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Diluted: Creating the Next Indie Pop Masterpiece [ALBUM RELEASED]
Hello there. My name's YorkeDaddy, and I'm in a two-man band called cloudcover. I'm here to take you along with me on a journey. I strive to craft something remarkable, and I will be chronicling this story here in this journal. Whether you want to come along or not is up to you. Entry 1: Beginnings Before we can really get down to business, there are some preliminary tales I must tell. My name's Bryan. I'll be 19 later this month. I am a college student at Indiana University. I truly believe that I was born to analyze the inner mechanisms of the human mind and emotions, and so subsequently I am pursuing a career in the field of Psychology. I also have a passion for translating these emotions into song. I was 14 years old when I was given my first guitar. It was one of those crummy starter guitars you could get at any Wal-Mart; a knock-off of a knock-off of a Les Paul, it was about as valuable as your average gumball machine, maybe even less. It was a gateway, though, sending me down the path of the modern musician. There was, however, a long way to go before I could even be considered competent with the instrument. I spent the first year or so as a "guitarist" by teaching myself how to play as fast as possible. You see, my favorite bands at the time were the likes of "August Burns Red" and "All That Remains," and my dream was to be able to shred and thrash like the guitarists of those bands. To be frank, I never owned a tuner nor did I ever make an effort to have one. Subsequently I spent a good portion of my initial existence as a guitarist simply teaching myself how to strum quickly in tandem with fast fingering in order to create a "shredding" sound, all while on an out-of-tune guitar. Needless to say, that was essential a fast-track to nowhere and while my friends thought my 'skills' were sick, I would be laughed out of the room if I was ever faced with someone that actually knew how to play guitar. A year or so after I got that guitar, however, my dad got a new job. I didn't know it at the time, but this was the best thing that could've happened to me as a musician. Going to a new high school as a Sophomore is a terrifying proposition, but it's something a lot of people have to do. The initial fear will go away after a couple weeks and everything's back into the monotonous repetition of life. Over the days in my Health class, however, I met a dude named Schuyler. To this day he's my best friend. One of those days (I do not remember the context very well), he casually proposed that we start a band. My response was positive, and I was excited to show off my wicked shredding ability that I had developed, naively thinking we'd be some sort of epic metal band that would take rock stations around the country by storm. Little did I know, our music tastes clashed pretty heavily. I loved The Mars Volta and Slayer. He loved The Beatles and Badfinger and had never really heard anything outside of those genres. Our first "practice" session as a band didn't exactly go as either of us planned, I suspect. Partly because my guitar was drastically out of tune and I did not know how to play any chords other than power chords in drop D. I had some learning to do. Over the months I learned simple chords and how to actually play guitar, thanks to Schuyler's guidance and me being motivated to be able to actually make music at some point in my life. Eventually, after endless practicing, we decided to record one of the songs we had become...decent on. Upon naming our band "Minute Detail" (minute as in small, not as in the increment of time)...well, behold, Schuyler and I from 2010 (listen at your own risk): Pretty...interesting, eh? Well, everyone's gotta start somewhere. After spending a few months recording songs in this manner and planning out an album full of covers, we realized we wanted to take a different direction. We were going to write an album. At this point I don't think either of us were entirely sure what we were doing. I certainly had no idea how to write music. Schuyler knew and he crafted some solid stuff here, but we never really took any interesting direction with the songs and our method of recording and the software we used were so horrendous that the production and quality of the tracks we made were just not going to cut it. But still, we kept working at it. Our album was finished at some point in 2010, and was titled "Surface Tension". We were immensely proud of what we accomplished and finished. The fact of the matter, however, is that we needed a lot of work if we were going to ever make anything that's going to get us noticed. (One of the highlights from "Surface Tension"). Without dragging this out too long, the next two years involved us writing songs here and there, but mostly trying to get a real band together. To make a long story short, the band we formed didn't last too long. We were essentially right back where we started...Schuyler and I, wanting to make powerful music but not really knowing how to go about it. Well, at this point I was starting to actually become serviceable with a guitar. I actually knew chords, and I was starting to discover that I had a bit of talent for writing songs. The talent had always been there for Schuyler, but I think the turning point for us of sorts was when I finally started writing decent stuff. A couple band name changes later, and we were calling ourselves "cloudcover". We were starting to put our past work behind us, and we were ready to really make something special. It was our senior year of high school. We finally had a good program to record our music (Pro Tools, which is what most professional producers use, as far as I'm aware). We had a theme to unify our music by (growing up, graduating high school, Schuyler's girlfriend at the time was leaving for a year in China), and we had both become fairly decent at our respective instruments (I was a strong guitarist, Schuyler was a wizard with a bass, our voices had both fully developed and, while not great, were certainly serviceable for what we were trying to accomplish). Over the ensuing months, we crafted a rather powerful concept album that was eventually named "Memento," partly because that was what it was to us: a token of remembrance. It was a rather beautiful piece of work in my opinion, and it got us what we were so hungry for: noticed. (One of the highlights from "Memento") I will always remember it as one of the most exciting points of my life. An indie blogger found Memento, and he reviewed it. And he loved it. For once, we knew that someone outside of our immediate friend group thought our music was good. This was assurance that we were capable of making something truly great. However, while Memento was good, we knew we were capable of better. The indie blogger's review that motivated us to continue making music. The problem? I was moving away to Indiana University, while Schuyler was moving away to Purdue University. We would be apart. We no longer had the ability to spend months upon months working on an album. I wasn't sure where we'd go from there. Over Christmas break, we were both back in our hometown. Spontaneously, we decided we wanted to write another album. Over the course of two weeks, we hastily created "Enter Humanity," another concept album that was quite a bit different from "Memento". I felt like we were progressing as musicians, but at the same time Enter Humanity did not have the emotional power that Memento had. I knew we were capable of something incredible. (A highlight from "Enter Humanity") And that's where we are today. Under the band name "cloudcover," we have two albums under our belt. Both have their strong points, both have their weak points. We never really received any attention from our second album, and our first album was only noticed by that one indie blogger. Frankly, though, it's not simple attention or fame that I crave. No, I want to make something that touches people's lives. This entire journey I've gone on is all meant to hopefully someday culminate in an album that people will listen to over and over and will impact them. I want to make something people will talk about. I know we have the ability to, and that's what this journal will function as. All summer, we've been working on something that we hope will be miraculous. I want to chronicle the journey, the adventure of crafting an album that's more than just an album. Hopefully you're all willing to tag along as we try to craft the next Indie Pop masterpiece. |
Hi YorkeDaddy, nice post. It takes me back to when I was in college and in a band making music :) I wish you well with everything, I'll definitely be popping back in here to see what you've been up to!
