Wake Me Up by Avicii, feat. Aloe Blacc (solo bass arrangement) - Karl Clews on bass

My arrangement, for solo 4-string electric bass guitar, of Avicii’s folktronica hit single, Wake Me Up. Wake Me Up is a song by Swedish DJ and record producer Avicii, released as the lead single from his debut studio album True, released on CD by PRMD Music, Lava Records and Sony Music’s Columbia Records on 17 June 2013. Wake Me Up was written by Avicii, Mike Einziger, and American soul singer Aloe Blacc. Blacc also provides vocals for the track and Mike Einziger of Incubus provides acoustic guitar. Peter Dyer also provides keyboard on the song. Avicii introduced Wake Me Up! for the first time live on stage at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. The experimental rendering (it was accompanied by a live band with instruments and vocalists, including Blacc, Einziger and Incubus members Ben Kenney on bass and José Pasillas on drums) reportedly confused and angered a section of the electronic dance festival community. Subsequently, Avicii achieved critical and commercial success with the release of the single worldwide. Avicii’s Wake Me Up has been named as the highest charting dance track of the decade (2010-2019), sitting at No. 13 in the 100-strong list from the official UK Singles Chart. It is the only song to crack the Billboard Decade-End without making the top 3 during any week. Wake Me Up reached number one in much of Europe and charted well in various countries. The song has been described as a “summer anthem“ by Variance Magazine and, throughout the 2013 festival season, Avicii included it as part of the opening or closing sequence of his sets at EDC Las Vegas, EDC London, Tomorrowland, Creamfields, Electric Zoo and the iTunes Festival. Due to the success of the song, Blacc later released an acoustic version of Wake Me Up in his solo EP Wake Me Up. It was also released as a promotional stand-alone single on Interscope Records, made available online for downloads via iTunes. A separate music video was also made. The Blacc single also charted on various charts. In an interview with the Daily Star, Avicii, who had previously labelled Wake Me Up! as “a fun experiment“ during an exclusive chat with MTV UK, said: “I had a demo with Mac Davis singing, the guy who wrote some songs that were covered by Elvis Presley, but I needed another singer to do the parts. At the same time I was tipped off about doing another track with Aloe Blacc, and I started working on that track. When I was with Mike Einziger from Incubus, we came up with the chord progression and the melody for Wake Me Up! but no real lyrics. None of us sing and we really needed to get that demo down and the only person I knew that lived in LA was Aloe, so I called him and he was free. Lyrics come really easy to him so he wrote them in a couple of hours and we finished the track.“ Aloe Blacc, who is not credited on the track, explained to The Huffington Post: “I started writing the lyrics at the top of 2013, travelling back from Switzerland. I started in hip hop music back in the 90s and I never expected to be singing and have an actual career as a musician, but I’m travelling all over the world and I thought ’Life is a dream, wake me up when it’s all over’. I was invited to the studio with Avicii and Mike Einziger from Incubus, and when I got to the studio they had already come up with a chord progression of the song. I came in with the lyrics and I just developed the melody as I heard the chords, and we all thought it was something very strong. We finished the song that night as an acoustic version, then Avicii made the dance mix in a couple of days, and that’s what we released to the world, and that was his release.“ Performed on a Schack Carbon B1 bass. Recorded directly into Cakewalk Sonar Platinum, via a Presonus Audiobox. Video edited using Wondershare Filmora 12. Karl Clews Signature ’Broadsword’ bass by Bogart: Instrument cables by Rigotti: Custom leather guitar straps by River Straps: Gig bags by Harvest Fine Leather: Gear bags by Lugville: My website: My channel: My facebook page: My Patreon page, for tabs, audio downloads and more: Karl Clews / bass / wake me up / avicii / true / aloe blacc / folktronica / incubus / mike einziger / dance music / solo bass / headless bass / carbon fibre bass / carbon fiber bass / bass solo / solo bass arrangement / bass cover / baixo / baixista / bajo / bajista / bassiste / bassist / bass player / Galway / bassist / bass player / bass guitar / River Straps / rigotti cables / Harvest gigbags / Lugville gear bags / Bogart / SKC Bogart / Stefan Hess / Bogart bass / schack carbon b1 bass / how to play wake me up on bass / electronica / gospel / edm