On July 5, 2025 the cover of Dua Lipa’s “Training Season” will be available for release on major online distributors. See the Training Season Release page for links.
I never set out to do this cover song with the intention of making any money, gaining social capitol, or getting discovered. With that in mind, if you enjoyed my take on this song, please put forth some good will into the world.
Some places to start:
- Make your art and share it
- Donate money to causes like the LA Wildfire Recovery, Cancer Research, etc
- Donate your time and help out your local community
Story #
TLDR; I had gotten some new audio gear in anticipation of diving into writing a new album and some singles. In particular, I had a new Akai MPC that I wanted to get up to speed with and better understand its workflow. I talked with my wife and we discussed potential pop songs – something with a basic enough structure where I can learn my lessons and get to a finished product quickly (🤣). We listened to a number of songs and Dua Lipa’s “Training Season” really stood out to me as something I’d like to tackle. We were entering the third trimester of her pregnancy, so in many ways, training season really was coming to a close for us.
Now the LONG version.
This gets a lot more complicated (some details so unbelievable that I won’t attempt to get into them). The song’s general subject is finding a love that is willing to work together and find trust and harmony within each other. We had started a necessary home renovation project prior to our first child’s impending arrival just as I was undertaking this project. Our lives, along with our two cats, were collapsed down into a single room that we would spend the majority of our time in. This was the first time in our long relationship that my wife had truly observed what it looks like for me as a musician to break down, learn all of the parts, recontextualize a song, and record and re-record hundreds of tracks. The repetition required to do this kind of work is not for everyone and we learned that my wife is not built for this process in such a confined space; what I thought would be a two week project would now become a multi-month endeavor in order to keep the peace.
I had always known that the vocals were going to be my biggest challenge and the window to practice would be limited due to everything else going on. I was aiming for an earlier release, so long as I could wrap up tracking vocals and rework some of the guitar parts I wasn’t happy with. I put in the work and just as my voice was finally getting in shape, the unexpected happened and training season ended – our baby was born nearly a month early. Everyone is safe and sound – the level of gratitude for everyone involved who made that possible, I can’t put into words. This also means progress came to a halt and plans for release would go into limbo until we could understand what this new life looks like.
And a wild thing happened. Our child heard this song in the womb, my version in particular. Any time I would practice singing the vocals, as they continued to grow, more joy would be brought to them. It has been their favorite song. For that, this process has already given me a gift.
My plan for this song has always been to send positive energy out into the world, with no expectation of anything in return. I want to make a better world for my child and that starts with small acts of kindness. I want to show that if you put your heart, mind, and effort into something, you create your own reward. I want to show that you can help yourself and others, that there is such a thing as having enough, and that life isn’t always about molding yourself to society’s expectations of what “success” is. If this song finds an audience, any revenue will go first to Dua Lipa and the creative folks that own the rights to the original song, as it is a licensed work, and then the remainder to charity. I won’t make any money off of this. If you like this version of the song and it inspires you, please donate to a cause close to your heart if you have the means and desire – it will go further than a simple stream and you have control of where your funds or acts of kindness land.
While you generally shouldn’t release songs around holidays or weekends, this date has a special meaning to us. Through will, perseverance, and luck we have deemed that our training season is officially over. We hope that you find the thing that sets you at ease, your truth, your happiness, and that training season will be over for you as well.