108. My Friend and Eduardo (Lorne Watson of Loop 2.4.3)

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT

Last night I met with a friend of mine named Lorne Watson of the percussion duo Loop 2.4.3.  Loop 2.4.3 and I are performing on May 11 together, collaborating and doing sets of our own in Brooklyn at Zebulon…I’ve seen these two guys live, and frankly, they’re incredibly kick ass…. totally worth seeing if you’re in the area.  Amazing musicians and great performers.

Writing:  At 8:30, I drove to Brooklyn and met Lorne in front of a loft building.  We walk up 5 flights of stairs to enter into a shared living/rehearsal space filled with drums and percussion instruments.  We talked a little, jabbing about music education, and his music-filled past and present.  While chatting, he sets up his steel drum.  There was no plan, which was good.  We improvised for a few minutes (which I think I will post a bit later).

Lorne teaches several students.  At one point he tells me of a 12-year-old student he teaches named Eduardo who came up with a three chord riff which they improvised with in a lesson.  As Lorne played this progression, the first thing that came to me was the verse sections of Emilyn Brodsky‘s song My Friend Has A Problem (which you can hear and buy on iTunes).  I took her verses and sang them over this progression.  The second change you can hear, Lorne and I came up with as a bridge… (so, I guess, in a sense, this is a collaboration between 4 people.)

Recording:  We assembled this fairly quickly and recorded it four times, two with vocals.  It was recorded live.  We chose chord progressions but other than that, the form and everything around it (minus the lyrics) are all improvised.  In listening retrospect, I got a little raucous with the cello parts in the bridge… we’re all here to learn, indeed, yes?  The 365 is a learning tool: listening back, critiquing, making changes.

This is very simple, and I love the steel drum.  It’s been tough recently to feel inspired and not be really critical of myself and my playing which is where collaborations can really help in getting through sagging times.  I think it’s what comes with feeling up and down and motivated in general.  (And Netflix just instant played all the X-Files Seasons. Gross. Awesome. Distracting.)

*Note on the lyrics: I accidentally put the last two verses in the wrong order, and I did a bit of internal editing (Emilyn, you know what I mean) to the lyrics, omitting one word.   I did this mainly because me saying it would sound totally dumb, and I think you might have just laughed at me… if you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t miss it… unless you do know it was supposed to be there, then you might have a chuckle anyway.

**Both Emilyn Brodsky and Loop 2.4.3‘s CDs are available on iTunes as well. Take a gander, why don’t you?

My Friend & Eduardo

I’ve always heard that you can’t change a man, well, she can

She can’t make them happy and can’t make them cool

But she can make them come and she can make them cruel

She can make them come and she can make them cruel

She knew a boy once and she was his audience

He was a preacher on speed

He said,”We are the wild ones, twos, threes and prodigal sons,

Eaters and weepers, sleepers and killers, lovers and dancers

And seat fillers”

She lives on the east coast

The weather is lousy

But she loves the Jews and the food

Her mother says, “Darling don’t burn through your body”

Her mother says, “Don’t be so rude”

41. Lot’s Wife vs. Eurydice

DAY FORTY-ONE

What a long day. Rehearsals and 2 writing sessions for the 365, but so worth it!

This is Emilyn Brodsky.  She is a wizard and plays the ukulele and has awesome hair, loves raw garlic and James Frazee.  Emilyn an amazing songwriter.  I envy her ability to describe with words exactly what she means to say but yet have a thousand layers of meaning underneath that.  She is a dear friend and a great writing collaborator.  I learned a lot from her on today’s song.

Her goal for this collaboration was to write something from the ground up.  We certainly did that today.  We walked into this project with a completely open mind.  There was no preconceived notions of what kind of song we might attempt to create.  I took my cello to Emilyn’s house, and we spent the entire night composing this song.  Emilyn wrote every single word of the lyric (gratefully: I wanted to concentrate on getting the main cello voice out or at least sketched), and I improvised 3 cello tracks under a fixed, though still semi-improvised, main cello accompaniment.  We talked about perhaps using biblical themes, the Ten Commandments, etc.  We had a really interesting discussion about Abraham and Sarah from the Old Testament, and I realized she knows more than me in general (smiley face).  We also discussed Lot and Eurydice in the context of loss and sacrifice.  Yet another reason I was super glad that Emilyn was handling the lyrics for this one.  Though what we discussed was interesting, it had many layers and capturing those layers with word appropriately was overwhelming to me.  Emilyn’s writing is full of symbolism and intention.  This is why I really like her art: it’s pretty much guaranteed to mean something significant to her and to the listener.

It’s always an adventure writing with Emilyn- and she brought up some really great advice for me about this project, my goals, and my emotional state during the process.  We played with a bunch of directions for the song, but, again, I was glad I was only suggesting and not deciding tonight.  I’m so tired.  I think this has been a very successful, though I really wish the cello parts were played better…I would like to re-record this with a better performance on my part, but for a demo, this will suffice.

Recording: We tracked all voices separately.  Though I so much more prefer live recordings; these are all demos essentially.  But it’s nice to have a good feel in general, so whatever is appropriate.  Thank you very much, Emilyn.  I love your guts, and you’re stomach.

