Hey everyone! This is an insanely special MP3 OF THE "WEEK", a preview of my first ever album! My band Trouble's Afoot disintegrated a while back but we had started work on two (!) albums, doing the drums and bass. For the past year (or more...it's been a long time) I have been working in a studio on the first collection of songs. I have no idea when the album will be done (I am out of money and lack time), but for now I am enjoying the results. There are lots of great things to share, but I am particularly happy with "And I'm Gone", one of my stranger and harder-to-classify songs. It came out as interesting and strange as I wanted, but I still consider it very catchy and accessible all the same. I don't exactly want to talk about what the song "means", because this is one of the rare tracks where I DON'T quite know what it means, in a literal sense, though I certainly know the feelings it's based on. I'd rather talk about the production, since that's what I spent the big bucks on: I love the super stereo mixing of the drums and bass. Drums on the right, bass on the left. Another Beatles-esque touch is the plodding piano that comes in at the end section of the song, my favorite thing on here. I love the heartbeat-like bass line that my buddy Dave Fox is playing during the choruses (uh, I think they're choruses?), and Chris Roberts on drums really gave the song a surprising danceable groove, something I had never intended, but makes complete sense. The best thing? FOOT STOMPS. The foot stomps during the choruses was thought of in the studio and track after track of stomping (ow my feet) on a wooden floor really adds to the heft of the beat. Love it love it love it. I am also proud of the production idea to have a subtle ambient noise hiss fade in on the verses and fade out before the chorus. It gives the chorus a clarity of sound that is almost subconscious. Anyway, enough of that, check it out! Download it by clicking here! Or preview it!
This week's MP3 is a cool ambient-like instrumental from 2005 called "We Dream."
Now I don't exactly remember MAKING it, but these are things I like about it as a listener:
I like the dissolving drum beat echo that pans the stereo field and gets more and more lo-fi.
Since I can make a lot of music that is hyper, tense, and upbeat, I like that I have the ability to do some dreamy atmospheric "chill" music. As in, music to totally "chill" to.
I like things that are about late at night and sound like they were made late at night.
This week's entry is a weird demo of a weird song I wrote years ago called "My Eyes In My Hands." It was based on an instrumental I made, which I may put up in the coming weeks!
This demo is unfinished, I rewrote the song a bit after recording. I always forget that this song exists. But I think it could be pretty cool with a full band. IT JUST. MIGHT. WORK.
Here are the lyrics.
My eyes in my hands Not part of my plan My hands in your hands My eyes in your hands My eyes in your hands, ahhh ahhh ahhhhhhhh My eyes my. My eyes my.
You think you know me? Well you don't know me! Just cause you have got My eyes in your hands! My eyes in your hands, ahhh ahhh ahhhhhhhh My eyes my. My eyes my.
Give me another try.
My eyes in my hands So glad to have them My eyes in my hands A birthday present
Happy birthday for me! My eyes my. My eyes my.
The recording was done very late at night, so it's another quiet subdued demo. In actuality this song would have to be played very intense and loud.
This Mp3 of the Week may be of interest to some. It's a long lost song called "A.M." I really don't think there's any human being on this planet who has heard this song. I wrote it in maybe 1999, or 2000, though this demo is from June, 2001 (the info I put in at the time says "old song, new recording.")
This was definitely one of the first songs I ever wrote, not just in general, but on guitar. The chords are all made up -- I didn't know what I was playing, I just put my fingers on strings to get interesting sounds, inspired by XTC's methods, probably. I'm still kinda proud of that, it's something I don't do much anymore.
This (EVERY PARAGRAPH STARTS WITH "THIS" AUGHH) is also one of my late night songs about late night stuff. It's basically describing (as poetic as my 17 year old brain could muster) the sounds I hear when I'm up late at night and can't fall asleep. I had sleep problems for a while in high school. Here are the lyrics, which I'm a bit embarrassed by:
It's yellow out the window, and out in the hall The neon from the clock shines it on the wall I think I'll let my arm drops, I think my hands will fall
The rain pellets on the roof, the toilet flushing next door The squeek of the lock, to the footsteps towards their door The footsteps of the rain, hear the clouds snore
The heartbeat of the pillow, the subtle movements in the mirror The longer I can focus the shapes become clearer The farther away the day goes, the more it gets nearer
I wish you were here to sing me to sleep If I knew who you were I might be put at ease I promise to dream of you, if you promise to dream of me.
That last verse was probably about my high school crush, or maybe I just threw it in there to make the song about something other than sights and sounds of my room, which seems to dominate a lot of my songs.
SHITTY STUFF: The track skips at one point. The singing is bad because I had big fat tonsils, and I also didn't know how to sing quiet, and I also wasn't sure what melody to sing over certain chords. That last verse makes me cringe a bit.
NICE STUFF: It's kind of a nice, atmospheric little tune, ain't it folks?