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Hello again! We’re back with another entry in this journal, as we continue the tale of how this yet-unfinished album came, and is coming, to be. Only this time, it’s Schuyler! By the way, we will be updating this journal on a Tuesday/Friday pattern so expect two new entries every week.
Entry 2A: Pick Your Poison So how does a group that’s not at all new to writing music begin to approach a new album? Especially when time is a factor, and the canvas on which to work is only the size of a two-and-a-half month collegiate summer? Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe! When Honest Abe said that, I’m sure he wasn’t talking about crafting an indie album, but he may as well have been. You simply can’t go into a musical project without some sort of plan (unless you’re going for that specific feeling *ahem “Enter Humanity”*) without wandering through the songs like a musical nomad. And with years of serious musical development under our belts, we wanted to create an album that is cohesive above all else. We kept this at the front of our minds while searching for a direction that felt right. We soon found that, while Memento had been a “concept album” in the sense that its songs dealt with similar ideas, it didn’t tell a story. It was a group of emotions, blended and sprayed over fifty minutes of audio; an impressionist painting of two young men on the precipice of the beginning of their lives. But we were ready to attempt a realist painting. We wanted to somehow combine the emotion, drama, and story of high opera with the relatability, genuinity, and openness to interpretation of independent music. We wanted to create an album with songs that could stand on their own as great songs, but also astound the dedicated listener when taken in as a whole. Songs that lose nothing for being part of a story, but gain everything when played together. As we narrowed our sights on an album direction, we found that we really wanted to create a sort of epic. We searched for a topic that could allow us to explore our own sound unhindered, but still be something that we’ve never done before; a topic that would let us mix mournful truth with reserved joy. We did not want to create a Quadrophenia, a Ziggy Stardust, a 2112; we didn’t want to save the world with a guitar or blow up spaceships with our power chords. Rather, we wanted the album to be the common-man’s epic. Each track an uncensored entry in the secret diary of a normal guy in a dark and mysterious world. Showing, not telling, what is happening in the protagonist’s mind and in the world around him as his story develops. The prospects of this approach enthralled us so much that we immediately took to it. There was so much room to explore lush and interesting themes: human consciousness, ethics, sacrifice, love, awakening, politics, tragedy, hope, light, joy, darkness, and despair. And the list goes on. We could not think of any other topic that would allow us to so freely write the themes that interest us and the music we love. And with any epic journey, there was room for great and elegant holistic metaphor. One day the album we were writing was about a fight against an Orwellian society, the next it was about the love life and real problems of a confused nineteen-year-old, and the next it was about waking up to find yet another tragedy on the news and another sense of emptiness in the heart. In its most basic form, this album is an opportunity for cloudcover to create a story that is different and personal for everyone who listens. |
Entry 2B: Development
With a general topic idea decided upon, the work was just beginning. You can’t very well sit down and make something out of nothing without first having some thoughts bouncing around in your head. Both Bryan and I approached this brainstorming phase in different ways, which I think is necessary for success. I took my normal route to songwriting and got out my little leather-bound book for a few weeks’ thinking. I filled its pages with everything from cryptic lyrical snippets to probable recurring motifs for the finished work to quotes by the founding fathers. However, time was of the essence, and as I flip through this abstract diary I soon see the framework of individual tracks begin to emerge in the scribbles. It was about this time that I went on a dystopian binge and read a few novels that would help inspire the overarching story of the album. While keeping in mind both plot and musical substance, I penned the general ideas for the first three tracks. The first, in my mind, would be among the most gripping on the album: something enticing and energizing (the prospect of some slap bass entered my mind) as the protagonist was (in this track) a part of the evil establishment, not yet realizing there was more to life. Then, to assure the listener that we were not a funk band (or hard rock, or neo-classical progressive as it may be), the next track would reveal an entirely different side of cloudcover. This quieter number, the first real entry in the protagonist’s secret diary, was to be a ballad of hope, realization, love, etc (and a great place in my mind to begin the motif of: love interest = idea of freedom). However, what’s important is that, while I was crafting this conceptual skeleton, I was staying intentionally nonspecific. Limiting yourself musically OR conceptually can be much worse than having too little of a plan at all! As I was rounding out the first three tracks in my brain I really wanted to be able to adequately introduce the dystopian regime. Having been recently inspired by Daft Punk’s new album, I excitedly considered the utilization of vocoders to represent the antagonistic characters. The third track was cemented in my mind as being a look inside the establishment, once again a stark contrast with the previous track. After mentally preparing this initial trio in some detail, I chose to become much vaguer in my preparation. The protagonist would become more aware, decide to rebel (directly or indirectly), there would be conflict, insights would be reached, and there would be some sort of resolution. I knew that the mournful mid-album yearnings of the protagonist were perfectly suited for moody and swirling indie rock (*cue Bryan’s obsession with The National*), the late-album emotions would undoubtedly call for some anthemic masterpieces, and we certainly would not have heard from the evil vocoder-speaking dictator for the last time, but beyond that I decided to let the dust settle on the rest of the album before continuing with too thick of a skeleton. I continued to write in my notebook about the remainder of the album as we began composing and recording the songs in roughly the order they would appear on the finished product. Leafing back through the cream-colored pages I see ideas that were used as-conceived, ideas that eventually were shaped into something useful, and those that never will be heard. But that, of course, is the way it works in art. Thank you for tagging along with us as we made the first chips into our giant piece of indie-pop marble, and we hope you continue to stick around to watch as our work continues to take shape with the next update. |
