Waging War Against the Moon
Skipping Stones is now available for download. Hope that you enjoy.
Reading quietsiege's chronicles of his artistic endeavors has been both entertaining and inspiring, so I thought I'd follow his lead and provide a little more background on this latest recording of mine. However, I generally suffer from both (1) a less focused sense of lyrical purpose and (2) less willingness to discuss what my lyrical intentions were (lest someone realize how far short the actual works fall from those intentions, I suppose). But I hope someone might find this rather more technical discussion interesting. If not, I suppose there's no place like a blog for self-indulgence, so I'll plow ahead anyway.
The chord progression for this song is one of the simplest I've written in years. It's not "Pretty Girls", but it's closer than I thought I would get. I tried several times to make it more complicated (a la the defensive complications of "Dead Wrong"), but anything more complicated than the bridge seemed to take away from the momentum of the song. The eventual lyrics also seemed better supported by a simple (carefree?) chord progression. If anyone is wondering, the basic chords are:
(G) I've been breaking (C) hearts and (D) skipping stones...
(repeat G, C, D throughout the verse)...
(Em) I guess I'm (C) just too dead to (G) care (C) (D)
(more G, C, D)
(Em) I'm feeling (C) much too old to (G) start (C) (D)
(Em) but I swear I (C) used to have a (D) heart
(G) All those dreams tossed (C) careless - (D) ly a -(G) side (C) (D)
(more G, C, D)
(C) Let the walls come (Am) down around and let
(G) me be on my (Em) way
(repeat C, Am, G, Em)
(Am) I've been running (D) for so long
I've for - (G) gotten how to (Em) smile
(C) Not a single (Am) footstep's been worth - (D) while
(G, C, D all the way home)
For complete lyrics, click here
Unusually for a Mimes song, this one is in standard tuning. For this song, I wanted the brighter tone. It also reduced the buzzing on my acoustic and made the fingerpicking on my Strat easier.
The foundation of the recording is my Washburn acoustic, playing over a beat from my keyboard which is mixed very low. The beat sounded a little too canned to work with the organic, country stomp feel I was going for, but I found that keeping it in the mix at a quiet level made the guitar sound a little fuller. I actually recorded the beat separately with a mic several feet away from the speaker to try to make it sound less electronic. I was recording on a hot day with the windows open, and the mic was cranked up high enough to pick up some bird songs. Unfortunately, I don't think they're audible on the final mix.
To make the bass (my Fender Jazz) sound more like an acoustic, I used a mic in front of the amp rather than directly injecting it. The bass line is alternating fifths through most of the song, although it walks between some chords in the bridge and includes descending major scales in the second verse. On my first attempt at recording the song, I tried to play a more syncopated bass line to add some interest. However, it just ended up sounding offbeat and actually became the main reason I scrapped that version.
The electric guitar is a fingerpicked Strat through my Crate Blue Voodoo amp. I used the bridge pickup to get a little extra twang and added a little amp reverb. The fingerpicking pattern is one John Lennon used a lot. It's the one I'm currently most proficient at, so I expect it'll show up again on future recordings. This is the first (and quite possibly the last) recording where I've fingerpicked an electric.
The final instrument was my keyboard on its "accordion" setting. I really wanted to get a non-guitar instrument on the recording to make the sound a little fuller. My mom plays the accordion, so I'm probably a little more partial to that instrument than most. I'm happy to say that my keyboard playing improved enough between my two attempts at recording the song that I was actually able to play the melodic parts with my right hand.
The vocals were pretty straightforward. Two tracks, no reverb or effects. Some harmony, some unison singing, some single voice. This was the first time I sat down and worked out the harmonies mechanically, rather than trying to find them intuitively. I'm not 100% convinced that they worked, but I think that they add some nice variety. The tone of voice isn't really natural for me -- it almost sounds sped up -- but my more typical attempt at it sounded unbearably whiny.
The song was supposed to fade out completely at the end, although it doesn't quite in the mp3. (This is why you shouldn't mix at low volumes.) It takes too long to revise things at download.com so I'm just leaving the mp3 as is. If it really bothers you, I suggest turning the volume down manually at the end of the song. Actually, if it really bothers you, my best guess is that you're me.
