The dagger is there where you left it

ok. I am  back. I have recorded two malkmus/pavement covers but that is not for today.

You can download the track at http://tinyurl.com/6l6b28

here is a new song. called “the dagger is there where you left it”. I posted it over at the sonar message boards and its getting some nice reviews. mostly about the song title.

Subject Matter

It is a happy little ditty about child abuse  – or more specifically, the tendency for it to keep “coming back” to haunt/resurface in a victim’s life. I will not go into the motivation.  I will post the lyrics.

About the song

So some interesting things about this one. First. I am ridiculously happy with how this turned out. I rarely don’t like songs that make it all the way to completion, but some make me happier than others.

It is a “big” song sonically. There are a gazillion tracks and yeah some things get lost in the mix but it is not a mess like the last one.

Second, generally songs go their own way when I record because all the arrangements, drums, keys are all missing when I start. This one turned out exactly like I thought it would. I sounds the same as what was in my head before recording. that rarely happens.

And third, i can’t point to anything that influenced the song. generally I can say “sounds like pavement” or “sounds like sonic youth” or some other reference point. All i can say is “the cure? maybe?… if you squint?”

Song Title

as I said, this has gotten some good reviews over at the cakewalk forums. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE mentioned the title. I encapsulates the anger, bitterness, cynicism, sarcasm that the song voices. I am really happy (happy?) with the title and the line of the song it is from.

Songwriting

this started with the very simple guitar part (listen to the first part of verse one). That was it. I tuned up the Low E to F for this one (like the last song) so i guess it’s technically an alternate tuning song. I knew the verse part was in F but I didn’t really have any idea what I was playing. It’s based on the drone of A – E.  The chorus was completely by ear and just tooling around. I had no idea what I was playing until i started incorporating keyboards into it.

Turns out the verse is along the lines of F – C -Dm – A – G (sorta). The chorus changes keys. and I am kind of playing with chords with G D7 C Bm D A G Gm. In the chorus  the bass notes are generally not the root note of the chord (D – D – C – B  – D – Db B – Bm)

Recording

I started by laying down the primary guitars. Then a ton of midi tracks.  Vocals, then lead guitars and the “ohs” midi tracks. I did reuse the distorted guitar dropped an octave with trusty plugin. ( i will have to thank jim cooper of detholz.wordpress.com for suggesting NI guitar rig plugin). I am starting to use that almost exclusively. Used to be a amplitube guy myself.

The midi tracks use a couple of orchestra sounds, the trusty “guitar harmonic” sound which i am smitten with. I use several of the Oh’s sounds during the chorus and ended up using a couple of old school synth sounds as well.

vocals have verse tracks and chorus  tracks (they overlap) and the distorted vox and harmony vox tracks. I doubled the primary guitar, added another distorted guitar sparingly, and too leads for the near end section.

all in all, this is a good 30+ tracks.

Good decisions

I generally double track all my vocals. in this case when I did that, it was bad bad bad. Because in the chorus, certain notes are held for longish period of time, and i am not good enough to hold those notes in pitch… it sounded HORRIBLE. So I ditched the double. and yes, much better.

The build up

Biggest challenge was to create a convincing and non-boring build up at the start of the song. It goes a minute + before any singing. I am still working on it, actually. I am good with long songs but I have become more conscious that not everyone has my patience for my songs. Once it gets going it’s pretty efficient. I am attempting to get in a groove and then as it all just stops, and the singing begins over a single guitar part, the effect, if plan goes as planned, should be jarring. I really like the second stanza and the reintroduction of the pounding rhythm.

so all in all. a big song. I am happy. good song title. hope you like it. here are the lyrics:

do not turn to me and smile
like everything is fine
i will not play your child
no, not when the child is mine

when you had all the power
and my hands were bound with twine
I suffered it in silence
I will not hold my tongue this time

because i have not forgotten
what you cannot deny
when the dagger is there were you left it

i thought that this was over
thought that we had found our home
i thought we stopped the bleeding
thought that we had set the bone

so do not turn to me and smile
everything is fine
when the dagger is there were you left it

because i have not forgotten
what you cannot deny
when the dagger is there were you left it

Everything She Wants (Wham!)

