113. Crush

DAY ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN

PepsiCo Garden Sculpture

Instrumentation added in this order:

Thumb piano with rubber mallets:

The first sound you hear is the echo only of me hitting the back of the thumb piano with a rubber mallet.  Recording-wise, I’m not sure why, in general, the thumb piano recorded so poorly.  The thumb piano recording part of this actually took the longest of all the instruments.  Despite playing to a click, I got off anyway!  Ha!

Midi Bass

Pretty much done in one pass.  It’s basically improvised, but sloppy, too.

Secondary Vocals

These are improvised, too.  I didn’t have a plan, really.  I added the main vocal and then added the harmonies, which are also a bit sloppy in their composition.  I ran out of patience with this one and just started throwing things here and there.

Main Vocals

I wrote out a bunch of words and lines from my brain and a book I was leafing through.  I didn’t have anything solid, so from that sheet of paper with scribbles on it came these improvised lyrics.  Not crazy about them.  I’m also unhappy with these vocals.  I was having a hard a time singing it and getting clarity and intonation… things like this are curious to me… maybe I had too much sugar.  I chose to go with a melody that I don’t feel like came naturally to me, and I’m not totally in love with it.   Maybe that’s why I’m unhappy with the vocals?  hmmm…

Snare

I have Pearl and the Beard’s (Jocelyn’s) drums in my house from the last show.  Why not use them.  I don’t remember the last time I played snare, let alone record it!  Yay!  The snare is pretty much improvised.  I only guessed where rhythm might change to make it interesting.  Where does the rhythm change to make it more intense where it’s necessary, etc…

Floor tom

I’m kind of undecided on the tom.  How do you mix drums anyway?!  It’s hard for me to decide where they go in the mix…also, the floor tom was bit boomy… how much floor tom does one use?  When do you know it’s too much? It’s good to experiment.

Bells

In doing the bells, I concentrated on having a “hook” instead of arbitrarily throwing them on.  I like the bells here.

I will talk about this song as a person who put it together, which means I have a right to be critical in hopes that, in the future, I will remember what I wanted to happen as opposed to what actually got recorded.  In listening to it the day after I completed it (yesterday), I came up with the idea that it should have gotten huge after I say “better man” with bigger drums and a bit more instrumentation.  I might entertain this idea should I revisit this song.

Have you ever given up on something before you even finished it?  Well, I feel like I kind of did that with this song.  I didn’t have a plan or a direction (though that’s not new) and as I started into it, I kind of immediately thought this was going to be a throwaway.  I just started throwing things on here and there.  As I got closer to the end I started feeling like it had more potential than I originally thought, and I wished I hadn’t been so sloppy.

Have a great day…

I’m leaving on a solo North Eastern Spring tour with Anna Vogelzang tomorrow!  I’m excited.  It should be good fodder for songs…

Crush

Swear when I’m gone that things will get better

Swear when I’m gone that your heart will break

Let’s do it anyway

Disappear

Disappear

Swear when I’m gone you’ll forget, you’ll forget

Swear when I’m gone you’ll be a better man, you’ll be a better man

I am the last

I am the last

I am the last

To ever be

Swear when I’m gone

Swear when I’m gone

Swear when I’m gone things will get better

46. The RPM Challenge – With a side of Guy and Mike

DAY FORTY SIX

Please Delta Airlines: Let me on with my cello today so I can get to Florida for my shows in peace and non-anxiety. Please.

Good morning.  I understand the need for a break.  I’d like to have one right about now, but it’s not really an option.  So, here we go:

The RPM Challenge: Held every February and people from all around the world get on it.  The Challenge: “Record an album in 28 days, just because you can.  That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February.  Go ahead… put it to tape.”

I was approached by Guy Capecelatro about collaborating on an RPM project for the month of February.  The collaboration in Guy’s words:

The idea: writing 3 to 4 songs with just 2 things on it then passing it along for the next person to do 2 things and then the final person and their 2 things.  What you start with can be anything at all as long as you’re okay with free rein from myself and Mr. Mike Wolstat.

This has been an interesting endeavor, and I would suggest anyone stuck on something to give it a try.  It’s an interesting process also because as I’ve received each original version of the proposed songs, I’ve had to remember that another person has yet to add 2 more tracks to it.  It’s a good lesson in listening and planning out your attack.

The past 24 hours I have either worked on existing or written new material for 8 songs both for myself and other people.  I leave for Florida today (Feb. 18th) at noon and then run to play a show tonight at 11 pm in Miami.  Today, I would like to show you just a few incomplete songs within this RPM that will be completed by the end of the month with more tracks on them added by Mike Wolstat and Guy Capecelatro.  When the song is completed, I’ll update this with the new version so you can hear the finished product.

#1 Give Me More in Color (Original Version): WEIRD!  But I’m over myself and will show you anyway.  It’s funny.  (A little of both “funny ha ha” and “funny weird me out”).  I sat with my tenor uke and started playing with the beginning motif, pushed record and improvised the rest of the song.  This is the first and only take of the uke part.  The vocals were recorded immediately afterwords and are completely improvised.  I thought I would just use this first improvisation as a map and write the rest of the song from it, but as I went back and re-recorded it, the performance was so weird and unlike me, I decided to just use it.  So, there it is.  I have sent this song to Guy to add whatever in the world he wants.  We’ll see if he can make any sense of it… and good luck to Mike as well!