Reading quietsiege's chronicles of his artistic endeavors has been both entertaining and inspiring, so I thought I'd follow his lead and provide a little more background on this latest recording of mine. However, I generally suffer from both (1) a less focused sense of lyrical purpose and (2) less willingness to discuss what my lyrical intentions were (lest someone realize how far short the actual works fall from those intentions, I suppose). But I hope someone might find this rather more technical discussion interesting. If not, I suppose there's no place like a blog for self-indulgence, so I'll plow ahead anyway.
The chord progression for this song is one of the simplest I've written in years. It's not "Pretty Girls", but it's closer than I thought I would get. I tried several times to make it more complicated (a la the defensive complications of "Dead Wrong"), but anything more complicated than the bridge seemed to take away from the momentum of the song. The eventual lyrics also seemed better supported by a simple (carefree?) chord progression. If anyone is wondering, the basic chords are:
(G) I've been breaking (C) hearts and (D) skipping stones...
(repeat G, C, D throughout the verse)...
(Em) I guess I'm (C) just too dead to (G) care (C) (D)
(more G, C, D)
(Em) I'm feeling (C) much too old to (G) start (C) (D)
(Em) but I swear I (C) used to have a (D) heart
(G) All those dreams tossed (C) careless - (D) ly a -(G) side (C) (D)
(more G, C, D)
(C) Let the walls come (Am) down around and let
(G) me be on my (Em) way
(repeat C, Am, G, Em)
(Am) I've been running (D) for so long
I've for - (G) gotten how to (Em) smile
(C) Not a single (Am) footstep's been worth - (D) while
(G, C, D all the way home)
For complete lyrics, click here
Unusually for a Mimes song, this one is in standard tuning. For this song, I wanted the brighter tone. It also reduced the buzzing on my acoustic and made the fingerpicking on my Strat easier.
The foundation of the recording is my Washburn acoustic, playing over a beat from my keyboard which is mixed very low. The beat sounded a little too canned to work with the organic, country stomp feel I was going for, but I found that keeping it in the mix at a quiet level made the guitar sound a little fuller. I actually recorded the beat separately with a mic several feet away from the speaker to try to make it sound less electronic. I was recording on a hot day with the windows open, and the mic was cranked up high enough to pick up some bird songs. Unfortunately, I don't think they're audible on the final mix.
To make the bass (my Fender Jazz) sound more like an acoustic, I used a mic in front of the amp rather than directly injecting it. The bass line is alternating fifths through most of the song, although it walks between some chords in the bridge and includes descending major scales in the second verse. On my first attempt at recording the song, I tried to play a more syncopated bass line to add some interest. However, it just ended up sounding offbeat and actually became the main reason I scrapped that version.
The electric guitar is a fingerpicked Strat through my Crate Blue Voodoo amp. I used the bridge pickup to get a little extra twang and added a little amp reverb. The fingerpicking pattern is one John Lennon used a lot. It's the one I'm currently most proficient at, so I expect it'll show up again on future recordings. This is the first (and quite possibly the last) recording where I've fingerpicked an electric.
The final instrument was my keyboard on its "accordion" setting. I really wanted to get a non-guitar instrument on the recording to make the sound a little fuller. My mom plays the accordion, so I'm probably a little more partial to that instrument than most. I'm happy to say that my keyboard playing improved enough between my two attempts at recording the song that I was actually able to play the melodic parts with my right hand.
The vocals were pretty straightforward. Two tracks, no reverb or effects. Some harmony, some unison singing, some single voice. This was the first time I sat down and worked out the harmonies mechanically, rather than trying to find them intuitively. I'm not 100% convinced that they worked, but I think that they add some nice variety. The tone of voice isn't really natural for me -- it almost sounds sped up -- but my more typical attempt at it sounded unbearably whiny.
The song was supposed to fade out completely at the end, although it doesn't quite in the mp3. (This is why you shouldn't mix at low volumes.) It takes too long to revise things at download.com so I'm just leaving the mp3 as is. If it really bothers you, I suggest turning the volume down manually at the end of the song. Actually, if it really bothers you, my best guess is that you're me.