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.
So the big thing for me is rhythm. It’s arguably (in my mind) more important than melody and harmony, and at least as important. When I was learning guitar, I had to break myself of “grabs,” those stock moves you do with your hands that take over for thinking creatively. At the same time I started to break myself of rhythm grabs. Just using a beat wasn’t good enough. I wanted to reinvent the wheel every time.
That brings me to my current study of the drumming rudiments. I’m into the drum kit. I always joke that if I had to do it all over again, I’d be a drummer. It’s not far from the truth though! When I was doing the drum parts to ZLT, I pictured myself at the kit and physically what I would do to play the groove. There’s a connection between music and movement that ravers and other dancers surely get, but that passes over a lot of heads…
The drum rudiments are akin to scales. What’s very different to me is that they’re not about moving pitches; they’re about moving hands. I don’t even have an electronic pad yet– although it’s on my wishlist. But there’s something to be said for thinking in terms of the kit. And it’s easy to tap just about anywhere if you really want to play a double paradiddle-diddle.
In talking about the next project, I’m going to use Song 1 and Song 2 (no copyright infringements with Blur, I hope). Song 2 is the disco Latin jazz rock track. Song 2 is the psych-folk. Song 1 obviously needs a unique groove. It could end up with multiple sections too. In fact, my latest thought is that I’ll release two versions of Song 1: one the way I actually played it, and the other a remix of myself with a stronger dance feel. To make it “easier” to finish this project, Song 2 will do the same damn thing forever. But that’s just what I always hoped. It doesn’t that extra trickery. The tricks it needs are melodic ones.
Hello. A rainy Sunday June afternoon in New York City. Watching “In the Line of Fire” after making waffles. And, natch, catching back up with music. Work and the new graduate program I started last fall pulled me away for most of the past seven months. Zen Luck Ticks is now mastered. I’ll post it shortly. I’m reading up on the Creative Commons licensing, which I plan to use for the first time, and I’ve begun on the next EP.
The next one’s tentatively called “Jinx.” It consists of two tracks. It was reinforced to me last summer that I should be realistic about how much time it takes to record. One was written in the spring of ‘06 and slated to be on Zen Luck Tricks. I characterize it as a dreamy, happy folk tune. No vocals, just some instrumental twists and sound effects. I’m imagining a cinematic quality. The second song was written a couple of years ago. Let’s see how I’d describe it…I’d say it’s a rock, R&B-ish inspired groove. The chords, which I’ve very recently decided on (like, this morning), is Brazilian to well too. Overall, it’s a minor blues, really.
I’ll launch into my Brazilian fascination another time. I noticed with ZLT, and even more so now, that I retrun often to the basics. When I was in music school, I seemingly wanted to overturn the conventions every way I could. Looking back I guess that was healthy. There’s also much less singing on Jinx. The minor blues has a repeating chorus. I’m inspired here by some acid jazz and Santana. The second track is purely instrumental with influences from psychedelic folk and Chick Corea.
I’m happy to be locked back in.
Seems like it’s been a while since I’ve published anything! I’ve been quite busy in other areas of life. I have finals for ZLT, and I’m waiting now on Bias Peak to arrive (turns out it was backordered).
I don’t anticipate a lot of work for mastering. This project has been mixed to death. I might add in some EQ though. I’ve noticed the speakers I use for monitoring are boomy when I compare ZLT to other recordings. So I probably don’t want to roll off too much of that low end. I might roll off a little though. Other than that it’s pretty much just a process of conforming volume levels to the Red Book. I outsourced my last mastering project for my first album Exotic Threads. I’ll have to post ET. Actually, I get inspired from time to time to remix the whole thing. But I want to move onto something new before going back.
That new thing is taking shape ever so slowly. I plan to pull in two very good musical friends of mine on two tracks that are being developed because each suits one of their personalities. The other track or two will be mine. But I likely won’t be alone on it either.
