It's Ash... and Blown Away
Friday, January 06, 2006
Sometimes it's easy and other times it's not. This could well apply to anything; I could even apply it to brushing my teeth (but won't go into that). I'm referring to writing songs of course. Songs will occasionally just drop out like they've been there all along, only needing a speck of dust to be dislodged before they fall. Other songs, like Ash, and Blown Away, have to be dragged kicking and screaming. I'll never say that the end result of either process is better than the other, and in the case of Ash, and Blown Away it simply hasn't settled for long enough for me to make a call.
This one started a few weeks ago with the idea that I could record some chimes, find a loopable part and run that the length of a song. I had nothing beyond that; no notes, no words, no mood even. I recorded the chimes, found the loopable part and looped it. Success. I then grabbed what used to be the top of a cafe-style table (the base of which perished in the rain way up the backyard in Toowong). Upon discovering the incredible sound this thing made when it was struck or shook I added it to the studio. It's more frequently been a hazard than an instrument; I've cut my fingers and my feet on it more times than I've recorded it. I recorded myself hitting it with a pen, doubled it, reverse engineered it and ran it along with the chime loop. I thought it sounded great, but I still didn't have any notes - and they are fairly important. I postponed the getting of notes by recording a dodgy drum beat from the Hammond and setting it to the tempo of the song. And that is where I left it. It was too hot and I couldn't think with sweat pouring out every pore.
I returned to the song a week later and again was uninspired. If I didn't have to find notes for things then everything would be simple.
Add another week, some pressure to compose and yet more hot hot weather (but this time with a fan in the studio) and Ash, And Blown Away takes the opportunity I knew it'd been waiting for. I scrapped the tabletop loop, and the Hammond drums in favour of some drums that sound like they're straight off Bjork's Homogenic. I recorded a little melody using a glockenspeil sound on the K5000 - then had to work out what I'd played when I deemed it a sufficiently catchy base for the song. I built the song up using mainly guitars. This I find funny because I'm not a guitarist - I play guitar adequately but am really a keyboardist. I think in terms of black and white notes and scales that can only be played one way, and how there is only one middle C on a piano not 3. Regardless of my skill level I seem to be favouring guitar based things at the moment. I made the sound using the old Zoom 2020, which is normally so temperamental that the instant a distortion patch is selected it craps itself. It must have been a good day (!) as it let me use distortion AS WELL as tremolo, delay, reverb, eq. I used the same sound for all parts (that's 2 lower, 2 effect-type parts, 2 high and 2 slide parts). Hey, it works on this song. Listen now: (And it's time for a new paragraph anyway.)
Ash, and Blown Away Sample (Chorus 1) 752kb
Vanessa hits the highest note she's ever hit (bar one - a tone above in Edge Of A Cloud). She really spits it out, which is exactly what the song needs. Despite the fact that I hadn't even finished writing the song when she arrived (the bare Floyd-ish organ section in the middle is still not finished) we have managed something that resembles a song. Once Vanessa and I listened to the instrumental I gave her the first verse and she toddled off outside to write a melody while I sat in the studio and wrote the remaining verse lyrics. We recorded the verses but still didn't have a chorus. Vanessa went through her books but couldn't find anything suitable so I went through mine a stumbled on some words I'd written originally for Serpent. They were full of Serpent references - 'When you come and when you go' and teddy bears etc - but a couple of lines worked for Ash, and Blown Away so I poached them. And we recorded them.
After some detailed work on the vocal delays and a quick mix we ended up finishing early. Go figure. Maybe we should rush things more often. The final weight is 7:34.
As much as I'm enjoying the speed at which we're working I am feeling a bit hollow about some of the content. It feels to me like every song we've done in the last little while is like a Peter Jackson film - big and grand but with no substance. I don't think they sound like that to a listener and that's important, but it's also important that Vanessa and I have an attachment to the songs, that we put in something more than formula. Witht hat in mind I'm going to spend some time writing the words before the session and allow the words to dictate how the song sounds. Just like old times. I understand that this is a dangerous paragraph, tearing my own work apart in a public area, but someone will do it - it might as well be me. And I'm not saying that I don't like what we've done, I just don't have the same attachment to it compared with some other things I've done.
