Translator

When working on this assignment I actually had a really good time with writing the lyrics it came to me relatively naturally and I felt very inspired when making the layout of them. I felt freer and more comfortable than usual singing on this one and that honestly was really exciting for me! I don’t necessarily like the sound of my vocals any more on this than any of my other songs but it felt really good to give myself permission to sing here.

I had a relatively difficult time with the musical accompaniment with this song but I managed to get through it by allowing myself many attempts. I am not particularly happy with the drums I ended up with but I couldn’t figure out anything I liked better though looking back now I would build a slower pattern. I am quite happy with the arrangement of the synth lead and think it is quite a fun MIDI to use. I find the lyrics are quite self explanatory but also make use of the translator prompt.

LYRICS:

Like a bolt of lightning

you never strike twice

forecast today

said it’d be dry

that was a lie

that was a lie

it rains in my heart

tonight

REPEAT

you fed me

fantasy

til your ink ran dry

I read between the lines

every night

every night

eyes open wide

my vision doubles

these empty bottles

in your honor

thinking should I call her?

motion denied

motion denied

I’ll sleep alone tonight.

Wordplay

This week we worked to play with words, and this was a pretty exciting concept for me. At the time of assignment but as the week progressed I found myself somewhat uninspired, I just couldn’t find a way to make a sound that would match the theme I wanted to play with. Lyrically, however, I was able to have some fun with rhymes especially when I made myself get a little looser with them.

I had about 4 or 5 total different attempts all of which were either scrapped or ended up getting put into the finished song. I really enjoyed shouting the word “Necromancy” in the song as a four syllable single word response to the four syllable line before it “she won’t come back” that part felt pretty good to me even though Necromancy didn’t really have any rhymes in the song. My written highlight however was “Nature Breathes… You’re forced to be free” the significance I was going for was essentially a spin on “life goes on and now you’re “free”’ A lot of people in relationships that may have outlived their time tend to speak on wanting or longing for “freedom” and yet I see so many lament the loss of those very same relationships. Nature takes its course and now you are “free”. Things we must all live with.

This is definitely a set of lines I want to use in a song in the future and I hope to put them over music I’m happier with.

Unreliable Narrators

This week I had a particularly rough time with the project at hand. I’m not sure if the inspiration fountain was out of ideas or if I just am a bit of a talentless hack ahaha but I definitely felt some struggle when it came to writing everything. I felt that coming into this I was going to crush it as the concept of an unreliable narrator is something I am quite fond of in story telling. I came to find out that it is quite challenging to tell a story from an unreliable side consistently.

That is not to say that I did not enjoy the challenge as I felt it was a way for me tell a very personal story without maybe revealing my background as intimately as I could have (though it would have been very uncomfortable for me). In writing this way I felt I could take jabs at myself or the theme of the song without making it too heavy handed or front loaded which I can really appreciate. I do think there are lots of things I could have improved on lyrically but I don’t hate the end result and this does actually inspire me to take another stab at it on my own time without a time limit.

I would really love to flesh out the ideas a lot more and maybe play with things like sampling of some of my favorite movies revolving around addiction as there are a lot of greatly ironic lines that fit the theme wonderfully without spoiling the entire ending and I find that the heartbreaking delivery of lines by addict characters can be quite powerful and sincere in their mask of insincerity both to themselves and the audience. In a way addicts total insincerity kind of gives away their entire disguise. You can almost certainly spot desperation in the way they say anything, and desperation is something anyone can relate to at their lowest.

Something I really like about music and film as art forms is that you can bring the atmosphere in through sound to help tell a story or convey a message. I decided to employ the help of cricket sounds to help tell the story of deep loneliness that an addict feels though they almost always claim they don’t need anyone. Crickets of course being iconic for being very loud in the quietest (loneliest) of settings.

