Quit Your Day Job

Ugh.  I missed the noon deadline after class again.  It's difficult when you have to walk half a block for internet.  But I digress…

The reason I missed the deadline again today is because I've been busy.  And this has everything to do with class.

Yesterday after I left class and boarded the bus on my way home, I started thinking about quick and easy songs I could write for the "play" ideation we'd been given.  What's the most fun type of music for me to play?  Blues.  Period.  It was easy.  I started out playing guitar in the school of blues, not rock n roll or heavy metal or funk or any of the other styles I've come to love and exude.  When I play a guitar solo, whether it's obvious or not, I'm playing a blues solo.  It's all I really know.  Everything else just flows through the blues for me (and funk, but those are basically the same thing played different ways).  So I knew I wanted to play the blues.

The only problem is...what is the blues?  There are so many different kinds of blues:  Chicago, New Orleans, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, England, Tennessee (yes, blues is most easily defined by its region of origin, but that's true of a lot of kinds of music).  Then I remembered one of the last albums I recorded before I began my "serious" writing era.  A collection of 7 songs, it was entitled ElectroBlues.  The concept of the album?  Update the blues.  We're moving into the future of music and blues hasn't changed in 80 years (well, that's not entirely true, but most blues songs tend to sound the same - within their subgenre).  I wanted to incorporate modern musical motifs (such as techno) into blues to help it move into the future.  So that's the kind of blues I settled on (plus, it's not like I really have a choice anyway).

So now that we have a basic musical idea, what are we going to write the song about?  Hm.  That's not so easy.  For the first two songs on this album, my muse came to me without any effort, as if she was walking by my side the whole time.  For The Last Day On Earth, I had to coax her to come out of hiding (granted, it was because I was sick and she's shy around sickness lest she be infected herself, but I digress).  Sometimes it's best to let ideas develop by themselves, so I wanted to see what time I got off work the next day (to see how much time I would have tomorrow to devote to writing music).  When I pulled out my schedule, I noticed that my boss had scheduled me for a double shift (a rarity for me) ON THE DAY BETWEEN THE TWO DAYS HE KNOWS I HAVE CLASSES.  Unacceptable.

Well, if it isn't obvious by the title, over the next night and morning this line of thought transformed itself into the fourth song for my album, Quit Your Day Job.  Just some good (not so) old fashioned upbeat, fun blues with quite a bit more drive and energy than usual.

Okay, so I quit my job and wrote a song about it.  Great.  But what does that have to with this class, and playing?  Well, it's quite simple.

When we were given our assignment, we were told to take something we take seriously and mess with it.  I thought to myself, "What the fuck do I take seriously?  My mohawk?"  Well, turns out the only take I took seriously was my job.  No matter what, I would not miss a shift (well, I missed one Saturday because I was spewing various bodily fluids [haha, that's such a disgusting statement]).  Well, I suppose quitting your job is messing with it, especially if you've been there for two years and have taken it very seriously.

Another side - writing this song was extremely fun.  I had the most fun playing this song out of all the songs I've written for this class so far.  I've gotten away from the blues as a musical venture recently because playing "the blues" is rather limiting as an artist.  It felt so good to get back to just playing some fun little blues progressions and beating the shit out of my guitar just because I can.  Music is fun when you make it.

[Yes, I actually did quit my day job today.  It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time.  In fact, if you just read the lyrics to this song, they're pretty much a true account.  I mean every single lyric that I put into songs, and each of them have extremely important meanings to me.  Analyzing my lyrics could probably illuminate a lot about me.]

http://www.myspace.com/capgrasx13/music/songs/quit-your-day-job-82073114

Quit Your Day Job

If you wanna fuck the Man

You've got to have a plan

You've got to get up every morning

And do all you can

Fill your time with work

And your work with play

Find a new job with better pay

Buy some new shoes

And maybe a watch

Dress yourself up

Maybe a notch

You've got to go out and get

What you need to be got

You've got to keep it in mind

Or you'll find you've forgot

If you wanna have fun

(Quit your day job)

If you're lying in the sun

(Quit your day job)

If your rabbits have run

(Quit your day job)

Quit it, Quit it

Quit it today

I've been talking the talk

Now it's prime time to walk the walk

On down that lifelong sidewalk

With that goddamn orange piece of chalk

You've got to let them know you're there

Or they'll never care

You've got to rub it in their faces

Leave your dust in the air

Oh, and never look back

Never, never look back

If you do you'll have a semi-sentimental heart attack

You've got to keep your eyes

On the prize up ahead

You've got to keep your teeth sharp

And your vision always red

If you wanna have fun

(Quit your day job)

If you're lying in the sun

(Quit your day job)

If your rabbits have run

(Quit your day job)

Quit it, Quit it

Quit it today

How To Make a Hit

 

It should be painfully obvious by now to even the most casual observer that my intention for this class was as a means of expanding my creative flow, specifically in the area of music.  Even more specifically, I am using each meeting of this class as the jumping-off point for the inspiration for each song of an album.  The working title of this album is "Seeing Sideways" (for obvious reasons), though I can't guarantee whether or not that will be the final title.

This gives this class an interesting opportunity:  observing the development, from beginning to end, of a full album.  Imagine having been there for the recording of Dark Side of the Moon or an other seminal album, and it should be apparent what an incredible experience this could be.

Now, it may seem like this is just a project of creating a few songs in response to a class.  But it's more than that.  It's an album.  Each of these songs will appear on the album in the order they are written.  Should the album ever become well known (which, in your humble narrator's opinion, would only be just), this song order will be extremely important in the listening experience.  Perhaps that's something of the past - track listing.  Back when music only appeared on vinyl, you had to listen to the album all the way through (once they started making albums that is, singles are just tedious to listen to), you didn't have a choice.  Nowadays we don't buy albums anymore; we just go to iTunes and buy it or (more likely) just download it off the internet for free, usually with incorrect information and occasionally even listed as another song (I once had a friend who downloaded "Another Brick In the Wall Pt. 2" by 'Alice Cooper').

Perhaps this makes me a bit old fashioned.  If I'm going to sit down and listen to music (hell, defining "listening to music" as an activity practically makes me old fashioned), I'm not going to listen to a playlist of my current favorite songs.  No, if I have the time to listen to music, I use it to listen to albums.  A full album is a piece of art; a song is just a corner.  If music were literature, albums would be novels and songs would be their chapters.  Granted, most songs can exist on their own, but without the context of the album you can never really understand the full meaning.  Even if the album is not a "concept album" (that is to say, an album with a coherent story or message), it still represents one unit that some musician or group of musicians put out.  Therefore, it should be taken as a whole; otherwise there would not be a whole.

There are two ways to go about writing a song (music first or lyrics first).  Likewise, there are two ways to go about writing an album.  Every album that has ever been written exists within two categories:  concept albums and collections of songs.  A collection of songs is just what it sounds like; still an album, but the songs that appear are in a relatively arbitrary order and having little to do with each other.  Albums like this usually appear in bands that have a very strict sound or genre.  Bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Aerosmith (just to pick a few monsters) tend to put out collections of songs, though they do have some albums that seem to have a theme running through them.  On the other side of the coin, bands like Pink Floyd (from Dark Side of the Moon on), Nine Inch Nails, and most prog-rock bands (such as Dream Theater) tend to write concept albums.  These albums tend to flow together musically better, have lyrical themes that appear in multiple songs, and/or follow the progression or story of some ambiguous or definitive protagonist to their end (be it good or bad).

[if you ask me, albums that aren't concept albums aren't worth listening to]

Most artists tend to be either a writer of songs or a writer of albums.  The former will just write songs as they come to their mind or as they figure them out (in a band setting, this would usually take several months as the guitarist teaches everyone his chord progressions or the singer tries to get the bassist to write a line to fit his new set of lyrics, ad nauseum).  The latter, the group to which I belong, tend to write songs one at a time, but always have an overarching vision of the end product in mind.  Occasionally, albums are planned out before the music is ever even conceived (one of my favorite ways to make an album is to get the idea in my mind, figure out the general progression that it will follow, then name each of the songs - but name them only).  Thus, each song is important not only on its own but also in the context of the album - each song inherently has two purposes.  These albums will follow the natural ebb and flow of any great story and occasionally have better storylines than most of today's blockbuster movies (think The Wall or Tommy).

As I stated at the beginning, this class is presented with an interesting opportunity.  Not only are they being played a series of songs that are being composed for no reason.  Each class meeting the class is being read a new chapter from the novel.  Each song played is the next progression of the story.  And yes, I can already see a story in the three songs that have been written.  It has a story, and a main character, and a plot.  There are eleven chapters to this story.  It follows the protagonist through his world as he learns to open his eyes and see that everything around him is made of magic and that, if he chooses to, he can live in a world that is magnificent and glorious.  If it's not obvious yet, the main character is actually your humble narrator.  Yes, this is my story.  This is the story of my creative development.  I just can't fathom the final song...

The Last Day On Earth

Only the good go to Heaven.

(Such an ambiguous statement).

This song, The Last Day On Earth, was written on May 22nd, the day after the world was "supposed" to end (or something).

Though this song is not necessarily breaking any of my rules, it does celebrate rule-breakers and the creativity they produce in groups (and alone).

[I would have written the song on the 21st, and thus have submitted it on time, but I was extremely ill all day and was only able to begin working on this song on Sunday.]

I'm going to betray the magician's secret and explain some of the influences for this song, something I would normally not do, because I think it's interesting:

The Last Day On Earth - Marilyn Manson

Love and Hard Times - Paul Simon

The End - The Doors

mAke beLIEve (Zombie Robot Aliens Mix) - Capgras

The first song is obviously where I got the title from.  Taking titles directly from other songs and seeing how I would write a song with that name is something I quite like doing, and have done many times.  Who's to say only one song of each name can exist?

I recently read a Rolling Stone interview with Paul Simon and gained a large amount of respect for him as a musician, and then I learned that he had recently released a new album (So Beautiful or So What).  I happened to be at Starbucks buying a drink with a gift card my sister had given me for tutoring her (for finite math...ick) when I saw the cd in the little racks they use to sell music, so I bought it.  I have never heard a Paul Simon song before, and could only identify some Simon and Garfunkel songs from cultural memory.  This album opened my musical horizons quite a bit, and this song in particular (being about God making a visit to Earth, etc.) helped formulate the idea for The Last Day On Earth.

The End is a wonderful song.  For those who have never heard it, you should be rushing out right now to find it.  This song is about the end of the world, so The End would naturally be an inspiration for it.

And finally, the remix I did of mAke beLIEve was a huge influence on this song.  This is where the true "rule-breaking" comes in.  In making the remix, I broke several of my rules of writing music - mainly that I usually don't mix guitar/bass with synth sounds.  In writing The Last Day On Earth, I used several of the things I discovered while remixing mAke beLIEve (a remix I am extremely happy with) and also used a new song-writing technique, wherein I would record one or two lines of music with my guitar/bass/piano (i.e. my organic instruments) and then would interrupt (intentionally) my creative flow to go into Garageband and add synth accompaniment to that part.  This helped to create a very cool atmospheric and rhythmic effect (I used several different "steppers" - synthesizers that have a percussive feel due to their repeated staccato bursts) that I am very pleased with.

Due to time constraints, I was not able to make a video for this song (as I've said before, the videos are for convenience and lyrics), so I'll just provide a link to the song from myspace and the lyrics.

http://www.myspace.com/capgrasx13/music/songs/the-last-day-on-earth-82055185

The Last Day On Earth

This is the last day on earth

I know because they told me so

I hope the Lord can see my worth

I hope he says that I can go

I never took heed of their words

I just laughed at skies so black

I never saw the dying birds

And now I'm lying on my back

I came to the edge of town

I looked up as the sky fell down

He smiled and turned my frown

He made me wish that I'd been drowned

I walked up to the savior man

I asked him where to get in line

He looked at me and shook his head

He told me that this death was mine

[Only the good go to Heaven

Those who follow the rules

You never learned to count to seven

Never followed the fools

Only the good go to Heaven

We haven't got that much room

You never learned to count to seven

We are the hand that guides the loom]

He told me there was somewhere else for me

Deep beneath the sky

When he pointed to the fire

I didn't ask why

Hell was made for rule-breakers

The rebels and their kin

You'll feel much more at home down there

With all the filth and sin

[Only the good go to Heaven

Those who follow the rules

You never learned to count to seven

Never followed the fools

Only the good go to heaven

We haven't got that much room

You never learned to count to seven

We are the hand that guides the loom]

As I descended the stairs down to my new home

I looked up at the Lord and how large he had grown

Maybe I'm not good enough for the castle in the sky

But I'd rather be living than with those who wait to die

It's a party all day long

There are no fucking rules down here

Satan and his evil throng

Supply all the whiskey and beer

The Fire and Brimstone burning

Keep the music nice and hot

It may not be Heaven

But boring, it's not

As the fires burn down to the ground

We gather in a ring

All the demons and the sinners

We all start to sing:

[Only the good go to Heaven

Those who follow the rules

We never learned to count to seven

Never followed the fools

Only the living go to Hell

The ones with thinking minds

We think our home is swell

Thought it's all just lies]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what does this song have to do with breaking rules?

Obviously, there are references to rule breakers going to Hell in the lyrics, but this seems to be a preferable fate to going to the rule-followers' Heaven.  [Let it be noted that this is obviously not supposed to be religiously accurate, since it's based on the end of the world - which hasn't happened.  I'm not suggesting Hell is a place of partying and fun, but I wouldn't be the first if I am.]

This song arose because of some rule-breaking I did of my own.  This is the first song I've ever written that actually has "God" in it (I've written songs about vaguely religious topics but never actual religious figures...to my knowledge).  The only reason I used the sounds I used in this song is because I remixed mAke beLIEve, something I did in response to the comment that I should "mix up" my music.  So, this song is a culmination of everything that has been running through my head this week.

Also, time-wise, this song is breaking some rules that have been set by precedent so far for this album.  Just three seconds under ten minutes, it's nearly three times longer than both the song that precede it (RIP Bert and mAke beLIEve).  That being said, however, this is much more typical a length of song for me to write.

Update on mAke beLIEve (Zombie Robot Aliens mix)

In the days since my last post, I followed through on my pledge to create a remix of mAke beLIEve.

Because it was the working title of the song, the remix has been named the Zombie Robot Aliens mix.

Every vocal that appears in the remix appears in the original song (that is to say I took the vocals directly from the song, without re-recording them) except for the "make believe a lie" chorus.

Somehow, taking the song from a Jimi Hendrix-like frenzied guitar fest and turning it into a techno/hip hop song was not that difficult.

All music for the remix was made using Garageband, in an attempt to distance myself from the guitar and bass set up I have been working with for quite some while.

The remix can be listened to here.  I have only uploaded it to myspace, as opposed to creating a video, as this is a remake and the videos are intended for the sole purpose of lyric comprehension.  Since that is not really important for the remix (and you can find the lyrics in the song for the original, should you need to reference them), I chose not to do it.

I'm not quite sure if I "broke my own rules" with this remix (and thus this song will not be the submission for the "breaking the rules" assignment), but I definitely took a song that I was very proud of and made an equally awesome alternate version of it.

Moving Forward from Class...

Though this class was about breaking the rules, this was not exactly what I took away from it.

[breaking rules is my natural way of life]

From this class it became apparent to me that perhaps what I have been attempting to capture with my songs has not carried through very clearly.
This could be for any of various reasons.  My music is a conglomeration of many different musical styles that may not translate clearly, especially between songs.  The combination of funk, blues, industrial metal, and various other stylings I have picked up over the last year or so.  I can easily sit and point out each part of each song that was inspired by some thought or song I heard.  Through this class, I have learned to open up my eyes and see that everything around me is a potential inspiration for a song.