Entry 3A: There’s No ‘I’ in “Let’s Make an Awesome Album”
So entry 2 was written by Schuyler, but now we’re back to Bryan (YorkeDaddy) for this next entry. We have our concept developed, but relatively loosely. Handcuffing yourself when trying to create art is one of the worst things you can do. From here the only place to go is to the actual writing process itself! While most musical acts formally or informally declare one band member or outside source as the designated writer, we like to take a different approach. The best way to describe our methodology is as a Lennon and McCartney relationship without the occasional George or Ringo. Now, I’m not comparing us to Lennon and McCartney, I’m saying that we tackle writing an album at about a 50/50 split, and both of us have different writing styles that contribute to the sound that comes out of those speakers when you listen to our music. Let’s go into further detail and into some of my deeper philosophies that encompass songwriting. I believe that there are two ways of writing songs, and neither way is fundamentally better than the other, nor is one of the methods more “difficult” or “impressive” than the other. I believe you either write music from the heart or from the mind. That’s not to say that music from the ‘mind’ isn’t heartfelt or that music from the ‘heart’ isn’t intelligently thought-out. I just believe that in songwriting, the music will either flow naturally and sporadically (writing from the ‘heart’), or the music will be more intellectual or technically sound (writing from the ‘mind’). If I were to classify existing artists to provide examples of what I’m trying to describe, I would say that acts such as The Antlers or Neutral Milk Hotel write from the ‘heart’, while acts such as Radiohead or The Beatles write/wrote from the ‘mind’. All four of those acts are remarkable bands that have released brilliant material, but the writing and subsequently the emotions I feel when listening to them differ tremendously. I’ve gone into all this detail about my philosophies because I believe Schuyler and I happen to deploy these songwriting strategies. I know for a fact that I write from the ‘heart,’ while Schuyler writes from the ‘mind’. These differing songwriting styles create some noticeable contrast in the songs that we craft (generally the people that listen to our music closely can tell who the primary writer for each song was). This translates into a “best of both worlds” type of deal. Instead of getting one or the other, you get the thoughtful, brilliant musings of an intellectual who understands quite deeply the intricacies of music theory from Schuyler (an example being "Love and War" [see below]), while also getting the raw, unfiltered stream-of-consciousness from a psychologically-driven man that frankly does not deeply understand many concepts in the realm of music theory (an example being "White Flowers" [see the first post of this journal]). There have been plenty of instances where Schuyler has played me something that he wrote and I would think to myself, “wow. There is simply no way I could’ve written this!” I’m positive Schuyler has thought the same thing at points. All of this culminates into a songwriting stew that encompasses our entire body of work, providing looks into both ends of the spectrum and delivering the listener an experience that few acts can ever really provide. Now, does that mean our music is actually great? I’m not sure. That’s for the listeners to decide. Click here to listen to "Love and War" on Soundcloud, a track by Schuyler that helps demonstrate his style of songwriting. |
Entry 3B: What’s the Point?
Occasionally I ask myself, “What exactly is music? Why have we been creating it for centuries upon centuries?” Such a topic is something grand enough that it can’t even be covered in a semester-long college course, and is something philosophical enough that no real answer can ever be deduced, as there will always be differing interpretations. The only definitive answer I can give is why I create music and what it means to me. Music, when written well, is an extension of oneself. There are certainly some artists out there who revel in creating detached drivel that contains as much emotion as your average cantaloupe, and that is when I will unabashedly label someone’s work as definitively “bad”. To be frank, I don’t particularly mind if a song pleases me particularly from an aural standpoint, but rather whether music makes me feel something. If I feel an emotion other than disgust with the insultingly bad work an artist has created for me, then I will find value in the piece and will be capable of enjoying it. Emotions can rise from almost any type of song, and no, it does not matter if they are written from the ‘heart’ or from the ‘mind’ as I described in my previous entry. I can feel emotion from instrumentals, from heavy metal, from shoegaze, from pop, from electronic, or from any other genre. Even something as simple as a dance beat can make me feel exhilarated a joyous, just as the artist likely felt when creating said track. If an emotion can be conveyed, then that music is good music as far as I’m concerned. So what exactly am I getting at here? Well, I’ve basically described my only goal as a songwriter. As lovely as it would be to become famous for my music, it’s not truly what I want to accomplish. I don’t even want to create good music for the sake of making good music; I just want to make people feel. The way I felt upon my first listens to “Hospice” by The Antlers or “Loveless” by My Bloody Valentine cannot really ever be replicated again. Both are classic albums that are nearly unmatched in their respective genres because of the power of the songs in them (and power can be taken two very different ways here!). I want to make something like these albums, but in our own way and in our own unique musical style. Now, how exactly do we do that given the topic we’re covering on this next album? It’s certainly a topic that’s rather impersonal given that Schuyler and I have never lived in an oppressive Orwellian society, but there are ways to make this work. We have to approach this differently than our first album “Memento,” which was very personal. This time, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of our protagonist. We have to make it personal, and if we do that and truly immerse ourselves in the topic at hand, we can certainly create something magical and is filled to the brim with emotional power. |
Entry 4: Character Development (Tracks 1-3)