So this makes it almost 3 weeks in a row (and I even have one more completed track in the bucket)

So this weekend I recorded Wham’s “Everthing she wants”. It has been on my “short list” of songs to cover for years and years. So I decided to just do it with mixed results.

Download Everything She Wants

Before going into the arranging/recording of this song and what I think works and doesn’t work. A little about covering songs.

Why this song?

This, you could file under “semi-ironic cover song”. I say semi because I don’t think I have ever covered a song that I loathe simply to make fun of it. In fact, I never really try to make fun of a song. Have fun with it? yes. But I usually latch on to something I really like about a song and augment whatever is good about it. In the past I have been partial to R&B pop songs (pink’s most girls, britney spears, shakira, tlc’s waterfalls — man, that was over 10 years ago?)

Most of those songs have very nice melodies over what amounts to absolutely no inteligble music. I did a cover of the Car’s “Just what I needed” and by changing the mood of the music, brought to the foreground what sounds to me like some really dark lyrics — but I degress.

So, Wham’s “Everything she wants”. Man, what a bitter bitter angry song. Not that it’s saying much, but this song has always been my favorite wham song. I remember secretly liking it. It falls into the “nice melody on top of nothing” camp. It makes it pretty fun because there is very little there to either work around or ignore. So what I had was a cheesey 80’s song with some nasty lyrics. A canvas to repaint the entire thing. Like most of my covers, I arrange them without listening to the original (or at least as little as possible). Most of these have been in the back of my head for sometime. I had figured this one out musically over a year ago, so I knew the chords. I actually got some of the music wrong on this one! I realized once listening to it again.

What horrible productions!

I did end up getting this song of itunes to listen to it. And its production is just horrible. It’s an ANGRY song, so stop singing everything with such pin point accuracty with a gazillion effects on your vocals. From the very first “yee-he oh!” — its delayed for like a minute back and forth between speakers. And all “oh oh oh yeah yeah yeah”. You are telling your pregnant wife that you don’t love her!!!

And that horrible synth sound? Really, was that necessary? What’s bitter about that?

The Arrangement

My only real jab at this song is the arrangement. I went for the opposite effect of the original. Immediately instead of pin point syncth glibs and glups, you get a very sloppy distorted bass banging out the most simplified element of this song. There is a nifty minor to major chord change and originally I thought the bass should reflect. I decided against that. So pounding bass, slow moving synths, and muted or droning guitars make up the verses.

The other decision I made early on was to not sing ANY of the ohohohyeahyeahyeah’s or corny “won’t you tell me” parts. That was all left to instruments. The vocals would be fuzzed out themselves getting even further away from the preciseness of the original.

What Worked

I have mixed feelings about how this one turned out. I really like the arrangements of the verses. This was the least planned part. I knew the droning guitars would be there. Originally I was not going to use an MIDI. I wanted it to be a “rawk” song. The MIDI when it comes in is by far my favorite part of this song. Juxtaposed with the fuzzed out bass, I think works really well. I also added a MIDI “guitar harmonic” sound underneath the droning guitars in the verse that I really like.

What didn’t work

The vocals don’t sound very good on two fronts. 1. I have a cold and stuggled through it. I had to do some serious cutting a pasting the “two takes” to get a single take without horribley missed notes. I think I salvaged it mostly, but it’s not my best singing. The fuzzed out effects are not what I had in my head either. Not sure how to fix it.

The chorus (what I thought would be the strongest part) is the weakest part. The loud guitars seem to be washed out of any detail. I cut most of the reverb from them — it was work in an earlier mix. Relying on the gutiars to fill in some of the singing parts and then not really hearing them that well make the chorus a little bland.

