One of the things I have been considering is futzing about with music again. Like creative writing in my previous post, that also has a well that dries up, especially as I don’t usually have collaborators to bounce ideas off anymore. And my tooling around is more for the purposes of learning new recording, engineering and playing techniques than it is for performance. Much like publishing my writing, I am more interested in the joy of creation than I am in the idea fame or profit.
[Trigger Warning: Musician-speak ahead and I don’t explain the terms I am using. Enter at your own risk.]
Well, that would be two recent projects that just don’t have what I think is needed for prime time.
First, the song I was working on as an experiment where folks write the lyrics in a certain genre to a song of mine they never heard… I tried to make something of that last week and the initial takes just felt awkward. It’s not for the lack of Chris and Sandy’s lyrical talents; rather, I just couldn’t find a way to make either of them work well. Close, but no banana, as they say. It ended up feeling as if I should be doing less, rather than more, on the lyrics front. And my mind is blank for what would work, if you can believe that crap.
As an experiment, it was fun, but I don’t think anyone would thank me for putting the result out with their name associated. So, I’ll let it rest a bit and see if I either get a better sense of rhythm and flow to the lyrics, or if I come up with some of my own.
In my post where I mentioned I will be busy this summer with things that take me away from posting here quite so frequently, I alluded to a lack of connectivity for a spell as being one of those reasons. Well, those plans are starting to firm up and I will be incommunicado near the end of July for about 5-10 days.
I am curious; there’s an idea that might be interesting to pursue. I’m not sure it is a good idea to pursue, but it is definitely interesting.
Are any of my readers interested in scratching that Sisters of Mercy (or similar musical act) fantasy and write some lyrics for a song in that flavor that I have already written save for the lyrics? The flavor is more “First and Last and Always” than “Driven Like the Snow“, for those of you familiar with the band, although it might have a touch of “Lucretia, My Reflection” to the sound as well. Bass and drums are a bit more on the Mission UK side of the equation than Doktor Avalanche. [If all of this means nothing to you, that’s okay! Think gloomy rock.]
No need to sing them (unless you want to).
Tentative working title: “Living With the Ghost of You” (open to modification, but a repetition of this line over the “chorus” section currently works in my head).
I can modify the song structure somewhat to fit the lyrics if the right ones come my way. Or the other way around. I think (at the moment, anyway) that it might be more fun if participants didn’t hear the music they were writing lyrics for…
If you want to see if I think what you write will work, drop it in the comments below. The basic (current) structure is:
verse
verse
chorus
verse
chorus
bridge
verse
chorus to fade
All verses would probably fit with a 4-lines/verse structure. Or 2-lines/verse if the lines are longer. Bridge may be left instrumental, but let me know if you have injections that work (no “babybabybaby” stuff, though, puhleez).
Any takers?
I can’t promise it will work, but it would still be fun to see what y’all come up with. And who knows? I may ask for your permission to use it!
NOTE:It seems that iOS dislikes most audio files. I have replaced the audio file with one coded in .MP3, so let me know if there are still issues on your platform of choice.
Happy Sunday evening (or Monday morning) to you all.
Quite possibly against my best interests considering that I am coming out a bit with a truly frightening prospect for anyone who knows: a full song recording that I’ve been working on with some bloke I know named Michael singing. He’s not the best singer out there, but hopefully his contribution to this composition was at least serviceable.
As you know, when time permits, I’ve been working on trying to work on getting a few music snippets out that play with a modified 80s-era post-punk sound influenced primarily by early Cure and Joy Division, with hints of all of the other bands from that era to more modern bands like The Eden House and Kælan Mikla. More than just playing around with sound, I felt I should finally commit to making a full song.
