Ascent: Independence
The fifth song from the upcoming Ascent CD is "Independence." You can hear it now by going to AscentMusicOnline.com
Strange but true: I co-wrote this song with a younger version of myself. Really, I did.
I've been obsessed with recording for as long as I've been obsessed with making music, possibly longer! Back in the days before you could do everything on the computer, I recorded absolutely everything on cassette tape... This started with recording just about every practice session with every band I played with. I remember "inventing" my own system of of overdubbing by hooking up two boom boxes. I spent at least a decade after that recording songs on multitrack cassette, until the digital world finally allowed me move on to other mediums. I still have a big box full of cassettes, many of which are unlabeled, and most of which should never be heard by anyone!
Once every few years, I get nostalgic, and dig through those cassette tapes, to see what I can find. Last year, I was on just such a nostalgic journey, searching for recordings of the band I played with in high school... I successfully uncovered a few things and shared them with my former bandmates. Because of the randomness of the process, I ended up finding many things I wasn't looking for.
The cassette in question must have dated from the early to mid 90s, and it was full of song demos. Not nice, fleshed out, pretty-sounding demos, but the kind of demo I make when I've come up with a song idea and I don't want to forget it. In other words, I'm just playing guitar and singing something to remember the melody. More often than not, it's nonsense syllables, because the words haven't come yet. Sometimes there's an early nonsense-syllable version, and a later version with words. Trust me, I've never been a singer, so a lot of it is hard to listen to. The cassette contained more than a few things that eventually turned into real songs, but many more that never did. I copied about a dozen of these onto my computer, because I thought some of the melodies had potential. It was truly amazing to me that there were so many song ideas that I had no recollection of at all.
This particular song, now called "Independence," was a complete song whenever I made the demo. I think it was probably 1995. It stood out to me because I can't imagine writing a song like this now. The lyrics, in particular, are something that would seem strange coming from a happily married man, but their simplicity resonated with me. The demo of the song was very "folky" sounding, with a shuffle feel. Interestingly, the beginning and the end of the demo included an instrumental guitar bit that eventually (much later) turned into the song "Intentions."
I decided to rework the song, to see if could be viable as an Ascent song. I felt that the simplicity of the song might offer Christina a chance to stretch out and improvise a bit. I ended up completely changing the melodies of the verses and the choruses, but keeping at least some of the basic chord structure. I took away the shuffle feel, and it became more bluesy, less folky. The bridge ("throw this baggage overboard") I left completely as it was. So I do see the end result as a 50/50 collaboration between my 1995 self and my 2009 self.
I recorded the drums first, close-miked, and later added some heavy compression. This was just before I upgraded my audio interface, so it's just four mics.
The guitars were recorded using NI Guitar Rig 4. As I mentioned in my last post, my computer now lets me use this real-time like an amp, and I can completely change the amp sound after I record it. I went through a million different sounds to arrive at this one. Since this is basically a simple blues song, I didn't want to fall into the easy trap of having long solo sections over it. That's been done well enough by far better guitarists than I! What I tried to do instead was to have the lead guitar provide the occasional commentary to the vocal.
The bass was through my old Roland pedal, but later modified by the cabinet simulation (no amp) in Guitar Rig. It sounds really crusty and noisy on its own... I should probably have redone it straight through Guitar Rig.
I actually played the organ part, rather than programming it, like I often do. Mainly because the chords are easy and it was fun! The strings in the middle section are programmed - I treated it as a little mini-composition, and it's quite lovely on its own. Both the organ and the string sounds were created using Dimension Pro.
As I'd expected, Christina really nailed the bluesy vocals and made it sound authentic. I really love all the bits she ad-libbed and invented. It's a good reminder for me to use basic chord progressions like this more often, because it gives her more freedom. It's a nice balance to the madness of "Talking in Circles."
It took me about a million tries to mix and master this song. I've learned a lot about how modifying the EQ on one instrument can affect how the other instruments sound, and even the vocals... I feel like everything can now be heard in the mix. I hope it sounds as good to you as it sounds to me right now. Please let us know what you think!
