The third completed track from the upcoming Ascent CD is called "Adaptation."  Please go to ascentmusiconline.com, enter the site, and the song should begin streaming right away.  Like our other songs, it will be available soon at all your favorite download sites, including iTunes and eMusic. 

Christina wrote the words to this song right around the same time as Indigo.    I think it was actually within a few days.  I'm sure that she will comment elsewhere regarding what the words are about.... 

The basic music came to me pretty easily, sitting around with an acoustic guitar and the words in front of me.  I don't think that I ever had any other version of the basic chords and melody.     Befitting of a song with this title, the arrangement and the recording went through many changes to reach its final form.  The original version had a busy spy-hunter-like bassline.  I recorded the drum part with that bassline in mind.   I was hearing it as a very rock-oriented song with guitar doubling the bass.   After recording the drums, bass and guitar, it became clear that the song was simply not happening.  It didn't sound like something Christina should be singing over.

I tried modifying the guitar part, and leaving the bass alone, but it didn't "groove."  It sounded clunky and forced.   After becoming completely frustrated with the whole thing, I decided that I would scrap the drums and bass and make it an acoustic guitar song.  That resulted  in what you hear at the beginning of the recording.   I soon realized that the new acoustic guitar part would actually work with the existing drums, but I needed to start over with the bassline.  That allowed the current arrangement to come together. 

The instrumentation is nothing but guitar, bass and drums.  I thought about adding strings to fill out the choruses, but decided instead to use eBow.  I added electric guitar for texture, and to toughen the song up just a little.

Something incredibly odd happened when Christina recorded the vocals.  I think my computer was overburdened, and having trouble keeping up.  Somehow, the vocals recorded at a slower rate of speed than everything else.   It was like you slowed a tape down a little bit.  It was entirely at the wrong tempo, but the pitch was right.  A complete disaster!  I've never had that happen before, in hundreds of hours of recording on the computer.  To make matters worse, she had just recorded about eight takes, and was very happy with how it went!  Fortunately, I was able to implement my remixing experience and un-stretch the audio the proper amount to get it back in synch.   That was basically a whole night's work.

We also recorded harmony vocals for the chorus.  I liked it, but Christina didn't, so we scrapped it.  We will "save it for the remix."

I've become more and more critic of the final mixes, in terms of EQ and compression.  The song was remixed and remastered about a million times.  Please let us know if you think it sounds good!