Gus Gus
- Jason Buchanan
- May 15
- 6 min read
"Gus Gus" is one of the final songs I wrote in Cheyenne before moving to Portland. I'd just taken my first lessons in OpenStudio Jazz (Piano) and felt inspired. It wasn't a song for a prompt or anything like that (which is abnormal for me), but I must say that old Disney animated movies have a heavy influence on what feels nostalgic for me
The song releases everywhere on May 21st, 2026, but is available early here:
Free Writing
Before the song was about ol’ Gus, it started as free-writing. Some of the notes I have saved are nonsensical, but telling:
”Why is cheese so appealing?
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Another friend gone too soon”
There was also an early lyric that didn’t make any sense:
“My granddaddy died
One day when the man came and
Covered up the life they had made
Now we’re always running afraid”
Then the pivotal moment in my free-writing, when this question arose:
"Why would you set a trap — what makes a mouse yearn for more?”
Clearly, the song was about to become a Mouse Ballad:
The Voice Memos:
The song came together quickly. From April 27th, with a voice memo entitled "Nama Nama in G" to the "first take" of the full song on May 1st, there were ten voice memos (each which reflect iterations or improvements sufficient enough to capture in a voice memo).
Check out the very first melody idea -- no lyrics yet, just the "nama nama" placeholder. Not too far off from the final version:
What is the song about?!
So, the basic premise of the song is that "Gus Gus", the adorable mouse from Cinderella (whose given name was "Octavius", but was shortened to "Gus" and always doubled as ‘Gus Gus’ when spoken by the other mice), is the last surviving mouse in the house.
The song is Gus’ tale of struggle, but it is also the story of every person. Why do we strive as we do? Ultimately, we all just want to live a peaceful life, to have some stories to tell, and to have a taste of the finer things (‘cheese’).
The earliest lyrics had Gus coming across his friend, Steve, in the hallway. Gus assumed Steve was asleep, but "No, he's cold and stiff..." Which prompts Gus to ask, "Could it be the same for me in the end?!" But, Gus doesn't linger on that thought for long. He just takes the cheese and scurries away.
Later, based on the feedback from my friend and producer, Joel, I removed that gruesome lyric...replacing it with a reference to "The Night Before Christmas", firmly establishing this song as a Christmas Song because it takes place at night on Christmas Eve (Gus is the only thing stirring...) This video is from the May 1st recording -- the "Gruesome Gus Gus", as I like to call it:
Behind the scenes
I love this old piano we have in Cheyenne. It was a gift from Cindy Schmid, who was a long-time music teacher in town before moving further north in retirement. The two microphones I used to record “Gus Gus” in this demo are Warm Audio reproductions -- the one on the left is a WA47 and the one on the right is a WA47jr. They are plugged into a Scarlett interface, which is being tracked into Logic Pro. [Note: I don't use the WA47s anymore for recording piano, but that is what I had at the time]
For some reason, I didn't track the vocal at the same time as the piano on this one -- it might've been that I wasn't able to play both at the same time (yet). These days, for demos, it has become more efficient for me to track both at the same time.
From Demo to Master
After the demo was complete, I asked my friend Jacob Schrodt to play the drums on the track — I learned early on (from him) that drums have to come first. We talked a lot about this track, focusing in on my vision of emulating a chase scene. The upright bass would represent slow plodding Gus Gus, the fiddle would represent the quick and feisty cat. And the drums would represent the crash and tumble of the plates and furniture falling in the wake of their chase. Jacob totally bought into that vision and gave me two stems to layer in — one of his awesome drum kit (always well mic’d, by the way) and the other of really interesting percussion and background sounds like jingle bells during the portion of the song about Christmas Eve.
With those stems layered in, Scott Mulvahill took his turn on upright bass. Again, he knew the assignment and performed the plodding “Gus Gus” perfectly. Joel and I often say that Scott creates magic. Gus Gus is a perfect example of that statement. Listen with headphones and you’ll hear so much nuance in Scott’s upright bass part. [This is true on every song he plays, to be honest.]
Nate Leath was the final piece of the ensemble. In January 2026, we made arrangements for him to come out to Portland over a long weekend. We had a great time recording in the living room, but also visiting the unique places in Portland that we’d discovered since moving to town.
Nate generally only requires one, maybe two ‘takes’ on a song. Even then, I think he’s just giving me options to work with. He recorded his part three times on Gus Gus. And we mainly used the third take in the final recording. So many of his moving harmonics and other flourishes are amazing to hear in the recording, but to see him do it up-close is something else.
With drums, upright bass, and fiddle tracked, it was time for me to re-track the main vocal. I’ve found that I perform more freely when I have the full backing band in my headphones…so re-tracking vocals at the end is part of my workflow now.
With vocals done, and still using the original piano recording from back in Cheyenne, I sent all of the tracks to my friend and producer, Joel Rousseau for mixing and mastering. Joel has an amazing ear for balance and good judgement for the right amount of sizzle that is needed. I’ve trusted him from the start.
Joel usually gives me two or three mixes as he works through a song. On this one, though, once he got to the Mastering process, there was too much pedal noise from my old piano back in Cheyenne coming to the front of the mix (for me, probably no one else would notice — maybe you’ll hear it in the demo video!?) No matter what he adjusted, I couldn’t ‘unhear’ the piano noise. It was just too loud. So we agree that I’d go to a local studio and re-record the piano part, send it to him, and he’d drop it into the mix and re-master it.
Dead Aunt Thelma’s to the Rescue!
Soon after moving to Portland, I was fortunate enough to participate in the Portland Songwriters Guild Holiday Hits Show at Mississippi Studios. Even more, we were afforded the opportunity to record our song from that show at a local studio in town — “Dead Aunt Thelma’s” over in Sellwood/Southeast Portland — for an upcoming news segment that would air in support of the Holiday Hits show. Needless to say, the piano in that studio is an old Steinway Grand B — played by the likes of Lady Gaga and Rufus Wainright. A songwriter’s dream.
While we were at the studio for that work, I met Andy Jones (an excellent sound engineer and songwriter, too) and we exchanged contact information. So when I needed help getting the piano re-tracked for Gus Gus, I knew who to call. Within days, he had arranged time in the studio, and we recorded the piano over my lunch break — in one take — then back to the office. Legit, we did it in less than an hour.
What does Gus Gus Look like?
Well, we know at this point he doesn’t have a tail, poor guy:
I usually rely on my wife, Hope, to create the art for my albums. And often my daughter, Allie, will make art for singles and for t-shirts. But this time I chose to reach out to my friend, Steve Knox, a well known and highly regarded artist from back in Cheyenne.
Not too long before I wrote Gus Gus, he had created a ‘portrait’ of sorts of me as a buffalo, wearing my usual cowboy hat and vest with a glass of scotch and my guitar.
I loved the style of the portrait and asked him if he’d be willing to create the artwork for Gus Gus. Steve drew a couple of options for us to consider, but we ultimately chose to use this version — it felt more cinematically descriptive and aligned with elements of the song. I am enormously grateful for Steve’s artistic vision and his willingness to allow me to use this image for the song.
What is next?
Gus Gus is a pivotal song for me. It reflects the most recent and progressive piano-driven music in my catalog as a songwriter. Purposefully, it is being released in the weeks before I head back into the studio to record the new songs from this season of my songwriting: Piano-driven, heavily influenced by jazz progressions, but with many of the same studio musicians who’ve accompanied me from the start. We plan to release the next album before the end of the year.
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