What a difference a day makes. Woke up with the new sound and title for “What Say You” in my head & was actually pretty much able to get down what I “heard.” With inspiration from Michael Franti’s “positivity” and a sound that’s, hopefully, reminiscent of early Joe Jackson (I could hear it being Blur-Ed as well), I punched out a bass part (starting in A) grooving with that keen metronome sound.

Then I used a wooden box drum from the Timber Drum Co. – a Christmas gift from my wonderful wife to supply some beat.

The vocalizations were pulled from my not-far-from-sleep memory of earlier morning with a few tracks of background added. I’m pretty happy with the snippet/sketch – here it is:

Positive Waves.

-Eddball

Earlier in the week I was struck by the New York Times – Politics (@nytpolitics)  continually tweeting that it was near impossible for Bernie Sanders to catch Hillary Clinton because of the delegate lead she has. Up until then, I though it was pretty much even. Ah, but that’s if you don’t consider “super” delegates. I had forgotten about their existence and it angered me as an example of how our elections and elected officials don’t really seem to be representative of the people. I know we’ve got a lot of differences in this country (wow, understated?), but, whatever your position on a given issue, decisions seem to be made without truly representing the views of those that are supposed to have a say.

Let talk/sing about it.

I sketched what I initially was calling “No Say” into “What Say.” Quick and dirty using the FourTracks Lite app on my old HTC Android phone. (Hear below). Lyrical ideas & chords are also available via downward scroll.

-Ed

What Say

D A C G

B A G

B A
No Say
Me Say
Here say
You Don’t say

Our non-representatives
Veto our vote

Super-delegates-false-ish
Seem something quite atrocious

go about with your business
go about with your life

Primary cause
Official

No se

Democra-say
Say-nator
Say-tan
Say-tiate

Elect
Caucus
Right

Added a short bridge to Fictional Life – which I may duplicate (with different words?). This was accomplished by recording the piano “after” the song was “over” (basically appending it). Then I cut it and pasted it after one of the choruses. I haven’t nearly worked out the phrasing in said bridge (which is a bit painfully obvious). I also “moved the notes” in the bridge as well to, somewhat, correct my miss-timed piano playing (you can change individual notes as well). This is all well and good for this track – to perpetuate the fiction, but I will attempt to be more “organic” with other tracks.

Re-sang over the percussion and piano from the latest sketch and am calling it the Fictional Life Demo.

Note: One minor annoyance with my DAW software. I thought I could easily highlight a bit of a track (specifically the vocals at the very beginning on this song) and amplify just that bit. When I tried it just amplified the whole of the track.

Not sure what song is next. Had a thought about a title “All My Flaws” with a few thoughts as to lyrical direction – stay tuned.

-Ed It

Awoke a bit early this morning and decided to fire up the “studio.”

Found where after-recording quantization hides in Ableton Live. I selected a midi track and clicked the “Groove” icon. It lists other things than quantization, but I’ll experiment with them another day.

You can choose quarter, eighth, 16th or 32nd note quantization (all are not available in some instances – & there are the same selections with a ‘T’ appended, don’t know what that means). I quantized the 3 midi tracks – cymbal, bass drum and piano. I think it is better, but I need to be more in time from the get-go.

Here’s the result:

This week was about drum practice. I tried a little bit midweek, but was having an issue where there was a small delay between pressing the key on my keyboard & hearing the sound. It made the already difficult task (for me) of staying in time almost impossible. I found that the problem was that I had the headphones plugged into my audio interface & the keyboard was going directly into the computer (my audio interface does not have a USB input) – I think the signal was journeying too long of a path. This morning  I simplified the set-up. Just the keyboard (for midi input) & the laptop. Yeah! No delay.

I used two midi tracks for drums. I did the bass drum first, then added the symbols (both times recording a small bit & allowing it to loop). They are very basic and would benefit from quantization. I then used the midi Grand Piano sound, included in my DAW, to lay down a simple piano track. I want to make this “swing” a bit and that will require some work.

The other thing I wanted to bring up, regarding the subject matter, is the fine line one treads when they write “in character.” I’ve discussed this among friends with respect to songs like Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee” & Jill Sobule’s “Soldier of Christ.” Is there overlap between your feelings & the character’s? Where does the character begin & end?  While I do certainly watch more TV than I should, I do try to keep up on current events & am a firm believer that climate change is real and that humans have played a part in it.

End result? Another sketch with more of the lyrics worked in:

I had a thought and tried to implement. Since the song is about living a fictional life, I figured I’d make it all fake – no “real” instruments. I messed around with some midi organ & such – then tried a little midi symbol.  I did not save any of it.

The whole time I was hamming up the singing a bit towards a lounge-lizard sound. I ended up with another sketch – just vocals & midi piano (complete with flubbed lyrics).

The tip jar is out on my keyboard.

-Lounge LizzEd

A quick hit before the day job.

“Fictional Life” has been stewing & it boiled over into my waking state early this morning. I heard it as a Francis Dunnery-influnced sound, then worried it might go to far toward;s Neil Young’s Sugar Mountain.

Here’s a rough sketch with the current idea in full below.

Fictional Life

Don’t read biography
Or watch documentary
it’s all a bit too life-like
For me

Ignore reality
It’s a blissful play
Living the Fictional Life

Fictional Life
Fictional Life
Who needs the truth
in a Fictional Life

I just say no
To climate change
In fact, it’s fiction
Science is to blame

my mind’s made up
Mad about it
Trading facts for Fictional Life

There’s no audition
I’ve got the leading role
The part’s the whole of my

News is too hard
I want easytainment

It’s not a lie
Just pretending
Escaping all the time
I’m not really here

Immerse myself
In a world
That’s not

Character role play script(ed)
Set the scene
Let’s act it out
Make my directorial debut

TV program
It’s a novel life

Virtually
Augment
Reality