27 May 2008
by madeleinein accords, In the Studio Tags: harpsichord, lyrics, recording studio, song writing, strings
It’s already been a week again…
After I last wrote, Tuesday night, I couldn’t sleep. I was quite worried what the music producer had done to my song. So after a chat with my best friend that lasted till five in the morning I decided just to stay up. I played on my keyboard with headphones and had a lot of new ideas that I instantly recorded in Live. Around midday I had a little break and fell asleep on my armchair, went to bed and slept for four hours. When I woke up I got right back to playing and came up with an idea for a song. I don’t know if I’d mentioned that I was asked to write a soul song for someone else. I’d been listening to soul a lot to research chord structures etc. The following day I continued fleshing out the idea and it’s not bad at all. The music producer really liked it and will probably use it. He also played me what he’d done with ‘Chaos & Order’ which is basically just a radio edit. Not sure if I like it. It’s got a fad in. Yuck! I’m starting to think I’d rather write two new songs only for this compilation. That way I can see the whole thing as something like a collaboration. My friends to whom I talked to about it agree. They even said that no one would want their children messed up by someone else after bringing them up all on one’s own. Funny they used this allegory. Spot on, I guess!
On Thursday I also went for a long cycling trip through a nearby park and an adjoining forest, offroading and all. Very enjoyable! I’d completely forgotten how exhiliarating it can be. On the way back I paused by a lake and started assembling ideas for lyrics. Basically jutting down everything that came into my mind, without any particular order. That seems to work best for me these days. Make sense of them later after collecting thoughts.
While working on the soul song I already came up with a little bass line that I thought has loads of potential. I sorta forgot about it until I was about to turn off the computer and go to bed. So I opened up Ableton Live again an quickly recorded it and all of a sudden all the arrangement ideas came flooding out of me and I ended up staying up till five in the morning. It’s the song I’m working on at the moment. It’s called ‘The Tide’, at least for now and it’s pretty dramatic with pizzicato strings, harpsichord, big drum sounds and in waltz time. I only have the lyrics for the first verse and the refrain so far, but since the weather’s supposed to be very summerly in the next couple of days I’m gonna go to the park and finish them in the sun. Maybe even write some more. The metaphor for the chorus came to me in the shower. Being relaxed seems to be the way to go to get in the mode. The vocal lines are there. When I sent a rough sketch to my dad today via Skype he said it rocked. Ha!
I got my new phone yesterday. Installing the stuff onto the computer took a bit, it kept cutting out, but it works now so I can upload pictures from now on. One of the first ones I took (my orchid):
17 May 2008
by madeleinein accords, In the Studio Tags: beats, brass, music, piano, recording studio, refrain, vocals
Haven’t really been away, but in the last week I had quite some creative ups and downs. Got stuck on ‘Euphoria’, then realised that the refrain was just not euphoric enough, but by then I was too close to the subject to see what might be right. Also I noticed when I went outside to record sounds of Berlin that either my microphone or the MD recorder is making loads of noise by itself. Quite a drawback, so no way I can make the beats I want for the song. Gotta check which one is being the noisy bugger! And then think of a solution. Preferably one without spending any money. And then after leaving the song alone for a bit get back to it afresh.
On Tuesday and yesterday I met up with the music producer I’d already mentioned. On Monday I recorded vocals for ‘Unspoken’ and ‘Webs’ so that he could get the whole picture. That and the mixing took the whole day and night. I ended up seeing the dawn and going to bed at half 7. I got a real rush throughout the next day with being so overtired and all that.The producer liked my songs and even asked me if I would like to write some songs for other people. I guess it’s a nice challenge since I’ve never tried that. Still I feel I should be cautious… He wants to try some stuff with three of my songs and I don’t want him to rewrite them and make them into something that could be neatly pigeonholed by a big record label, but that doesn’t feel like me anymore. I’m well aware that I’m very protective with my songs, but I’ve spent so much time and energy on them. I just don’t want anyone to mess with them…I guess I’ll have to wait and see what he’s planning to do with them!
Almost three months ago I started working on a song that was untitled back then and seriously doing my head in. It’s a pretty angry song and on Wednesday someone really pissed me off. On the way to my flat I thought that I should preserve the mood and have another go at this song. I cracked it! Finally! I figured out that the bass I had used was slightly out of tune, but since there was distortion on top of it I hadn’t noticed it earlier. So I just loaded up some piano sound and started playing my keyboard and within about five minutes I had the chord progression for the refrain, a vocal melody and lyrics to go with them. I quickly recorded everything and since then everything’s just falling into place. Needless to say that also cheered me up tremendously. The song’s called ‘Zero Tolerance’ now. I still have to write the lyrics for the third verse, but that should be a piece of cake after all the trouble I had with this stubborn song.
I’m just gonna write down the lyrics for the refrain so I don’t get the stupid idea and try to change them again:
zero tolerance from now on
gotta kill what’s killing me
zero tolerance from now on
no more putting up with
no more polite smiles
I then replaced the bass sound. Took me a while to create one that sounded just the way I envisioned it. I also changed the sounds for the beats. Mostly sounds of me hitting stuff. They’re pretty tribal and distorted sounding with a pinch of white noise thrown in. Working very well with the new bass. Had fun arranging some brass fills and fiddling with effects. ‘Zero Tolerance’ really screams for extreme FXing. This song might be something for the dance floor, very fast, driven. At least I have to dance around a lot when I hear it.
x
P.S.: Finally got a second hand bicycle. Got it on Ebay for just 20€. A red mountainbike. The girl I bought it off turned out to live near me. So if you happen to see a red flash rushing past… might be me 
06 May 2008
by madeleinein accords, In the Studio Tags: glass harp, kalimba, lyrics, music, music producer, recording studio
Today has been an amazing day. Early on I had to run a few errands and it was such great weather outside. I all of a sudden felt really inspired. Saturday I was in such a strange mood. Everything seemed to go wrong. I got completely stuck with ‘Celeste’. It’s never a good thing too feel defeated creatively so I always make it a point to end the day with a good feeling. I trailed through my song ideas and kinda rediscovered ‘Endless’. Before I thought I had messed up the song, but I figured out pretty quickly what was wrong. And on Sunday and today I’ve been working on this song and trying to get my voice into shape again.
Today I finally sat down and finished the lyrics for it. It’s called ‘Euphoria’ now. The title came to me a couple of days ago when I walked through my quarter and saw the sign for a bar named ‘Euphoria’ and thought what a great title it would make. I already sorta had lyrics for the song formerly called ‘Endless’, but I wasn’t too happy with them overall. Now I am though. The rough idea for verse and refrain are all there, chords, vocals, bass, beats. The main sound is the glass harp. When cut up and made into a loop played as an instrument it makes a nice upbeat skeleton. The kalimba and the bass round the whole thing off. Sounds almost caribbean, especially the refrain. A very happy song (as could be expected from the title). Very fitting to the season.
Yesterday I got a call from a music producer that I met up with about three weeks ago. He’s trying to put together a project of promising Berlin-based musicians. If things go right there’s gonna be one or two compilation CDs and a huge event in autumn… and this might prove to be exactly what I still need. Loads of media coverage and therefore attention from hopefully the right people. When I was contacted I was at first pretty sceptical and didn’t expect much, but it does sound great. Anyway, let’s not get too far ahead. Next week I’m gonna go to his studio and play him my own favourite songs… I’ll keep you posted.
Off to bed now. So excited about continuing work on ‘Euphoria’.
x
30 Mar 2008
by madeleinein accords, ramblings Tags: Berlin, gig, Patrick Watson
Time’s really been flying in the last couple of days. After being sick my flat looked extremely messy. Dishes piling up, no more food in the fridge. So I started undoing the mess and once I was at it I decided to do a serious spring cleaning. Took care of a lot of things that I previously chose to ignore, but that had begun bugging me. It took me all of wednesday and thursday. At least they’re done with now. Phew!
On friday friends of mine got married and my best friend came to Berlin especially for this event. The ceremony was nice and the party was loads of fun. Yesterday I used the little time I had to hang out with my best friend before he left again. We don’t see each other very often since we don’t live in the same city anymore. What a shame! In the evening I went to see Patrick Watson live at Admiralspalast. The band was absolutely brilliant and played for two hours. When they played ‘Man under the Sea’ they even came up the ranks and did an unplugged version. Patrick was standing and singing almost right where we sat. Funny guy, too. Last night I dreamt the whole concert again. Very inspiring! Now I feel ready to plunge into the music making again with new energy.
On wednesday Bobby Starrr was supposed to come over to rehearse for the upcoming gig. Unfortunately he’s got a cold now and the gig is canceled for now. We might play the Villa at a later date or maybe just other venues. The organisers at the Villa were unwilling or unable to confirm the date of the gig. Apparently the guy in charge of booking has gone bonkers and doesn’t answer any calls or messages. We were advised to call the whole thing off. Otherwise we might have turned up without a PA system and party people to be found. We’re definitely gonna do this live thing together at some point, it’s only put on hold. To be honest, I’m not complaining. I’m going to be busy enough finishing my album.
And now… it’s back to the music.
x
26 Mar 2008
by madeleinein accords, gigography, In the Studio Tags: Ableton Live, gig, music
More preparations for the gig with Bobby Starrr. Built some more ‘instruments’ so I can play stuff live on my Mac/keyboard and won’t only trigger everything. That’d be a bit boring. Made nice broken beats as an interlude and found some great VST plugins with which I can manipulate the sound live. Real live tweaking and geeking, yay! I also listened closely to the tracks since I have to know what is supposed to happen when. They’re quite free form, but you still have climaxes and breaks that need be considered.
Did some reading up on how to best do certain things with Ableton Live in a gig situation. This programme has so many features hidden away that if you don’t use them for a while you just don’t remember properly. There’s still quite a bit to figure out tomorrow. I guess I’ll have to do bits and bobs over the next couple of days. Bobby is coming over tomorrow afternoon with most of his gear and we’re gonna rehearse the whole set. I hope going through everything with him will clarify a few things that I’m still a bit clueless about.
x
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