Throughout the week I’ve been thinking of a beat and sound of a Bob Dylan or John Wesley Harding (aka Wesley Stace) track, but when I created the simple beat, with bass drum & snare, and added some piano, I heard a more CeeLo Green, soulful sound bubbling to the surface. I’m not sure that I have the vocal chops to pull off what I’m hearing in my head, but that didn’t stop me from trying 🙂
I also added some cymbal and tom on a separate track. Not sure that it adds much, but it’s all part of the process.
Here’s the second sketch. Let me know how ridiculous my “high-reaching” attempts sound.
I remember talking with a friend a few years back about art being about communication. While I hesitate to call what I create “art,” I’m definitely trying to communicate &, perhaps ideally (or even idealistically?), promote a social bond.
The idea and flourish of lyrics for “Can We Talk?” came pretty quickly. The following songs came to mind: War’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”, XTC’s “No Language in Our Lungs,” and even Triumph’s “Lay It on the Line.” It could make an interesting mashup. (Others came to mind, but some in title only: King Crimson’s “Elephant Talk” (I remembered Adrian Belew’s vocalizing of “Talk”), Tears for Fears’ “Shout,” & Spandau Ballet’s “Communication”).
Those of you who know me will not be surprised with the XTC reference, but I don’t think that I’ve ever written a song that sounded anything like them. Mostly I guess I’m trying to sound like me – with the hope that someone else might get something out of these selfish acts of indulgence.
Let’s start the conversation. (I’ve posted the initial lyrical ideas below & an initial taste of the musical idea which seemed to come out Jethro Tull-ish or even a might like Cat Stevens).
-UndebatEd
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Can We Talk?
While I might not sing beautifully
Will you listen anyway?
Is across the aisle
Out of reach?
If we can’t be friends
Perhaps we can at least negotiate
I’ll lay it right there on the line
While trying not to cross it
I’ve gone to eleven. With a flurry of activity this morning, I’ve proclaimed the resulting output “Pop Start (Demo).”
I started with only the drum beat I created previously. My sense from the last go ’round was that the bass & drum were the strength of this one, so I simplified what I was playing on bass and made sure it would “line up” with what I expected to sing – I almost achieved that. 🙂
With a bit of improvisation on the amount of times I repeated certain phrases, I recorded the main vocal twice (panned one track left, the other right) as per a previous suggestion I received.
I then recorded some box drum and let it just percolate in the background for color. I recorded two tracks of background vocals – also panning as with the lead and for additional color.
I’m still really finding my way with the compression & reverb settings. I used compression & equalization on the bass track, compression only on the box drum and compression plus reverb on the vocal. Results on SoundCloud via link below.
There is a little “noise” in there. I’ll need to track it down and be more careful going forward.
My muse visited this morning, between sleep & wakefulness – as is its wont. Trying to get all the thoughts down before they evaporate
Listened to my latest sketch of “Pop Start” in the car and I was really happy with the bass and drum sound – the vocals? Not so much.
Potential added instrumentation: Ideally vibraphone, but may substitute.
Idea to add “Pop Start” vocally – twice at the end of a section/verse. Something like the “buhm, buhm” in The Association’s “Cherish.”
I also heard this minor, MTV (novelty?) from Adrian Belew and thought I wouldn’t mind being in this spectrum. Fun stuff!
Ideas for the album title floated in my brain as well:
“I’m in”
“In” (Like the 2-word Peter Gabriel titles -“So”, Us”, “Up”)
“Self-ish” or Self (ish)
Then I thought I had it: “Self Player” A play on Long Player. But then I thought it was alluding to a Bobby McFerrin type work or even worse, an innuendo.
Mind changed it to “Self Record” and I think I have a working title. I like the many possible meanings and picture myself on the cover at a microphone, wearing an athlete’s number/pinny (maybe too close to Olympics right now).
Studio Time: I tried an early morning session that may have some decent pieces. I recorded some box drum for what I though might be the vibraphone part & I thought I could re-use the bass, but I think it went along to closely with what I sang in the last version. I tried 2 new vocals tracks with some phrasing ideas & I ended up with the below (Sketch 2).
Pop Starting with the idea of a beat somewhere between Philadelphia’s own Toni Basil’s “Mickey” & Peter Gabriel’s “Intruder” – I set out to play this morning. Maybe I could get Phil Collins to produce this one and do something like he did for ABBA’s Frida:
I managed to get one iteration of the drum beat down (using the computer keyboard). I then recorded two vocal tracks. I think some of the vocal phrasing sounds a little in the Depeche “Mode,” but I thought of all sorts of songs while recording this: Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up”, The Go-Gos’ “We Got the Beat”, The Knack’s “My Sharona” are the ones that come to mind. I meandered through various bass ideas and put them to disk as well.
Below is my sketch – slightly over the 3-minute mark.
As I near the completion of my raw material, I thought that when I start working on these tracks “for real,” I may work on more than one track at once. I feel if that may lead to a more consistent sound for the tracks as opposed to working on one at a time.
I think this next song started, just this morning, as “Pop Song Wannabee” then morphed into “Pop Star Wannabee with a Pop Song Reject” and, finally, stealing a title from a mix CD I made for friends a couple of years back, “Pop Start.” Here are the initial lyrics and a link to just me singing the initial idea:
Pop Start
I may be too old
To get my pop start
If I play a pop song
And there aren’t any listeners
Will it still hit?
Nobody’s spinning it
Not a one
It has no number
On the jukebox or chart
Does it have to be Popular
To pop?
3 minutes or less
With a sha la la
Or an ooh, ooh wheee
If this/that isn’t pop
What is?
I have put Demo number 10 (All My Flaws) in the fermentation chamber (link below – to the song, not the chamber). I’m satisfied with what I have for now and will let my subconscious work on it – perhaps I’ll give a listen here and there with the thought of nudging further ideas for lyrics and whatnot.
I played acoustic guitar over the foundation. Then sang over it all and took the best, or at least my favorite, piece of it and adjusted the individual volumes and applied compression, equalization and reverb to the vocal track.
I used the gain information for the “sweet spot” level from the article I mentioned in a previous post during creation of the song, but I do find that the volume level, in general, is very low. I need to play around with that as it was difficult to get a good mix in my headphones while “playing along” to the previously recorded tracks.
Note: I cut and pasted to create the intro and “outro” which is a little rough.
