We Fell In Love At The Western Skyline
By orangedrink on September 13, 2020 9:14 pm
I don't know why I keep doing this but I also don't know how I can stop.
My goal was to finish the song by Friday so I could enjoy my weekend. The pandemic has added so much daily stress, on top of my usual stress of "how the hell will I ever figure out how to have a profitable art career?" + "why do I hate myself all the time?" - so it feels like I'm either working, or worrying about work 24/7. I am happy to report that I finished this on Friday! I had to stay up pretty late to finish, but I did it. Sometimes I shortcut my creative scope just because I want to be done. I finished the song because I had a planned movie date with my husband (We watched "Gerry" directed by Gus Van Sant) but after the movie, I realized that the drums really needed some fills at the end. It was a little crazy, but I recorded some drum fills and attempted to cut and paste them in, on time. This song is in a 10/4 beat, and I recorded it as I wrote it. Drum fills are tough for me, and doing them in 10/4 is somewhat out of the question with no practice, so editing was the best option. I used a free version of iZotope RX to reduce some weird clicks on the drum recording and it came out GREAT! The drums, like last time, were recording with a single Zoom H1 stereo microphone recorder. I am just realizing that I could have connected it to the computer to record straight into the DAW, instead of recording them on the device, then importing into the computer. Nice.
I want to thank midimachine because his track last week had a 10 beat pattern and I think that subconsciously sunk into my brain. I sat in the studio for about 2 hours, writing crappy chord progressions and riffs and I was about to give up and suddenly the 10 beat guitar riff appeared. It's a 5 note pattern, but the last note changes. So one time we come "up" into the first note, and the second time we come "down" into the first note. It's supposed to give this balanced spiral feel. The notes also feel like they have uniform spacing between them, I'll have to check my CHROMAWHEEL to find out. The 10 beat also helps you lose the "start point" of the riff. None of this was planned, it just happened and I'm trying to be a musical detective and figure out what I did after the fact. I just kind of black out and play/record music and then try to learn afterwards. The guitar tone (as always) gives me a western feel, and once the bass line started ascending, it gave me a strong romantic/nostalgic feel. I decided not to call it "Western Skyline" and go for the "full sentence song title" because the piece really felt like a narrative story. I have a music video idea of me endlessly running, but it feels like a ton of work. Maybe I'll do it?
I'm really proud of my little "free jazz drum solo" - it's nothing complicated or special, but I feel like it hits the spot and creates a big mood shift from the chunky-driving aesthetic. In fact, it's the exact opposite! The hi-hat 2x sizzle pattern is taken from the song "Your Not Here" from the Silent Hill 3 soundtrack.
Well, that's my story and I'm going to try to relax and enjoy the rest of my Sunday! I took an hour to type this up and make the picture, lol
Audio works licensed by author under:
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Thank you for teaching me the word cyclopean! Yeah, the 10/4 is really dizzying.