Next on the list is completing Wish I Were Here by cutting it back from 8 minutes to something more realistic and writing a faster song. Yes, a faster song.
This one started a few weeks ago with the idea that I could record some chimes, find a loopable part and run that the length of a song. I had nothing beyond that; no notes, no words, no mood even. I recorded the chimes, found the loopable part and looped it. Success. I then grabbed what used to be the top of a cafe-style table (the base of which perished in the rain way up the backyard in Toowong). Upon discovering the incredible sound this thing made when it was struck or shook I added it to the studio. It's more frequently been a hazard than an instrument; I've cut my fingers and my feet on it more times than I've recorded it. I recorded myself hitting it with a pen, doubled it, reverse engineered it and ran it along with the chime loop. I thought it sounded great, but I still didn't have any notes - and they are fairly important. I postponed the getting of notes by recording a dodgy drum beat from the Hammond and setting it to the tempo of the song. And that is where I left it. It was too hot and I couldn't think with sweat pouring out every pore.I returned to the song a week later and again was uninspired. If I didn't have to find notes for things then everything would be simple.
Add another week, some pressure to compose and yet more hot hot weather (but this time with a fan in the studio) and Ash, And Blown Away takes the opportunity I knew it'd been waiting for. I scrapped the tabletop loop, and the Hammond drums in favour of some drums that sound like they're straight off Bjork's Homogenic. I recorded a little melody using a glockenspeil sound on the K5000 - then had to work out what I'd played when I deemed it a sufficiently catchy base for the song. I built the song up using mainly guitars. This I find funny because I'm not a guitarist - I play guitar adequately but am really a keyboardist. I think in terms of black and white notes and scales that can only be played one way, and how there is only one middle C on a piano not 3. Regardless of my skill level I seem to be favouring guitar based things at the moment. I made the sound using the old Zoom 2020, which is normally so temperamental that the instant a distortion patch is selected it craps itself. It must have been a good day (!) as it let me use distortion AS WELL as tremolo, delay, reverb, eq. I used the same sound for all parts (that's 2 lower, 2 effect-type parts, 2 high and 2 slide parts). Hey, it works on this song. Listen now: (And it's time for a new paragraph anyway.)
Ash, and Blown Away Sample (Chorus 1) 752kbVanessa hits the highest note she's ever hit (bar one - a tone above in Edge Of A Cloud). She really spits it out, which is exactly what the song needs. Despite the fact that I hadn't even finished writing the song when she arrived (the bare Floyd-ish organ section in the middle is still not finished) we have managed something that resembles a song. Once Vanessa and I listened to the instrumental I gave her the first verse and she toddled off outside to write a melody while I sat in the studio and wrote the remaining verse lyrics. We recorded the verses but still didn't have a chorus. Vanessa went through her books but couldn't find anything suitable so I went through mine a stumbled on some words I'd written originally for Serpent. They were full of Serpent references - 'When you come and when you go' and teddy bears etc - but a couple of lines worked for Ash, and Blown Away so I poached them. And we recorded them.
After some detailed work on the vocal delays and a quick mix we ended up finishing early. Go figure. Maybe we should rush things more often. The final weight is 7:34.
As much as I'm enjoying the speed at which we're working I am feeling a bit hollow about some of the content. It feels to me like every song we've done in the last little while is like a Peter Jackson film - big and grand but with no substance. I don't think they sound like that to a listener and that's important, but it's also important that Vanessa and I have an attachment to the songs, that we put in something more than formula. Witht hat in mind I'm going to spend some time writing the words before the session and allow the words to dictate how the song sounds. Just like old times. I understand that this is a dangerous paragraph, tearing my own work apart in a public area, but someone will do it - it might as well be me. And I'm not saying that I don't like what we've done, I just don't have the same attachment to it compared with some other things I've done.
Next on the list is completing Wish I Were Here by cutting it back from 8 minutes to something more realistic and writing a faster song. Yes, a faster song.
