Developing the seed of an idea that is 'Headlights and High hopes', I got the piano riff worked out, layered the synths and bass templates for laying the guide vocals and then needed to add a drum track so I picked a simple four four just for now until I can open up the structure when I've got a melody down - the drums sounded a bit flat so I added a filter but picked the wrong plug-in and made them sound airy and deeply sonic! Superb!
An accident that has knocked up the atmosphere from nice to deep.
Thursday, 11 July 2013
Sunday, 7 July 2013
The image and how you use it
I've always known this but it was made even more powerful when I was watching a few clips from Live Aid in 1985 on youtube. U2 singing 'bad', which is a good song - it's not a great song - but the way it was performed, with Bono looking every bit the confident front man, looking like he knows everything worth knowing. His not being fazed looking out at the thousands of people, not caring if any of them are standing there thinking 'this song is boring', they went on to riff the song into a nine minute epic while Bono wandered off into the crowd to dance with someone as he always did.
It wasn't just about the music - as good musicians as they were - it was all about what they represented, their message, their look and then with the Joshua Tree, it suddenly was all about the music and the countryfied image, the rock and roll and all those influences. It was about creativity until they ended up morphing into a band that mocked that which had given them the pedestal.
Urban Fox will always just be a recording band - we have played live but we know we're hobbyists, and our songs are ok. However, with the internet and distribution to various channels, you don't need radio play - we're happy if anybody stops by soundcloud or downloads us off I-tunes and likes what we do. We'll never have an image, or a message and as such, we'll always be an internet band who writes and records and releases music into the ether to try and get one of our tunes into the soundtrack of someone's life.
I know how important music has been to me, Peter Gabriel and Gary Numan managed over the years to speak for me, listening to their songs and hearing every word describing my own situation and Tears for Fears and Erasure representing everything that is maginficent about song writing - the layers, the powerful rhythms, great melodies, the usage of embelishments to light up a verse or a chorus. Listen to Erasure's 'Chorus' album - Siren Song and Home are amazing tracks - the keyboard work is nothing short of magical and continues to influence everything I write when I'm at the synthesizers, and their 1995 album 'Erasure' was their very own 'Dark side of the moon', a masterpiece which I could listen to on loop for days.
'The Hurting' is a truly magnificent album too and listening to it start to finish with the lights down is an experience I wish everyone could have - and feel the same as I do.
My hope with the new album - which incidently might be called 'Departure' after Douglas described the track 'Hope' as just that and I like it better than 'The Storm' - the album isn't a storm really, it's more of a celebration - is that someone stumbles across it and enjoys it. And that's all.
It wasn't just about the music - as good musicians as they were - it was all about what they represented, their message, their look and then with the Joshua Tree, it suddenly was all about the music and the countryfied image, the rock and roll and all those influences. It was about creativity until they ended up morphing into a band that mocked that which had given them the pedestal.
Urban Fox will always just be a recording band - we have played live but we know we're hobbyists, and our songs are ok. However, with the internet and distribution to various channels, you don't need radio play - we're happy if anybody stops by soundcloud or downloads us off I-tunes and likes what we do. We'll never have an image, or a message and as such, we'll always be an internet band who writes and records and releases music into the ether to try and get one of our tunes into the soundtrack of someone's life.
I know how important music has been to me, Peter Gabriel and Gary Numan managed over the years to speak for me, listening to their songs and hearing every word describing my own situation and Tears for Fears and Erasure representing everything that is maginficent about song writing - the layers, the powerful rhythms, great melodies, the usage of embelishments to light up a verse or a chorus. Listen to Erasure's 'Chorus' album - Siren Song and Home are amazing tracks - the keyboard work is nothing short of magical and continues to influence everything I write when I'm at the synthesizers, and their 1995 album 'Erasure' was their very own 'Dark side of the moon', a masterpiece which I could listen to on loop for days.
'The Hurting' is a truly magnificent album too and listening to it start to finish with the lights down is an experience I wish everyone could have - and feel the same as I do.
My hope with the new album - which incidently might be called 'Departure' after Douglas described the track 'Hope' as just that and I like it better than 'The Storm' - the album isn't a storm really, it's more of a celebration - is that someone stumbles across it and enjoys it. And that's all.
