New Album - Blog #3

So I've spent today working on the "B Section" on the next-to-last song on the album, a lengthy prog-like track called "Nothing at All". The "A Section" is a farily standard rock and roll tune, but the "B Section" is a lenghty Pink Floyd-inspired jam with multiple time signature changes that will start out slow on a single guitar and build and build into a monster.

I love conceiving of these things.

I have to admit though, that the "B Section" is going to be tough to record, especially with a band as scattered as we are. After working on some drum ideas and making some alterations in talking with Kyousuke we realized that I'm going to need to create a click track that articulates all of the time changes so that he can put a beat down. A good reference track on guitar would also be helpful.

So I hauled out an old drum machine and started pacing out how the time changes work. It's a steady beat, but it essentially works out into patterns of 35.

Some of my musician friends are now blinking in disbelief. You can actually hear the xylophone when they blink.

It's 7-7-7-3-3-3-5. Mostly. There are a couple of exceptions and those have to be marked and obvious so that the others know when its coming. I do believe there will be a couple of "fuck you's" coming from my bandmates. If we can pull this off though, it's going to sound awesome.

There's a song by Camel called "Rajaz" that gave me the idea for it, and I'll put it at the end of this entry.

So I got started on working on a workable click track and before I knew it hours had passed. Any studio musician will tell you that you can get into a sort of fugue state when you're working and you'll have no concept of time. That's what happened to me.

I'm going to go have dinner now, so I'll leave "Rajaz" with you.