(Haunted Muth) The first one that I tried to put together was a combination of different things. The first half is the only one part that I still like. At this point I wanted the cumulative project to deal with a lot of narrative. A lot of ideas I came up with had been done before, and so after cutting away more and more I came up with the idea of trying to sound reminiscent of old children's films/animations/stories/etc. This was something I thought was really definitive in sounds that I enjoyed.
These things were rife with static and thin recordings, flutes that sounded like warbling broken frequencies, all that wonderful stuff. This was also something I felt much more oriented towards, being that animation and narrative was what spurred my interest in the first place. Anyways, what I ended with was a step in that direction, but then a step back. At a certain point I believed that I needed a beat to appear with shimmery guitar. After a while, I felt there was nothing original in that, and I also believed that the chord progression was one that had been done over and over again in the past. It was just bringing up thoughts and feelings that I thought didn't belong in the piece. Alas, here it is for anyone who cares to hear.
(Wooden Fifth) After a trip to North Carolina, I found this ancient portable organ that some shop owner sold to me for 5 dollars. That built the main progression of the track, along with a few random flourishes with higher notes. I ran the organ through some effects pedals, and was also playing with a synth that I got to produce a very drifty, fake flute sound that I loved immediately. There are all sorts of other sounds in there, many of the really scratchy distorted voices were actually from friends and I playing with a broken tape recorder. The reason this one got put back under wraps was mostly the percussion. I still didn't like what digital drum sequencing was sounding like, along with not being that great at understanding/producing things rhythmically. Nowadays I have a better handle on it, and a little more openness towards digital beats. This is actually one that I've been reworking when I get the time; I've recently gotten to record with my friend, Michael Marten, on the drum set I've slowly been putting together. That is still being thrown around. Anyways, this one I felt was more a step in the right direction. Every bit was intentional, and not just because I couldn't think of what to do. I think a lot of different writers producers actually feel the same way, that a project that is done all at once and recorded in a long, unstopping process generally stands out so much more to them. Also, giving credit where it's due, this track by Freescha was a huge inspiration while I was making this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8hsXRHe_4o
Though, their method of attack at this kind of composition was much better thought out, and they actually knew how to mix/master.
(Romance of Moths) This recording was the next experiment I tried, using a combination of falling water, really delayed synthesizer sounds, and a few different guitar noises. I'll admit though, this one is a version I messed with some more a year afterwards, bringing in some more sounds that were relative to the story of it. The idea behind it was supposed to be an ode to the group of small moths that lived in my room all summer (a lot of people will cringe at that sentence). But I wanted there to be more of a character involved with the piece, so I cut up a handful of samples from a "Wee Sing" children's song tape and sprinkled them in there at random spots. The criticism I had for this one was on the lack of really... anything. There are chord changes, but the synth is so muddy that nobody would really hear them. The guitars don't really sync with anything either. Every track mixed in kind of did its own thing, and I didn't want to be so haphazard with my sounds. This is another one I have stored away in a more recent project where I've actually stripped it down some more, and reversed it on accident to produce a really awesome progression of noises
I worked on a couple of others, but they were pretty mehh. Totally different sounds than I wanted them to be. But yeah! This was a really fun time that I had to completely devote to learning how I wanted to sound with this project. Now I have music projects practically leaking out of my computer, but none of them I have been able to really call finished. I want to be out of school and in a comfortable spot before I start laying these things out and exposing them under a name. Hopefully soon...
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