Fishing for a Chorus Worth Keeping

"Nemo" is the name of the song that was conceived about 5 years ago now. As with all of Kj's songs - it started out in the 'folk' arena with the intention that when played back all on its own with just vocals and acoustic - it would hold up on its own.  This is the approach we've taken with every song so far.

The lyrical content was inspired by Kj's reading of 20 000 Leagues Under The Sea.  He really embraced the view of the captain and his goal of living beneath the sea as far away from the corrupt ambition of humanity.  So there's some weight in this tune.  The chorus needed(s) to really stand out on this song.

The elements of the chorus have been scribed for some time now.  However the time signature of 4/4 just didn't have any impact.  As the nautical literature for Kj's inspiration on this song, i too have drifted to a nautical literary works - Moby Dick.  And let me tell you - this chorus is my 'White Whale'.

When Kj and I recorded the demo's in my basement a long while ago - i pushed to re-write the chorus in 5/4.  It really changed the song's attitude.  It was big improvement - but one that has always not sat well with me.  5/4 is very specific and when applied with an alt-rock tempo - it can be at times 'cliche'.

It sounded good, but we discussed as group that we didn't want to do what was 'easiest'. So again - the chorus needed to be re-worked

My recent purchase of a Korg - SDD 3000 digital delay unit was the inspiration behind now what is a 6/4 chorus - think of an exaggerated waltz tempo. I was attempting to replicate the riff done in the previous 5/4 but with all the extra time now added - i had to change it up.  A happy accident happened in the  studio when I unintentionally hit an extra note.  It delayed magnificently through the effects chain.  Ten minutes spent working out this discovery and we had the new chorus riff.  Mike tracked some drums to test it out and with some twee-zing  we got it!


A few listens the next day and Mike and I discussed it and went back into the studio to track it officially.  The new Korg dialed in with its frequency oscillation on the repeats really help with the feel of bobbing in the water.  Mike's percussive builds really add the weight necessary for this track.

Each chorus builds with additional guitars adding to an explosive ending to the song.

All that's left now is to work out the old guitar solo on the new time signature. But based on some recent Instagram pictures - i think Mike has other ideas for it.  I can't wait.

What i learned so far from this particular song construction - sure it's great to do something conventional - but it's far more rewarding to really dive in,  rip convention apart and re-build. The effort is well worth it.

Droppin the Bass

Managed to sneak away to the studio the other night.
 
With some help from MC we nailed down the bass part for the next song of the recording project.

Tracked it a few times and we believe we have got a few good takes that are keepers.

It's very minimalist and very tonal.

It gives the song a lot of breathing room.   It's a fairly intimate song so the bass should compliment KJ's vocals very nicely.

This is one of my most creative bass parts I've crafted to date.

I don't purport to be a bass player.  I'm a guitar player attempting to play bass.  Not having any experience on the 4 string the consensus among the group is that I can potentially come up with non-standard 'go to' bass lines.

So far so good.

Cosmic Seam Is Tracked

Our first song is completed and no more is to be recorded for it.  It is ready for editing and mixing.  We spent the last session adding a few sprinkles of guitar notes here and there.

Of possible interest to the audio geeks - we borrowed a technique from Mutt Lang and Brian May.  You see some of us have been on a Def Leppard Hysteria kick for the last month and we've been watching a lot of the behind the scenes action of how that classic album was recorded.

One little nugget we came across was recording little guitar noodles. Mutt Lang made them track each  note  separately. The result of this time consuming process was that no note would be cut off or muted if it was on the same string.  Each note would have the same sustain.

I had a little 3 note run we wanted to record with this technique.  To make it official - Mike dug out an original Rockman X100 guitar amp simulator - the same one they used for the recording of the guitars in Hysteria.

To take a it a step further - we did it twice.We ping ponged the notes so each note is either left channeled or right channeled (ala Brian May).

Once that was completed - there was one 'space note' we needed to end the track with.  Ken was up to pluck harmonics on both low and high 'E' strings.  One set of notes.  Pretty easy right?  Unless you were up against a practical joke that would make it near impossible to get it right.

You see - we had a separate track up in the mix that made some guitar noise shortly after the spot where Ken had to hit his mark.  Every take - he thought he screwed up.  I figure this went on for about 8 tries before he caught on.

Let's just call it studio initiating.

Oh yeah - I snuck into the studio early in the week to lay down the bass tracks.  It didn't take Ken long to figure this out upon playback.  He was crushed - but as always - a good sport about it.   I think he's earned his lumps and is now fully and completely a studio musician.

Prep work for the next tune has already begun and Mike hopes to have the drums tracked for next week's session.