Task 1: Three Minute Song Production
Task 2: 1000 Word Write-Up
Lyrics:
Verse 1
Make us older now,
Fill our lives with life, I’ll wait now
Oh, I hope you feel it too,
Make our lives a whole lot less blue,
So, make us older now
Chorus 1
And I can’t wait for times to change,
And the long-awaited fate of crack in my skin,
And I can’t fake that I just wanna age,
Filled with adolescent rage, and all this dead weight.
Chorus 2
And I’ll wait till I’m about to break,
And I can’t fake these cracks in my skin
But I’ll wait till I’m about to break,
Filled with adolescent rage, and all this dead weight.
Verse 2
Make us blinder now,
Hide us from those cloud, that creeps through minds out loud,
Oh, I hope you see it too,
Oh, your eyes created a whole new meaning of blue,
Oh, your eyes created a whole new meaning of blue,
Oh, your eyes created a whole new meaning of blue.
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Meaning:
- Once I had a firm decided chord progression written down I started to write the lyrics. The idea behind the story of the song is about wanting to skip the years growing up and wanting to be older faster. I think maybe this song is about the idea of skipping the years that contain a lot of troubles young adults and older teenagers may go through and moving to a time in the future where everything is clearer and potentially more peaceful.
- I think some of the words I’ve written also hint at doing that journey with a loved one. The title lyric written “your eyes create a whole new meaning a blue” suggests there is someone this is written about.
Arrangement:
- Stereo recorded upright piano
- 1 lead vocal line
- A sampled bass drum
- 6 Backing Vocal lines
- 1 Whistle
This track has an unusual structure, with a verse, chorus, chorus, verse structure. Making the middle section one large chorus.
- Very few parts in song. This was to draw more attention to the lyrics and melody of the song.
- I didn’t want to flood the mix with lots of layers, I felt that if I kept the track very naturally bare it would draw more attention to the vocal part.
- Feel it can be received more emotionally if the listener wasn’t overstimulated with a larger, thicker sound.
- Inspirations
- Coldplay (Similar chord progressions found in their music)
- Sampha (Patterns in the chorus where inspired by ‘No one knows me like the piano’)
Process:
- Recording process
- Using a spaced pairing technique, I stereo recorded an upright piano. (Schoeps Stereo Set MK4’s)
- Using the spaced pair technique whilst recording the piano has allowed me the achieve a natural wide sound design. Furthermore, having the microphones spaced evenly apart, one near the lower register of the piano and the other placed higher up left leaving a slight dip in the mid frequencies , letting the vocal line sit perfectly in the middle. This helped me avoid a muddy, crowded mix and giving clarity to both piano and vocal parts letting them blend more effectively.
- I had the piano’s front plate and the lid taken off. Capturing a very full rounded sound of the upright piano and capture some natural reverb giving the track some natural space and width.
- The vocals were recording inside a vocal booth in studio 116c using a Sontronics Orpheaus to record the vocal part. This is because I wanted the vocals to sound warm and articulated, which I think the Orpheaus does very nicely.
- Mix
- Valhalla supermassive reverbs were used on the vocals and the piano to create an airy texture. And of the Valhalla delays was used on the bass drum.
- Compression was used on the vocal part as the signal fluctuates very often as the lead vocal line gets loud and quieter very quickly. The compression helps even out this signal, making the louder parts quieter whilst raising the entire signal up, smoothing it out.
- Automation has been used to manipulation the panning positions of certain backing vocals creating an overall wider image and creating small articles of interest throughout the mix.
- The stereo field design in the whistle follows the notes, as the note shifts, so does the position of its pan.
Sample:
For the sampled section of this song production, I took the sound of a glacier singing. I used the Optimised sampler tool to cut the section I wanted. I Pitch down the sound and used reverb, echos, EQ and compression to create a wide airy bass drum that can be heard in the chorus.
Commercial Potential:
Commercial potential could include the idea that this track could becoming part of my portfolio of songs to realise as a debut album under my own artist name. This track comes under the genre of soulful – blueyed/ piano ballads. This is a very popular genre that includes artists such as Adele, Lewis Capaldi and James Arthur with their top streaming songs surpassing 3Billion streams on Spotify. SO having a track with similar characteristics could be put onto public playlist and radios that share tracks of this genre to those artists audiences.
The commercial potential for this track could also be that it’s sung by another artist of this genre with a larger status. Having an already established name sing the vocal parts of this track could launch this tracks popularity and help increase the number of potential streams.
This track is about skipping the growing up stage of life, and I feel that my generation and younger contains a lot of teenage angst and could potentially also fuel this idea of wanting to skip adolescent age. I feel that lots of people my age might be able to relate to the lyrics and the message behind this song. Therefore, increasing potential streams and attention as having a relatable artist who shares similar feelings as their audiences would in turn create a bond that makes commercial potential easier.
