Wish I Was There
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Amendment: Since I wrote this post the song has been finished but with lyrics different to what we had in mind. As a result we've changed the name of the song to "Bare Foot In The Grass" and are holding over the title "Wish I Were Here" for something else. It goes without saying now that all references in this post to "Wish I Were Here" should be read as if it says "Bare Foot In The Grass".
These things are bound to happen really, aren't they. Yesterday Vanessa and I had planned to have session number 2 and walk away with song number 2. It didn't pan out quite how we'd anticipated. I told Vanessa to not even bother coming.
After waiting in the city for Allans to open (for 2 hours) my resistence to all-things-shiny-and-new had been sufficiently beaten into the ground. I needed to buy some new strings and as it turned out they came attached to a new Epiphone. Oops. I arrived at the studio about 10am expecting to get straight to work on House. After listening to what I've already done on it a few times I realised I wasn't ready, or it wasn't ready, or we both just weren't ready to commit to a day together. I stuffed around with some other things and eventually settled on a little song I only had lyrics for called Wish I Were Here. Have a listen and we'll talk.
Bare Foot In The Grass Demo Sample (Instrumental Section) 779kb
What you heard there is the only part of the song so far that has any dynamic to it. The whole thing needs an overhaul, but it's not as disappointing as I first thought. Overall the song needs more of everything. More brightness and darkness, more shifting, more change. In its current form it is probably the most boring 8 minute song I've heard.
I recorded the Hammond first. Yes, it's all real Hammond, with a Leslie and everything. The funny thing I find about recording the Hammond in stereo is that when the Leslie is on but you're not playing anything and you're ready to go with the headhphones on the noise of the speaker sounds like someone sharpening a knife through your head. It's quite a bizarre sound and I do plan to record just that sound sometime, provided I can get enough gain out of it. The Hammond runs the whole way through the song - something that might need to be revised. I put down the electric guitars next, using the new one run through just a little bit of EQ, but played twice and panned hard left and right in the usual fashion. There are two basses on this track. One tuned down to a low low low A and the other at normal tuning. Hohner electric piano and other wiggly synth things followed. Lastly the blip was added - and despite it probably being easier to cut and paste a couple of them I did indeed play each and every blip.
The drums are the cause of most of my frustration with this song at the moment. What you hear in the clip are the same drums we used when we recorded Invisible for Serpent, not that it made it on. Coupled with a similar tempo, chord movement and arrangement all I can hear is Invisible. And it's driving me nuts! I experimented with some electronic drums but they didn't quite work either; far too poppy - it was starting to sound like a George Michael song. I haven't found a solution yet but am determined that this song won't fall to the side.
Reverb is something I have very particular tastes in at the moment. When I was little, with my 4 track and Zoom 505, I'd turn the reverb all the way up and put it on anything I could. Live, I would always be asked to "Turn off the reverb Tim, no-one can understand what she's singing!" Upon recording something for the first time in a proper studio when I was 15 I asked for the reverb to be turned up and up again. Still, at the Conservatorium, I was fascinated by big lush reverbs. You know the kind, reverbs you can really hear. I find though, that I'm not too fond of reverb much anymore. Well, that's not quite true, I love it, but I hate to hear it. I find I'm constantly striving to get lush sounds using reverb without hearing the reverb itself. I can't stand to hear that synthesised air around everything, but still want it to have space. Generally cutting the tops off the reverb works a treat, but I'm becoming more and more sensitive to it.
We've got another session planned for a fortnight, and I'll be putting in some work on Wish I Were Here between now and then so with any luck it can be all finished!
These things are bound to happen really, aren't they. Yesterday Vanessa and I had planned to have session number 2 and walk away with song number 2. It didn't pan out quite how we'd anticipated. I told Vanessa to not even bother coming.
After waiting in the city for Allans to open (for 2 hours) my resistence to all-things-shiny-and-new had been sufficiently beaten into the ground. I needed to buy some new strings and as it turned out they came attached to a new Epiphone. Oops. I arrived at the studio about 10am expecting to get straight to work on House. After listening to what I've already done on it a few times I realised I wasn't ready, or it wasn't ready, or we both just weren't ready to commit to a day together. I stuffed around with some other things and eventually settled on a little song I only had lyrics for called Wish I Were Here. Have a listen and we'll talk.
Bare Foot In The Grass Demo Sample (Instrumental Section) 779kbWhat you heard there is the only part of the song so far that has any dynamic to it. The whole thing needs an overhaul, but it's not as disappointing as I first thought. Overall the song needs more of everything. More brightness and darkness, more shifting, more change. In its current form it is probably the most boring 8 minute song I've heard.
I recorded the Hammond first. Yes, it's all real Hammond, with a Leslie and everything. The funny thing I find about recording the Hammond in stereo is that when the Leslie is on but you're not playing anything and you're ready to go with the headhphones on the noise of the speaker sounds like someone sharpening a knife through your head. It's quite a bizarre sound and I do plan to record just that sound sometime, provided I can get enough gain out of it. The Hammond runs the whole way through the song - something that might need to be revised. I put down the electric guitars next, using the new one run through just a little bit of EQ, but played twice and panned hard left and right in the usual fashion. There are two basses on this track. One tuned down to a low low low A and the other at normal tuning. Hohner electric piano and other wiggly synth things followed. Lastly the blip was added - and despite it probably being easier to cut and paste a couple of them I did indeed play each and every blip.The drums are the cause of most of my frustration with this song at the moment. What you hear in the clip are the same drums we used when we recorded Invisible for Serpent, not that it made it on. Coupled with a similar tempo, chord movement and arrangement all I can hear is Invisible. And it's driving me nuts! I experimented with some electronic drums but they didn't quite work either; far too poppy - it was starting to sound like a George Michael song. I haven't found a solution yet but am determined that this song won't fall to the side.
Reverb is something I have very particular tastes in at the moment. When I was little, with my 4 track and Zoom 505, I'd turn the reverb all the way up and put it on anything I could. Live, I would always be asked to "Turn off the reverb Tim, no-one can understand what she's singing!" Upon recording something for the first time in a proper studio when I was 15 I asked for the reverb to be turned up and up again. Still, at the Conservatorium, I was fascinated by big lush reverbs. You know the kind, reverbs you can really hear. I find though, that I'm not too fond of reverb much anymore. Well, that's not quite true, I love it, but I hate to hear it. I find I'm constantly striving to get lush sounds using reverb without hearing the reverb itself. I can't stand to hear that synthesised air around everything, but still want it to have space. Generally cutting the tops off the reverb works a treat, but I'm becoming more and more sensitive to it.
We've got another session planned for a fortnight, and I'll be putting in some work on Wish I Were Here between now and then so with any luck it can be all finished!