Shortly before this class began, I recorded two cover songs (Every Day Is Exactly The Same by Nine Inch Nails and Soldier of War by Psychotica - both fantastic songs, check them out).  These songs brought a level of musicality with them that I had not previously attempted (per se) to achieve.

As far as the music goes, Soldier of War infused a certain groove into my music that I had always intended but never realized.  This can be seen in both of the songs I have recorded for this class, as they both were based around a very funk-oriented bass line (if you listen to the songs carefully, you can see plainly that the bass line is the most important piece of the music, and drives the songs all the way through).  These bass lines are among some of my highest-esteemed bass lines I have ever conceived, particularly that for RIP Bert, which is much more musically complex than mAke beLIEve (though mAke beLIEve is a much funkier bass line, perhaps the funkiest I've ever written).

My vocals, which have always existed in my mind on a very different plane from the music beneath them, have been heavily influenced lately by the vocals I recorded for Every Day Is Exactly The Same.  Though I closely followed the original vocals of the song, I still followed my general pattern and used what Phil Spector referred to as the Wall of Sound.  By this technique, I record two to five layers of vocals, each spread across the stereo at various symmetrical distances to create a more (epic) feel to the music.  I tend to do this on most of my songs, not necessarily because I want every song to be (epic), but because having more than one vocal line tends to minimize mistakes.  I will be the first to admit I'm not a singer.  But I am a musician, and singing comes with that.

Coming back to class, what stuck with me the most was the comment that I should try to shake up my music. From the two songs that I have written for this class, yes that makes sense.  They are both funk-based, guitar-driven autobiographical narratives.  The both have fairly similar vocals, but so do most David Bowie songs.  It's hard to change your voice.

This brought me to an extremely difficult conundrum.  I follow no rules.  But I need to break my rules.  How do I break my rules that don't exist?

I spent several hours sitting and pondering just how to do that:  how to break my own rules.

Looking back over my entire catalogue of songs, I have created song extremely diverse music.  In six years, I have written and recorded (though only recently began completing) over 200 songs.  From the second I first picked up a guitar at the beginning of my freshman year in high school, I have been writing songs.  For some reason, I am not content with learning other people's songs.  I don't want to become the next Jimi Hendrix, or Jimmy Page, or Eric Clapton (nor do I want to be the next Trent Reznor or Brian Warner - some trivia for ya).  As long as I have been playing music, I have been trying to create completely new, original songs and sounds.  I spent six long years accumulating bits and pieces of a full "rock" band - a few guitars, a bass, a keyboard, and now I have the ability to create drum lines (using Garageband) and record vocals.  As a fully-functioning machine, I can create complete songs in an afternoon.  And having complete creative control, I don't have to argue with other over how to create a song (nor do I have to put up with teaching others my songs so we can record them - most of my songs are finished by the time I've fully learned each part).  This gives me complete freedom to do whatever I want musically, and I damn well take advantage.

Throughout my musical career I have recorded some bitingly nihilistic industrial metal, some trippy atmospheric music, several concept albums, "techno" (not the kind you'd hear at a rave, but music made with a computer - extremely experimental and occasionally unmusical).  There seems to be no genre I am willing to encroach upon - I've recorded blues, acoustica, funk, rap, metal, rave music, and anything in between.  I jump at the opportunity to try new musical ideas, and hearing any song or sound supplies inspiration in many different ways for me.

[is it yet obvious why I am struggling to break my own rules?]

So, back to class.  RIP Bert was received with much more appreciation than I expected, and perhaps it was this that led to my disappointment in how mAke beLIEve (a much better song, in my personal opinion) was received.  The guitar solo work in mAke beLIEve is the best I have ever done.  It is the first time I have been able to sit back and listen to one of my guitar solos and think "Wow, that's pretty damned good," instead of "yeah, that works."  Also, this song is the first in my musical catalogue to feature my wah pedal, which is one of my most prized guitar effects that I never use.  Having drug it out of my closet and plugged it in for the first time in years, I was extremely happy with how the song turned out.  Without the wah, the song would have been good but it would not have had nearly the amount of "funk" in it.

