Hear Sting, Santana, Stevie Wonder on Narada Michael Walden Song
Narada Michael Walden has revealed “The More I Love My Life,” his new single featuring Sting, Carlos Santana and Stevie Wonder. You can watch a lyric video for the track below.
The song comes off of the musician and producer’s new solo album, Euphoria, which will be released on Nov. 17. He worked on the 11-track collection with guitarist and producer Lino Nicolosi.
“‘The More I Love My Life’ was a real joy to put together,” Walden shares. “I wrote the lyrics with Jeffrey Cohen, and after I recorded the main parts I asked Carlos to play guitar on it. That’s when I got the idea for harmonica, so I asked Stevie Wonder if he would like to play on it. A while later, I was in New York to serve as musical director for the [annual] rainforest benefit that [Sting's wife] Trudie Styler produces. Sting came into town for rehearsals, and I got him down to Electric Lady Studios to sing on the track. Everybody who contributed was incredible and electrifying. The whole track came out just as I’d hoped.”
Listen to Narada Michael Walden's 'The More I Love My Life'
As Walden tells UCR, the song has been done for a while. As he was in the midst of writing and recording material for Euphoria, he thought about “The More I Love My Life” and how it could fit in with what he was working on. “It was never the right time to release it. But I thought, ‘Maybe now is the right time,’” he explains. “It took about a year to make sure everything was the right timing. It’s been a real work of love. From my studio to Lino and to Sting and everybody saying yes. I just want to really inspire the world again. I always love to inspire the world with music. We need music now more than ever before.”
Narada Michael Walden's Life After Journey
Euphoria arrives on the heels of Walden’s whirlwind experience of helping to write and produce Journey’s latest studio album, Freedom, which was released in 2022. He subsequently played a short run of live gigs with the band before deciding to step away. “It was otherworldly for me. I knew it would be a big to-do. But I didn’t realize it would be that big. It’s a big experience,” he says now. “It’s like stepping into anything that you know and love through the years and you want to treat it with great reverence. That’s what I tried my best to do is treat it with great reverence.”
READ MORE: Why Journey Was the Hardest Thing Narada Michael Walden Ever Did
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso