The heart of everything...

...is what Wikipedia tells me "Kokoro"'s literal translation is, so Son of Rust's "Heart of Everything mix" is the actual title of this, not just "Son of Rust's heart" like the player claims.

Anyway... I promise all you industrial lovin' vampire freaks that I'll get back to the darker stuff next post, but here's another club-anthem type number. This one's a club remix of everyone's favorite chinatown dance-rock band, The Slants.

The timeline of this mix goes something like this:
1. I was in the Slants' studio helping with the recording of their first album, and Michael's working on this song "Kokoro". Simon comes in and I says to Simon in my best british accent, I says to him "That's a number one record." and he looks at me and goes "What?" and I say, "that, um, that hook is really good."
2. Then I forgot all about it.
3. Then I'm sitting in a stark flourescent-lit conference room in LA listening to Bobby Borg talk about how to market a band and I'm ticking off all his major points on my fingers by going "The Slants do that, the Slants do that, the Slants do that too." Meanwhile about half a mile away The Slants are playing a massive anime convention, drinking free Makers in the penthouse suite green room, and Michael drunkenly texts me "You should do a dance remix of Kokoro!". I'm picturing him dancing to a club song with four beautiful asian girls in Sailor Moon outfits and contemplating throwing myself in front of bus.
4. I went home from the convention and wrote this remix.

I just want to point out that the line "Do you want to sell my guts?" has got to be the weirdest lyric I've ever heard in a pop song. Hence, I couldn't resist starkly highlighting it halfway through the remix.

I'm fairly certain this is the best club song I've written, but I also highly recommend you check out the original before I got my grubby little hands on it over on the Slants page at www.myspace.com/theslants . Marketing's not the only reason they're popular, they're also excellent musicians.

Next post, something fresh!

In the land of broken dreams.

I know I'm posting on a weird day, but I was done with the track so what the hell.

Here's the first song to grace this blog that isn't a remix or an experiment of some kind, it's just an honest to god new Son of Rust song in my usual style that I'm sure will appeal to people who like Son of Rust and my usual style.

The past two weeks or so have really been tough, and that's good for my muse... she's definitely a sadist, as she only really speaks when I'm miserable. This has been a problem for me as anyone who listens to my music generally thinks "oh god, somebody please give that pathetic sad sack a hug!" when in real life I'm fairly up-beat. When she's working she doesn't mess around, though... this song was one of the easiest to write I've ever had the pleasure of recording. It just wrote itself from start to finish without any thrashing, forcing, or nervous twitching of any kind. It's highly unusual that I don't spend two days beating my head against the wall trying to figure out how to make a track sound like it's supposed to, and the last one I can remember being so easy was Violator. Hopefully, "easy to write" translates to "really effing good." I'll leave it up to you. :P

Oh, and not to sound desperate or anything but it would be really nice if you could comment if you're reading this so I know I'm not screaming into a vacuum. That's a funny image if you picture like, a hoover vacuum.

"In the Land of Broken Dreams"
I can feel you breathing
when everything goes wrong
will you be standing with me
when the world comes crashing down

remember winter evening
when everything went wrong
you put your arms around me
they played our favorite song

the call of chaos frees me
and every angel screams
will you be standing with me
in the land of broken dreams

(one rose at the altar of her
one blink and your ten years older)

I can feel you breathing
when everything goes wrong
and I still know you're near me
when the world comes crashing down

remember winter evening
when everything went wrong
you put your arms around me
they played our favorite song

the wind of chaos frees me
lays waste to all my fragile things
can your tainted ears still hear me
in the land of broken dreams

(one love lying on your shoulder
one blink and your five years older
one rose at the altar of her
one blink and your ten years older)

Some things that might jump out at you that need improvement: my @%2?#% awesome rode NT mic bit the dust so I'm using a Shure SM57 for the vocals - musicians in the audience will know that this is a great stage mic but the absolute bottom of the barrel as far as studio work goes. I also still don't know how to master things properly so the eqing may be a little out of whack on your system.