Between his various vocations as public speaker, television personality and adult contemporary/rock musician, Les Stroud has seen much in his life. Now with his latest single, the alternate mixed and mastered version of “When It’s Gone,” Stroud offers up a fulfilling, richly textured ballad that should strike a nerve or chord with listeners around the world.
“This was, in some ways, a difficult song to bring to fruition and finality,” Stroud says of the track, which as a demo, “was a very Supertramp-ish sounding song.” “That rendition contains a second half, completely missing from the final version, that was big and bombastic and powerful”.
Producer Mike Clink helped him craft the arc and feel of “When It’s Gone” into a moving, evocative track. “All of the piano parts were written by me but then Mike, in his wisdom, brought in Jamie Muhoberac to actually play the piano properly,” he says. “Along with Tim Pierce they crafted that hauntingly beautiful and patient opening. It sets the mood for all that is to come in the sentiments of the tune.”
The introductory piano and strings recalls the latter-day David Gilmour-led Pink Floyd song “Marooned” before Stroud’s passionate voice takes “When It’s Gone” to another level. Some sparse but precious guitar accents give the single a greater gravitas as Stroud speaks to how one should cherish and protect nature and Earth before things get worse.
It’s all gonna change
This world you’re so used to
It won’t be without pain
When all your big plans have fallen through
So I walk on sand
I walk on frozen lands
I walk in forests
Where I feel home
I feel home
Stroud says Clink, who liked “When It’s Gone” “perhaps the best” of all the Mother Earth material, was instrumental in this finished version. Clink even asked Stroud to develop this song essentially from a clean slate after much of the songs were already recorded. “In fact, for this one he asked if we could start from scratch,” Stroud says. “He slowed down the tempo and brought it to a place of reverence.”
Also crucial to Stroud’s vision for “When It’s Gone” was musician Bryan Potvin, a member of Canadian rock group The Northern Pikes who previously collaborated with Stroud on music for his television show Beyond Survival. “I had the verse’s piano section written when I brought it to Bryan Potvin and he loved all of it,” Stroud says. “But he had in his head some kind of melody we could go to that would be more major-keyed in its tone. I love minor keys and Bryan loves major keys which is why I think the songs we wrote together work so well.”
After adjusting the lyrics from “Even when it’s gone” to the phrase that makes up the song title, Stroud says everything fell into place. “It was much later in the studio with Mike Clink that I switched to ‘When it’s gone’ both for the better syncopation of my singing but also because it was a stronger statement albeit a depressing one.
“I actually have a hard time playing this song live as it chokes me up every time.”
Stroud, who splits his time between Huntsville, Ontario and Grants Pass, Oregon, released the alternate mixed and mastered single “Ancients Call” in April and an alternate mixed and mastered version of “One Giant Farm” in June. And he hasn’t lost any fans new or old with his latest single. It’s rare to meld a weighty, grandiose arrangement with such a truthful but sobering and harrowing set of lyrics, but Les Stroud has done just that with “When It’s Gone.”
