This One Goes to 22

So far, so good this weekend, with two extremely productive studio sessions on Friday and Saturday nights. Friday night Dave and I worked on the lead vocals for the song Bombs Away. I kind of suspected Bombs would be tough. I had the most trouble with the guitars for this song, and Aoife had a bit of a time with the violins.

It's not that the song's hard technically... it's that it's a different sort of song than we usually write. It's very poppy and bouncy, very clean... so it demands something a little different. I warmed up by running through the song a bunch of times, and then we got to working segment by segment. The first verse was a real trial. The melody starts in a lower register, but since it's the first line/verse of an uptempo pop tune, it needs to have a lot of energy. And I find I have trouble bringing energy to lower notes and wind up oversinging a lot.

So I tried. And tried. And tried. And tried. (Repeat 18 more times)

And finally got the first two lines on... take 22. Yeah. Take 22. I'm a real pro. The funny part is that I proceeded to nail the bridge, which has something like 10 lines of singing, on take 1.

Take 22 and take 1. I guess the bottom line is that we got where we wanted and it doesn't matter how you get there as long as it's good.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in Bono's vocal sessions, or Chris Martin's or Chris Cornell's. I wonder how those guys work.

BOMBS AWAY Put it all out there to see what I could see Closed the door on all the midnight tragedy Under the skies the city's eyes are watching Watching as we fade away Maybe the dream has run its course Maybe the river returned to the source Under the trees the mercury is falling How the summers fade away Fade away Fade away Bridge: So you're just time bomb Ticking night and day, night and day Suddenly the time's gone And it's bombs away Under the trees the mercury is falling How the summers fade away

Bombs is about time passing and how it affects your dreams. Time and dreams are both lyrical obsessions/crutches of mine, but there's something so elemental about them... especially for aspiring musicians. I have a real love/hate relationship with this song, but it turned out really well... it's a pop tune but it's savvy, and the arrangement was a group effort.

Saturday I taught and then headed back down to the studio. We worked on the song The Soft Drown. The Soft Drown was the last song written for the record, and as such had the least work done on the arrangement. To boot, we've never really been able to play this song very well live. Is it because the song isn't that good? (In best Corky St. Clair voice) Maybe.

But also, I think we have a tendency to overplay and the song is really a straight-ahead rocker that thrives on minimal, powerful playing. The basic tracks for it are good though, and I knew it would demand a really strong lead vocal to make it work. After warming up, we started working, and immediately Dave decided I needed to Joe Cocker it for the verses. Just let it all hang out, gravel-voiced, almost yelling.

We got some really good takes down. Character, energy, and a lot of grit. I'm learning something new about my vocal capacity every time we record and with The Soft Drown, I learned how to let go and just emote. Very cool. The choruses took awhile, but we built them up using harmonies, layering and call and response. Again, there's nothing like it yet on the album. The last chorus was a great example of how a producer can make a tune. I had some ideas about background vocals, and Dave took them and refined them and we just sweated it out idea by idea, line by line, until we had something incredibly cool.

THE SOFT DROWN It's all Almost over now The stars are in the sky And they're never coming down And why We keep asking why Why we take up arms and fight Against the dying light Chorus: It's taking It's taking now It's taking The soft drown 2X And hope Rides a dark horse While a white one pulls the sun Across the fallen sky Awoke At 4 a.m. And tried to find the answer as The world began to end Chorus The flame Is finally low In a moment we'll be left With nothing left to show For love For opening our eyes For wanting nothing more than to be Buried with a smile Chorus (x2)

The Soft Drown is about life stealthily overtaking you, almost without you noticing it. Man, I'm depressing. I really like these lyrics. They're a little dramatic, but I love the imagery and the sentiment. And I think the line "Wanting nothing more than to be buried with a smile," with its dual connotations, is a pretty tight bit of songwriting.

Ow.

I think I just pulled by elbow patting myself on the back.

jbg