Ok, so now you've got the lowdown on where we're coming from, our direction, and the style in which we create our work. Now it's time to dive head-first into the songs themselves! In this entry, the first three songs will observed from conception to recording, with analysis and explanation with respect to the whole album. As we explained earlier, the first three tracks were as far as the initial planning really went; we needed an attention-getting first track that introduces the protagonist (who is still part of the 'system'), a track in which he becomes aware, and a track that introduces the regime itself. I guess the best place to start is at the first track, so that's where we'll begin! 1. The Fire This Time Since we knew our biggest literary inspiration would ultimately be '1984,’ we wanted to start off with a tribute to something else. What better for a fiery first track than the cynical 'Fahrenheit 451' for inspiration? The auditory opportunities of depicting the novel's frightening book-burning were too vivid in my mind to pass up. However, the exact nature (or genre) of this depiction was subject to several changes! Prepare yourself for one of the longer song descriptions we'll write! For a long time I messed around with slap bass licks, trying to find something that would represent the searing swagger of the novel's peace-keeping fire squad. I came up with a couple decent riffs, but it just wasn't feeling right. And, there was the problem that transitioning funky instrumental sections into the indie/alternative verses we would inevitably write might be a disastrous clash of genres! So it was back to the drawing board. We refused to surrender this song to our niche of dark and pretty indie pop; we wanted to start off with a bang! So I turned to a classic rock/indie mix. The ambitious major chords were powerful enough, I thought, and they offered a better transition to the verses. It was during this period that those verses were actually written: a swooping melody that builds in drama over a chord progression hanging between C major and A harmonic minor. But ultimately the classic intro felt too generic and safe for us. We continued on the search for the appropriate attention-grabbing riff. The whole time the lyrics were coming along in little chunks, revealing themselves to me in random and spontaneous bursts. They were inspired by, but not derivatives or references to, Bradbury's novel; the perfect balance. The name of the song was also chosen, 'The Fire This Time,' referencing the flames of the novel, as well as an inside joke from my year at Purdue and dealings with a certain organization (but THAT is another story). The third musical incarnation of the song was the most breathtaking and long-lived. It was a pulsating and driving orchestral attack, created over hours of recording with keyboards and dozens of instrument settings, exact mixing (including panning each instrument to the seating arrangement of an orchestra), and the sound of flames. This neo-classical onslaught was very impressive, but began to bug us as we continued the album. Unfortunately it began to sound more and more absurd when compared to the heartfelt and simple arrangements of some other tracks. In the vein of true artists striving for perfection, we eventually scrapped the style and started again. Fortunately the fourth version would be the final version. Wanting to keep some of the musical ideas from the orchestral arrangement, we sat down with electric guitars and banged it out. Keeping the same key and notes, but adding syncopation and rhythmic crunch (and a healthy dose of agile synth lead) we created a unique brand of indie pop/rock/dance that hard-presses the listener to avoid bobbing his or her head. We finally knew that we had it, and the slight irritation that the first track did not fit in with the rest disappeared. 2. One Private Moment As soon as the upbeat and gripping first track ends and the protagonist quits singing about his job with the firemen, something happens. He sees a face, he hears a voice, he suddenly sees things in a new way, for a moment. Something has shaken his rusty heart, and knocked just a little bit of that rust off. As the post-track chaos of air-raid sirens and marching softens into a stately, muted guitar acoustic guitar riff, everything is different. This track is mostly the work of Bryan; simple acoustic guitar arpeggiation that parallels the simplistic sentiment of the song. The exact tone of the instrument is something perhaps never heard before, as a bizarre combination of factors led up to its sound. It is a muted and thumpy, but very clear tone, and this is a result of the guitar on which it was played. It is the only track on which Bryan's acoustic/electric was used. However, much to my initial irritation, the instrument was strung with years-old strings when we began recording, resulting in a completely dead, floppy sound (the sound that you'll hear on the recording), but with surprising clarity due to the fact that the instrument was plugged in directly. My contributions include changing the arrangement and adding the first couple of lines to better form the transition from the first track. This track truly feels like the scribblings of a frightened dissenter in a secret diary; it is the same voice as the first track that sings the lines, but with a complete change of emotion. By the time the track (in typical Bryan fashion) transitions from the interesting verse to the refrain-like coda, the protagonist has made up his mind. He has not decided what action needs to be taken; nothing that major. He's come to a conclusion about something much simpler: he actually feels something, and he refuses to let go of it. 3. Welcome To The Party So far all we know about the world this album depicts is from the thoughts of the protagonist. It is the job of the third track to be the first time we hear from the other side, the oppressive entity. When brainstorming for this song, we drew a lot of inspiration from ‘1984’ and its infamous ‘party.’ Then the thought hit us: Why not make a double edged song about both the Orwellian regime and a raucous late-night get-together? And on top of that make it in the style of an ominous indie-disco/dance tune? And on top of that, name it ‘Welcome To The Party,’ a painfully ironic dose of wordplay? The prospect of such supreme irony and room for pushing the genre boundary was exciting to us, so we went for it! As per the character distinction of the album, this song demanded we further experiment and sing it through a creepy vocoder. The result is a song that could easily be very catchy if it didn’t have a strong sense of unease about it. The chirpy syncopated guitar backs the cold voice as it beckons the listener in, leading the ear eventually to a burgeoning synth solo (an instrument that begins to become apparent as a symbol of evil), all backed by a haunting ambient track created by Bryan that only adds to the uneasy feeling of the song. With an infectious breakdown and some more repetitions of the chorus, our four minute glimpse into the inside of the ‘enemy’ is at its end and the listener gets to hear how the mental state of the protagonist is developing with the next track, a pretty little piece that Bryan will tell you all about in the next entry! Stay tuned for more; we update twice a week. Also, feel very free to leave your thoughts and feedback and tell us which songs (if any) you most excited about hearing! A mid-August release is probable; we hope some of you are looking forward to it half as much as we are! |
Entry 5: Rising Action
