Sunday 24 February 2013

Wards of State

CD - “Quantum Nature”

This song is from the CD Quantum Nature and is one of only a couple tracks that does not have some aspect of science as its topic.

There are a lot of ideas in the song, but the basic story is about a city or local society that is approaching an unavoidable transition. The current paradigm has been eroding for some time and is about to collapse. Some of the citizens are aware, some are not. Some will embrace the change, some will not.



There is a lot you can say about this situation. Meaningful change in society rarely comes about by election. Revolution or invasion is frequently the greater force for significant change. Elections are simply an elixir that provides the sensation of freedom to the masses. However, this drama of selection is so narrowly constrained that it simply serves to perpetuate the eternal sameness that financial markets and political profiteers depend upon.

The graphic depicts an ancient place and a future place. What direction the societal transition mentioned in the song moves in is up to you. Is a return to a simpler, low footprint society better? Or is a futuristic technology-based structure the way to go?


I forget what writing process this song took. Many of my tunes are not straight-forward chord-based songs with verse chorus structures. However, this song seemed to emerge with that basic pattern intact. I think I was trying to work on being more disciplined musically. Trying to satisfy my goal of producing something original while remaining confined to a familiar format.

I do recall that I wanted to experiment with an 'orchestral stabbing' effect where a discrete marching rhythm is played on distorted guitar while a lattice of undistorted notes is played in the background in an independent pattern. The chorus (“Wards of State, state of wonder...”) is the result of this experiment.

I have mentioned before that vocals have always been a weakness. However, I was somewhat pleased by how this tune turned out. The vocals are almost passable here. For me, this is probably as good as it gets.

Desert mosque - http://www.dodear.com/wallpapers/index.php?content_id=19356
Future city - http://khongthe.com/wallpapers/abstract/city-207.jpg
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Sunday 17 February 2013

The Door

Album - "Quantum Nature"




After becoming somewhat more familiar with the digital recording process and software, I could start to think even more about the conceptual and lyrical content of music. I have always been interested in science and physics. In fact, I now work for a company that makes scientific instruments. Reading a couple of books about string theory and dimensionality started me on the road to subtly adopting some of the concepts in my lyrics.

One book was Elegant Universe by Brian Greene which is a decent primer to Newtonian and relativistic physics. Mr. Greene nicely transitions into the issue of the need for a unified field theory. This leads to a discussion of string theory and its dimensional implications.

Flatland is a Victorian-era novel written by Edwin Abbott Abbott in which a society that exists in only two dimensions is visited by a three dimensional being. Mr. Abbott's excellent development of this analogy helps the reader to visualize higher-dimension phenomena, which is a requirement of string theory.

As I mention in the blog introduction, I have always arranged my songs into collections.

  1. Superheroes and Thank You, I Love You were from the first 'CD' which was called For Good.
  2. Measure of Success, Entrance Me You Do, and A305 on Wednesday were from a second CD I called Measure of Success.
  3. The third collection of songs was called Quantum Nature.
  4. (There are several more CDs after these. Later.)

The title of the third CD obviously reflects influences from the above-mentioned books and from science in general.

The Door was the first track on the CD and was intended as a kind of introduction to the over-all theme.

“I wish there was a door that lead to other places. A passage to a realm revealing hidden spaces.”

Understanding the rest of the CD required the listener to 'step through a door' in a manner of speaking. I was still pretty young at the time and was trying to be deep. But many of the ideas are still interesting to me.



The general sound of this track will remind most listeners of Rush. I was a huge fan for many years. I sort of studied their music and it eventually became like a kind of language to me. Without intending it, some of my tracks have perhaps ended up sounding like rip-offs. I'm out of touch with the band now. A few years ago, I started wanting more variety and a wider dynamic range in music. And Peart was getting a bit too preachy for me. I notice they are getting back into sci-fi. Maybe it's time I give them another listen.


http://sb635.mystarband.net/m16_st10_xcm.htm
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Friday 15 February 2013

A305 on Wednesday

Album - "Measure of Success"

Another instrumental tune. Originally written and recorded in 1989 on a Wednesday evening where I was living at the time in an apartment unit numbered A305. I couldn't think of another name, so "A305 on Wednesday" is what I ended up calling it.


The first demo of this song was recorded on a four-track tape machine. I was experimenting with recording a heavier rock sound and learning from the challenges of capturing that style successfully on tape. I didn't have a drum machine or any rhythm software. The drum track was performed live by hammering away at a keyboard connected to a Roland sound module that had the standard MIDI arrangement of drum sounds assigned to various keys. Despite my poor sense of timing, the over-all results were encouraging.

About 15yrs later I resumed my recording hobby again. This time I was using digital recording with professional drum loops and unlimited availability of tracks. Some of the original 'sound' was lost because of the more organized timing and format. But the re-recorded result is comparable to the original.

The song itself is a very simple variation on D and G chords with an odd note-based middle section. The song had no real conceptual theme or visual association for me except that it is a happy, upbeat tune. The whole thing was simply a learning exercise for young guy with a tape recorder.





Pictures:
Tape - cliffski.deviantart.com
faces - cutelypoisoned.com
4-track - www.springsteenlyrics.com
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