Steal My Fries tells the story of everyday people reminiscing about, dreaming of, and ultimately getting back to a reality that seemed increasingly distant and romantic throughout the pandemic: the once commonplace activity of sharing McDonald’s fries with a friend.

Our song had to convey a sense of joyous fantasy while remaining grounded in reality and relatable experiences. We did this by creating a musical foundation that could be dynamic in intensity without being too complex.

Genre was key here as we blended a very simple and loosely structured musical theater intro with a more soulful, full band ballad in the second half. The solo piano intro kept the focus on our vocal and allowed us to be flexible with phrasing as we applied melodies to the established lyrics. The soulful second half allowed us to elevate to a more grand sense of fantasy as our main character travelled through various imagined moments, performing romantic gestures of reunion.

The Soul genre provided both sincerity and a sense of yearning with bluesy melodic vocal riffs and building chord progressions that ascend to the peak of our character’s vision as he hits his highest note, just before his friend rejoins him in that familiar McDonald’s setting he had imagined all along.

Our vocal had to be dynamic enough to convey emotion and build in intensity, without being beyond the grasp of an average singer, so we kept the key in a reasonable range and created melodies that were memorable and flavourful without being overly athletic - high notes were only relatively high and vocal runs were tasteful but far less than technically impossible.

This arrangement proved to be incredibly flexible as it was able to keep its shape in both 60 second and 30 second formats, and still tell a story that progressed from a fleeting thought to a soaring vision.