A song that two Pittsburgh musicians kicked around for a couple of years suddenly gained new relevance when the covid-19 pandemic hit.
Josh Shapiro and Nikki Moulios, partners in life and in the band Rocket Loves Blue, had worked intermittently on “The Great Indoors,” which Moulios describes as a song about staying inside on a rainy day and just savoring the chance to slow down.
“I liked it, but I didn’t love it,” Shapiro said. Nevertheless, a demo of the song drew interest on a streaming radio station called GimmeCountry.
“It was just a demo, I wasn’t in love with how it sounded,” he said. “It kept being played, the comments and love of the song was pretty consistent (so) I figured I would re-record the thing and we would throw it on Spotify, see what happens.
“I just got it where I liked it when the virus hit,” which coincided with its release on Spotify, he said. As things tend to happen in Pittsburgh, people who heard the song started telling others about it.
A friend of a friend of a friend works at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, and Shapiro and Moulios decided to offer a free download of the song to anyone making a donation.
“You’ll get a thank-you email with a link to the download,” Shapiro said. “I wanted to turn it into the ‘We Are the World’ of Pittsburgh.”
The pair also will perform the song during Pittsburgh Service Staff AID, a 12-hour living room concert set for noon-midnight April 18 on Facebook Live.
They’ll join a roster of notable area musicians including Donnie Iris, Joe Grushecky, Bill Deasy and more than 50 others to raise funds for area hospitality industry workers facing hardships due to covid-19 restrictions.
“The Great Indoors” is a “traveling song,” Shapiro said.
It was born in Los Angeles, Moulios’ hometown, where the pair met. The vocals, written with help from Shapiro’s cousin Mike McCool, were recorded during a short stint in Las Vegas. It reached its final form during the first week of March in Pittsburgh.
“It was written all over the place,” he said.
