Devil in the Woodpile
A difference this week as posted above is the audio of this Blog, is that a Podcast... i've no idea, perhaps it's a Blogcast... well anyway if you would rather listen than read, here's your opportunity, bearing in mind that the links to the videos will not of course be in the audio file, so you will have to follow the text and pause and play to get a similar experience... thank you.
Ah Hello...
Welcome back... or if you haven't seen one of these before, you may need to browse the top of my previous Blog (blog) to make it easier for you to read without pause, irritation or hesitation.
Either way... Hi
There are so many things i could write about, i could use this as a soapbox to vent my views on a myriad of subjects that quite frankly make me scream incoherently at... well anyone, or anything... i'm not going to do that... today... though i might, but i have to remember that this is a band blog (Blog) so... well... so... yeah exactly 'So?' yeah it wouldn't be rock and roll if it had restrictions... so... anything goes.
I like that.
I make the rules.
Rule number one, very important... there. are. no. rules.
;)
While going back through what seems like a long time ago, i've rediscovered music and tracks that have brought back to me feelings that i probably wouldn't have had, had i not started this, so even if you're not enjoying... i most certainly am ;).
Following on from strike one...
Second track on my roster, was a track that had to follow 'While We Sleep'. I had tracks i could have put forward, but here we were following a keyboard based string harp ensemble filmic small amount of guitar thing
( yeah... pigeonholing i know ) and in my head, going straight into 'ROCK' wasn't really on the cards, so i started from scratch to work on a bit of a mishmash of an idea, the e-bow was my weapon of choice, i'd used it on 'While We Sleep' subtly and more prominently on a track that i did for myself called 'Psychosis' I also had keyboards, strings and the 'trying to keep the ambient feel' that had life previously.
The track became 'Today the Hero' and i like it more now than i did when i first finished working on it. It is one of the very few tracks that we haven't done a video for, or even discussed doing a video for, or err... talked about... In fact it didn't go up until after 3 more tracks were recorded and 'kind of' finished.
It was set up as a placeholder video on youtube, until we realised that actually you can't do that, so it is still there, or even here, as a one picture video.
The lyrics again were inspiring, its pull on lost chances, time passing, the darkness and sadness of the possible not being fulfilled or being left behind. ( This is my interpretation, they are Jody's words )
It was where my head was at, and either inspired Jody's writing or he felt the same.
We finished the track and moved on. I had another three tracks that were bouncing around on the creation table ( yeah - most things are tables in my studio ) in some ways it was a relief to get it out of the way. I remember it differently now to how i actually feel when i listen to it, it struck me as a misfire at the time, but one that had to bridge from 'WWS' to the rest, it was the 'canon fodder', the 'patsy' if you will, it stopped me from worrying about recreating 'WWS' stupid as that may sound.
Music is a lot about head space, how you are effected emotionally by events affects the creation or possible lack of... blockages can occur at any stage, recognising it and remedying it, is not always easy, i'm a sensitive type, so i can affect my own inventiveness by simple irrationality or dwelling on negativity, my own darkness, or indeed someone elses.
'While We Sleep' was the cork and 'Today the Hero' was the wall the bottle fell from.
Otherwise, who knows, i might still be stuck on recreating a follow up.
Morse Code
So after 'Today the Hero' i felt at ease creating and sending forward a track that was much more of a departure from 'WWS' which was inspired by... or at the very least, i was listening to... before i started creating and playing with the riffs, a track called 'Rosewater' by 'Aliens in the Basement' A Jody project with the splendid Rob Morrison.
The track i am referring to, that we created was 'Stay with Me'
People have asked me what the Morse code is at the beginning and what inspired it... (well when i say 'people'... sounds like a crowd, it was probably 3 people, but that doesn't sound quite so good)
The Morse code at the beginning was because i loved the title music to 'Inspector Morse' a British detective series starring John Thaw, (where you used to watch and find yourself trying to work out who the killer was only to discover later that they were probably already dead, or all the facts were not there, so in future episodes to avoid frustration... you'd play... guess the killer... randomly at the start... anyone else do that? maybe it was just me) In the title music for said program the Morse code spells out M.O.R.S.E, and the track is inter-weaved with these notes... What the actual Morse code says in 'Stay With Me' i am afraid i am not going to say, you'll have to work it out, if you can, as i have no idea how much of what is there is decipherable (is that a word? apparently so)
What a lot of people also won't know is that behind the Morse code is a sample taken from the start of The The's 'Heartland'. So i was already subverting my views into the tracks, as 'Heartland' is about how society is structured, living in a failed Democracy and how everything is turning into the USA... can't argue with that. Matt Johnson is a genius, if i could write a song like he can... i'd be a very happy man.
The Original Video was a picture place holder also, with lyrics, but wasn't a patch on the actual video that we shot in August 2014, though more about that in a later Blog.
The song, i think, is more like the feel of EOTA that i like, crunchy guitar, hard bass, very little keyboard. It was a song written with the idea of playing it live, i couldn't at the time imagine playing either of the first two songs live, but this had a bit more swagger about it. Bearing in mind the distance between Jody and i, the idea of getting together at this point and playing music live was not really on the agenda, at this time we still had not actually officially met.
So that'll do for now...
In the next Blog(blog) i might skip forward and explain a track that i composed, and the reasons for it and the character i had to play it, or i might decide that a deeper look into the sordid world of media manipulation maybe what is required, or maybe it is time for a look at the Music Industry, what there is of one. Or i could combine all of them... oh what have i said...
For your time i thank you
With Peace in mind
Love and Light
Tin
