"VeloCity" is a 2010 song, written by Martin Michalek and Jack Mergist , demo'd by Lumo the Cosmonaut , and ultimately released and recorded by The Lunatic.
Writing and Recording[]
The song was primarily written on October 2, 2010—a Saturday afternoon (and the day after "I Switched the Glasses" was recorded)—while Martin was in the shower at his apartment in Provo. When he got out of the shower, he recorded a demo on his laptop, which featured just two progressions of Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus. That afternoon, Jack, Krista and Martin drove up to Heber and Martin showed Jack both demos, prefacing "VeloCity" (it was then unnamed) as "the best song I've ever written.) Later that night the song was attempted to no avail. After much frustration, Martin and Jack scrapped what they had recorded and recorded a cover of "Sunshine O".
The next day, Sunday, the song was attempted several times by Jack and Martin. After much frustration and debate on how the song should be arranged, the two finally decided to leave the studio and watch Batman: Gotham Knight. After a quick trip outside to watch the sunset, Martin and Jack came back in to try recording the song again. Martin created a new riff for the song, Jack created a new beat, and the song was almost entirely written, recorded and mixed in a few hours.
The piano and bass parts were written by Jack Mergist as the song was being recorded. The outro melody was also written by Jack Mergist. The vocals were revised slightly right before recording them. No one had heard them except Martin and so Jack and Krista heard them for the first time as Martin sang them, for the first time, in the recording.
After recording the song, Martin called it "the greatest song I've ever done."
The details of the songs writing and recording were intricately detailed in Martin's "Four Color Thoughts."
Release[]
The song has appeared as the thirteenth track on an unnamed Lunatic demo , which were handed out for free at Muse's Winter 2010 Battle of the Bands. The song was originally intended to be released as the closing track on the Children of Gotham EP, an abandoned Lunatic concept EP. The song was ultimately released (as the same recording) as the final track on The Lunatic's debut EP, Milk —which was released almost seven months after the recording.
Live Recording[]
"VeloCity" has been played live twice: once at an acoustic show in early November 2010, and once at the Fall 2010 Muse Battle of the Bands (Round 1.)
Theme[]
Martin wrote the song with the intention of crafting a song that captured the feeling of what it would be like to grow up in Gotham City. He used Batman Beyond, Batman: The Animated Series, and a few Batman comic books as inspiration. The story told in the lyrics is one Martin says personifies what it's like to live in Detroit, which he superfluously compares to Gotham city all the time.