Here's how a band used Facebook Live's delay to create a one-of-a-kind song

Technology has changed the music industry (for better or worse) at its core. But along with the rise of digital audio and innovations like livestreaming, there came some challenges.

With livestreaming, it's delay. There are always a few brief moments of nothingness when you decide to go live on Facebook, and the band The Academic decided to use that delay to record loops for a performance of their song "Bear Claws.

The song blew up, receiving over 1.2 million views in just a week. We were able to catch up with the band, to get a behind the scenes look at how the band was able to create the rendition of this song.

I would love to know how this idea came about?

We love technology and we obviously love music and we wanted to find something that could bring both together. We came across a little hack that uses a Facebook Live stream in a way that Facebook themselves never intended. We thought how cool would it be if we can turn Facebook Live into a video and audio sampler. Musically, it’s very similar to using a loop pedal – you stack layers of the same length on top of each other, indefinitely. The cool thing is the video picture loops too, so you’re building both loops simultaneously – live, within the Facebook platform.

What was the hardest part about recording the live loop?

It probably looks a lot easier than it actually was. The hardest part about it? The timing! We had one take to make sure that we were completely in sync with each other. If a single beat, part or note was missed, that mistake would obviously loop for the whole video and it would have been a mess.

How much planning did it take?

We took a bit of time to plan the song arrangement and work out some of the choreography but we only had one shot to make it work as a live take. How did you plan it? 

We tried to arrange the song in an interesting way. Introducing instruments and vocal hooks First that are not prominent and don't make much sense until the end. For example introducing the drums towards the end gives the ending some explosiveness!

What has the feedback been like?

The reaction has been crazy. We knew we had created something that had never been done before and we had hoped it would get a good reaction but not to the extent of interest the video has generated. We have had hundreds of messages from around the world which has mind-blowing.