So the two characters in this grand tale have been introduced: the unnamed protagonist and the antagonistic "party" that we have been so graciously welcomed to. From this point on, it's time for things to happen! 4. Independence Day This was the first song we have actually released from this album. A pretty, National-like jam that begins to describe the protagonist's discomfort with the situation he's in: Just as the lyrics of the song describe, the protagonist is beginning to feel as if he's losing his humanity, and he starts scrambling to cherish the beauty in life amongst the bleak realities of his existence. "Pictures of glass are like paintings of old," muses the hero, demonstrating his pessimistic outlook on his life, that the only form of true beauty in life is something as simple and bland as a picture of glass. The breakdown begins later on, as the protagonist begins to realize that he has to do something about it, and he begins to make it more than personal. "Pledge allegiance to the ones that love us, not the ones like you," says he, as he metaphorically declares his secession from the "party". The writing and recording of this song was fairly standard for us. I came up with a unique and interesting chord progression and just slowly started building off of that. The true challenges arose once the skeleton of the song was already established. We wanted more from the song, so we developed an interesting lead guitar part continuously plays triplets to contrast the standard strumming of the chords. That, along with a strong piano accompaniment by Schuyler, and suddenly the song felt much fuller and, frankly, much better. 5. Diluted Given both Schuyler and I come from more rock-oriented backgrounds, we had to have at least one song that has a rock-ish feel that you could jam to! Diluted opens with a standard indie rock guitar riff written by me, but the chords are still rather discordant and gives off an uneasy feel which is translated through the lyrics. Our protagonist is going on with his life, secretly waiting for his opportunity to take action against his societal captives. However, he begins to grow paranoid that people are onto him, which introduces the basis for this song. The protagonist does not wish to let the paranoia get to him and steer him off of his course, but he also does not wish to be discovered, so he begins to look at everyone around him in a different light as if they were a spy. This leads to the protagonist describing himself as "diluted" in terms of his personality and humanity. The song focuses on a catchy, up-tempo ranting section that is followed by some harmonized sustained vocals that make for a rather nice "tap your feet" type of rock song for the earlier sections of the album. To go along with the theme of the last few songs, however, the ending begins to slowly fades in and out to become more and more uneasy sounding which blends seamlessly into the next track. 6. Your Existence is in Bad Taste Here's where things start to take a turn. The protagonist's fears were entirely correct, and the police are coming for him. It's time to run. The creation of this song has a bit of an interesting history. Over the past year I've developed a bit of a mastery with Ableton Live and subsequently the creation of electronic music. I was experimenting one day when I crafted something I found to be really cool and dark and I wanted to use it. The first draft of this song was considerably different from what is now being used on the album. I initially wrote a tale from the perspective of another character from beyond-the-grave, so to speak. This character was describing a tragic tale where him and his family were also against the government. They were found out, and the police murdered him and his family. This character then delivers a warning to the protagonist, saying that he needs to give up and he is wasting his time. Quite dark, eh? Well, it was frankly too dark for us, and we re-wrote the lyrics to instead just be about the protagonist being discovered and subsequently trying to escape. This is conveyed over the electronic track made by me that takes on a very industrial-rock type of feel. The drum beat is heavy and booming, the synths are loud and frightening and sound almost metallic. It's a rather dramatic track that introduces the primary action of the album. Keep an eye out for our next entry on Tuesday that will continue chronicling the story of our album and the songs that convey that story! |
Entry 6: The Plot Thickens
If you're following along, we left our protagonists in a pretty scary situation! After gaining consciousness along with our hero, and branching out emotionally, the most eclectic piece tells of an attempted capture with dissonant and threatening electronica. Where does that leave our story? 7. Keep Up The Pace "Under cover of the clouds, our moment it is now..." This track, the conclusion of 'side one' of our album, finds the heroes literally running from their oppressors. In a sonic onslaught laden with urgent whispers, tom-heavy drumming, climbing bass and jarring acoustic licks we want the listener to run to freedom with the story's protagonists. The song's conception was simple: we needed something to contrast the harshness of the previous couple tracks and liked the idea of a song about running itself. An organic 'thriller' of an acoustic number seemed to fit the bill pretty well. During composition I toyed around with the idea of stealing the melody from the verses of 'Independence Day' and singing different lyrics in a different style. While I eventually opted to not imitate it exactly, a trained ear will hear similarities; especially since it gave me the opportunity to throw in a direct reference at the end of the piece in which I DO repeat exactly the haunting motif of 'Independence Day,' as the protagonist assures his lover that "We'll never be human beings, unless we reach out and take it ourselves." With this assertion, the song strikes its last chord and rings out for several seconds, with the fate and freedom of the heroes hanging in the balance. At the very least, they know that getting a semblance of truth, consciousness and love back into society will take effort and risk on the part of the individual. 8. Small Stones The kickoff track of the second half of the album, like that of the first, is something you can move to. However, this time it comes in the form of moody and thumpy, power-chord driven acoustic rock song. This song, continuing the angle of something-that-would-be-written-in-the-secret-diary-of-a-dystopian-freedom-fighter is a stream-of-consciousness glance into the current mindset of the protagonist. He is confused, but resolute, and wants to appreciate the smaller things in life. He truly believes in the adage that love conquers all, but not necessarily in the traditional sense. He believes that if love exists at all, then the ideals he strives for cannot die and he cannot be stopped, or at least the movement he is a part of cannot be. The chorus of the song arrives and teeters between optimism and hopelessness. With the first, titular line he proclaims that "We are the small stones that start the avalanche," conveying his hope and belief that it only takes a few individuals to start a major movement that can right a wrong. However, in the second line, he admits that "We are the small stones in a widow's wedding band," and may only be the bright spots in a movement fighting for something that is hopeless and forever lost. The chorus continues in this way, putting the mood of the protagonist in a very gray area. The coda of this track