Music Gear Discussion

[arjue]

The recording is a little raw but i dig it! I like how it will go from tiny and claustrophobic to epic and huge and back again. I also like how the last track has the oppressive drone sound slowly consuming it.

[Josh]

I totally don't get it, but I assure you I listened to the whole thing. Track 4 is my favorite. I'd buy a record, btw. I'd also record you guys on my cassette 8-track to get you ready for your tour with Downward Spiral era Nine Inch Nails.

[Josh]

That's not supposed to be insulting, btw.

[icarusfall]

The recording is for sure weak. It's just the internal mic on a digital Tascam Portastudio 8 track set on a pile of books while we go through the set.

The NIN thing is kinda weird to me. I've had 3-4 people say that, and I don't hear it outside of it being in the industrial vein. It's interesting how we're approaching it from this one angle in our heads, and other people having different touchstones gravitate to NIN. Like when Sats said The Body's new record sounded like Evanescence. I don't hear that at all, but it's certainly valid from her point of view.

When we talk about what we're doing we're coming at it from a drone/noise vein and scaffolding some pop structure around it. The people that hear it hear the opposite approach. It's neat. When we talk about what we're trying to do with a song, we use soundtracks as our language. What kind of movie does this fit in, and what's the scene it's scoring?

I've never done music like this before - especially being the main song writer. Exploring samples and drums and synths has been tremendously fun and inspiring for me - there's not a single guitar or bass anywhere. I've never been as happy with my music as I am with this. It's all still rough, but I really kind of love it.

Track 1 is just meant to be a 2 minute-ish 4-on-the-floor semi-improv. Just setting a tone for the set. We tried doing it spontaneous, and liked it.

Track 2 is called Collapse and Crater. It's about a meteor striking a Russian village and the town being erased in a night of fire.

Track 3 is called Skull Candles and Cough Syrup. Backwoods degeneracy, mysticism, and improvised ritual magick.

Track 4 is called Jealous of the Distance. We think of it as the world's grossest 90's RnB song. When I was putting it together, the main melody sounds like a Brian McKnight song to me. We had been performing it without a beat under it until yesterday. As soon as we heard the beat under it, it might as well have been a sad Jodeci song with a lot of distortion over it to my ears. The beginning of a romantic movie's third act where the characters are separated and unhappy - thinking of how they wish circumstance was different.

Track 5 is called Kkat. The melody is a Sigur Ros sample from the song Saeglopur from Takk - hence Kkat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmD-9_ZifB8 It's my favorite song in the world, and it's a reinterpretation of the song's theme of being lost at sea and drifting away.

That's all to say, thanks for listening.

[arjue]

I was going to mention that that melody was almost identical to the sigur ros one but thought it might come across as mean

[icarusfall]

It's like an easter egg for people that also dig Sigur Ros.

[Josh]

Ezdrummer2 is the best god damn software ever. Everyone go download the demo right now. It's fully functional for 10 days and it's a fucking game changer.

[icarusfall]

I played with it last year. For demoing stuff it's basically perfect to use as a guitarist. I just can't do computers. If I need drums I have the octapad and my drum machine. But our stuff is very different.

[Josh]

I'd say it moves past demo quality and into finished production territory. I wrote and recorded two songs in about 3 hours, and for my money they sound pretty right on. Certainly better than editing fucking velocities on the piano roll.

[icarusfall]

I'd agree with you. Poor word choice.