As I hoped, things began to come into focus once I started over. In this, ostensibly the final cut, I’ve totally rerecorded everything from scratch. I eliminated the screaming middle bit and found the song a lot gentler and sadder, sort of more faithful to the original emotion behind its creation. I kept the idea, though, and transformed it into a sad, singing middle section played only once in the song. I also rewrote some lines, which changes the song significantly in my eyes. To wit:
You are never alone, that’s what you say to the empty hallway, I am always here, listening to voices in my head, You know nothing about the meaning of the words never and always, And I am already dust, everyone’s already dead.
Severely edited, became:
You are never alone, that’s what you say to your pale reflection, And I am always here, listening to voices in my head, We are nothing but the product of late night introspection, And I am already gone, who can remember what you said?
I hope this makes it kind of sadder, less angry, more thoughtful. I’ve also added a new section at the end, typically finishing my songs with this grand orgy of overdubbing. I’m a little worried that maybe all my songs tend to do this, but it just seems so perfect to me almost all the time. I think about half of the songs sketched out for this album have some grand ending like this. Maybe that’s too much, or maybe it’s just my style. I find it’s hard to tell with these things when you’re in the middle of it.
I like this song, but it was not anywhere as quick or easy to record as I’d hoped. It was in fact a brutal process, and in all honesty I’m not even fully satisfied with some parts. Who knows what I’ll think next week, though. I’m crossing my fingers that the next song will go more smoothly.
The song is coming along, but the path ahead is still frustratingly unclear for me. I am fairly certain that I like all parts of this song, but I am afraid that what I am actually trying to do is combine two separate songs and something about it just isn’t totally working for me. There’s one part, the verses of which all begin with “Have you ever…” and then this other part, which goes “You are never alone, that’s what you say to the empty hallway…”, over some pretty heavy guitars and drums and such. And I like this part, even though I’m not really happy with the singing yet. But all the same there’s something that feels oddly wrong about it somehow, as though you’re watching a movie and someone behind you changes the channels without warning.
So I think I’m going to cut out this hard second part. This includes the solo at the end of the song. Killing off something like this is never an easy task but sometimes you’ve just got to prune, I guess. I’m hoping that, having cut this song down, I will begin to recognize it and the correct version will start to resonate in my head and heart. Sometimes everything just works, like floating on air. But sometimes making a song seems really hard, like trying to swim in a swamp.
This is a song begun several years ago. It’s one of those songs written late at night - almost whisper quiet - when you’re wallowing in some profound understanding that, in daylight, would seem obvious or even trite, but given the moonlight (spilling white through the windows) and your mood (a cocktail of self-obsession and self-pity, perhaps), it seems impossible to ignore. And so the notes come out, and so do the words, and you scribble them down on a torn piece of paper that you shove into the back pages of a notebook, which then goes and hides on a shelf as you crawl, finally, to bed.
In time you open the notebook for something else entirely and by accident discover the song again. If you’re lucky it’s aged like a good wine and settled into itself; if you’re not it’s like something out of a time capsule from the fifties. If you’ve got the time and inclination you can trim off some of the weaker bits, now that you’ve got some distance from the thing, and maybe tighten up that part over there with some better lyrics.
This is how I ended up with this song. I’m working on the arrangements now to try and turn this lonely acoustic thing into a full-on song for the album. Stay with me; it’s coming soon.
Done! Very happy with this now, and looking forward to getting the album itself done sometime soon. I went through quite a few changes to get here, though, and I admit it took a bit longer than I wanted. First I redid the vocal tracks entirely, nailing the main part in a few tries, and then endlessly recording and rerecording the backup voices. I also chopped out the lines “I’m outside, I see the stars” from the end, on Nastja’s recommendation, who found it incongruous with the rest of the song.
Next I added just a few more guitar licks, but still something seemed missing to me. Can’t bring back the synthesizer, so on a whim I whipped out a harmonica and threw that on. I am certain that real harmonica players will frown on my performance, but all the same I’m pretty happy with it. Never tried that before, and the song seemed to need it.
Finally, mixing and effects. I shoved various elements around in the stereo field until they started fitting where I wanted them, and then I dabbed some reverb here and there. I had to compress the bass to keep it from getting lost in the mix, and I lowered the volume of most of the guitar fills, to keep them from distracting attention from the lyrics. In the end I’m still not quite sure if there’s something left to do, but I’m calling this one done for now and am starting on the next song hasta pronto.
Taking shape. I removed the “waka” synth, as expected, and am pretty happy with my efforts so far. It’s fun to see these projects take shape, to start recognizing in the outside world a thing you previously carried only in your head.
In this take, I polished some of the guitar licks and then laid down some solo work in the middle and the end. I also put down a second voice in the chorus and panned them opposite each other for a wide vocal effect. Most importantly, I wrote a bass line which, to be immodestly truthful, totally delights me. I’m always aiming to thrill myself with the recording, and this bass just does it for me. It only took two takes, too.
Still little to no effects in the song, but I did pan around the various song elements to try and find where they belong. Instruments in this take: drums, rhythm guitar, electric “fills” guitar, vocals. Removed: synthesizer. Added: bass, doubled vocal line, solo electric guitar.
