keys are on the way.
This groove’s got some pop to it.
Been playing guitar all day. It’s been a blast. Still thinking about the vocals for LDA. Will I have a chorus, or just rock it solo?
The chord progression for Fun de Mental is evolving. Some B section riffs came to me in the past couple weeks too.
Not much more to say, because music isn’t words.
I spent most of the day jamming on Love Don’t Ask. I tinkered with the bass line and settled on the overall song form (for now, at least). What’s kind of surprising when I heard everything together in draft state for the first time is a certain source of inspiration that was anything but conscious but not altogether bizarre. It’s B.B. King. Being a guitarist and having been drawn to blues– sometimes quite strongly– it’s not totally unusual that I’d hear King’s chops as I plugged away at my composition. Still, it’s a bit strange– or at least unexpected.
I believe I mentioned that unexpected sources of inspiration surfaced for ZLT too. Guitar-wise, I didn’t realize until I was well into the project just how I was hearing undertones of Mark Knopfler. Also, when I was laying down the drum patterns, in particular the snare, I was feeling the Clash.
I’m critical when I hear material I find derivative. I don’t think I’m in that territory. I think I’m subsuming to a respectable degree. My point here is not to match what I’m doing to what’s been done. I’m annoyed when people do that, because it’s as if they don’t know a way forward without those references. It’s intriguing to me has these past moments in the music life bubble up and seem to come out of nowhere– at a time when I’m asking for…that something.
And I played a few cycles of Fun d’ Mental (aka Song 2). That’s going to be a fun one too.
Let’s see here…just ruminating a bit on the groove I’ve been developing for “Love Don’t Ask” (aka Song 1).
I love the hi-hat pattern first off. It’s based on the paradiddle drum rudiment. I wanted it to skip, to lope if you will. I’ve always been about interesting grooves– especially new interesting grooves. New grooves as in maybe nobody has ever played this exact groove before. The hat pattern is not totally unique, but it’s distinct.
With the snare I wanted to keep one foot in rock and dangle the other in…maybe you could call it fusion. Maybe Latin or world…fusion. Basically, there are three snare hits (possibly more, maybe even fewer) per measure. The backbeat is accented, then comes the offbeat whack I’m feeling around for how to explain. Then comes a cadential-type hit that will turn the idea around. The cadential phrase on the fourth beat, I expect, will have the most variation.
The “A” section groove is made up of four patterns: 3 patterns with little variation built around the elements in the above paragraph, and 1 turnaround pattern.
The kick drum came about as a bit of an accident. Literally, I was programming beats and mistakenly placed the second kick piece a beat too late. But then I listened to it and started to like it better than the way I meant to do it. It spreads the measure out and creates a neat snap-back. Also, it’s pretty unique.
I was also messing around with the bassline last night, testing what I could pull off melodically while not deviating from the pocket too much. It’s definitely not going to be a ZLT line. “Love Don’t Ask” has its own thing going.
I’ve probably alluded at times to the point of this blog. It’s primarily a chronicle of my personal music endevours. About two years ago, I was gearing up for a second album. My first one had been recorded five years earlier, right after I finished college. I was stumbling around for a long, long time (well, five years to be precise) for the tonal qualities my next recording would have. Yes, I over-thought this. But, on the plus side, I listened and reflected.
Which brings me to my turning point. Inspired by an electronic musician who only releases EPs (forget who exactly), I decided to do the same. Instead of sculpting that seemingly perfect idea once every five years or so, I might as well release a shorter work every year.
This gives me two big benefits. One, it will boost my production chops. Two, I’m sitting on many years worth of material that I have to get down in order for it to see the light of day. Also, once a song is done, I can move on.
The goal is consistency. My recording rig improved by leaps and bounds between my first and second records. I’ve always felt that my real art was songwriting. I used to say, to the chagrin of my guitarist friends, that my choice of instrument wasn’t important. What’s important is writing melodies and rhythms. And I’m sitting on this kind of huge body of work that’s grown over only about the past 10 years or so. I can go in there and grab fragments and turn them into songs. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.
Zen Luck Tricks was supposed to be 12-14 tracks, but I simply ran out of time. Two songs that didn’t make that cut will highlight this summer’s EP. So you see ZLT would’ve probably taken 5 years to complete. But by breaking it up, I can change so easily. I don’t have to worry about the overall flavor. The flavor will change. Every year.
