Will Dailey: Behind the Song “It Already Would Have Not Worked Out By Now”

From his forthcoming record, ‘Golden Walker’, Dailey provides a soaring view of the first single

Today, we begin a mini-series with our friend and Boston neighbor, Will Dailey.

There’s a fascinating line in the bio of Dailey’s site that reads, “Songwriters, by their very nature, move through life not only from the inside out, but also from the outside in. They look and listen at the worlds within and around them, pulling it all in and pouring it all out in melody.”

Enter Golden Walker, the brand new studio album from Dailey, to be released on June 1st. Leading up to the record’s official release, we will be collaborating with Dailey as he takes us inside the depths of various songs on Golden Walker — where they came from and why. Ultimately, this journey will come full circle and take us back to where the match for the new music was first lit — a chance encounter with a sculptor in France who beckoned Dailey to his workshop after a show.

Our golden walk in reverse with Dailey begins in the present focusing on the album’s first single, the creatively titled, “It Would Already Have Not Worked Out By Now”. Dailey first premiered the song with us via an intimate rendition in collaboration with Live From Nowhere. Here, we take flight and soar with Dailey through the origins and emotions of the song, finally descending upon a destination to call your own.

Where and when did you write It “Already Would Have Not Worked Out By Now”?

I had the lyric staring me down from a page for a while. Then I was doing a west coast run and I had a hollow body guitar I couldn’t stop playing during all our off time. I ended up showing all my new songs on that trip with that guitar to my drummer Dave Brophy in hotel rooms and Air B&Bs. That’s when I admitted to others it existed at least. I constantly reworked it through the whole recording process, but it was one of the songs I was most excited to record. Before going into the studio I usually don’t know exactly how I want a recording to come to life from beginning to end, but with this one I definitely had a vision.

It’s a very creative and artistic song title. What does it mean to you, and do you recall coming up with it?

I don’t recall putting it down on that piece of paper but I recall the feeling. Not the beginning of the feeling, but just this evolving recognition of it. I don’t recall the moment of coming up with the song as much as always feeling it first and trying to work backwards. A meditation on the grass is not only always greener, but perhaps maybe anything can be the grass. And love is defined by how you walk over it.

The song contains a picturesque analogy of taking flight and airplane ride. Can you take us inside the symmetry there?

Well I always cry on airplanes when watching a movie. A lot of people do. I could be watching Godzilla on a tiny screen and when they finally take him out I end up sobbing.

I am coasting through the air in the belly of a metal bird as a helpless exaggeration of my ordinary self while rubbing knees with strangers. When I touch down and hit the jetway, I return to that normal earth bound person with plans and shit to do. I think maybe this song is a conversation between those two different people looking at all of it in a mature, responsible and mutually beneficial way.

In relation to the new record, Golden Walker, how does this song fit in stylistically, and thematically?

I think Golden Walker is a slow cook compared to my last album. I felt like this song coming out first eases things into Golden Walker. The title, the beat jumps to start off the verses with some turbulence, the background vocals, the strings…it keeps things on its toes, but doesn’t scream for attention and have a sugar crash if nobody does. If we are going to have content all the time I like the idea of just sneaking one in here and there. I feel like this album sounds like the inside of my brain the most, which is maybe why I feel so vulnerable as its release gets closer. But that is the idea of making things.

It’s a very moving, almost romantic and uplifting song, but there is a line in there towards the end that I loved …“and I drink too much…” I took this as a recognition of life and relationships being hard and stressful as opposed to a literal meaning. I could be looking into it too much, but is that the intent of the ending? Go through the highs and lows together?

I like that! The inevitable’s. Yes. I say yes because I’m going to like your interpretation no matter what. I have already lived and made mine.

Get “It Already Would Have Not Worked Out By Now” HERE: