S.A.W (not the bloody kind)

My buddy Richard is the one to blame for getting my ass in motion writing some new stuff by forcing me to participate in his Song a Week podcast, the original idea of which subtly inspired this blog (and by subtly inspired I mean I completely ripped it off). So, here's my entry in the 1 Song a Week podcast, entitled "Where the Grass is Greener".

I've got to thank my friends from Dust is Noise / ADR for introducing me to the Melodyne plugin. You're hearing it heavily used throughout this track. It's giving my verse vocals that robotic sound, and it's making my chorus vocals sound like I'm singing four parts when I'm actually only singing like 1.5. Fun fact: It's also used to create the voice of GLaDOS from the game Portal, which, if you haven't played through entirely, you should quit slacking and go do right now (you know who you are).

The rest of the track is thoroughly classic SoR stuff. Weird synthetic textures with an old school synthpop song structure and totally gay chorus crammed in on top of an otherwise industrial track. If you're a fan of Son of Rust or this blog (meaning that you check in every few years or so) I like to keep people guessing and please absolutely nobody by aggressively mixing genre's that go together about as well as jews and arabs. It creates a caustic mix that I like to call "that Son of Rust sound". Yummers.

IF you're wondering where I've been for five months, and I'm sure all five of you are, I've been putting most of my free time into an actual human relationship (Hi, Kat!), building my computer repair business (www.1201.com, yo!), and finishing work on two remix albums. One for Son of Rust that has about 5 original Son of Rust mixes on it and one for the Slants that contains 7 tracks of which I worked on 7. So I haven't been slacking. Really, I haven't. Stop looking at me like that.

Here are the lyrics:

you
try to lead but you hide
thinking time is on your side
when you fail
you wonder why

sweat
as the minutes pass you by
as the storm blacks out the sky
once again you say
goodbye

you
run and hide
as the times get leaner
I'll see you
on the side
where the grass is greener
all the tears
we have cried
never reach you deeper
I'll see you
on the side
where the grass is greener

you
put your pride before the fall
threw yourself against the wall
thinking you
could have it all

breathe
as the minutes tick away
as you waste another day
knowing this
is where you'll stay

.chorus

...oh, and if you hate my music and are just here because you suffered a blow to the head and think I'm some sort of literary genius you should check out my computer repair blog here. You just might learn something!

Iris FTW.

Ahhhh.... the cover. The last oasis of the uninspired musician. I haven't had a lot of new ideas kicking around in my head lately, but seeing as how we're still very likely going on tour at the end of the year with a synthpop group, it was time to bust out a groovy cover... It's pretty much expected that any unheard of band should include at least one popular cover in their set, so I chose "Sentimental Scar", my favorite track off Iris' awakening.... and, despite it being intended as a live track, I decided to polish it up vocally for you, dear readers, so that you might give me your fair critiques.

I decided to take it in a lower-tempo darker direction than I usually go in, but I felt like the mix needed it... There's also some guitar in there provided by my friend Pete from Lakeshore Driving, and some backup vocals by Micheal in the chorus sections.

Can I just say that transcribing this song gave me new respect for Reagan as melodic songwriter? Damn, those are some fracking good hooks.... Micheal was actually floored (not being a big iris fan) "this is iris? this is some @#%@# good songwriting!" was the direct quote. Yeah. So go check out Iris if you're lame enough to not have already. You big old lame face. Lame-o.

oonst oonst oonst!

When I first started writing music my teacher at the time suggested that the best way to learn theory was by transcribing songs that I enjoyed at the time, meaning: listen to a track you like and dissect it piece by piece. This wasn't an easy process for me at the start, but I soon realized that every song was in the key of a-minor, so that made it a little easier. Of course, I just happened to be choosing songs because I liked the sound of a-minor, but I didn't know that. At the time I thought EVERY pop / electro song was in a-minor.

I did eventually learn better, but the first Son of Rust / Vermillion albums (for those of you who are OLD school) were written mostly in a-minor. Ben and Michael's joke around the rehearsal studio at the time was that it'd be easy to sign on a guitar / bass player 'cause they'd only have to know three chords, Am-F-G-Am. Yeah, hardy-har-har.

Ever since then I've been attempting to avoid a-minor as I feel like I've kind of done it to death, but man, does it ever feel good to just lay down good old Am-F-G-Am again and just effing go for it. Ahhhhhhhh... it's like crack after not having done crack for like, a while... I don't really know what that feels like but I'm guessing it's exactly the same.

So my point is that this song is in a-minor again.

In case you haven't lost interest yet I'll carry on and say that I have another weird addiction that pops up every now and again to write cheesy club songs. This is a total cheese-ball club song. I have no idea why I do this (because I can never quite get them RIGHT, you know?) but I keep on doing it and it feels good so go @%#@ if you don't like it.

Next week I've got a just effing SICK cover of an Iris track that I did for the sheer hell of it for you, I think you're gonna like it.... because I know exactly what you like, whoever you are. I'm inside you're brain! HAHAHA!

Excuse me, I think somebody put something in my coffee. And if they didn't I'm going to go put something in my coffee. See you next time.