The story behind the "Simply Better" song

One day I got a mail from a colleague, working in US. The background was this: My company announced a company "Idol" competition. All staff members all over the world could participate. In the end, there were three finalists, who performed live for the rest of the employées via the web. And all employées voted. In the end, a winner was announced. It was Benilda Cipcon from our Manila office.

Benilda Cipcon, the company Idol winner. Odella Schattin, lyrics writer and the one who came up with the whole idea

The winner would perform live at a yearly vendor/customer event held by my company, this year held in Las Vegas. My colleage in US, Odella, got the idea that it would be very nice if the winner also would sing a "company song", a song written by someone within the company. Odella would write the lyrics, but she wanted someone to write the music. It was supposed to be a positive song about working together and such.

One day she Odella contacted me, because she had heard from my boss that I write music. When she told me about her ideas, I thought it was an honor to be part of such project, and I promised to try to create something. I had nothing "in the box" that could use, so it had to be something made from scratch... I had a long talk with Odella one evening, disussing the project. Early in the morning next day, I woke up with an idea in my head. I quickly grabbed my mobile phone and recorded the thing I heard in my head, just a short part of a song. I was humming it while recording it on the phone. This was the embyo of the song. And from this, I progressed to make it a complete song. And there was not so much time. I had to make a demo, and then the song would be recorded in a studio in US with some professional singer. And beside this, the song would be sung by the company Idol winner for 5.000 people at the Las Vegas event. Later it was decided that all three winners would participate at the event, singing the song together.

I worked very hard on finishing a good demo of the song. It was a process where my ideas were judged and evaluated by some company people in US. But luckily, my ideas were accepted... In parallell with my progress, Odella was writing the lyrics.

Andreas, singer in Sweet Energy, came to my apartment on short notice one day and did the vocals on the song. He had never heard the song before, but after 2 hours the vocals recording was done. The vocals recording was made in a very basic way, using a simple headset as microphone. I was running out of time and I had to send the final version of my demo before the end of the weekend, so this was the best we could do at that point..

Next step was to re-create my idea into the official recording over in US. The man in the studio, Andrew Lacasse, was a humble guy who wanted the version to sound like my demo. We had a lot of phone meetings during the process, Odella, Andrew and me. Also a singer was to be found. Andrew had some alternatives for vocalists, and then one who was finally hired as the singer was Germaine. Andrew did a duet version, where he also sings. This version was never officially released, but you can download it here for comparison to the version that was the official one.

Germaine, who is singing on the official "Simply Better" version. Andy, producer/engineer, and also singing on the duet version..

Once the Las Vegas event happened, the company Idol finalists would perform the song together in a singback version. This would be the official premiere of the song. I was participating in my bed listening to the performance in my mobile. (It was 03.30am Swedish time). Here is a picture from that night:

From Las Vegas, first time "Simply Better" is performed. The company Idol finalists + additional musicians.

The recorded version was used throughout the Las Vegas week in different situations. I was very happy to be part of the "Simply Better" project.

Simply Better - mp3's for download:

Simply Better - Music -Ulf Milberg, Lyrics - Odella Schattin

Simply Better The official version, Germaine (female) vocals. (I don't play anything on this)

Simply Better Duet version This is an un-official duet version, never published. I think it's quite nice. The male singer is Andy, the producer. (I don't play anything on this)

Simply Better - Ulf-demo My demo version. This is what I sent to the producer in US, who took it from there and made the official verion. There is not much guitar on my song actually, which is a surprise! Apart from the rhythm part all along the song, there is just some more guitar stuff in the bridge section. All guitar tracks are recorded with the Gibson Les Paul. The keyboard stuff was recorded on my M-Audio Keystation 49e MIDI keyboard using Reason 3.0 software. I like the synth lead sound on my demo. Actually, I prefer my synth sound from what is on the official version. Andreas Altervall from Sweet Energy does the vocals on my demo. You can hear that my demo has a slower tempo. Andy wanted the song to feel "lighter" and made the tempo a bit faster in the official version.

The very first idea (3gp format), which I recorded on my mobile phone, after waking up early a morning with a little melody structure in my head. Whether you can hear anything that reminds on the final result, I let you judge, haha... Mainly it's the repeating comp pattern that I used to build the rest of my ideas from..

Read an interview of me and Odella.

Below you can find the lyrics/music sheets for the song.

Simply Better in E - sheet music (PDF)

Simply Better in A - sheet music (PDF)