That would be exactly why, when I was told that my songs were perhaps too similar, I was disheartened.  That is not to say I felt like I failed - I am extremely happy with the song and, as the follow-up to RIP Bert on the album, it makes a great second song (the first should be an introduction, and the second is where you bash them over the head with awesomeness).  In fact, changing my sound was never even something I had ever anticipated as a response.

[Mother Earth was pregnant for the third time, for ya'll have knocked her up]*

So, after many hours of contemplation (including a walk along the empty canal blowing on my harmonica - bridges have great acoustics), what ideas did I come up with?  Well, that's tough to say.  Before I had written mAke beLIEve, I had envisioned it as a science fiction song.  With that comes the science fiction sound (think Rush, other prog bands).  But, as is my policy, I let the song develop as it would and it turned into a frenzied funk of ferocious guitar.  Even before I finished recording the song, I had conceived of a remix.  The comments in class eventually led my mind back there.

My idea?  A remix.  Simple enough, right?  No.  What my plan is, in a transparent attempt to "break my own rules," is to retain the same lyrics and basic song structure but turn the song into more of a spacey sci-fi song than it currently exists.

[I have seen the maggots in the mind of the universe, but I was not offended]*

But this is not so easy.  Completely restructuring a song, and a sonicsphere, is not an easy task.  It will involve creating a new drum part, probably changing the tempo, creating completely new musical progressions and motifs, and probably recording the vocals over again with the new music.  Because these lyrics were developed for this music, it will be difficult to make them work.

[for I knew I had to rise above it all, or drown in my own shit]*

But it's doable.  I am a Musician with no lack of creative current.  I am a Songwriter with no fear for experimentation.  I am an Artist.  I create Art.  Art is God.

[you see where I'm going]

(for those of you interested in the songs I mentioned in this post, I have a myspace with my most recent songs posted on it - http://www.myspace.com/capgrasX13)

* - from the song "Maggot Brain" by Funkadelic - listen to it, it will change your world

Zombie Robot Aliens, Right.

And they're caught in the middle of a universal fight.

The conversation I had (it was more listening than anything) with that random kid when we were let go to go find causes for things inspired me so intensely that I just had to record a song with the material he had given me.

As soon as he started talking to me (his first words being "Zombie Robot Aliens, right.") I knew I had two choices in my mind - listen or excuse myself.

Typically, I would find the first chance to escape an unwarranted conversation (as I'm sure most people would), but this was different.  This conversation was started on the premise of Zombie Robot Aliens.  I was hooked.

As we walked a circle around campus, a tale was spun of the most epic intergalactic battle this side of Star Wars, involving Necrons (the formerly mentioned ZRAs), space marines, orcs, and various other races.

Eventually, it was revealed that this is a board game (which was, in all honesty, quite a disappointment to me).

At this point the conversation fizzled out, but the material I got from him echoed through my head the rest of the day.

I got an idea for a song, it started with "Let me lay this on you..." and this is what developed.

[Jimi Hendrix x Parliament-Funkadelic x Warhammer 40000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPMqVCfaazI

Rest In Peace, Bert

We were given an egg.  Told to go.  So I went.

On my way home I passed a creek and wondered if eggs float.

So I threw the egg in the creek.

Unfortunately, he broke.

So I wrote a song about him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNQJ39gQ0Qo

Expectations

My expectations for this class are pretty wide open.  I expect that this will be an experience that will benefit not only the way I view my world but also, in a much larger way, my creativity.  As a recording musician and hobbyist painter I look for any creative input that I can find and I know that this class will deliver more than enough of that.  But beyond that, I'm trying to keep my mind open so I will not form expectations that will lead the process in a way that it was not intended.  Or perhaps that is the intention.  We'll see.