Lot’s Wife vs. Eurydice

hello best self, thank you for waiting on that shelf.
today i’ll take you down because i’m leaving town.

it’s salt or it’s sent back to where you’ve spent
all your time waiting for me to claim you as mine.

hello love of my life, you can covet his’ wife,
you only get one life. just don’t touch her.

it’s salt or it’s sent back to where you’ve spent
all your time waiting for me to claim you as mine.

hello old friend, while it’d be nice to see you again
you know what they say about lookin’ away.

it’s salt or it’s sent back to where you’ve spent
all your time waiting for me to claim you as mine.

5. You Don’t Know What You’re Doing

DAY FIVE

COLLABORATION FRIDAY!  Friend, this is how magic happens.

Anthony Da Costa, Emilyn Brodsky, Marie Darling, EHP, James Frazee

I talked about the uke playin’ and singin’ Emilyn Brodsky in yesterday‘s post.  Well, here she is, and she’s brought others.   We found amazing guitarist and songwriter Anthony Da Costa watching television. (He said the remote control just magically landed on the Real World D.C.  Sure, sure.)  We gathered together our resources of 1. Anthony’s guitar and 2. EHP’s Omnichord and began crafting a song together.  After many entertaining attempts (one of which included a chorus of “Nobody Cares!” which we felt was a bit depressing), the Omnichord became irritable and sleepy.  It almost went home when suddenly, and unexpectedly, at the last second, a song was born!  As we were in the stages of verse configuration, in walks french songstress Marie Darling to join the collaboration as well.  (I’m telling you right now: I have never wanted to be french so bad in my whole life.)   As we commenced recording, we only felt it appropriate that the real french lady (not the fake one) sing the french lyric in our song.  We’re so international.  You will hear the phrase fait accompli sung extremely well by Marie.  The first take we did was the first time we heard her sing this- and you can only imagine how its total wickedness took us a little off guard. Supposedly that specific phrase doesn’t actually mean that much in French, but English speakers (according to Google search) say it means-

1.  Creation of a situation which is irreversible and with which other parties will have to live, even if grudgingly.

Wondering about the Omnichord? Given to me as a gift from Nadia Ali, and I love it!

Prepare yourself, as you will hear another fantastic aspect of this song: recording engineer and producer James Frazee (a man with an amazing ear who will be working on Emilyn Brodsky and Anthony DaCosta’s next albums) has a cameo at the very end.

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the art of collaborating.  Without thinking about it I noticed I just said “art” of collaborating, and I’m totally agreeing with myself.  It’s an art, and collaboration can be really rewarding (like in today’s song) or really awful (example withheld).  In my case, today’s song involved musicians who I totally respect and revere as well as being a bit intimidated by.  It’s this intimidation I feel that can make working with other songwriters difficult for me.  It’s yet another reason why this project is so good for me, too.  Sadly, I think under any other circumstance, I wouldn’t have asked these people to write a song with me.  And how unfortunate!  Our little song would not have ever been born!  There’s always some excuse or fear behind exposing your weaknesses or strengths, even, to other creators though I know we all have them.  For example, Emilyn is a genius wordsmith and Anthony is amazing at fitting chords and lyrics together very quickly.  These are two qualities I have to work at, and I spend a lot of time crafting in the privacy of my own writing hole.  However, being with people who create so well in such a short period of time is infectious and opens up new ways of thinking.  It was so awesome.  Thanks, Aubergine!

Recorded live using my little stereo mic.  (Unless I tell you different, all songs are recorded with this little cheap-o microphone, my M-Audio and Garageband.)  I got to Emilyn’s house at 6 pm, and I was on the train home by 10:30 pm.  That time frame is misleading.  Emilyn was in the shower when I first arrived, so we probably started writing this song at 8:00 after other less intriguing leads on other starts.  We used the second of two takes.  The natural panning that occurs due to how we were all situated around the mic is amazing to me!  Not knowing anything about recording or the technical aspects of it, finding happy accidents like that is cool for me.

You Don’t Know What You’re Doing

you don’t know what you’re doing to me.

the way you’re walking down the street
the way you’re dancing to the beat
the way you make my heart complete
you don’t know what you’re doing to me.

i know just what i’m doing to you.
and you don’t even have a clue.
i could tell you if you wanted me to
i know just what i’m doing.

the way i’m walking down the street
the way i’m dancing to the beat
the way i make your heart complete
fait accompli.

when it started and you were first mine
you said you loved me and i thought you were kind
and now in retrospect i see i was blind.

you don’t know what you’re doing to me.

On tour with Pearl and the Beard and Ugly Purple Sweater in Boston!  Back in New York today, then on the road again Saturday to New Jersey, Baltimore, Philly, and DC.  I’ll let you know how things go recording and writing-wise whilst on the road.  Fingers crossed!

Thank you for checking in and coming here.  Your presence here is super-valued, and whether you read or not, I’m so glad you listen!  May your day today be Friday-licious.

See you tomorrow,

EHP