notes on a new song
I was writing some notes in eSession for two musicians in the US who are shortly going to play some overdubs on a song for my album. I imagined reading these notes without first hearing the song, and they are rather intriguing! So here they are, for your puzzlement:
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Although the style tends towards a country/folk/Americana lament, I want it to be ethereal and rise above any genre comparisons. It’s in that style because that might be the favourite music of the protagonists, but as a narrator I’m English (obviously) so it should be timeless and genre-less. Try to avoid clichés!
The exception may be the later instrumental solo sections (labelled Solo and Bridge Solo). In Solo I might use a pair of Cape Breton fiddlers and even a banjo, and it’ll have a fresh kinda Ceilidh knees-up feel to it. The Bridge Solo section should rock out more. It’s worth trying a pedal steel solo in there; though I should warn you, I’m trying to locate Mark Knopfler so I can ask him to play in that bit, as I think he would kill it! plus he’s another Brit with a history of narrating epic American tales (Sailing to Philadelphia etc.)
As such, the acoustic and guide piano may end up being ditched or low in the mix, in favor of more abstract sounds to suggest the chords; they are a bit unimaginative, yet the E chords do need some movement in them, perhaps the pedal steel lines and the odd high bass run can provide this.
We weren’t able to get the bass figure legato enough yet, but it should really be silky smooth. Some of the notes might be harmonics if they’re available. There is something about the bass figure plus piano that is almost Eno-ambient, and I want to build on that, picking simple notes and motifs that combine nicely.
The ‘Verse’ section is the most down-to-earth and streetlike. The couple are briefly happy and in love, before it all turns tragic.
Chorus 4, where the girl dies, could support some slightly more dissonant elements.
The ‘Spaceout’ section should be very dreamy. I’d like it to suggest seagulls, foghorns and lapping water, without actually resorting to using sound effects. There may be very abstract and surreal elements, even a string quartet, a bit Strawberry Fields-like. His life is flashing before his eyes, he’s half-drowned, clinging to a log in the freezing waters, trying to make it through the fog to the City, or just away. But his girl is dead, so he’s beyond caring.
It’s ok for the sections to be quite different. If you think in movie terms, it’s like a movie that cuts around, has flashbacks etc. a bit like Shawshank Redemption. In fact, the image of Tim Robbins emerging from the storm drain into a stream and shaking the rain off as he realises he’s finally free, is a good image for the song.
I tend to do a lot of cutting and pasting, moving things around, so it’s fine if you give me a straightish take or two, and others where you go really out on a limb with bits I can try relocating in odd places. Moving a lick over a chord designed for often gives me something I never would have thought of!
This song sounds… EPIC! It’s like the whole world is being carefully tucked into a neat little box. Very intriguing, can’t wait to hear what all this is actually referring to!!
What musicians are having to interpret this?!?!
Keep the process summaries coming!
Beech
Utterly absorbing and hugely grateful for the insight you are giving us to your music Thomas. It really is a great privilege I feel, to have these notes. Without hearing the song its clear to see that the scope and depth of your writing is going to give us all something very special to listen to when its ready.
Thank you,
Andrew
Wetbacks?
There should be “It was a dark & stormy night” quality about the sound, only with a hail of alien spaceships decending. Picture huge clouds of violent green with touches of purple. The time period should be Pre-Raphaelite, but with most of the people dressed as if they were in a film noir movie. Add a huge violin orchestra (at least 150) in a bowling alley. Then a roar from a gigantic pack of Harley-Davidson motorcycles at full-throttle, coming down a highway in Death Valley. There should be a bridge, performed by a nose-harp somewhere in there.
But make it light & airy.
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Warning guitarists that they may be replaced by Mark Knopfler is always a good way to motivate them to do their best
.
Thanks again for sharing this stuff with us. I can tell you that it’s your blog that has made me into one of your “1,000 true fans” over the last year or so.
Good lord man, that’s all for one song?!!?! Epic is the word for it,
all right! And dramatic as well…possibly emotionally harrowing…
like reading one of those long, long books that I love so much–
Vikram Seth’s “A Suitable Boy”, for example. Sounds utterly
absorbing, Thomas! I’m salivating in anticipation over here!
Peace and limitless depth,
Kara
p.s. Happy birthday tomorrow, Thomas! Have a great day!!
Oh wait, it’s ALREADY tomorrow in Merrie Olde England! So, just
plain Happy Big One, mon ami!
Silly Kara
if you want abstract, surreal, soundscape guitar/lap steel/mando sounds, get a hold of the master – jeff pevar (CSN, ray charles, cocker, carly) at http://www.pevar.com/
check out his vastly under-the-radar CDs with Crosby, Pevar & Raymond.
A
jk
Happy Birthday !
It reads really well as a description and sets the imagination going in so many directions, it unwinds like a video but does make you laugh when you look at the whole thing and think ‘ one song ?’.
I’ve bought albums with less ideas.
Thanks for sharing this Thomas – oblique glimpses into your recording process like this are priceless – -and Happy Birthday – tante auguri per te!
p.s. nice one Wadcorp! : )
Have you been listening to Gordon Lightfoot?
Wow, the description of a sonic landscape in such detail brings wonderful images to mind, Thomas; thanks for giving us a glimpse into this creative world. My appetite is well and truly whetted for your forthcoming new release!
P.S Happy Birthday! We’re raising a glass (or three) in your honour! Any excuse, really!!
Thanks so much, Thomas, for the glimpse behind the curtain. And if you’re going to use any Cape Breton fiddlers, one of them MUST be Ashley Macisaac. I can hardly wait to hear this piece!
Well, thank you! A wonderful description. Now I can’t wait for the new album to be released!
No, don’t fret. I will wait, some more. And more, if I have to.
If you were Bryan Ferry… No, that’s another story. Sorry, but he’s my First Love.
))
And you my Third.
But on the top of my list of “have-to-buy-hi/er/s-new-CD”…
P.S.
How can it be, that I’m the first to comment since your Birthday!? Hope it’s been a good year so far.
It’s funny in retrospect how much of this makes sense now that the song has been released. You are truly a craftsman, Thomas. It is one of the things I like most about you and your music. So much music nowadays is ‘designed and built for effect’ rather than crafted – Product, rather than art.