this one goes up to eleven
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005It’s a lullaby.
Bit of info on this. Usually, when I’m working on a song, I come up with concepts of what it sounds like to me, things that might be interesting titles, while I’m working on it. This is why most people who like my song titles like them, they seem to fit the mood and sound of the song – well, folks, that’s how they get picked. I usually have an idea for one of these by the first time I save something, because I usually don’t save a file til I have something with at least some sounds I like. Usually the file name I come up with becomes sort of the “code name” of the song, and some of those have been kind of amusing in the past. Whether the code name ever comes near the final name of the song depends on how it develops, and yes, I’m aware that the pretentiousness of most of my song titles and this entry is fairly off the charts. Blow me.Anyway, after getting an initial name, I start incremental filenames after a certain amount of development, much like a programmer. Initially this was because I used to break cool shit and save over it without realizing it, because I was a noob. Now, it’s because it allows me some flexibility to try radical tweaks on things without losing them. Moving to a filename with 1 in it is usually a sign that I like a collection of crap enough to try and make it a releasable song. This continues less for songs I get bored of, and more for ones I like, and want to polish into something nice. I usually want to put stuff out as soon as I hit a “critical mass” of coolness, so I push on and go through revisions quickly til I burn out and release what’s there, with as much polish as I can squeeze out of it in a short timeframe. 95% of all TRB songs are started and finished within the same night, usually with about a 4 hour span.
The average song I really like usually hits about revision 5. I may go to 6 if I want to try some drastic equalization measure that really changes my signal routing, but generally 4 or 5 is a release.
The final render of this song was revision 11. And it’s only a 2 minute and 12 second song.
I’ve spent a lot of time on it, and I really think it shows. I’ve been kicking the main loop around for quite some time, trying to come up with accompaniment that does it justice, and it always felt “better” than anything I have any right to put my name on. I wanted to save it for something special, something deserving, and I did. The feelings I have associated with it are how it got it’s name.
So, that innocent and emotional opening riff finally got a home I’m happy with – a lullaby for my favoritist person in the whole wide world – who, incidentally, doesn’t sleep enough.
[sleep well, baby]