4 posts tagged “hl blog”
Today (Sunday) was spent working on a new song (called “Just Imagine”) that started life as “Futurist Space Car”. We actually played bit of it on TWHL #102.
I spent today cleaning up the arrangement and we just recorded Christa’s final vocals about 30 minutes ago. The song started life as a little drum loop from Matilda (our affectionately named Alesis Micron) and a somber, yet spacey, synth pad. If memory serves correctly, Christa wrote lyrics on the spot for this one and we recorded scratch vocals right away. The lyrics and whole feel of the song speaks of life(?) after we are all gone for this world. Christa’s melody is really beautiful in contrast to the cold music bed. With this in mind, I decided that Christa’s lone voice should be the only real human element to the song. I added some very mechanically played electric piano… playing only the first and fifth of each chord. I’ve always liked the way fifths leave enough space in a chord progression for the melody to really dictate the tone. Is it major or minor? There is also a certain sterility to this method of harmonizing that lends itself well to this song. For a nice lift (but not too much) on the chorus I added some very stylistic TR-808 and CR-78 cymbals. Nothing screams early electronics like these percussive sounds. There’s a 8 bar break between verse and chorus that needed a little something. So I added a very cold sounding CS-80 synth (well, a virtual version of it). The song ends (quite dramatically I think) with just Christa’s voice and the ambient synth pads, so a nice crescendo is needed to build up to this. The crescendo still needs a bit of work. I’m thinking (and Christa agrees) that some strings might fit the bill here. That will add another human element besides the voice I suppose, but what are rules other than things to break?
Sorry if I’ve been a little too music theory/tech geek in my description here. I just wanted to document what we’ve been up to today… in the only language I know. All-in-all… a good day of creative work. It’s been along time since I’ve had such a productive and rewarding day, musically. So I wanted to share.
This past weekend I watched a good portion of the Live Earth Concerts starting with The Soweto Gospel Choir in South Africa. Their performance included an amazing percussion ensemble. Nothing but rhythm and glorious syncopation. This started my mind wandering (along with the book “This is Your Brain on Music“) about the importance of rhythm. So much of the more recent Hungry Lucy material has begun with melody or harmonic progression. I used to start a lot or writing purely from a rhythmic place (”In the Circle”, “You Are”) and wanted to get back to that. So, with nothing but rhythm, syncopation and a lot of swing I started to construct something. I wanted to capture the feel of this massive percussion ensemble with their heavily syncopated “high-pitched” parts and heavy, thunderous hits emphasizing the downbeats. This was working for me and providing the momentum I’d hoped for. Being a lover of contrast I added an oddly arpeggiated synth-bass figure. So far, sounds like nothing I’ve heard before … perfect! Now for a little matching. Christa has quite a library of song fragments that she has recorded vocals for. One in particular is called “Hill”. I think it’s about 2 years old. The vocal melody has a celtic/Middle-Ages feel to it and has always felt like it should be something cool, but I’ve never found a satisfying setting for it. So, I tried dropping it in against this rhythmic piece … with a little time-stretching, it works. So, I went about figuring out a chord structure for it … came up with something very Bach sounding … not right for this. I tried dropping out every other chord change … getting better. The oddly arpeggiated bass now follows the chord progression. After adding some counter-melodies (way in the background) and some sweeping pads I feel I’m on to something pretty cool. I have an intro, verse section and chorus and then kick the whole piece in with some standard fair “rock drumming”, splashy open high-hats and all along with a Depeche Mode styled synth riff. After going back and anchoring everything with some “felt, but barely heard” bass, the piece is feeling nice and full. A good day’s work.
I’m sure we’ll talk about this on this week’s podcast (to be recorded and posted Monday eve, July 9) and maybe play a bit. I’ve tried to capture the way I work here, so I apologize for the many sentence fragments … this is how my brain works. 
We played our 40 minute set on Fountain Square yesterday evening. We were pleased to see so many folks come out in support. It was also great to reach a few new fans.
Thanks to Laura Smith for the photo!
I must admit, it felt very strange to be playing in a sea of concrete in the broad daylight. It actually made it difficult to get lost in the performance, especially with the passing fire truck sirens. The set went well, despite a few hiccups. The last 3 songs is where the set really kicked in. That is mostly due to the “emptiness” of our current live setup. I think we’re both ready to bring back the video and laptop … it just feels richer that way.
Nevertheless, we had a good time and want to thank everyone that came out as well as Puck (for booking us) and Bill Donabedian and the 3CDC for bringing the event together.
This morning I wandered down to one of my employers “Am Buzz” sessions. These are usually interesting presentations on topics that pertain to this advertising and marketing industry in which I find myself toiling daily. This morning’s presenter was Todd Henry of AccidentalCreative.com. He only had a scant 30 minutes to share his wisdom on the creative process, but he still managed to blow my mind! A key point that stuck out was the importance of protecting one’s”creative core” while outside forces are trying to scoop from it. He put it much more eloquently than that, but that’s why he was at the front of the room.
In reading the AC blog I find this same point that was illustrated in the fabulous “Before the Music Dies” film.
(Ever wonder why pop music is bland?) This is because things that evoke a strong response in research, (a “5″), tend to be polarizing. Either you love them or you hate them. Therefore the goal is to be “just good enough” that a listener won’t change the radio station, but not so good that the song is polarizing. You’re “shooting for the 3.”
Thanks to Todd for giving my mind a good shake this morning!
