Speaker B's band took John Ritchie's solo material and made it their own, writing "Defy the Universe" with a 1½-minute intro. Producer John Wyman refused to record it at first, but they pushed until he agreed. It never charted, but they knew it was their best song yet.
What was the first time you guys wrote a song where you're like, oh, wait a minute, we can write a hit? Or, you know, and, you know, I'm talking about the beginning when your song probably sucked, but in your mind you're like, whoa, you know?
Oh yeah, you know, the, like, the first song we wrote. So like, John had songs that we kind of recut when I, you know, it was like the John Ritchie Project. And then when I came to the band, I'm like, yeah, I'm not joining the John Ritchie Project, dude. Like, I'll join. I'll join if we become a band. And he's like, yeah, no, definitely. Definitely, that's like what I want to do. I'm like, okay. So we kind of like rebranded some of his like, uh, solo stuff, and then we wrote this song called Defy the Universe that was, you know, not a, not a hit at all, but we thought it was the coolest thing we, like, any of us had ever done at the time. It was like, literally had like a minute and a half intro before the verse even kicks in, right?
Of course it did. Yeah.
And I remember we went to, uh, uh We were going to, you know, as most bands in this area do, we are— our first record we were going to do with John Wyman. And, uh, he— we— I remember, uh, playing it and he's like, yeah, we're not tracking that one. And we're like, hold on, we must not have played it well enough. Let's, let's play it for you again until you say we can do it.
That's hilarious. But, uh, he put the— he put the brakes on that one.
Yeah, I know, but we, we said no, we're, we're still doing it. Yes, it's a cool song though.
