This summer, I planned on writing an album of "solo" music with an overarching theme; something along the lines of "nature vs. technology" or something. While I still have a couple of songs in mind with this theme, I've generally abandoned it. I also originally planned on trying to make an actual album out of this that I could duplicate, package, and sell to friends, possibly record stores, and maybe even a record label. I also hoped to send it to the EMP SoundOff, thinking maybe I could play that and even some other shows using "backing tracks" off of my Zune and/or laptop, but that might be more trouble than it's worth. In any case, I've been doing far less writing and recording than I originally planned, but I've still got some songs done, and more in the process of being done, and even more in my head waiting to get started on.
FINISHED SONGS:
"Cabin Fever": This was the first song I finished over spring break after I left Elie's house and came home to an empty house devoid of my parents; they went on a vacation to California to see family. I was bored, had writer's block, everyone was busy, there was nothing to do, I was lonely, etc. The song came rather quickly to me, although the concept of "weird-bare-bones-ambinet-ish-electronic-percussion-with-stacked-vocal-harmonies" had been in the back of my mind for some time. I lifted the chord progression from a song from the game Final Fantasy VII (click here to listen!). It was kinda hard to sing the weird rhythm. The sound effect at the beginning consists of me rattling my keys and then me blowing into a SoBe bottle, with a bunch of effects put on both of them. Also, I put distortion on my voice. Because it sounds more EDGY. Or something.
"Post-Apocalyptic Blues": I started working on this before "Cabin Fever," and then got writer's block, so took a break from it. Everything from the intro to verse was something I had in my back-catalog for upwards of a year, but never got a chance to actually use. The lyrics and a bit of the melody had been written during winter quarter totally separate from this song, but I soon realized that they worked together pretty well. I made the intro with my phaser and delay pedals on the guitar. The lyrics were inspired by I Am Legend, The Stand, Fallout 3, and other various post-apocalyptic stories, for which I have an unreasonable admiration.
"Ostrich in a Casket": After writing those two super-duper-serious songs, I decided I needed to lighten up a little and write a stupid song. So I came up with some annoying riffs and set out to write an obnoxious and outrageous super-fast two-minute song. The song title was inspired by a conversation Elie and I were having on the phone. There was an awkward silence and then said the first two random words that popped into my head: "Ostrich. Casket." Also, the night before I had a dream about Justin Timberlake leading a street gang, and another dream about penguins in Antarctica. Urban ninjas (what I call participants of parkour) and falling down an up-escalator (seriously... think about that) are two subjects I had wanted to write songs about, but during the writing of this I realized they don't really warrant entire songs (well, okay maybe they still do, but those would be weird-ass songs... as if this isn't...).
"Straight From the Heart": John von and I set out to write an awful late 2000's R&B song using auto-tune. This is the result. The lyrics consist of the stupidest love-song cliches we could possibly think up. The title came from the realization of how many musicians have a song called "Straight From the Heart," but we decided to put a ridiculous spin on it. We knew from the get-go we'd have to have some awfully placed "Shawtay"'s and "Motha-fucka"'s. John wrote the main synth-riff on the guitar. The key-change at the end was different from how we originally planned, but it worked.
Other songs I've been working on:
"Livin' It Up": It starts out as a throwback-rock-ish song, and then there's a verse with acoustic guitar and djembe, and then a buildup with ambient electric guitar and Phil Collins-ish electronic drums, then a guitar solo, then it gets all quiet and weird and moody for the last third of the song... I haven't written lyrics but I want to make them about unsustainable lifestyle(s) or something along those lines. Basically all I have is a bit of a chorus. But almost all of the music is done.
"[Latin Hip-Hop Folk]": I'm taking a Latin hip-hop drum beat and stuff and putting it underneath a downbeat folky song. That's all I have thus far.
"[Escalator]": A little electro-funk thing I've had in the closet for awhile.
"Southern Sun": I don't know why I haven't started working on this; maybe it's too serious for my mood(s) as of late? I originally planned for this to be all orchestral and epic, with violin, cello, clarinet, flute, timpani, concert bass drum, crotales, bells, and all sorts of other crazy stuff, along with drums, guitars, and vocals and such. It'll probably be relatively normal now. I thought of the lyrics while waiting for the bus at the end of Fall quarter, and wrote them during Physics 104. That class was super-easy.
"Tempest": Another similar to the last song, but instrumental.
John Von and I are going to write two more songs this week, hopefully. One will be a bad 80s duet-ballad, and the other will be a stupid southern-piano-butt-rock uber-patriotic song.
There are also a few songs I've either thought of covering or started and then stopped. The one that I am currently working on and hope to finish on Monday is "All the Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands," by Sufjan Stevens, off of his Seven Swans album. It's very repetitive, so it should be easy to complete pretty quickly.
Anyways, I still hope to compile all of these songs into an "album," possibly with album art, and I may still send it in to SoundOff, and I may still try to play some songs live at open mic or something. We'll see how things go.
--Jon
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