Lyrics

Up and at em

bright and early

noon plus thirty

I’m so comfy

might just stay in bed

all day

with the lights low

feeling drowsy

in a daze

hold myself

don’t need no one

Eyes glued shut

and I’m wide awake

what a lovely day

so glad I can’t

remember a thing

I used to have to do

so many dreadful things

get out of bed

stay in my head

Until I found new life

my favorite thing

my favorite treat

for you I’d do

anything

Lucky Me

Lucky Me

Lucky Me

Lucky Me

My bag of treats

my favorite treats

when I run out

I call June

and give him things

he’s always got some

and he loves

all the stuff

that I used to

be into

My DVDs

My Plasma Screen

Cause with my favorite treat

I have no need

for worldly things

(I am nothing)

No other desires

(I am nothing)

No other ambitions

I need nothing

I need nothing

I need nothing

(Lucky me)

Lucky me

Lucky me

Here in bed with my favorite thing.

short reprise

Archaeologist

This project was quite fun considering a lot of my song ideas stay exactly that, ideas, and nothing more. so I went for some of the stuff I may have had done and tried to find a way for all of it to come together. The final song was constructed mostly from 3 concepts I had.

1. Somber concept with multiple voice filters to kind of give the idea of someone’s “voices” speaking for them

2. club tune elements layered throughout (bass, club lyrics, splice vocals)

3. hints of a breakup sort of song in some of the lyrics

I had my girlfriend help me with some of the vocals here though the entire concept was my idea I just wanted her help in an attempt to bring it to life. This was really fun for me because usually I just do these by myself in the dark with a single source of light haha… all things that were non negotiable for her. She was able to bring a certain air of life to the song with the vocal color she provided.

This final part was my favorite as I was able to challenge myself to try and actually sing this time around and though I don’t think I technically did a great job I do feel quite happy with the substance I was able to add and the delivery I gave with minimal filtering. Now, my song, Nobody.

12 Bar Chord Progression

This project was one that I had to scrap and redo a few times. I’m no perfectionist but for some reason I just was not satisfied with any of my initial ideas and attempts. I started with the very simple 12 bar progression we went over in class in C. At first I tried to play something that felt upbeat but I knew I didn’t have anything lyrics wise for a song like that so eventually I gave myself something really slow and started adding instruments.

Naturally uncomfortable with my voice and singing in general I knew I had to find some sort of filtering if I was going to attempt any more singing than before which I wanted to challenge myself to do. I landed on some filters that didn’t change too much but gave me enough of a vocal disguise to warm up to the idea of maybe singing a few words. My first attempt at lyrics didn’t really work for the music I had put together but having recently gone to my uncle’s funeral I pulled from recent memory and landed on the lyrics below.

Satisfied with my lyrics, and the emotional release they sort of gave me I decided that even if my voice didn’t sound great this was the product I would turn in because I think, for me, at least, this was the blues (done my way of course). It also felt quite good to punch in or play everything on this myself. no loops just an attempt at creativity. Have to say I’m proud of this one.

DirectDiatonic

Frankenstein but he’s Snoopy by Moises Olaez

I’m not too sure where to begin with the process I went through for making this song. I haven’t got a great grasp of theory quite yet even in simplest terms. To be quite honest theory has, so far, confused and frustrated me. I knew that I wanted to approach this project with a bit of sentimental emotion with the limited scope of chords that I have.

You can probably tell here that I was having trouble creatively with the sounds I should be producing but after a couple efforts this is what sounded most like what I wanted to convey. Not quite sad, not quite happy just kind of contemplative.

One of my previous attempts had a lot more going on sonically as is perhaps depicted here and though I did enjoy it quite a bit I felt that it wasn’t really fitting the diatonic regiment of the assignment and I remembered my professor starting the quarter off by telling us to work within our limitations and so I challenged myself to keep trying until I felt my piano track was diatonic. I feel now, that I have a slightly better understanding of the concept and this project definitely helped me get more comfortable with things.

Assignment 1 Influence

Mephistopheles by Moises Olaez

I drew from MIKE on Zap! I loved the way he used the beat on this song to emphasize certain words and phrases I tried to do that with cymbal crashes.

I got the idea for the intro from Aries by Gorillas with Peter Hook I liked the way they used the drums to kind of give a bounce back and forth.

I love the way that Ian Curtis drones with his vocals so I thought I would give that a shot and will definitely have to keep working on that.