Our music lives have been on an unexpected hiatus since performing at the Boog City Poetry Festival a few weeks ago. My wife was motivated to seal and rejuvenate the floors, which I was told are the original wood planks in our late 1800’s warehouse loft. We had to unexpectedly abandon the loft the other day when she was overcome by toxic polyurethane fumes. Two nights in a Plainview hotel and a long E.R. stint later, we are back in our big, shiny, and a bit vacant space.
My life seems to be divided into before and after. Before everything was in upheaval, I was in contact with one of my FAVORITE music artists to remix Clap For Yourself. I got as far as sending him all of the individual tracks. However, he emailed to let me know that the drum track was missing and a guitar track was cut short. I finally, finally, finally was able to get him those last two tracks today. I did one last listen to make sure the timings were synced. They were. I came away with something valuable from that last listen after taking a 3 week break. Confidence.
I must say, for a song that almost never got written because it’s so unbelievably dumb on the surface, I think it’s my favorite of 2019. If not for writing, definitely as far as production/music. I remember when it was just an embryo and I heard Sleater Kinney in the guitar riff. My wife kept hearing 90’s folk music. Of course! I’d only been playing it on my acoustic, which did not resound to the outside world what was echoing in my brain. However, a limp folk sound would never be able to carry such ridiculous chorus lyrics as “Clap For Yourself”. If I was to get away with it, the song needed balls.
You can read about the insecurities of this song in previous posts. I even posted a photo of myself ripping up the lyric sheet and I uploaded an mp3 of completely rewritten music.
In the end, the original score persevered. Really it was the purchase of a $100 Yamaha UR12 interface that allowed the guitar sounds to soar. I was able to hear in my headphones what I’d heard all along in my head. With this new hope, I layered on bass, piano, drums, little weird noises, and I do think in the end I got out what I hoped for sound wise. Sleater Kinney had a baby with David Geutta. How tempted I am to just share what I have right this second. But no, it’s still all hot. The volume of all the tracks are shouting over each other, begging to be heard not by balance but sheer volume. This is where my FAVORITE music artist comes in……..It’s all in the mix….stay tuned…..
