SONG 6

a bright sunny morning
a cool breeze blowing through the house
a week's holiday is giving me a bit of space
and a bit of time
for the art of living
though the four-letter hangover is still wearing off
slowly slowly
i start to get back into the routine that i have abandoned
over the last couple of months
when every day became a 4:50am-drag-myself-out-of-bed drudge
i am up at 6am to do yoga
while the house is still quiet
while there is no-one there to pinch my mat
or climb on top of me (that's my daughter, folks!)
or turn on the telly
time to stretch the aching muscles and joints
to discipline the headless chicken mind
that otherwise starts running off in a million directions
then time for blogging while the house is still quiet
breakfast with the fireseedlet
before she goes over the road to kindergarten
time for music
i am recording for the latest album
number three
i have got as far as song 6
although it won't be that order on the final playlist
a song called 'hero with a 1000 faces'
i wrote the words and melody back in february
but the arrangement has given me a few headaches!
i want something spiritual
something to put the listener in touch with the universe
that great wide unfathomable cosmos out there
something that taps into a force way way bigger than we can see and describe
how to convey all that with sound?
an almost impossible task
well, i start with some evening forest noises
and a buddhist monk chanting and banging his gong in prayer
now i want a sound that flows like a constant over the ears
like a mountain stream over pebbles
not rock and roll, my seedlings!
i try strumming an acoustic guitar
but it doesn't have the smoothness
too jangly and rhythmic
i try some piano arpeggios
but it's too bouncy
then suddenly i come up with a new idea
in a way the antithesis of mother nature
a synthesiser on a sinusoidal wave setting
a regular cyclical pulse that somehow evokes timelessness
i programme this synth so that it just keeps on burbling out its arpeggio patterns
for about seven minutes!
i add a bassline which kind of matches and doubles the synth
but keeps on swooping up to the same three notes
to evoke that constancy
suddenly the whole thing is starting to take shape
i get a sinuous bongo rhythm going in the background
and add a slippery echoey guitar solo to the middle section
wow! that guitar line is catchy!
i might be able to bring it back into the song later on
pity about my lugubrious out-of-tune vocals
but there doesn't seem to be much i can do about them!
oh well
off to resume work
while the house is still quiet
peace on you
f
x