Song050_Selective Hearing

Today completes 50 consecutive new songs. I don't want to celebrate too much because I need to focus on a new song tomorrow (and tomorrow begins in 12 minutes), but...50 songs! Hooray!

If you're on the mailing list, then please note that I've updated last week's album design (Life Lines). The design sent out in the weekly email was too dark for the message/theme that I had in mind. I think the new design (viewable at http://www.anewsongeveryday.com/Archive/Archive.html) is more contemplative and hopeful.

I didn't start today's song until 2pm. I was having trouble deciding on a direction for this new week (Week 08). I try to get an overall perspective of what the album should be before I start recording individual songs. It's more fun (and challenging and creative) to try and make each album seem like one piece of art. My favorite albums are like that such as: Neil Young (Harvest Moon), Spiritualized (Lazer Guided Melodies), and many others. Other considerations when creating a new album include: an overall theme, daily topics, an album title, song titles, album artwork, genre/style of music. Anyway, I honed in on all of these things during lunch. This week's album will be titled, 'Life According to Others.' The main theme of the album will be "communication." This is a broad topic, but I chose to make today's lyrics about selective hearing.

This song started with a distorted electric guitar track (playing C, G, then F, C, G, then Am, F, E). I found a distortion pre-set within GuitarRig that I was able to adjust (only slightly) to get a new sound that I like. The analog bass track was recorded next, and then I added a scratch drum track (to assist with timing while recording the vocals). The lyrics, melody idea, and vocal recording all happened within 1-2 hours. This song also has: 2 pianos, a solo electric guitar (with delay/reverb), a string section, etc. I noticed that this sound has hints of influence from Tears for Fears.

LYRICS: "Words went back and forth, but no messages were received. We talked for at least an hour before I realized you weren't there. The cautions came from everyone you knew, but you tend to only hear what you want to. Take time to hear what they're saying. Ten to one, selective hearing prevents understanding. One in hundreds hears the depth of your meanings."

-Matthew