Casting Out the Shadows

so I was thinking about whipping out one of the semi-ironic cover songs that I have recorded in the past, but this last weekend I ended up recording a very un-ironic cover of a song written by a co-worker. My reason’s for recording these songs and my approach is pretty similar to the silly r&b songs I have covered so here it goes.The song is titled “No more casting out the shadows” and it is written by a dude named Brandon. He’s from Texas, but we won’t hold that against him. You can hear the original
HERE.

Kebab Dylan – No more casting out the shadows (download)

One reason I cover songs like “most girls” by pink and “hips don’t lie” by shakira is that they do one thing really well. the melodies are totally catching and infectious. but there is absolutely nothing else there. No music, as far as I am concerned. So I take songs like that and then fill in the music around the hooks. Add in really ridicouluos lyrics and you have the trifecta of “good music” (hopefully), catchy melodies, and funny lyrics.

The original, if you didn’t listen, is a very sparse elliot smithish acoustic number. One guitar and a double tracked vocal. that’s it. the guitar is just chords strummed.

What I liked about the song is that the melody, while pretty strightforward, was compelling and fit the lyrics well. I have no idea what this song is about but its slightly ominous to me and the minor melody seemed appropriate. The chords are all strummed up-stream that lead me to thing that there could be some interesting uses of rhythm.

One of the main challenges is that the melody for the verse and chorus are almost identical. The chords and the strumming are also similar for all three parts. so my goal was to separate all three parts into very identifiable parts.

So on to the song.

It starts off with my “ticking timebomb” effect which is simply playing two muted notes back and forth. Layer some synths on top and you got a nice atmospheric effect. It based on the main chord progression (C#m – F#m A). I decided early one to leverage the shared notes in the progression to have a drone going on. In the this section, i keep it based on the c# note and then augment the G# to A. It sounds like i am just augmenting a chord but the notes are actually just the appropriate notes for the current chord. This is used in the pre-chorus “ohs” section as well. the keys are slowing working their way through the progression

For the verses, I decided to emphasis the melody and not the chords, so the predominant part is the vocal line. I first tracked the base chords (muted power chords) so I would not loose focus of the actual progression. I added one small change to the progression ending on E the first time through instead of A. I then added a different rythmic guitar part that becomes more obvious later.

Where the verses emphasize the meoldy, I decided th emphasis the banging out of chords for the choruses. That way the emphasis would separate the parts unlike the original. I also go from a distorted vocal effect to clean vocals for the chorus.

There is a counter melody at the end of the song, and I went ahead and added that melody via keyboards from the get go. I kick it up an octive once the chorus fully comes in to make it more prominent. The chorus is more smooth (less jerky like the verses) so I added on guitar part in the mix that is still baning out in a jerky fashion.

after the chorus I added the one major addition, which is a riff. I just started playing it while i was becoming familiar with the song and liked it so I incorporated it. My favorite moment in the song, for sure, is the transisiton from the riff to a highly syncopated passage that just stays on the C#m chord for 4 measures, and then the transition to a very smooth playing of the verse and melody emphasized by keyboards playing the vocal line. there is a beep-beep keyboard that initiall reminds the listener that this is the jerky part. I also added portions of one guitar part that later becomes a constant.

The last chorus includes the the counter melody forshadows as well as a climax of a semi-screaming octive higher deliver of the chorus. Unfortunately i did not count right and it cuts out half way through.

Then the riff kicks in with an increased “noise level”. As soon as that ends i decided to see what cutting all the keyboard parts (6 i think?) sounded like all by themselves, so i just pasted them after the song ended which I think is a real nice effect.

Kebab Dylan – No more casting out the shadows (download)

so in the end I spent one evening sequencing the drums and laying down the guitars, another evening with the keys and vox, and then an hour or two mixing on sunday and monday. I am pretty pleased with the outcome.

hope you likes…