was an opportunity to switch things up. The song changes abruptly-yet-fluidly from a kick-driven acoustic rocker into a slow ballad teetering on the edge of rhythmic chaos. Cymbals are heard for (virtually) the first time as the drumming switches from thumping to flying and steady eighths become loose triplets and polyrythms. A mournful-but-determined choir enters and fills out the sonic picture as the protagonist yearns once more to his lover (in a way that makes the love interest = freedom motif a little more clear and meaningful). With a few more bars of choir and drums that I like to describe as "falling down the stairs with a drum set but just happening to hit all the right steps with the snare and ride cymbal" the song ends with a cool chord that you'll just have to check out when the album comes out! 9. We Are The Dead Pieces of this song have been floating around my head for a couple of years now and I think it shows. With lyrics utilizing mostly internal rhyme and a conversational melody, the acoustic ballad is an opportunity to analyze feelings of tragedy and hopelessness in the modern world. With both references to 9/11 and reacting to a major tragedy that can be barely understood at a young age as well as allusions to dystopian literature, this song is somewhat of a high-point on our album that gives it a sense of realism and makes it a little personal. The song goes on quite simply for three minutes with just three instruments: acoustic guitar, voice, and violin. At the conclusion of a somber violin solo, the piece transforms with a slow fill into a quasi classic rock number to bring it home. Amidst the solid drumming and rhythmic chords the protagonist begins a conversation-like soliloquy. He knows exactly what must be done and lists it out in clear terms: individual lives are unimportant, every rebel is fighting for the future, not for themselves, death occurred with the first rebellious thought, any extra days are merely bonus time in which more groundwork can be laid for those to come to be free and happy. From a compositional standpoint I was very glad that the concept used in the outro that I have just described allowed me to put a solid second half on what I knew was a solid first half of a song I was having prolonged troubles with finishing. The five-and-a-half minute anthem of confusion, then hope, then selflessness stands as a solid component of this album! Thank you for sticking with us and hopefully getting excited about our work! We'll be periodically releasing songs starting pretty soon, so be on the lookout for that! And also be only the lookout for Bryan's next entry when he describes and analyzes the final songs on Friday! |
Entry 6: Climax and Ending
As we reach the climax of the album, it's time to wrap up some themes and drill our point home with the next three tracks! 10. Modern Everything At this point we have a triumphant protagonist, realizing his ultimate goal was achieved but still there is much to do. Just then, however, an ambiguous tragedy occurs under the metaphor of a massive storm, that throws the protagonist's morale completely off course. This is a rather personal number that takes the form of a slow piano ballad that climaxes with the crushing, repeated lines: "Sometimes there's a new place waiting after our homes are gone/and sometimes I'm a visionary but right now I am not". Quite uniquely, this song was recorded on an old piano that's slightly out of tune. The piano is also so old that the keys stick together slightly when playing, which can be heard on the actual recording of the track. Backed by some interesting, controlled mallet-focused drumming, the song sounds extremely unique and unlike anything else on the album. An interesting fact about this song is that at the end, we are singing the exact same chorus from an earlier song on the album (Diluted), to very interesting effect. You'll all have to check that out when the album is released! 11. Don't Vanish This song was a bit of a wildcard for the album. At one point it was going to be an entirely a cappella song in the same style has "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap, but the difficulty and potential over-the-top vibe that song may have given off forced me to take a different route. It essentially came down to me experimenting alone with a piano and a guitar riff I had in my head at the time. A quick, pretty riff was crafted and I basically ad lib-ed some keyboard-generated strings and a melody and made quick work of this short transitional track. That's not to say it's wasted space on the album, however, as it is a very pretty to-the-point song. Continuing from the previous song where the protagonist is in a very depressed mental state, this song describes the various people in his life attempting to cheer him up and spur him on to continue on with his vision and mission: to rebuild civilization after overthrowing the Orwellian-esque government. The song seamlessly transitions into the next song, which serves as the album's epic. 12. We Will Rebuild This City The longest song on the album, reaching slightly over seven and a half minutes, this serves as the conclusion to the immediate story. There are several sections to the song, some written by me and some written by Schuyler. The song begins with a tame, simple acoustic guitar riff with some strong drumming and some hopeful lyrics. After this brief verse-like section we're met with the optimistic "chorus" or so, culminating in the statement that "Cause after all of this, you know, I'm still keeping my head up". What follows are several more differing acoustic sections in an almost through-composed manner, as the song just keeps trucking along similar in style to Bohemian Rhapsody. The middle section, written by Schuyler, instead focuses on a beautiful piano riff and lyrics that describe the real take-home message of the album: while we may have emerged triumphant, we have to make sure we don't repeat history. A smooth transition into the guitar riff that started off the song into another "chorus" of sorts drives home this epic. An extended silence at the end leads the listener to think the album is over, but that's not the case... 13. Give Her My Best This song has quite a history. A few years ago I wrote this guitar riff, named the song, developed it's concept, and recorded myself playing it for Youtube. Fast forward to now and that same guitar riff and concept are now being used on this album. That video can be seen here: The song serves as a very bittersweet ending to our protagonist's life, but is also hopeful for the future. It's quite a beautiful piece, and frankly this is all I will say about this song. Look forward to next week as we will start to be actually releasing some songs! |
You're a great writer very interesting read, I loved seeing the song " Baby Blue" compared to the newer ones. I find the progression of skill so interesting to behold, it's motivation at its finest. To become better at something is a reflection of your character, it shows that you are not lazy because it takes effort to become truly skilled at anything. And it also shows that if you put in to work you will see the results. The only way to buy talent, is if you spend time. Cheers.