Download Everything She Wants

I will probably revisit this song in the near future and re track the vocals and work on the chorus more.

Anyway. it’s here. it’s, um… something. get used to it (or don’t listen).

Oh, and THIS…

where would you go

Where Would You Go (aka Kebab Dylan does his best sparklehorse impersonation)Here is a new ditty that I just finished and am very happy with.

Download “Where Would You Go” Now

Songwriting

This song just kinda plopped out as I was writing trenches and warfare (see previous post). The opening chord is the first chord of the chorus of that song.

I was going for simplicity here which I normally don’t do. I wanted a quite moody song with just a very simple chord progression. The verses are just a walk down of four chords in standard 4/4 timing. Having said that, like other songs, this is in FACFAE tuning and I didn’t know “what” chords I was playing at first. It just sounded nice to me.

The element on the verse that I like the most is the chords blend into each other. Essentially it is F D# Dm C#. A pretty strange combination of chords. It’s held together and made to sound “normal” by the singing melody. The chord progression allowed me to hold notes that where shared by the following chord. IE (I would hold the “F” while transitioning from the C# back to the first chord F. Or hold the F while moving from the Dm to the C#.

The other trick is that the way I am playing them, the bass note for each chord is not the the primary chords note. (for instance, the base notes for the verses are actually C A# A G#)

The chorus took a little bit to knock out but from the get go I liked the dropping down a half step into it. Makes it both a new chord introduced but also a logical progression from the verse with its decending chords. The chorus is also some really strange chord combinations held together with the melody. (C Am Gm C# D# D Gm C# C).

The bridge was going to be instrumental and is the most conventional part of the song.

In the middle of the song, it turns from sleephead to sonic youth. I’m pleased with how the “loud” part is transitioned into. Although some of the “music” gets lost in the distortion, the base chords actually sound pretty good just on an acoustic guitar.

The Recording

With this song, I knew I wanted it to be quite and moody. The chords just called for it. I made a concerted effort to keep this song as simple as possible. I generally have never met an extra track (guitar or otherwise) that I have not liked, but I limited myself. There are three midi tracks. one is just a synth pad that smooths out things and two strings. The guitars consist of a double tracked rythem and one extra track that goes in and out. The mid section does pile on the guitars but its short lived.

I also added a bass guitar track (sort of) by using a pitch shifter and dropping it down an octive. I came up with the little bass line and I liked it a lot so I felt I should add it. I’ve been meaning to put bass in my songs for some time. I usually just use some deep midi instrument to fill that space.

To simplify it even more, the chorus consists mostly of one hit of each chord, leaving a lot of open space. The drum track also, I intentionally made very simple. As a result, I think the drums sound better than most of my recordings (my biggest weakness, according to many). I think I am getting better at mixing them to get a nicer more real sound. Still fake as can be, though.

I double tracked the vocals with one track slightly distored (a common trick of mine). and added one harmony part to some of it. I knew this song would be quiet so I went for the quite almost whisper singing style that I think works quite nicely with the whole feel of this song. I couldn’t stop thinking “this sounds like sparklehorse” the entire time and ended up embracing it. For those who are familiar with sparklehorse, you probably know what I mean.

Lyrics

I had a hell of a time with the lyrics. Hated Hated Hated them. I was going nowhere but I knew I wanted to record this song. When I first started working on this, “where would you go if you had to go” was stuck in my head and it made no sense. And it went no where. I then settled on “laughing like girls in the after noon with the blinds open wide”. Once again, made no sense and wasn’t going anywhere.

As you can guess now, this song is completely meaningless. Which leads me to one of my songwriting traits – lyrics. I rarely write “about something”. Almost never ever start off with anything in mind. I generally use images or sounds t evoke emotion that resonates with me (hopefully others as well) but without making any statements or getting personal.

