Chords for Track-by-Track Break Down of "Fireflies" with Adam Young of Owl City

[D] This song is called Fireflies.
It's about my lifelong struggle with insomnia and feeling like I've just always got so much on my mind that it's always been tough to fall asleep at night for me.
[Ebm] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _
When I wrote it, I remember as usual being awake in the early hours of the morning.
I started writing a song just to help me kind of pass the time, [Eb] and what I wrote eventually turned into Fireflies.
Go go, just hang in there, [Cm] fireflies! _
_ The intro is a synth sound that I made out of a single sine wave, which by itself is this super pure tone.
I think it's the purest tone that exists.
It doesn't have any harmonics.
All I did to it was just add a quick plucking motion to the front [Ab] of each note to make the sound sort of [Ebm] snap or pop whenever the synth plays [Ab] each note, and that's really what gives it its [Bb] character.
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _
_ Then I used [Eb] the same principle to create the bass sound, which is made out of two different layers that play together, but one of those layers has that same plucking sound in it. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I used some bright mallet-type sounds and a Rhodes track to add a counter melody during the intro.
It's funny because it's the only time that this part happens throughout the whole song.
It actually doesn't happen again. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The drums outside of the kick and the rim samples, which are kind of the foundation, [N] are made up of mostly these high-pitched programmed hi-hat sounds.
I really like percussion that has a lot of variety and movement, just like a lot of ghost notes and embellishments and just little intricacies that always keep you listening.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ For the first chorus, which is sort of like a bare-bones version of the main full chorus, there's a couple different drum loops in here, and other than that it's just a [Ab] vibraphone and a piano.
_ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ [Bb] _ [Cm] _ _
[Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ [Ab] I hired a cello player to record a couple different parts for strings that I had written and arranged ahead of time, and I sent those out, and the cello ended up sort of doubling the [C] violin and the viola parts.
[Bb] _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Gm] _ _ [Ab] _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ [Bbm] _ [C] _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [F] _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ [Cm] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
[Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Cm] _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ [Ebm] Then there's a soft pad that fades in right before the main big chorus. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The choruses are full of a few different things.
There's piano, there's synthesizers, there's guitars, organ, vibraphone, strings, [Ab] and pads.
I'll just kind of [Cm] jump around and show you, [Eb] let you listen to a few different layers that are going on.
[Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
[Ab] _ [Bb] _ [Cm] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _
[F] _ _ _ [Eb] _ [Ab] _ _ [Cm] _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ _ [Cm] _ [Ab] _ I [Eb] remember I was recording my final lead vocal at the time, and either I messed up the lyrics or a word came out the wrong way, and I laughed because I knew I had to redo it.
I trimmed out that laugh and I put it later [Bb] in the song in an empty space where I just thought it needed some kind of a short sound in the background.
_ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ There's a few more pads here.
[Cm] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
Toward the end of the song, there's a transition chord that happens only once throughout the whole song, which is used to get from one chorus into the next.
Believe it or not, there's a bad note buried in there that's not even in the key of the song.
It was a total mistake.
There's an old school 80s organ that plays a completely wrong note within the chord that it's playing, and I never even caught it until a few years after the song came out.
[Am] _ There's [Eb] _ _
_ so many layers going on that I just never [Ab] caught it.
[Eb] Everything is memorized, [F] you see.
_ [Eb] _ [Ab] _
Looking back now, I actually [Bb] kind of love that [Eb] this bad note was in there.
This song is a song that a lot of people know and love, and [F] there's this total mistake in there that I like it because it's kind of like the song decided it [Eb] was going to keep a secret all to itself, [Bb] and it [Ab] sort of played a joke on everyone, me included.
[Eb] _ It's love.
[Ab] _ _ _
And finally, there's a few guitars playing during the last chorus.
I remember [B] back then, I didn't even have a guitar amp [Ab] with me.
I recorded everything in the middle of the night in my bedroom, so I had to be really quiet.
I just plugged the guitar directly into my computer, which horribly clipped the sound [Fm] of the clean guitar, and I [Bb] just went with it.
[Fm] It's [Eb] pretty ugly, if I do say so.
[Ab] _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ [Bb] _ [Cm] _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [F] _ _ _
[Eb] _ [Ab] _ _ [Cm] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Cm] _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
[Cm] _ [Ab] _ [Cm] And that's more or less the song.
[Ebm] You know, I _ [Ab] still [Eb] can't really believe that this song is as well [Ab]-loved as it is.
I just feel [Eb] so humbled and [Ebm] undeserving [Bb] and lucky [Cm] that I get to [Ab] share it with you, even all [Eb] these years later.
It [Bb] just makes me so grateful, so thank you, and thanks for watching. _ _ _