February - The Price of Love

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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!

February - In Our Time

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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!!!

February - Sleeping Dogs

Heard “Florence and the Machine” on random shuffle during work today and got stuck on “Queen of Peace”. A song full of Waterboy-ish scenes and a great snare drum section. I had this song in mind when I sat down today. But in the end it turned out to be something completely different. That’s why I love writing novels and writing music. One Day One Song Challenge struck again!

Sat down around 6 p.m. to get an idea what would be in store for me. Had this structure in mind with a strong solo snare after the refrain. And a power refrain. Verse one and refrain flew from my pen quickly. Did some reshuffling and stopped for dinner.

9:00 p.m. - Found the last necessary chord progressions and wrote verses two and three. Don’t know where this anmial comparision came from. The cat’s nine lives got the axe, though. As did the worm.

9:20 p.m. - Recording starts with the drummer AI. I found the 2-down Motown beat and that was that. Did the piano chord progressions first, just as a base track.

10:30 p.m. - Basic recording done. I tune-correct some vocals and start tinkering with the horn section, take away a lot of other stuff to make the song airy.

11:15 p.m. - Mixing starts. Difficult this time as the production is a bit overloaded. Took a lot of compressor and EQ tuning to make the sound worth it.

11:30 p.m. - Mastering. First attempt ok. Song done at 11:35

Learnings: None, too tired today.

February - Stripe

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One Day One Song Challenge kicks off with #15. Mondays I need something less challenging. Came up with this one and I find it came out well.

One more of those songs where I went into the basement at 9:00 p.m. without any preconception of what I wanted to achieve today. Only that I wanted to create something less production heavy. Guitar capodaster to 5th fret to bring good resonance in instrument and vocals. Some strumming. Song taking shape from that one chord. The version of the song that came out eventually is a quiet one. But at the same time “Stripe” could be a shuffle rocker.

9:20 p.m. - Started recording. Tried first without a cue track, gave up. Ran the cue in three attempts to complete. Added the guitar track and the vocals.

10:00 p.m. - Basic song is done. Threw out the accoustic guitar in favor of my good old sampled guitar. Added piano and outro synth soundscape.

10:45 p.m. - Mixing and mastering started. Added only a limiter this time. Equalized longer than normal on the vocals to bring out a better me. Added stereo-width for the vocal with two 10 second reverbs.

10:55 p.m. - Bouncing.

23:00 p.m. - Song done.

February - Fast Forward

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Number 14 of 28. Midpoint. Man, the songs still keep on coming. This time a little upbeat. Production-wise I am quite happy, the lyrics are sloppy, though.

Late night dinner is waiting, so I won’t go too much into detail. As today is Sunday, I had a litte more time than usual for the song. Started writing it around 5:30 p.m., started recording at 6:00 p.m. and with interruptions layered the song until 9:30 p.m. Mixing was straightforward this time, gave it a little bit more headroom than usual. Done at 9:45.

Learnings: Balance better the quality of song and lyrics.