With this song I was struggling through coming up with the words until the last verse where “where would you go” popped back up and I got an idea about what this song could be about. Think illict/illegal relationship at stuffy or religious boarding school in up new york state. I went back and added lyrics to the bridge to emphasis this kind of reading.

Download “Where Would You Go” Now

So I hope you enjoy this one.

3 Responses to “where would you go”

trenches and warfare

OK. So it’s been a while. I have been somewhat out of the loop lately and although I have many half finished songs stacking up, this one cut to the front of the line and I cranked it out over the span of a weekend.It’s called “trenches and warfare” or “OMG kd wrote a 3:30 minute song”

 

trenches and warfare

Two things are a change for me. 1. The brevity, it really is under 3 1/2 minutes which I can’t remember doing ever. and 2. I began writing this song with a topic in mind. I wrote a song “about something”. Usually lyrics come last and they are more about feeling than a subject matter.

As a side note, the first two comment I got from this one was a comparison to dire straits and the beatles. go figure. I don’t understand either.

Common Themes

This song shares the same tuning as “closed circuit” and “break you down” (FACFAE). I am still loving this tuning and have another song half written in it.

Like Closed Circuit, I really didn’t know what many of the chords were as I was writing it. I knew it was in F. But it wasn’t until I started laying down keyboard parts that I fully understood musically what was going on.

And despite the shortness of the song, I still managed 2 (count ‘em 1-2) tangents. They are short and sweet and don’t seem out of place. They are both based on the verse structure but both move away from it in their own special way.

New Direction

As I stated earlier, I began this song with an actual topic in mind, something I rarely do (i.e. never). I won’t go into the details of the subject matter other than to say the song is based on a recently rehashed biographical incident from long ago. As with my less focus lyrics, I attempt to evoke an emotion from the lyrics not tell a story or pronounce great wisdom. I am not bob dylan. One of the first comments I got from this one focused on the lyric, which I find interesting.

Vocals

I think this was one of the easiest songs for me to sing. Others can attest, vocals are hard to deliver well when recording. Even for those that can sing well (unlike me). There is something about when the button is pushed and the head set is on, just a strange situation. This songs vocal tracks were recorded pretty quickly with very few retakes. Even the harmony part on the section prior to the second chorus came easily. I did cheat a bit for the harmony track by playing the melody on piano as a throw away track. I have also come to the conclusion that a.) I may be getting better at singing more naturally and b.) my sense of melody sometimes over reach my ability to sing it.

The last several songs I have recorded were less ambitious with singing melodies and I think I am better for it. the current song I am recording is really really hard to sing. I am approaching it as just a big ole challenge. we’ll see what happens.

MIDI

I am starting to love the midi! This song is 21 tracks with about 10 or so being midi. There are seveal tracks that are just soft synth types that create a nice background wall on which the guitars and vocals are laid. I should really try to be more creative with those tracks, but I’m not. There one keyboard track more noticable and I can’t recall off hand what instrument it was, but I should look it up for later.

trenches and warfare

so sit back and enjoy this short little song…

4 Responses to “trenches and warfare”

Had a Revelation

So here is a song I just re-recorded. Originally recorded maybe two years ago, the original had some issues with hiss and a general “doesn’t sound very good” problem. I also lost the source files. It happens to also be one of my better songs, I think. So I decided to just re-track the whole damn thing. I’ve become more adept at producing this stuff, so i thought I’d give it an update. For the most part I didn’t change things around. It even uses the same drum track (the only thing left of the original).

This is my Stephen Malkmus song. I am a huge pavement fan and this song certainly reflects it.

Listen & Download Had a Revelation

About the Song

One of the few songs that actually means anything. I think of it as an anti-anthem. A warning to myself and others (specific or not) to not take ourselves too seriously. What you (I) are doing is not going to change anything and no one really cares. Happy stuff! I find it delightfully ironic that one of the few songs that have any serious thought into the lyrics rails against itself.

