Hardly a Moment as I understand it:
1- Ken buys very cool elaborate capo that allows individual strings to be fretted. This is the perfect gift for the jangly open chord master known as Ryan (Berminator X).
2- Tuesday night BSS at the rehersal space in Oakland: I arrive to find Ken and Ryan already there. Ryan has the fancy capo on his guitar and is playing some Kinsella like open goodness.
3- When you hear music it is best to pick up an instrument and compliment it. I have Martin's bass from the Song Fight Live (I have a truck). So I plug in and the power trio starts jamming. The fruits of this jam would become what we know as Verse A.
4- Martin arrives and we're playing. The beat keeps going, the chords keep jangling and I gesture to Martin to take over the bass rather than play my guitar that is set up and ready to go.
5- We are now a quartet. The jam develops into what will be known as Verse B and the intro.
6- After the improvisation comes to an end, we feel the time crunch to write something before 11:00pm when the neighbors will inevitably knock and complain if they hear drums.
7- "So what do we have?" We got some versey parts and some very pretty intro parts. "We need a chorus!"
8- Ryan has a complicated syncopated idea. In trying to understand it, I write my part which is a dumbed down version but i think it accentuates the rock. This chorus is in a wildly different tempo than what we were doing. This is a good thing, we don't want to make an ambient tune. After that jam, we decide it is indeed chorus like and we will make it work. It is close enough to double time that we make the adjustments so that it will be in double time.
9- We have all the parts now, we need to assemble them into a structure. We come up with : Intro/ verse A verse B/ Verse A/ Verse B/ Chorus/ verse A/ Verse B / double chorus.
10- it is 10:45 on a Tuesday night. We need to get some takes down to work with. We're at 4:30, this may need some editing. We get a couple of takes down where we made it all the way through with no major mistakes.
11- Wednesday- Ken makes a rough mix of the 2 takes. Then on via the internet asks us what all the chords were.
12- I reply with my interpretation of the chords. I fill out all the minors majors diminished and 7ths even though they weren't all played. I like to know the options and implications.
13- Ken throws together a MIDI version of the song based on my chordal interpretation and the recordings. This step is key, MIDI sounds terrible and stale and like Muzak, but it displays how well the song flows and what structure adjustments there might need be.
14- Ryan writes some lyric kernels which give a vibe for the song, and I believe the stanzas survived.
15- Ken writes more lyrics. The improver makes it quite a nice set of lyrics.
16- The 2nd Tuesday in the song cycle arrives. Sam can't make it, though he and Erin stop by later to say Hi.
17- Martin hasn't arrived so Ryan Glen and Ken decide to review the song and try and lay down the song with tighter conviction. We figure we can overdub the bass.
18- Before we get to start actually tracking, after spending a while rehearsing and remembering what we played a week earlier, Martin arrives. This is good we can record live as a full band.
19- True to nearly every song I ever wrote with Ryan this song starts with solo bass. usually Ryan is the bass player, but this time it's Martin starting solo. Who knew a click track was a foreign entity to Martin? I ask Ken to conduct so we can all come in on the one. Martin has a lot of jazz in his bass, it's hard to find the one.
20- Ryan and Glen along the way come up with a beautiful interlocking outro duo clean guitar thing. We have our outro!
21- Where will the solo go? One of the parts surely will be left and in need of a solo.
22- We take several takes, finally before 11:00pm arrives we have the take that everyone is reasonably comfortable with.
23- Now to figure out how those lyrics fit in this song. Martin has ideas, I have chorus ideas. Ryan has ideas. So we play the song bac over and over. People stare at the lyric sheet and come up with melodies.
24- When I hear Ryans idea for the chorus, I pretty much forget my idea. I'm really into it.
25- Ken sets up a mic and Martin rehearses to the track then lays down his ideas.
26- Ryan is up next, he comes up with what we ended up using as the melody. He sang the 3 stanzas we had many times over in the verse parts.
27-It's my turn, I decline. I'd rather develop Ryan's idea. We listen back to Martins take and Ryans take. They are very different. Martin has sauce, and lots of it, but he's not comfortable with the lyrics and the delivery is awkward. Given more time he might develop them enough.
28- We realize with the length of a Ryan Stanza our song has 6 verses. Ryan gets to work on another 2 or 3 verses. We all recognize the similarity to Karate, but ken Ryan and Glen really enjoy it.
29- Ryan does the verses and chorus. Then martin throws down the chorus harmonies. I'm scheming other back ground ooohs and ahhhs and counterpoints. Nothing i come up with improves the song. The song is due in 48 hours, we're nearly there.
30- Wednesday night, I get the kids to bed and start playing with guitar parts. I find a few ideas i really like. I submit them to Ken.
31-Thursday morning Ken chooses 2 of the ideas to add to the song, and mixes them in.
32- 9:00AM Thursday morning the song is due and Ken has submitted us.
now to make a video......
more to come
