I liked Lynda Arnold's song from the moment I heard it. The hymn-like simplicity of it, the brightness of the voices and the piano. I think it was always in the back of my mind that if the Song a Day crowd ever decided to do covers this would be my top choice.
I chose "Pants" as my first cover because I wasn't sure how to approach "Divine Love" for a long time. It wouldn't do to completely reimagine it in some odd style. That might verge on irony and I'm not into irony.
Eventually I just heard myself singing it: I was probably half-awake or something of the sort.
The main instrument is a tremolo-heavy Rhodes. I was dismayed to find it disappeared when heard on some systems.
On the other hand I was pleased that in spite of low vocals and dark instruments the final mix didn't seem too muddy.
It's a beautiful song and again I was pleased to find the composer had liked the results.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Cover time! Pants
This was fun. I took Tom Lattanand's song "Pants" and converted it to my own uses. His version is fully electronic, with beat, synth bass, some synth lines and a choir section toward the end.
I set about to rip it apart and reassemble it. First I managed to approximate the bass line on my own keyboard. At this point the inspiration - if you would call it that - to speed it up and turn it into the lo-fi punk thing it became, hit. I stripped the bassline down to a more basic level, cobbled together a bunch of drum loops, and off I went. The most enjoyable part for me was taking Tom's detuned synth lines and playing them on guitar. It's possible I replicated the harmonies he used, but at a certain point in the process I stop thinking about little details like that.
I was happy about the way it was sounding. It came time to put the bridge section in, and another 'inspiration' hit - to transpose my own voice up an octave as a replacement for the choral samples. It came out very strange, particularly because my vocal takes were really gravelly. And by 'strange' I decided I meant 'good'.
I love the word rhythm to this song, and it was a pleasure to record the vocal. I have yet to come upon a truly satisfactory recording technique for my voice, what with being lazy and all, but since this track was absurdly lo-fi I could be content with the result.
I was pleased that Tom enjoyed it. I realized doing covers of Song a Day tunes was a wonderful exercise, as it enabled the discovery of some core to the song that the composer might not have even noticed yet. A perfect example of this is Daniel Berkman's cover of Derek Greenberg's "Naked and Scared"
which in the words of one comment was even 'nakeder' than Derek's original, and really laid out in beautiful, clear detail the purity of the song.
Cover time! Pants
This was fun. I took Tom Lattanand's song "Pants" and converted it to my own uses. His version is fully electronic, with beat, synth bass, some synth lines and a choir section toward the end.
I set about to rip it apart and reassemble it. First I managed to approximate the bass line on my own keyboard. At this point the inspiration - if you would call it that - to speed it up and turn it into the lo-fi punk thing it became, hit. I stripped the bassline down to a more basic level, cobbled together a bunch of drum loops, and off I went. The most enjoyable part for me was taking Tom's detuned synth lines and playing them on guitar. It's possible I replicated the harmonies he used, but at a certain point in the process I stop thinking about little details like that.
I was happy about the way it was sounding. It came time to put the bridge section in, and another 'inspiration' hit - to transpose my own voice up an octave as a replacement for the choral samples. It came out very strange, particularly because my vocal takes were really gravelly. And by 'strange' I decided I meant 'good'.
I love the word rhythm to this song, and it was a pleasure to record the vocal. I have yet to come upon a truly satisfactory recording technique for my voice, what with being lazy and all, but since this track was absurdly lo-fi I could be content with the result.
I was pleased that Tom enjoyed it. I realized doing covers of Song a Day tunes was a wonderful exercise, as it enabled the discovery of some core to the song that the composer might not have even noticed yet. A perfect example of this is Daniel Berkman's cover of Derek Greenberg's "Naked and Scared"
which in the words of one comment was even 'nakeder' than Derek's original, and really laid out in beautiful, clear detail the purity of the song.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Work to do
This is an Orwellian take on a world without grace: both in the attitude of the narrator and in the world described. I wrote these word a few months ago, very quickly, and decided to use them without alteration.
The chaotic nature of the recording is due to layering parts with triplets and parts with duplets, and recording three vocal tracks more or less on the fly, paying little attention to the harmony they were creating.
I have trouble actually hearing harmony, so whenever I can do parts that have some shape on their own and some relation to the chords, that's fine by me. This kind of thing was going on among the more interesting composers of the Renaissance such as Gesualdo and Zarlino. That style died out in the late Renaissance and other more boring styles developed into the early Baroque, which is a shame.
This isn't to say I am influenced by Renaissance music. That would be a stretch.
This song is influenced, unconsciously till it was finished, by a video my daughter's class made. You can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFrP3XiQ-J8
I thought the chanted words made that whole video a little bit ominous and, well, Orwellian. Funny, but ominous. You know.
The chaotic nature of the recording is due to layering parts with triplets and parts with duplets, and recording three vocal tracks more or less on the fly, paying little attention to the harmony they were creating.
I have trouble actually hearing harmony, so whenever I can do parts that have some shape on their own and some relation to the chords, that's fine by me. This kind of thing was going on among the more interesting composers of the Renaissance such as Gesualdo and Zarlino. That style died out in the late Renaissance and other more boring styles developed into the early Baroque, which is a shame.