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In other news, the album cover has been completed. A bunch of my friends and I headed to a cemetery with some drama masks and came out with a really surreal picture, and I think it's pretty awesome: http://i41.tinypic.com/fzb3q0.jpg |
Alright, it's about time we started releasing some songs.
Track 1: The Fire This Time https://soundcloud.com/cloudcoveroff...is-time-single |
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TWO singles today!
We're getting close to release time! Track 4: Independence Day https://soundcloud.com/cloudcoveroff...nce-day-single Track 5: Diluted https://soundcloud.com/cloudcoveroff...diluted-single |
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Another new single guys! This one might be my favorite song on the album.
Track 8: Small Stones https://soundcloud.com/cloudcoveroff...-stones-single |
http://i.imgur.com/yfJZKJ9.png
Everything's ready to go! Just a few more days before we let this go public! |
Album release
THE ALBUM HAS BEEN RELEASED
An amazing amount of time and effort has been put into this album all summer, and I am extremely proud of the finished product. Any thoughts or reviews, good or bad, are entirely welcomed and extremely appreciated by Schuyler and I. I hope everyone that gives it a listen enjoys it. The download is completely free for a week at the very least, so all I'm asking for is 53 minutes of your time. Thank you all for sticking with us this summer! Enjoy! Link: Frownland | cloudcover |
Wow this is a really cool journal, I'm impressed with your writing and story telling. It's nice to see talented people on MB!
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If anyone gives us a listen and wants to write a review.......we certainly wouldn't mind :) Since the album's link is on the second page now I'd better re-post it: Frownland | cloudcover <3 |
A Short Reflection
So the album's done and released. Is it the masterpiece we sought to create? Well, we have no idea... And that's because it's harder than I previously thought to get people to actually listen to our album. Nothing against this community, but we've gotten I think two comments on the actual music we made, and the number of downloads we've gotten on Bandcamp are disappointing to say the least. I don't want to sound like I'm desperate for listeners, but frankly.......I'm desperate for listeners. I'm not sure where I went wrong, to be frank. I guess the primary, traditional method of getting fans is a route we should have taken (as in, actually playing lots of shows at local venues), but given our current life situation where we both attend different colleges and don't have any other band members to perform live with us, I'd say it's a difficult proposition to make come true. Maybe we're not actually any good. That's something I'd be okay with accepting, but some criticisms would be nice. Music is something I love doing as a sort-of 'hobby-yet-more-than-a-hobby" type of thing. It's not something I want to do as a career, but it's one of the most important aspects of my life and I want my created works to be listened to by people, but making that happen is hard. Where do we go from here? Well, it's going to become increasingly difficult to see my bandmate for extended periods of time from here on out, so I'm not sure if the two of us will ever collaborate on an album again. We'll just have to see where life takes us. |
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I know artists hate to be categorized by genre or whatnot, but your casual listener is going to be searching for music online based on those categorizations unless they already know who you are. I really can't stress it enough: identify your audience and market to them once you've got a good grasp on who and where they are. Some starting point advice: submit your stuff to places like Spin, PopMatters, etc. and also to bloggers who specialize in writing about Indie stuff. All you need is just ONE person with an audience to fall in love with your material and that'll be the spark you need. |
Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of thinking you're no good. This is one AMAZING album and I am listening to it constantly now. I will say of course a hell of a lot more when I review it, which I hope won't be too long now.
