So it's taken a few days to get round to writing the round-up blog for this Album in a Month quest, but here it is...
Vital statistics...Name: WormsNumber of tracks: 10
Total length: 30:20 (over the minimum time by about a minute)
Ideas / Writing started: November 2nd, about... morning time
Recording completed: Friday 28th, about 5pm
Mixing completed: throughout recording, and Saturday 29th, about 10pm
Mastering completed: Sunday 30th, about 1pm
Uploading of tracks completed: Sunday 30th, about 2pm
Artwork / Name completed: Sunday 30th, morning
Method of completing this: I started on the 2nd November and spent the rest of that week madly scribbling lyrics into a diary. No real musical ideas at this point, but by half way through the week i had the music for what would become Squeezed Beyond pretty much in mind. I then had very few days without work or other distractions, so i really focused on getting musical ideas down into GarageBand and trying to match them up with the lyrics. Usually i prefer to write lyrics and music simultaneously, but it wasn't going to work that way here with so little time. One thing i made sure of - i kept that diary and my laptop on me whenever possible so that i could scribble ideas, record melodies etc whenever they popped up. Oh and another thing, because i really suck at naming songs, i actually came up with a list of about 15 song titles and went from there with the writing. Sometimes i'd finish a song and then decide to use a different title, or change it entirely, but it definitely helped to have that list of potential songs. It was as if the demo was already started or something.
From there, i finally got into ProTools about 2.5 weeks in and started fleshing out a few of the GarageBand demos. Once i'd started the recording in ProTools, my method was to continually go down the list of song sessions, open each one, and come up with something... anything, for each track and then move on before i got stale. I found this to be a pretty good way of making constant progress.
About the artwork and nameThe album is entitled
Worms. I happened upon that bunch of leaves, and yes they've actually been eaten by worms of some kind - it's not 'photoshopped'. I thought it looked extremely cool so i took about 900 photos of it and only one wasn't blurry. I also happen to really hate worms, like other people hate spiders and snakes... worms are my nemesis. The only reason that it then makes sense to go calling my record after them is that it's mildly amusing to me, and probably no one else. It's all about the photo.
Here's a bit about each of the songs:Life Is Too ShortAnd so is this song... it's about a minute long. Started as a scribbled 'We'll burn ourselves out, just you wait and see'. Don't know where i was going there. Then i came across the rather dumb organ riff while getting ready to play something else. Noticed that that lyric fitted, but it needed fleshing out, so that's what happened. I played real drums in this one. No bass or guitars, just organs. I thinking the backing Ahhhhs are weak, but i didn't have time to change it. It's a little bit Dandys in the feel, but their Brisbane show (that was incredible) had just been and gone. Note the very obscure reference to the Canadian childrens trio Sharon, Lois & Bram. It just suddenly came back to me while i was writing.
Cow's BreathI read this bizarre article about cows and their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. I know they fart methane and so on, but this article said that they also breath methane. Breath it??? What... they breathed it in at some point and now it's coming back out? Well i may be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure you only breath out what you're body doesn't use in the breath of air you took in the first place. Humans breathing a breath of fresh air breath out CO2, Nitrogen, and approx. 4% less oxygen than existed in the breath in the first place. So I'm assuming they mean that cows BURP methane and because burps tend to come out of one's mouth, the author thought that was the same as breathing. Maybe i'm being too literal here. Anyway besides that, I'm constantly amazed that people just don't seem to give a shit that the world is a very finite thing and yet we all continue to guzzle and consume as if we think someone else is going to fix the problem for us so that we can continue driving around in stupidly big cars. Sitting in traffic jams wasting fuel because no employer wants to be the first to stagger working hours etc etc etc.
The music came about because i got the piano riff in my head while i was working (so i can guzzle.. i too am a hypocrite). Luckily there was a nearby keyboard so i got it down and fleshed it out later. Artists i was thinking about while recording this one..... Leonard Cohen (i'd just bought tickets to his show in Feb), Lou Reed (why not..), The Beatles, Harry Connick Jnr. Note the reference to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the first verse.
Squeezed BeyondProbably the first fully realised song, written in that first week. It's just about feeling over-stretched, as we all do when our time is limited and there's much to do. Not that interesting really, but i like the song.
In The Midst Of An OpinionMy first ever foray into 'electronic music'. Well, sampled music. This was the song i mentioned in an earlier blog where i thought of a melody and then by the time the song was finished i didn't even use the melody. It's nice when it can change that much right in front of you. It's kind of about people who always have to voice their opinion of you and your life, and think that that's final - there can be no other way, because it's their opinion and they own it muuuahahaha!
A Thousand Years A DayI'm not really sure what the verse is about, but the chorus is quite self explanatory. I think it would be fun to move to another planet, if it wasn't for the fact that the ones we know about are a little bit inhospitable. This one started off with lyrics only and was in desperate need of music, so it's a bit generic. Quite Eagles in its sound, with some CSNY thrown in for good measure.
Weird EarthlingA sample-based surf song with Big Ben at the start... need i say more!
Always VacatingA song for everyone who's ever disappeared before. In the music world it seems to be quite common - people come into your life and then suddenly they're gone again as quickly as they came. You can get all hurt about it if you wish to, but as the old Seinfeld saying goes - it's probably them.. not you. Who knows. This one is out of time and it bothers me, but again, no time to change it.
The Space In BetweenAbout a leech called Bobowski, who at some point in his leechy career took on human form. He was able to suck far more blood than he could as a classic leech. He was happy about this. Fake drums here which is fun, because that's how i used to write my demos. So it sounds a bit like an old demo.
When It All Comes To NothingI wrote these lyrics one day when i felt like all i do is try to please people and then it leaves me in a mess. I am trying to better myself though and become a grumpy uncharitable bastard.
Hamish's PlaceSome time on Friday 28th i did a time count of the nine songs i had and it was about two minutes short of the target, so i hurridly sat down to write one final song. It was the first time i'd had a blank since starting this record, so i thought hard about something i could conceivably write about. The thing i'm most looking forward to at the moment is getting on a plane to Scotland in about 2 weeks with my wife, so i just started writing about that. We're both fans of Hamish MacBeth (a book and tv series) and Laura has never been o/s before, so is quite excited to see the highlands for real. Then it occurred to me how strange it is that we even know each other, let alone that we're married. I'm from just outside Montreal and it's only by chance that i moved to Brisbane (it was meant to be a holiday, but my parents decided to stay. i didn't have much say at age 5). So that all made it into the song. You should have seen me googling the distance between Brisbane and Montreal. Thankgod it fitted into the pattern on the lyrics. And sorry, Australians - the distance in miles worked far better than 'fourteen-thousand-kilometres-away', or whatever it was.
Well, that about wraps it up. I learned a lot about writing songs, and i think i like the process better now. I highly recommend doing this if you are a songwriter.
http://www.nasoalmo.org is the site of the fellow who runs this thing. Of course you don't have to abide by his rules. You can start now if you really want to.
Next up for Son of Sea..... holiday to Scotland (guzzle guzzle)! Followed by more songs. I have more that i need to record, so that will be early next year. And don't forget to download
Worms. It's better than getting them. You can get it (for free of course) from
http://www.thewestminsters.com/sos
Merry Christmas and a debaucherous new year.
Martin.