And so the song “Stinkhorn” (working title) blossomed into this song.
It took me a little bit of time to work out a lyric and vocal approach but I got there in the spare half-hour I got to record this afternoon. Yes, the vocals are shit, but what can you do about it? If you listen hard, you might just hear a lorry thundering past StudioLock.
So after my previous post, I put another 30 minutes to an hour’s work into it, adding some bass and a chorus and come up with the following. Not sure if it finished – toying with the idea of adding a lyric if I can write one to fit – though I kind of like it how it is.
Don’t worry, it’s not the title of a song by the band Tool. This is a picture of a stinkhorn fungi (phallus impudicus – good name for a rock band, that) I captured growing in our garden.
The reason it is named so is because it puts out such a pungent odour to attact flies. The smell was so strong that it took several cups of tea to wash the taste from my mouth as I got a little too close when taking these pictures. Unfortunately, the heavy rain caused it to topple over – otherwise my phallus impudicus would have been standing strong and proud.
Tonight, I returned to trying to be creative and recorded a very short riff to work on. It’s amazing what you can do with a guitar, a drum machine and loads and loads of effects pedals! (Well it always amazes me).
Below is a little improvisation I recorded for the Boss Looping Championship 2010. It’s not particularly good (or as good as I intended) because instead of practising, I spent the afternoon playing the drums with Verity instead – video to follow.
Anyway, here is the long version, with two minutes sliced off the end for my official entry to the competition because you couldn’t exceed 5 minutes of performance.
I’ve decided that the “Bad Cover Version” album/project is now complete. To celebrate this fact, I have recorded a podcat in which I talk through the tracks I’ve selected for this particular compilation. Tomorrow, I’ll post a page with the album in its entireity.
Tracks include “Heroes” by David Bowie, “The Bucket” by Kings of Leon, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, “Are Friends Electric?” by Tubeway Army, “Something to Do” by Adrian Belew, “Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys, “Willow’s Song” from The Wicker Man movie, “King’s Lead Hat” by Brian Eno, “Wannabe” by The Spice Girls, “Girl Like You” by Edwyn Collins, “Lucky Man” by The Verve, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division and “Sunrise” by Pulp.
A long time ago, I signed up to a music website called Jamendo, which is mainly aimed at the European market. On that site, you can download my stuff for free and donate cash and if I am really lucky I earn money from playbacks. It’s not a lot of cash, but hey, maybe one day I’ll be able to afford a diamond encrusted plectrum or something.
Anyway, one of the more interesting sidelines of the service is that professional users can licence music for commercial and corporate purposes and pay to do so. OK – the payment to the artist is small (hey, I can now afford to buy 10 packets of guitar strings), but your music gets “out there” and into the marketplace.
Well you could have picked my jaw off the carpet tonight, for when I logged into my Jamendo account I learnt that an Italian 3D computer animation company that specialises in advertising (and have produced adverts for Ferrari, Sky, Vodafone and Jeep to name a few) have licenced one of my tracks. The song in question is called “1-2-3-4” and is from my “Here Comes the Future” album.
I don’t know what they are going to use it for – though I plan to drop them an email and beg for a copy of the tape if there is one to be had for my “portfolio”.
I’m still amazed that anyone out there can take my musical efforts seriously… Wow…I feel all professional all of a sudden.
On Friday, I awoke troubled by a dream. I normally awake feeling grumpy, because that’s my normal state in the mornings: grumpy. I’ve been a morning grump since I was little – you could say I am just not a morning person. But this morning I wasn’t grumpy: I was troubled by dream.
Despite not being able to drive, in my dreams I am often borrowing the car and zipping off places. In this particular nocturnal adventure, I had travelled to London for a job interview and returned to the car at night. It was late, there was no-one around and when I circled the car I noticed that all the tyres had been slashed. I then opened the car with the keyfob and got inside to find that the glove compartment had been ransacked and my holdall on the backseat upended and its contents scattered on the backseat.
Someone had broken into the car without making a mark and then locked it behind them. To make matters worse, as I reached to put the key into the ignition I found another key in the chamber. Examining the key, it was exactly the same as the one I had. Somehow, there were two keys and this mystery assailant had got into the car with it.
The car had been moved, but returned to the same spot and I sat there in the darkness, not being able to go anywhere with my property damaged by persons unknown who had easy access to my vehicle. In the dream, I sat there for what seemed like ages mulling over the events and trying to make sense of what had happened.
On awaking, I just didn’t know what to make of this scene that had been created by my own imagination. It was only until very later that night, when I was retelling the story to The Missus that its significance and relevance in my life fell into place, like pieces of a jigsaw.
It’s funny how the mind works, isn’t it?
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