Lyrics

Not everyone is seen
You’re not the exception you thought you would be
Holding on to all those half brilliant tomes like the manufactured homes
with rooms to keep your luggage in

If they threw you half a boquet
You’d lay it down like the lion’s prey
Oh the comfort of those tiny hands a-clappin
Like the insects all a-thrashin
beneath the wind and the rain

And I had a revelation
and I thought that you would like to know
You wore a blank expression
As you watched yourself sinking like stone

You didn’t hear it from me
but I have it on such good authority
Only likes five minutes to say what you want but a lifetime
to try and explain what you mean

And I had a revelation
and I thought that you would like to know
You wore a blank expression
As you watched yourself sinking like stone

Music

The song is one of many written in some variation of D A C# F# A E. I became very familiar with this tuning and wrote a whole slue of songs in it. One thing I do on this song that I do quite often is to include the melody in the primary guitar part. Almost every note I sing is there. I like doing that because 1. It’s easier to sing and 2. sounds cool. I generally work on the melody and chord structures at the same time so it only makes sense combining them this way.

One thing that I did change was during the verses, I was playing harmonics. With an open tuning like this its easy to take advantage of open strings. So in each speaker I am playing harmonics in the notes the end on and the notes I’m singing usually coincide.

So song’s chord progressions are pretty standard though they are not played that way. I threw in one bizarre dissonant chord near the end for emphasis.

The lead guitar part at the end takes advantage of the tuning. It was very easy and natural to play half notes together to get a dissonant sound . It walks up a note at a time with a half note following. Gives it a muddy sound for lack of a better word. The last two times through the lead just plays a very simple descending run until it hits the base note. I then bend it up slowly and back down causing it to get lost for a second. It reminded my of one of my favorite pavement songs “grounded”.

I also added some keyboards to the mix. Mostly its just background stuff that makes up for no bass. One touch that I like is that at the end, i double the riff (or whatever you would call it. its not led zeppelin or anything) with a harp sound. I’m pleasantly surprised with how it sounds.

So enjoy…

Listen & Download Had a Revelation

2 Responses to “Had a Revelation”

Song #1: Closed Circuit

I’ve been going back and forth about what should be the first song to post. I have a couple of new songs that I have just finished. I have one that is almost done. Although that made sense, I decided to go with a song I recorded about 6 months ago. Why?

Download Closed Circuit

Closed Circuit captures pretty clearly where I am with writing songs right now. My “way of doing things” can be heard pretty clearly in this song. It’s also one of the first songs of recent times where I can honestly say I can’t think of any influences.

So, “my way of doing things”?

I will expand on these themes with other songs but here is a brief explaination.

Tunings: I generally write songs in alternate tunings. Not sure why. Part inspiration for my favorites artists like pavement, american music club and others. Partly boredom with standard tuning. This song was the first song written using FACFAE.

Exploration: With wacko tunings, comes the idea of songwriting as exploration. I basically made up the tuning as I was writing the song. eventually settling on a odd open F-ish tuning. One thing that i like about alternate tunings is that you rely more on your ear than your head. You listen and mess around till you come up with something interesting. There are some chords that I still don’t really know what they are. I don’t really care either. This song has a single note drone through almost the entire song.

Atmosphere: The song consists of three sections. Each section begins as basically a single guitar part, and as it progresses, crescendoed into a multi layered mess with multiple parts intertwining.

Lyrical content: I hate writing lyrics and honestly don’t have much to say to anyone about anything. I have relied on books for content lately. This song is based of the first 50 pages of “The Painted Bird” (Its as far as I could get due to the graphic cruelty of most characters). Its a murder ballad really. The novel is about a backwards inbred community and the horrendous things the do. The song is something of a reflection on the dangers of not engaging in those that differ with out. Maybe an issue in today’s culture?

Download Closed Circuit

So have a listen and please let me know what you think.

kebab

One Response to “Song #1: Closed Circuit”