Here’s the latest batch of raw materials for the upcoming album:
Prozac is the first snippet that clearly demands to become a song. In fact, I can probably start the first verse right where it leaves off. Now I just need 11 more snippets like this one.
Ooh Yah was inspired by Rain Rain. She opens “Double Dutch” (track 3 of her album, which you can hear using the player in my last post) with a building “ooh yeah, ay yi yah.” I wanted some raw material to experiment with Ableton’s Corpus and Vocoder, so I recorded myself singing the same one-note phrase. The snippet expands that single phrase into a mass of harmony, then dies away. Very Imogen Heap, and surprisingly, very easy to do!
Crushed Rose is a cover (by a different name). I created the snippet a week ago, and finished mixing the rest of the track last night. I’ll probably post it to thesixtyone next week. I’d prefer to not include any covers on the album, but let’s see how many songs I can write and record in the remaining 167 days.
Your candor and criticism are always encouraged.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The “Prozac” melody is reminiscent of a-ha’s “Foot of the Mountain,” in a good way. It’s different enough and as you say, it demands to be a full song.
Definitely “Prozac” needs to be a song.
As for “Crushed Roses”.. I know what song that is and I like what you are doing with it. Can’t wait to hear the full version.
If I were listening to “Prozac” as the start of a song as it is, I would have to say I like the timing of how it relatively quickly grows into what sounds like the “core” of the song, with the first melody coming into focus so to speak and then increasing in complexity in a short time. Some songs can take a full minute of layering on one melodic voice after another to play with the sounds or build the song up to its full complexity before introducing any vocals, and a casual listener may lose interest. Compare “Cheerleader” from Life’s Fairytale – I love it, especially the chorus, but for the first few listens I was wondering what was going on in that first minute. Here even if you choose to start the first verse at the end of “Prozac”, in less than 20 seconds there is a bloom of musical activity, so vocals aren’t requisite to keep it interesting. This is probably among the most elementary sort of considerations that you’re already well aware of, but it’s about all I can offer as feedback more specific than “I like it.”
Of course whether any given listener would prefer that in a song depends on things like whether he enjoys the music for background or is actively listening, how important he considers the singing in the music, and so on…
I can’t imagine you writing a song with any lyrics in it that don’t mean anything.
But “Ooh Yah” is still a good experiment in human voice as an instrument. Imogen Heap has a rather distinctive voice to begin with. I wonder what Sarah Nixey would sound like sampled as a pure instrument? I think she did just a little of that in one song or another. Have you thought of sampling Asian overtone singing? It’s been done, but that’s human voice as an instrument in the literal sense! Hey come to think of it, you certainly should try this with Michelle too. I felt her vocals added a whole lot to “The Thought Chapter.”
“Crushed Rose” has very danceable beats to it. Until it gets crushed that is, hehe. Looking forward to hearing the rest of it if you’re going to post it up.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! (and Facebook and Twitter friends too)
@Caius – Any similarity of my FIRST snippet to a-ha is purely coincidental. I haven’t heard their new album yet.
@Guy – Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to muck up that intro with an extra minute of unrelated material. Keep in mind that “Cheerleader” was rejected from Perfect Tears for a reason! Thanks for (accidentally) introducing me to Sarah Nixey – good stuff! I don’t think I have the time to go off the deep end with vocal experimentation, at least for this album.