Monday, 1 July 2013
Head of Steam
After a marathon singing/mixing session, there's two more full song demos up on Soundcloud now - both on the Urban Fox one and the Rob Shadon one.
'Love's last victim' was a bit raw so I've gone back and added some 'beef' under it so it sounds more produced. 'The Storm' is also up there - sounding quite ragged but that's demos for you.
I'm currently working on 'the destiny of truth' which has a new second verse and probably won't sound as empty as the other demo sounds.
'Love's last victim' was a bit raw so I've gone back and added some 'beef' under it so it sounds more produced. 'The Storm' is also up there - sounding quite ragged but that's demos for you.
I'm currently working on 'the destiny of truth' which has a new second verse and probably won't sound as empty as the other demo sounds.
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Monday, 24 June 2013
Minneapolis Blue
Previously on this blog I mentioned that it felt like September 1995 - and it got me thinking, what exactly was it about that time that I can feel? I think it was the atmosphere - it had been a long hot summer, I don't remember a bad day and I was outdoors for most of it. Then when the autumn came it was quite harsh - lately we've had some mild September - November bits but not 1995. It was cold. All the time.
I spent lots of time in the 'studio' writing the 'Intermezzo' album and a lot of time between lectures at univeristy in Sunderland Museum. I wrote the lyrics for 'Shame' in there, one of the only songs that I wrote entirely on that album - the rest coming from Douglas and his temporary exile in Ilkley. The song I have most affection for from that period (apart from Demons and Angels) was Minneapolis Blue and although I remember it coming to the fore in one of the song writing sessions I had with Douglas, he assures me 'Minneapolis Blue' was hanging around for a few years beforehand. A love story, the guy in the song had planned to spend Christmas in Minneapolis with his girl, but the song tells of the breakdown of that relationship. The depth in the lyrics made it feel like Douglas had actually been there himself. In another creative lapse for this new album I've dug out the old C90 hissy recording and 're-done' it - there's two versions - an uptempo bass driven introduction and a melacholic airy double bass and flute lament.
They'll be up on soundcloud before you know it along with another song I've been meaning to re-do since it was first recorded in 1996. It's called 'Belong to me' and hopefully it'll turn out how it was intended.
Then back to the new album. I promise.
I spent lots of time in the 'studio' writing the 'Intermezzo' album and a lot of time between lectures at univeristy in Sunderland Museum. I wrote the lyrics for 'Shame' in there, one of the only songs that I wrote entirely on that album - the rest coming from Douglas and his temporary exile in Ilkley. The song I have most affection for from that period (apart from Demons and Angels) was Minneapolis Blue and although I remember it coming to the fore in one of the song writing sessions I had with Douglas, he assures me 'Minneapolis Blue' was hanging around for a few years beforehand. A love story, the guy in the song had planned to spend Christmas in Minneapolis with his girl, but the song tells of the breakdown of that relationship. The depth in the lyrics made it feel like Douglas had actually been there himself. In another creative lapse for this new album I've dug out the old C90 hissy recording and 're-done' it - there's two versions - an uptempo bass driven introduction and a melacholic airy double bass and flute lament.
They'll be up on soundcloud before you know it along with another song I've been meaning to re-do since it was first recorded in 1996. It's called 'Belong to me' and hopefully it'll turn out how it was intended.
Then back to the new album. I promise.
Friday, 7 June 2013
Promises are snowflakes
It's really hard sometimes, moulding what you hear in your head with the sounds you have available. I don't drum and I don't play guitar past grade 2 standard (probably not even that high) so I find my expression limited. I feel a bit like Brian Eno in the early 80's when he did that 'atmospheric' album - stuck with whooshy synth sounds and metallic pads. However, sometimes, those sounds and atmosphere sit perfectly. As proved by 'I'm sorry I haven't a Clue' when they do the 'one song to the tune of another' - the connection between the words and the music is so important. It doesn't seem so I suppose when you're listing to a song on the radio, it just kinda goes but when you try and sing the lyrics of 'Girlfriend in a coma' by The Smiths to the tune of 'Tiptoe through the tulips', you get what I mean.