For anyone else all I can say is this is, without hype, as good as or better than a lot of the commercial music being released at the moment, so do yourselves a favour and download. You won't be disappointed. I mean it. |
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Thank you VERY much for the endorsement and for giving us a chance. I am absolutely delighted that you like it! |
well this is cool I got this iTunes Card Code and it redeemed just fine! I got it at freeitunesforever． ｃom
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OK I've listened to the first several songs. I'll listen to the whole thing tomorrow at work (unless I get stuck doing something away from my desk most of the day). My initial impression is ... it sounds promising, but it needs work. A few initial thoughts:
1) If you want the album to succeed, you've got to have at least one song (preferably the first or second cut) which has "commercial hit" written all over it. I'd say this is especially true of a new band just starting up. If there aren't any songs that really jump out at you, it's not going to get anyone's attention. So far, there are some decent songs, but nothing that really jumps out at me. It may bother some purists to deliberately write a "commercial" song, but it's the reality if you want to get noticed. 2) I like the way you've got a variety of songs, but I think you should develop that a little more. There's nothing more boring than an album where all the songs sound roughly the same (even if it's a good sound). Most good albums will have a variety of fast songs, slow songs, loud songs, soft songs, songs emphasizing different instrumental arrangements, songs in minor keys, songs in major keys, etc. You've got a decent start there, but it would be nice to expand on it a bit more. 3) Melodic patterns. This is one of my biggest beefs about a lot of bands. Especially in bands with just one main songwriter, that songwriter often writes his/her songs which tend to follow similar melodic patterns, and this can lead to a bit of monotony. You've got *some* variety, but there's still a lot of sameness in the melodic patterns (though I've definitely heard worse). I see you've got two songwriters - I'm going to presume either: both of you sit down and write the songs together, or one of you writes the music and the other writes the words. I would suggest you might want to have each of you two write their own songs separately, without input from the other (at least at first). The reason for this is because each of you, writing separately, are bound to have your own individual styles. If Guy A tends to write bouncy melodies in major keys with long, wordy phrases that don't repeat for half a minute, while Guy B tends to write more somber tunes whose vocals meander around a narrow range and is very minimalist with his words, then you've got a *great* combination which will give the album some really nice variety. This is why bands such as the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Animal Collective were/are so great: Each of those bands had at least 2-3 songwriters with wildly different styles. When you play the album, you never know what to expect from the next song. That criticism is by no means true of all one-songwriter bands, but it's definitely true of a lot of them. Also, if you already write songs the way I suggested above, then I think each of you two might want to individually practice "writing songs in ways you wouldn't normally write a song." Start some songs out by patterning the song around a guitar riff, write other songs by writing the words first and then fitting a melody to it, write yet other songs by humming out a pure melody at first and the writing the words/arrangement around that melody, etc. Anyway I got through song #5, I'll listen to the whole thing tomorrow. |
BTW, I just glanced through your first page (sorry for not seeing it until late). My 2 cents is, it's nifty you've got some philosophic story/theme you want to craft the album around, but don't get too hung up on it. The purpose of music is, well, the music. Focus more on writing good songs, and following your theme should be secondary. Words that are vague and/or open to interpretation are OK, because sometimes you end up doing that just to get lines that rhyme. If a song doesn't state a message as strongly as you would have liked, because you were trying to fit some lyrics into these short melodic phrases you wrote, don't worry about it. The listeners won't notice, and even if they do, they won't really care very much.
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Seriously? You don't see "Welcome to the party" as a chart-smasher? Or "One private moment" as a good single??? :yikes:
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OK, I'll analyse those two songs in depth ...
One Private Moment This song has potential to be successful, but I think you "develop" it too slow and too sparsely. It's got a good-enough melody to be a hit, but I think the arrangement needs work. Details: -- The opening guitar riff. This is a decent opener, but my feeling is that it could be better. For starters, I think it would be better played with an electric guitar rather than an Ovation (or whatever similar amplified-acoustic you're using). Either that or use a "pure" acoustic guitar (though I think electric would be better). It might even work better on a keyboard, maybe. Also, you start out with the short synthesizer segment, but then it slowly disappears after the guitar kicks in. I would suggest to not do that - instead *overlay* the guitar on top of the synthesizer - this builds up drama for the listener (and do something else with the synthesizer after the guitar kicks in). And speaking of "layering", around the 10-11 second mark when the riff switches to a different chord, it would be nice to add yet another layer - either a counter-riff, bass line, some drums or even just a rhythm guitar part. Study Tame Impala's It's Not Meant to Be. This is a great example of (an extended,) layered introduction. The bass line is particularly catchy. Notice how the song builds up. I can tell Kevin Parker has *really* done his homework and studied a lot of pop/rock music just by listening to that one song - he presses all the right buttons and clearly knows what he's doing. -- Around the 38 second mark there is a vocal pause of empty space which seems to come out of nowhere and is not filled with anything. I think it would sound better with either: 1) a complete, 100% pause in the music, or 2) fill it with yet another new layer of ... something. You're about to introduce a new verse - set up the listener for that by either pausing altogether or introducing something new. Or both. -- Second verse. Follow through with what I suggested just above. Don't just repeat the first verse, add something to it. New instrumental layers, a harmony, maybe even change keys. -- The verse starting with "Pressure." Here you *finally* introduce a new layer. This is what you should have done at least 1 verse prior, if not somewhere in the introduction. But by now you should be taking the listener into some whole new realm. It's nicer here than in the introduction, but by now the listener should be surrounded by sound, with at least a couple guitars, bass, maybe a keyboard and maybe some harmonies. Then, maybe later in the song, drop *all* of that as a pause and start all over again. -- Basically, the arrangement you've got near the end of the song is similar to what you should have somewhere about halfway through the song. Then, maybe 2/3 through the song, throw the listener a wrench by either blowing them out with sound overload at the end, or by completely dropping an already-developed overload by going back to the original sparse arrangement. -- As one final comment, I realize you might not have had the equipment to do it, but I think your voice (or your band-mate's) voice would sound better double-tracked. Welcome to the Party Not quite sure what to say about this one. It seems a little more developed than the first song, but it still seems to need something else. A bit disco-esque. I like the synthesizer solo, but I think if you worked on the refrain/chorus and gave it a "zippier" melody you'd have a better song. Interesting end, though. That works pretty good. A good way to learn how to be a good songwriter is to study how other good songwriters went about it. Here's an interview I always liked where Paul Simon is talking with Dick Cavett about his approach to songwriting. Notice how he's interested in what the listener is expecting (especially the part starting around 3:30 or so): Anyway, don't take all this to be critical, I'm just giving what I hope are helpful suggestions. :) |
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Every suggestion you gave has merit to it and is something we should and will keep in mind when we continue to write more music. I won't address every point you made in detail, but I promise that both Schuyler and I read over all of it carefully and greatly appreciate the time you devoted to us. Also, sorry for taking a month to respond to your post that you took time to make. Life, you know? |
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