Week #51 - Vengeance

You just knew this had to be a guitar track, right? Well, it seemed obvious to me, and I went to town. I think there are 5 separate guitar parts - everything from an acoustic playing open chords to heavily distorted power chords to some lead noodling, and I almost broke out the 12-string too - as well as piano, bass and a lead synth. I started on vocals, but didn't finish them in time. I can't wait to work on this tune some more next year.



Description:

I usually start by figuring out if a feeling is positive or negative, and this helps me build a mood. It affects the harmonies I go to (major versus minor, etc.) as well as the types of sounds I look for. But I wasn't sure which way this feeling went. Vengeance is negative in the sense that you've been wronged if you're looking for it, however, the fulfillment of a vengeful act can be quite cathartic and positive. So I wanted to blulr the lines, and I think I've actually done what I set out to do. Having the lyrics complete would likely help illuminate this, but I'm pretty happy with the musical end of it (as long as one goes into it with my explanation I guess).

Tools:

Propellerhead Record 1/Reason 4
Fender Jazz bass
Epiphone Les Paul Custom electric guitar
Takamine acoustic guitar

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Notes:

- This tune started with the power chord riffs:

Verse: A5 (C5) | G5 | A5 (C5) | E5 | A5 (C5) | G5 | D5 | A5 |
Chorus: A5 F5 | E5 C5 | A5 F5 | E5 D5 | A5 F5 | E5 C5 | G5 | A5 |

As I added parts the chords became slightly more complex, but the song is basically in C (C-Dm-Em-F-G-Am). It's pretty basic, and seemed like it would be good to sing over. I like that it's minor (everything is based around the Am), but it uses the major chords enough and is upbeat enough to have a kind of happy feel.

- Structurally, this is pretty straight forward as well: verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle8-verse-chorus-chorus-chorus... I really thought a simple rocker was in order for this feeling, and it would almost be kind of punk if I hadn't layered on so many guitar variations. I fuffed about a bit with different combinations on each verse, but the arrangement is far from finalized.

I'm really happy with the sound of the entire rhythm section. I didn't do drums, and I'm not sure this track needs them. I feel like there's plenty of drive with the bass and rhythm guitars. In laying them out I almost treated the various guitar parts like a single instrument the way a complete drum beat is made up of different drums. I actually thought it might be an interesting idea to try chopping the guitar parts up and programing them more rhythmically like parts of a kit.

- This is meant to have lyrics, but I didn't get them finished. The lead synth is actually a bit overbearing I think, but it's sort of standing in for the vocals. Once I record vocals, I'm sure I'd reduce the synth part to flourishes and fills here and there.

- Since I didn't complete the lyrics/vocals and really work out a definitive arrangement, I didn't put much into mixing this beyond setting levels and pan. But I definitely plan to come back to this one...but more on that in another post.


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