems so suiting with regards to how shitty 2020 has been on everyone. I guess it’s somewhat apt to be releasing it now.”
Waite is coy about the song’s inspirations, citing the fact that his home province of Prince Edward Island is far too small to start slinging mud around, but says he knows what it feels like to be the one holding the team back.
“I mean who doesn’t?” says Waite. “We’re all our own worst critics to some extent, right?”
That doesn’t seem to the case with this single. Waite tapped some of Nova Scotia’s finest to play on this one: Reeny, Micah and Hailey Smith performed background vocals, Matt Myer (Gypsophila) on trumpet, Kris MacFarlane (Great Big Sea/Alan Doyle) on drums, Ron Hynes on bass and Ian Sherwood delivered a show-stealing sax solo. It doesn’t seem like the sort of team you’d find a loose of loose ends on.
“It’s hard not to love that sax solo, or the ripping vocals Reeny and her sisters delivered,” says Waite. “That being said, I’m really thrilled with how the song itself turned out. The bones of it – lyrically, phonetically, and melodically.”
The song was also mixed by Brian Moncarz (Our Lady Peace, The Trews, Alice Cooper) and mastered by Brian Lucey (Black Keys, Liam Gallagher, Lucinda Williams), impressively rounding out the track’s credit.
“Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” will be treated what Waite has teased as a stellar looking music video in just a couple of weeks, and he’s currently working with producer Chris Kirby (Quote the Raven, Charlie A’Court) on a new album which will be released sometime later this year.