I thought it might be cool to share with you guys from a different perspective. I try to approach my music from a lot of different directions when it comes to coming up with new ideas … sometimes I write on the piano, sometimes in Logic with a synth … other times I will write straight from my head to a sequencer. In the past I’ve used guitar to come up with a lot of ideas, and while it’s not really my go-to anymore (maybe it should be!), I do pick it up on a regular basis.
This recording isn’t very old at all — July 27th, 2009. The truth is I’ve been wanting to do some music with singing for quite a while. I’ve done a little bit — there was a track on my myspace a few years ago called Until the Sun Rises (I’ll talk about that one another time), and there’s Lullatwerp from the Disastertron record Cereal Code (does that even count?!) but since then I haven’t released anything with vocals. I’ve been slowly and quietly putting together some lyrics, and hopefully I’ll have something to show for it soon.
About this recording — Some time last year I started using my voice as a means of improvising new ideas with guitar, with varied amounts of success. This is one example of that. I’ll generally jam on an idea for a couple of minutes, and try different things, before editing things down afterwards (notice the clicks from rough editing and the pitch-shifted section at the end) so that I can return to the idea and not have to fumble through lots of excess fat. I read or heard somewhere once that the Beatles wrote “Yesterday” with fake lyrics about scrambled eggs and other random things. It’s a very useful tool. When I try it I usually wind up talking about the sun. I like the sun.
MP3: Jelly Sandwich
Vault: Until the Sun Rises
Back by popular demand, I’ve decided to make Until the Sun Rises publicly available again. I wrote and recorded this song in 2006 as a birthday present for my girlfriend at the time, an awesome gal and an amazing artist.
This song was a first in a lot of ways for me. I’ve been singing since I was little but this was one of my first attempts at singing on a track, as well as writing lyrics. Listening to this now, I’d love to redo this song with MUCH better vocals (which I’ll probably do at some point), maybe change up the lyrics a little bit as well. I also utilized some techniques I had never tried before, like adding vinyl sounds underneath to give it a little bit of an old feeling … in hindsight I’m not sure how successful it was at making it sound “old”, but I do like the vinyl sounds regardless (haha).
There are a few influences for this track, including Radiohead (the vibe, harmonic decisions), Tortoise (tremolo guitar lines), and Wintersleep/Kary (some of the vocal chanting towards the end). I might have been listening to The Postal Service at the time too because I think it does feel a little reminiscent of a darker equivalent of that group at times. There’s also a hint of chip towards the back end, though this stays mostly outside of that realm.
I did this track in Garageband my first semester at music school, and recorded the vocals in my dorm room.