Promises are Snowflakes is one of Doug's gems. In the lyric it states literally that 'your promises are cold' but it goes deeper than that. The promise is made, and it seems so robust and heartfelt until time causes that snowflake to fade and melt and dissappear - the meaning all but lost. That's where Doug excels, and I managed to get a rough demo of a couple of verses and choruses down this morning. At the moment, you can't really tell where the bridge and the chorus meet - you'll be able to with the vocals on top but I think the 'segway' itself needs to be more prominent. I'll just give it a whirl and see!
Ten contenders now for the final cut and another fifteen bits and peices which may or may not be developed.
Promises are Snowflakes is one of Doug's gems. In the lyric it states literally that 'your promises are cold' but it goes deeper than that. The promise is made, and it seems so robust and heartfelt until time causes that snowflake to fade and melt and dissappear - the meaning all but lost. That's where Doug excels, and I managed to get a rough demo of a couple of verses and choruses down this morning. At the moment, you can't really tell where the bridge and the chorus meet - you'll be able to with the vocals on top but I think the 'segway' itself needs to be more prominent. I'll just give it a whirl and see!
Ten contenders now for the final cut and another fifteen bits and peices which may or may not be developed.
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
I've got ISSUES
I have a foible. I can't think of another word for it - a sickness? a deep issue? Whatever it is, I am obsessed with hearing a song and going 'that sounds like...'. I do it all the time - there are at least six songs in the charts right now that sound like 70s or 80s songs - which either means there's a finite combination of notes and they're bound to come back round or they're blatantly stealing stuff without giving the original artist credit.
I once posted on a forum about a song that sounded like something else and everyone went ballistic saying it wasn't stolen, it was a 'homage' to the original. I have a huge bugbear(?!) with that Christina Agui-lost-it song she does with Pitbull (Don't get done, get Dom) which has a sample (I say sample, it's actually played by a 9 year old on a broken bontempi) of the intro to A-Ha's timeless classic 'Take on me'. Not only does it destroy any affection I had for the original, it does nothing for the pathetic attempt at a GCSE music project that these two 'great artists' are vomiting into my living room.
Christina has turned into a parody of herself. She's singing the chart equivalent of 'tune a day book 1, The little F and G march' and she's singing it like her life depends on it. Oversinging the entire seven notes, trying to infuse each one with the depths of every emotion she's ever felt. It's embarrassing.
Anyhoo - I've been writing a song this morning called 'The dreamers' and it just ended up sounding like a Gary Numan out-take mixed with that Visage song 'Fade to gray'. The difference is, I'm not fleecing people out of money and parading my music as high-end Radio 1 song of the week - I'm just arsing about in my studio doing what makes me happy and hoping if you listen, it'll cheer you up too. The music industry needs to get a grip honestly.
Having said that, I recently heard one of the greatest songs of the last ten years in 'Duet' by Everything Everything and that band 'Lawson' aren't half bad, even though they sound a little like Louis Walsh told them they'd never make it unless they learned guitar and came back next week.
That's all.
I once posted on a forum about a song that sounded like something else and everyone went ballistic saying it wasn't stolen, it was a 'homage' to the original. I have a huge bugbear(?!) with that Christina Agui-lost-it song she does with Pitbull (Don't get done, get Dom) which has a sample (I say sample, it's actually played by a 9 year old on a broken bontempi) of the intro to A-Ha's timeless classic 'Take on me'. Not only does it destroy any affection I had for the original, it does nothing for the pathetic attempt at a GCSE music project that these two 'great artists' are vomiting into my living room.
Christina has turned into a parody of herself. She's singing the chart equivalent of 'tune a day book 1, The little F and G march' and she's singing it like her life depends on it. Oversinging the entire seven notes, trying to infuse each one with the depths of every emotion she's ever felt. It's embarrassing.
Anyhoo - I've been writing a song this morning called 'The dreamers' and it just ended up sounding like a Gary Numan out-take mixed with that Visage song 'Fade to gray'. The difference is, I'm not fleecing people out of money and parading my music as high-end Radio 1 song of the week - I'm just arsing about in my studio doing what makes me happy and hoping if you listen, it'll cheer you up too. The music industry needs to get a grip honestly.
Having said that, I recently heard one of the greatest songs of the last ten years in 'Duet' by Everything Everything and that band 'Lawson' aren't half bad, even though they sound a little like Louis Walsh told them they'd never make it unless they learned guitar and came back next week.
That's all.
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