Alex AMES — Writer, Singer, Songwriter
Turned out to be a bit heavy on the electronics, but why not. Today’s no-more-Tuesdays Tuesday. Excuses, Excuses is the last Tuesday song in the series!!!
Another quick production. Sat down around 8:00 p.m. and was all done shortly before 10:00 p.m. A-Z. The lyrics are sloppy again, extremely sloppy (“let the horse of truth out of its stable”? WTF.?)
Learnings: Maybe invest ten more minutes in proper lyrics tomorrow!
Got a little carried away with the synths in the end but basically the way I intended it to be.
This one was a quick one. 8:00 p.m. sit down with no idea and no preconception. At 10:00 p.m. all over and done. Tidbit: the accoustic guitar bit that sounds like a loop is indeed one continious track.
Learning: Luckily I made sure I got the key right this time. Otherwise the refrain wouldn’t have worked.
Today’s song pretty much came out the way I wanted. The production value is not great and I had hoped to improve the guitar sound a little bit and ran out of time. Story of this project.
Late afternoon: tinkered around with the chords and the story line
6:00 p.m. - Sat down to write the lyrics from A-Z
9:00 p.m. - Recording starts with an hour interruption. Guitar and vocals came first, then everything else. There is an inexplanable hick-up in the first beat of the refrain but when I look at the MIDI data everything looks fine. Ghost in the machine.
11:45 p.m. - Mixing starts and proceeds quickly. First bounce already is good enough to proceed on.
Learnings: None.
While jogging this afternoon I heard an old song by Randy Newman. Don’t recall the title, but the piano play inspired me for The Price of Love. This one has strong verse but super weak to no exisiting refrain. I apologize. I stole the bridge, too, from an earlier song.
Writing started at 9:00 p.m., recording at 9:30 with a straight run to 11:00. I always wanted to use that gospel sample, that itch is so over now.
Learning: Take better care of your refrain. Find a fxxxing melody, Ames!
It’s already late at night, so I skip a long note.
Started writing around 7.30 p.m., recording at 9:30 p.m. and the bounce to harddisk was at 11:05.
Learning: None today.
In Our Time is a song composed and recorded today, just as my One Day One Song Challenges dictates. However, the song had been stuck in my brain for a long town now. That is, the refrain including the hook and the arrangement. I wanted it to sound like an old Van Morrisson song, approx. No Guru No Method No Teacher phase.
The song started out at 6 p.m. when I sat down before my piano and gave the song a try. I had the song in my brain beforehand but not the words. I knew, I wanted it to be a song of the end of my own youth. Highschool almost over, the next stages of our lives in front of us, but having a good time.
9:00 p.m. - After the usual dinner break, back in the studio. The B3 organ took all of fifteen minutes as a basetrack, ten minutes for the bass track. Then added the first runthrough of vocals. The horn section was a bit more elaborate. I had to compose the little refrain booster, then played it on the (virtual) saxophone, copied the tracks and transposed them for trumpet and baritone sax. My own little horn section. To make it fuller I added the six-piece Memphis horn section on top.
10:15 p.m. - Background vocals. In the key of F I am stuck with my range one-sidedly, it only goes up, not down. Why didn’t i go to the key of A? A mystery.
11:15 p.m. - Song done. Actually, I am quite happy with the result. “Fetzig” as Germans might say. Shoot, I just missed Champion’s League.
Learnings:
Write better. I missed several lines because I couldn’t read my handwriting.
Do not record the song in the key you wrote it in. Optimize for vocal range!!!