I’ll be posting here to explain what the whole thing means as it unfolds. And some day I’m going to have to explain what the hurry gain is too, and who the heck I am. But I figure it does little to drone on about myself and not have some music to put to the face. Priorities, you know?
Final lead parts to Can’t Wait are currently being recording. Vocals this weekend. Then ZLT is on to mastering!
Back with more to talk about soon, but right now work and this project are dominating my time…
I started to record lead parts last night, and ran into system resources limitations. So the scattered tracks that had comprised the Trains rhythm guitar part were mixed into one. I did extensive experimenting to come out with a final I liked, which involved adjusting out levels a few times (re-mixing once) and apllying various effects. I ended up using a band pass filter, which essentially tightened up the dynamic range, and in particular took some off the bottom so as not to compete with the bass.
Tonight, I’m going to mix the rhythm track for Lines. I went for a different tonal feel for the backing guitar on Lines, so I may need to play around with effects again. But seeing as there’s only one guitar part, I won’t have to spend a lot of time on levels. I also want to bang out as much of the Lines solo parts as I can. The basic riff from Lines was written a few years ago when I played in a few rock bands here in NYC. I had gotten my rock legs back under me, and decided to find a talented singer with some material to play and help develop it. The Lines riff is Zep inspired, for sure. The orignial contained quite a bit of dissonance too– Page wasn’t afraid to write a theme around a dissonant interval. He used the tritone at times like Four Sticks in a decidedly blues-jazz manner.
I find it interesting how much I go back to blues and rock in this project. Those are the standards after all, and I never wanted the eletronic production to overwhelm the songwriting. I shoot for any of my songs to be playable by a bunch of 14 year-olds in a garage. The Lines riff(s) will have a lot of the same feel as the Trains ones, I imagine, seeing as how they’re being developed at the same points in time. My guitar rig is completely untouched through all of this, on purpose, so I can capture the same sonic characteristics.
I’m also becoming aware of the challenges of a good rock solo. I did some free jamming on Trains last night, recording each take to see what if anything was usable. And I didn’t keep any of it, although I did find the register and basic patterns I think I’ll use. I really love how Gibson guitars sound in the upper registers. They’re almost horn-like. It’s also fascinating how the guitarist can find so many variations as he works his way down the neck– there’s a real growl in the mid-registers, and then the clangy, clanky brashness of the open ones. Lines was written down there. But now, it’s kind of all over the neck.
Having put down vocals for all three songs, I turned to lead guitar over the weekend. I ran into a situation similar to the one below with riffs– I was just jamming over top the other tracks when I started to feel the need for through-composed parts. I want to keep some spontaneity, somehow. But I found the guitar clashing too much, both because there are already melodic backing instruments and there are vocals this time, which differs from my first recording, Exotic Threads.
Like I said earlier, vocals really command the attention in a way that even a screaming electric guitar doesn’t. Right now, I’m really tacking arrangment and instrumentation issues. When does the lead guitar occur? In the intro, an then it comps until the solo? Or should it fill in, being more active in a blues way? I’m tending towards the latter at least for Strange Trains. Trains is after all a blues song. Maybe the others will cry out for different attention.
So, this week I plan to carry out some experiments. I found the melodic pocket for Trains– basically, F#m over the Bm-D section, then G and F# over G-F#, all pentatonics. I like the note choices the F#m pentatonic gives me, and along with the turnaround, it keeps Trains in that dark, bluesy groove. The chorus to Trains actually does some strange and beautiful things tonally. I’m not sure how to approach this yet; there won’t be a solo per se in any place, but I haven’t settled on whether I’ll play any fills.
As for the others, my guess right now is Can’t Wait won’t take a whole lot of notes. Instead, I hear textures for that one. Lines goes by fast, tempo-wise. I think this will dictate that fills during the vocals would be mostly pointless. But Lines has built in breaks for guitar solos.
It’s been critical to keep the eyes of a producer for this project. And there’s so much to learn when you look at everything from that height.