Strange but true: I co-wrote this song with a younger version of myself. Really, I did.
I've been obsessed with recording for as long as I've been obsessed with making music, possibly longer! Back in the days before you could do everything on the computer, I recorded absolutely everything on cassette tape... This started with recording just about every practice session with every band I played with. I remember "inventing" my own system of of overdubbing by hooking up two boom boxes. I spent at least a decade after that recording songs on multitrack cassette, until the digital world finally allowed me move on to other mediums. I still have a big box full of cassettes, many of which are unlabeled, and most of which should never be heard by anyone!
Once every few years, I get nostalgic, and dig through those cassette tapes, to see what I can find. Last year, I was on just such a nostalgic journey, searching for recordings of the band I played with in high school... I successfully uncovered a few things and shared them with my former bandmates. Because of the randomness of the process, I ended up finding many things I wasn't looking for.
The cassette in question must have dated from the early to mid 90s, and it was full of song demos. Not nice, fleshed out, pretty-sounding demos, but the kind of demo I make when I've come up with a song idea and I don't want to forget it. In other words, I'm just playing guitar and singing something to remember the melody. More often than not, it's nonsense syllables, because the words haven't come yet. Sometimes there's an early nonsense-syllable version, and a later version with words. Trust me, I've never been a singer, so a lot of it is hard to listen to. The cassette contained more than a few things that eventually turned into real songs, but many more that never did. I copied about a dozen of these onto my computer, because I thought some of the melodies had potential. It was truly amazing to me that there were so many song ideas that I had no recollection of at all.
This particular song, now called "Independence," was a complete song whenever I made the demo. I think it was probably 1995. It stood out to me because I can't imagine writing a song like this now. The lyrics, in particular, are something that would seem strange coming from a happily married man, but their simplicity resonated with me. The demo of the song was very "folky" sounding, with a shuffle feel. Interestingly, the beginning and the end of the demo included an instrumental guitar bit that eventually (much later) turned into the song "Intentions."
I decided to rework the song, to see if could be viable as an Ascent song. I felt that the simplicity of the song might offer Christina a chance to stretch out and improvise a bit. I ended up completely changing the melodies of the verses and the choruses, but keeping at least some of the basic chord structure. I took away the shuffle feel, and it became more bluesy, less folky. The bridge ("throw this baggage overboard") I left completely as it was. So I do see the end result as a 50/50 collaboration between my 1995 self and my 2009 self.
I recorded the drums first, close-miked, and later added some heavy compression. This was just before I upgraded my audio interface, so it's just four mics.
The guitars were recorded using NI Guitar Rig 4. As I mentioned in my last post, my computer now lets me use this real-time like an amp, and I can completely change the amp sound after I record it. I went through a million different sounds to arrive at this one. Since this is basically a simple blues song, I didn't want to fall into the easy trap of having long solo sections over it. That's been done well enough by far better guitarists than I! What I tried to do instead was to have the lead guitar provide the occasional commentary to the vocal.
The bass was through my old Roland pedal, but later modified by the cabinet simulation (no amp) in Guitar Rig. It sounds really crusty and noisy on its own... I should probably have redone it straight through Guitar Rig.
I actually played the organ part, rather than programming it, like I often do. Mainly because the chords are easy and it was fun! The strings in the middle section are programmed - I treated it as a little mini-composition, and it's quite lovely on its own. Both the organ and the string sounds were created using Dimension Pro.
As I'd expected, Christina really nailed the bluesy vocals and made it sound authentic. I really love all the bits she ad-libbed and invented. It's a good reminder for me to use basic chord progressions like this more often, because it gives her more freedom. It's a nice balance to the madness of "Talking in Circles."
It took me about a million tries to mix and master this song. I've learned a lot about how modifying the EQ on one instrument can affect how the other instruments sound, and even the vocals... I feel like everything can now be heard in the mix. I hope it sounds as good to you as it sounds to me right now. Please let us know what you think!
Sounding good. I especially like the vocals and the lower notes in the acoustics (Guitar).
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WOW - Listening to some awesome art. Ascent is really getting its act together.
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