This isn't to say I am influenced by Renaissance music. That would be a stretch.
This song is influenced, unconsciously till it was finished, by a video my daughter's class made. You can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFrP3XiQ-J8
I thought the chanted words made that whole video a little bit ominous and, well, Orwellian. Funny, but ominous. You know.
Friday, February 17, 2012
No Idea
I did ask a bartender for a song title idea, and he did think about it for a moment and reply, shaking his head "No idea." Very well, I could do that.
As always this song ended up with a different tone than I'd planned. The protagonist is completely clueless and hapless in the final version. Working on it my concept was much more straightforward: the comedic turn it took doesn't fully satisfy me.
One take, one mic. Not much to say there. Except for the stray F chord in the opening bit there are three chords. I'm sure I'm doing something strange with the vocal rhythms but this is my attempt at basic, no-frills songwriting.
As always this song ended up with a different tone than I'd planned. The protagonist is completely clueless and hapless in the final version. Working on it my concept was much more straightforward: the comedic turn it took doesn't fully satisfy me.
One take, one mic. Not much to say there. Except for the stray F chord in the opening bit there are three chords. I'm sure I'm doing something strange with the vocal rhythms but this is my attempt at basic, no-frills songwriting.
Crawling up a pane of glass
I wrote a bass line, which was appealing. I played it for a while, then I decided I had better input it via MIDI so I could see what the time signature was. It turned out to be 4 bars of 7/8 and one of 6/8.
No, I declared, I'm not going to follow through with this. Instead I simplified the line so it would work in 4/4, then simplified again, and again, so it ended up a basic one-note-per-measure line.
Since I had strayed so far from the original concept I decided to let this track be a 'tester' for a song I had planned for later called "Virtual Reality".
Eight hours later I had a dozen vocal tracks, layers of instrumental parts, and a puzzle that needed to be put together. Nothing ever ends up what it's supposed to be.
What's going on with the tracks: one looped drum tracked (comes in around the third bar or so - lots of high hat), one programmed drum track, bass line played on keyboard, arpeggiated highly effected guitar line, distorted guitar track, piano track. Oh, and a synth pad that makes an appearance now and then.
Lyrically this is pretty straightforward, a song about communication, and more specifically about that helpless feeling you get when someone brings up something they claim you said a long time ago. "It doesn't sound like me, but even if I did I take it back now." What else can you do?
It is purely coincidental that this song mentions a snail and earlier I wrote a song called slug. Go back to 2008 and you can find mention of nudibranchs in "Neutrally Buoyant". Maybe I do have an obsession with gastropods.
No, I declared, I'm not going to follow through with this. Instead I simplified the line so it would work in 4/4, then simplified again, and again, so it ended up a basic one-note-per-measure line.
Since I had strayed so far from the original concept I decided to let this track be a 'tester' for a song I had planned for later called "Virtual Reality".
Eight hours later I had a dozen vocal tracks, layers of instrumental parts, and a puzzle that needed to be put together. Nothing ever ends up what it's supposed to be.
What's going on with the tracks: one looped drum tracked (comes in around the third bar or so - lots of high hat), one programmed drum track, bass line played on keyboard, arpeggiated highly effected guitar line, distorted guitar track, piano track. Oh, and a synth pad that makes an appearance now and then.
Lyrically this is pretty straightforward, a song about communication, and more specifically about that helpless feeling you get when someone brings up something they claim you said a long time ago. "It doesn't sound like me, but even if I did I take it back now." What else can you do?
It is purely coincidental that this song mentions a snail and earlier I wrote a song called slug. Go back to 2008 and you can find mention of nudibranchs in "Neutrally Buoyant". Maybe I do have an obsession with gastropods.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Very Funny, Elizabeth
Before Song-a-Day began I knew I was going to write a song with this title, which I borrowed from a book about the American Girl doll. The three words have a melodic quality to them already, imbued with a natural rhythm. It seemed like a good place to start.
The story of an Elizabeth who is a self-justified gold digger, well, I have my reasons but it's nothing to do with anyone in my life.
I'm not sure what genre the song ended up inhabiting. It started out as a soul/r&b tinged tune, but by the time I layered some instruments it had strayed a little.
I suppose this song is really a duet. The verses are sung by "Elizabeth" and the choruses by her hapless victim. The vocals were difficult, especially late at night when it's necessary to sing quietly.
The lyrics jump around a lot, but there is a narrative to the song.
The story of an Elizabeth who is a self-justified gold digger, well, I have my reasons but it's nothing to do with anyone in my life.
I'm not sure what genre the song ended up inhabiting. It started out as a soul/r&b tinged tune, but by the time I layered some instruments it had strayed a little.
I suppose this song is really a duet. The verses are sung by "Elizabeth" and the choruses by her hapless victim. The vocals were difficult, especially late at night when it's necessary to sing quietly.
The lyrics jump around a lot, but there is a narrative to the song.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
