The Man Hunt
By Matt Patrick on March 31, 2012 1:11 pm
All last week my studio was being rewired forcing me to record at home on my Mbox.
I couldn't record any drums so I had to get creative.
The bass drum is merely my finger tapping gently on a folding chair with a c1000s microphone laying on the padded seat. Other than that, it was lap slapping, and one of the shakers was my finger rubbing against a canvas bag. Everything except for the vocals and one shaker were recorded at home.
The song itself was inspired by and adapted from a poem by Madison Cawein entitled The Man Hunt (Public Domain). Before I had written any lyrics, the music had an eerie feeling of stillness, like the calm before the storm. I found this poem, which conveyed exactly that and I used it as a basis for the tune. Later that night my wife and I went to see the Hunger Games in the theater, which basically is a man-hunt story. The majority of the movie is based on people trying to stay in that place of stillness so they can survive.
The Man Hunt
The wood stretches wide through the mountainside
The brush there is deep where a man may hide
The sound of the hounds released is like
A thunderous clock ticking away at life
Three times they circled the trail and crossed
Three times they found it and thrice they lost
They sniff through the pines and the underbrush
Bellow and bay through the covered hush
You run from your shadows, you run from your foes
Hide all that you’ve damaged under the bones
A cave in the thicket he lays his head
But the pulse of his heartbeat could wake the dead
The blow of a rifle shatters his dreams
He stares at the blood flowing like a stream
You run from your shadows, you run from your foes
Hide all that you’ve damaged under the bones
How do you rise at the dawn of the day?
How does the sting from your past stay away?
Innocent daughters and innocent sons…
Will decay by the deeds you have done.
Based on and adapted from the poem “The Man Hunt”
by Madison Julius Cawein (Public Domain)
www.your-content.net/madison-julius-cawein/man-hunt-11107
Recorded at home and at the Library recording studio
All instruments and voices by Matt Patrick
Instruments used:
Lap, chair, bag, shaker for the rhythm
Fender Stratocaster through my pedalboard and into a Peavey Classic 30
Yamaha nylon string acoustic
Fender Jazz bass
voice
Audio works licensed by author under:
Copyright All rights reserved