journal

Here is a rough mix of "Know Again". I don't believe I ever posted the demo version of this piece so this is brand new stuff.

mp3: Know Again

Drums by Frank Basile
Electric and Acoustic Violins by Ian Cameron
Guitar, Bass, and Keyboards by me

I should post an A/B comparison of my demo of this one and the final version so folks can hear just how much the guest musicians bring to the piece.

The title comes from a component in Greek Tragedy called anagnorisis. This one was a struggle in all phases, from writing to arranging and recording. But in the end it came out pretty good.

I'm also working on a rough mix for Skating on Europa, I'll probably post that in a few days.

mp3 demo: Untitled
Here is another demo. I don't have title for this one yet (feel free to make a suggestion). This is probably the antithesis of the last piece I posted, Skating on Europa. That was more groove oriented, entirely in 4/4 with fairly smooth transitions. This new song is rhythmically all over the map, lots of odd time signatures and syncopation and the form is pretty quirky.

The Melotron flute really gave me fits on this with intonation issues. But using a combination of a couple of samples I was able to work around it.

The voice in the background about 3:45 in to the piece is a broadcast by Edward R. Murrow. To be a little bit topical I was really looking for an old news broadcast about the Black Monday Market Crash in 1929 but I didn't have any luck with that. But the Murrow works pretty well.

demo mp3: Skating on Europa

The inspiration for this tune was a strange message left on my answering machine. The message itself is the odd distorted voice at the beginning of the piece. That is the unprocessed sound of the message. No idea what the guy is saying, but it sounded like a telemarketer calling from orbit. But as soon as I heard the message I knew I was going to run some mic cables upstairs and record it.

The rest of the piece has a rather jammy/spacerock feel to it. The basic drum programming, guitar and bass tracks were written and recorded very quickly. Then I spent a lot of time working on the synth parts, which had I left a lot of space for. I wanted the keyboards to have a real old school feel to them. So I spent some time really learning how to use my Artura Minimoog plug in, particularly controlling the filters with the knobs on my midi controller in real time. There was a lot of trial and error but I finally came up with a collection of sounds and got the feel I was looking for. And there is some melotron in there for good measure as well.

This one is gonna take forever to mix down I think.

As for the graphic at the top of this post, just my little photoshop contribution to the world of ipod parody images. And it fits this tune rather well.

So that is 4 tunes & 50 minutes of music I have completed. I'd like to have one more song on the album and I have a few options I'm mulling over on that.

Piano or Organ for this section? The blue guitar or the yellow one on this rhythm part? Or I could double that part and use both? How much distortion do I want on this solo? Is that riff too bluesy for this piece? Should I harmonize the main violin line in 3rds or a 6ths? In the 3rd arrangement of this piece there was this cool moment, should I revisit that? Is this melody strong enough or did I just wreck this section? Will it sound better when my lousy sample of an electric violin is replaced by the real thing? Isn't "Still on Hold" a pretty dumb working title?

I'm still mucking with this new piece of music. Every night I get a little closer to something that is worthy of recording. At this stage I think I've got decent core musical ideas, it is simply a matter of getting the most out of them.

Regarding the dumb title, this song might be called many things, but it won't be called "Still on Hold". In thinking about writing this entry and the idea of choices I stumbled onto something. The overall mood of the piece might be described as somewhat sorrowful or haunting. The concept of bad choices and tragic consequences lead me to think about the greek tragedy. There is a component in the Tragedy called anagnorisis which can be translated literally as "knowing again". So I'm thinking I might go with "Know Again" as a title. That should vague things up a little.

While I'm still hammering that one out I went back and listened to the finale to Counting Stars, which was also a bit of a struggle to arrange. With the exception of the guitar solo that leads it off, it is built on themes that are used in previous sections of the larger work -- but all are presented in new ways. A different time signature or groove, in a new key, with a different harmony, different instrumentation, etc... The trick is making it different enough that it is fresh, but same enough that the listener picks up on a sense of familiarity. And I have to balance those compositional choices against what is best moment to moment in terms of having a good flow and emotional effect.

This balance is really a big part of the entire piece, as themes are introduced and revisited later on.

Anyhow, this is sort of backwards but I'm going to go ahead and post the finale first, primarily because most of the rest of the piece really needs the vocals in order to be enjoyed.

Listen to New Demo: Counting Stars pt5 (Demo)

PS. Listening to programed drum solos is kind of absurd, I just use it for a placeholder. Rest assured A REAL DRUMMER will be doing the honors.

Finally, as promised, a new demo for you to check out. I started this piece back in the late Spring. I was angry about something so in order to vent I programed a heavy rock beat, cranked up the distortion and banged on the guitar for awhile. The 3 basic parts of this all came from that and within a day or two I had a rough arrangement.

I relearned the bass and guitar parts and refined the arrangement over the last couple of days. The title just seemed to fit, though the inspiration for the song had nothing to do with kids or lawn care.

Listen: Get the Hell Off My Lawn (Demo: rough mix)
[update 12/30: corrected the file - I had posted the wrong one initially. Kinda horrifying really. The file I accidentally posted yesterday was the very very rough demo I recorded just to get the ideas down. Not intended for public consumption. Doh!]