Cheapskate Demos/Shed Recordings
These are the thoughts and experiences of a musician in hiding. No marketing here. Just music. Lo-fi, and DIY.
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I was inspired by daring young men such as Chris McCandless, and the teaching of Native Americans and Eskimos who go on Vision Quests as a rite of passage - to go on a vision quest in my own way. I hiked out into the wilderness a few miles off of HW-18, just southwest of Tiger Mountain. I had found a place on the Washington Trails association web site called the “Silent Swamp” which other mountaineers and avid hikers had said was a long, but fruitful journey (it was only a few miles).
I brought my acoustic guitar, a knife, some cliff bars, two nalgenes, and matches. I stayed for about 48 hours, before I felt convinced that my ‘vision’ was to be back in civilization. I literally saw no human beings during that time, and it was wonderful. After about 3 hours of hiking, I lost the ability to hear the highway, which was nice.
It was summer, so the temperatures were great, and the silent swamp was actually a nice field full of wild flowers, a fine rebirth for a clearcut. I started trekking out into the field, and then a dog (stray?) charged out at me baring its teeth. I had a short standoff with it, and then decided to slowly back up and go on my way. The dog didn’t follow.
I didn’t write this song until months later. It was inspired by the whimsical and often weird recordings of Terry S. Taylor. Who is best known for the soundtrack to The Neverhood. You can hear more Fleet Foxes influences in there too, if you’re attuned to them. I had a pain mixing this song because I wanted big harmonies, and I’m a perfectionist. The voice is the most versatile, but difficult instrument to master. Often times, I can hear myself being out of pitch, but I cannot do anything about it.
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As tired of an expression as it is - I wholeheartedly believe that no man or woman is an island. Which is contrary to the subject matter of my last song. Some of the greatest joy in life, is created through the company of others. And some of this joy, I’d like to think I accurately portrayed in this song.
Sometimes when you create, you create something that you are genuinely, incredibly proud of. You know you did a good job, and that you made something great. The problem is, containing that feeling when you share it with others. I’ve been training myself to sit still, and listen, and watch people react when I share my songs with them. But with this one, I just couldn’t keep myself from bursting and proclaiming: “I’m really proud of this song!” and I usually try and follow it with a: “well, see what you guys think…”
I don’t know what influenced this song. I can’t put a finger on it. But the combination of acoustic, and glockenspiel was definitely reminisce of The Coral’s In The Morning. That glockenspiel was actually my own. I earned it through a program called Kindermusic where young children would learn music theory, and piano, and guitar, and listen to classical music, and when you graduated you would get a glockenspiel. I’m glad my parents had me do kindermusic when I was a wee lad.
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When you write a song, you can either force out rubbish, or let pure works flow at their leisure. It depends on if you want quality or quantity. The idea of this song came to me. I was on a long hike, and I started humming these cascading melodies that rise and fall and go all over the place, and I kept humming them until I got home and could play some guitar chords behind them. I like to let inspiration happen, I can’t make it happen. It just comes to me, and then I drop everything and harness it.
The song is about being fed up. I’m sure we all have those points in our life. But before you go typecasting this as a shallow attempt at complaining about society - I’d like to think I took a different approach. I don’t whine about anything, I don’t act like a victim. I simply say, I’m going to pick up my belongings, go live by myself, in a house in the woods, where I can’t be found.
I recently saw a documentary about a man, Jack Rebney, who decided to do such a thing. He was bitter and hateful towards the world, and he ended up having to rejoin it when he got Glaucoma and lost his vision, and therefore - independence. I don’t need to spoon-feed you the irony on that one. But I like being able to have accurate snapshots of how I felt at a certain time, and I think this song captured it well.
Influences were everything by Fleet Foxes, and everything by the Shins. I like big harmonies, reverb, orchestras of acoustic guitars, and strange and unpredictable melodies. One thing I look for in a good song, is the inability to predict where it will go. If I can predict the progression, or the melody, I feel like they are just piggy-backing off of something, someone already did. But Emerson said, in great works - we see our own ideas. What is original any more?
I recorded the acoustic guitars on some brand new shiny microphones which I returned promptly afterwards because they just left too big of a hole in my pocket. However, they sounded excellent. Vocals were done on the same mics, with a generous helping (25% wet) of reverb added. Nothing else was too special about this recording. All the vocals were done in a home-made quiet room. Which was a part of my shed that houses a large riding lawn-mower, some weed whackers and a decent collection of machetes.
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Rule number one of song writing: Never write a song for, or about a girl. Just in case things go awry. It’ll keep you from being left with this permanent artifact that epitomizes your unmet expectations. Although, there are exceptions to this rule. If the song is about how she’s done you wrong, and how cruel this woman can be- taking a perfectly upstanding gentleman and twisting and warping him into this pathetic train-wreck. Okay, maybe not quite. But it’s nice to use songs as outlets for our social frustrations.
This song came about, because I just started making up words in my head. I was kind of bummed out the other day, and I asked myself what I’d say if I were writing a song about it. The more I played with the words, the more they fit together, like one of those 3d wooden-block puzzles that can be assembled 4 different ways. So then I reached a critical mass where I said “Alright, this has to be a song”. And the music came pretty quickly. I knew exactly what I wanted it to sound like, and so it happened. I’ll have to attribute some inspiration from the Kings of Convenience song Toxic Girl. I really like the lyrical content of that song.
I sat down and constructed a staccato riff with an on-and-off emphasis. This song, at first, was inspired by Fionn Regan’s song Coat Hook. Which is an excellent tune, if you haven’t heard it yet. I used the same feel as the song, only more of a Black Keys approach, which I bet any strong Black Keys fan can hear through-and-through in this recording. The amp was an Orange AD simulation in Guitar Rig 3, and I played it on my trusted custom Stratocaster, Sherry. She’s a fox. The solo tones were done with a Whammy pedal an octave higher set at 30% wet. Drums and bass were thanks to Reason 5. Vocals were done through an Electro Harmonix Big Muff fuzz pedal, and I recorded them in the passenger seat of my car. Cheers to lo-fi DIY recording!