#2 There’s a Fire (with EHP only): This is a song Guy wrote and sent me that I worked on yesterday.  His original parts are the thumb piano and vocal.  I really like almost everything about this song.  I went against my instincts with the additions I did to this song.  I was actually hearing female vocal as an accompaniment to Guy’s lead vocals, but did tambourine (one of my least favorite instruments, actually) and a cello line.  Mike still gets to add 2 more tracks to this and it will be complete!  I like the cello line, but question my use of tambourine.  What is this life but to learn?

#3 Bachelorhood (with Guy only): What you’re hearing here is a tiny loop of the beginning and end of a track I received from Jeffrey McKenna of Canada.  He and his brother put this track together and sent it to me as a 365 hopeful.  It’s cool, and I’ve been working with it for a few weeks.  I used the first 2 seconds or so of the end and the beginning for this song as well as manually playing an old recording from my record player from The Best of Steve Allen’s “What is a Wife”.  I sent it to Guy and he added toy piano and nature sounds.  Mike Wolstat will add two more tracks.   We’ll see what happens!

The 365 continues…thank you for coming back again and again… see you tomorrow!

EHP

15. Ghosts in My Teeth

DAY FIFTEEN

Good day to you, my friend.  I hope this day finds you well, and, should the weather permit, may you attempt a Slurpy run sometime around noon. (I knew a girl who added vanilla ice cream in the middle of hers.  It was surprisingly tasty.)

Lady Lamb and the Beekeeper! You are the reason jealously is running through my veins this evening… the voice, the hair, the menacing guitar, the screaming!  (Insert any obligatory “Woo“, “Hey” or “Yeah” here.)

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (Aly Spaltro). Photo courtesy of G. Capecelatro III

This song was written in approximately 15 minutes in the larger Portsmouth, New Hampshire cemetery beneath a lovely, lonely tree.  Aly and her lovely traveling companion Maisie, drove an hour to Portsmouth just to write this song with me for the 365.  (I’m so grateful!)  Guy Capecelatro came to our aid yet again by, not only choosing the location to write this song (genius), but also carefully and skillfully tied my stereo mic up in the tree above us and has a thumb piano solo!  If the wind hadn’t been blowing so fiercely, I do believe the sound quality would not have frustrated me as much in the editing moments of this posting.  Not only was the wind a bit of a trial, but, for some reason, the video recorder on my mac decided to jump here and there which made matching up the garageband recording of the live performance impossible.  Why did we shoot a movie for this song, you’re asking yourself?  Well, I’ve been to Portsmouth, NH a few times now and each time I go I realized why I want to go back.  It’s just beautiful there, and I thought, for a little change of pace, I’d actually get video of the song today.  Everything seemed to fall into place, and I love it.  I hope you do, too.  (Again, sorry for the quality all around.  These things do happen, but I wanted you to see it anyway…)  Anyone interested in matching it up, let me know: have at it!  I’ve resolved to post everything as it is and say: Love to you!  (Oh, and who is the genius who got rid of the old iMovie and created this waste of space new version?! Who?! There is a reason I don’t put movies up anymore, and that program is it!)

EHP and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper in Portsmouth, NH. Photo G. Capecelatro III

As I mentioned earlier, I met Lady Lamb, also known as Aly Spaltro, when I was on tour with Anna Vogelzang a few years ago.  She caught my attention then and still manages to pull me in, years later.  I am enthrawled with her performance and writing style, and I will admit to you here that I had a hard time while recording and writing this with not feeling envious of her voice: so unique and beautiful.

Collaborations do a lot of wonderful things, but they can also bring up that little voice in the back of my mind that’s always critiquing, envying, and, even, punishing.  I don’t know a musician who doesn’t struggle with this aspect of the craft.  It’s a game we play with our own self-consciousness and awareness: Who am I, and how I can assure myself that I’m here and have something to offer as well.  Grass is always greener, no?  But I’m working on it.

Aly came up with her lyrics very quickly.  A few weeks ago, I had heard on the news of the death of a young South Korean supermodel who was once quoted as saying, “The more I gain, the more lonely it is…I know I’m like a ghost.” I thought, though so sad, it was beautifully poetic and wrote it in my lyric book.  This became the Ghost in My Teeth. (Something of interest: Guy only suggested right before we left for the cemetery that we go there to write the song as well, not just to film.  I had already planned on using that line with Aly before we even started writing.)

Aly (Lady Lamb) and EHP in Portsmouth, NH. Photo G. Capecelatro III

As far as the actual collaboration, she and I talked a little about ideas while driving to the cemetery, but decided in the end to just let stuff come as it wanted.  We only performed this song once, so what you’re hearing is the result of the 15 minutes we took to write it in the freezing cold. (Motivation!)  We went to the Friendly Toast for dinner (go there!), and we all had this song swimming in our minds.  The exciting thing about collaborating is the opportunity to revisit songs at a later date, fill them out, complete them if necessary, and make them even more awesome.  I hope Aly and I will get this opportunity soon.  Love you, girl.

Ghosts in My Teeth

instrumentation: guitar, cello, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper

What a sight you are for a night at the sea side

How the wasp watches you turn and toss

With the waves as cold as ghosts in your teeth

Where will you go? Will you wait for…

Where will you wait, where will you wait for…

Where will you wait, where will you wait for me?

Until tomorrow, dear friend.

EHP

14. Bird in Girl’s Clothing

DAY FOURTEEN

I’ve hit the two-week mark. It’s the little victories, you know?

After Friday night’s show in Maine at Hog Farm, I stayed on at Guy Capecelatro‘s house in Portsmouth to do another song with him because he’s so freaking awesome.  This song has a history- the first thing you hear is a loop I created months and months ago.  Sometimes I’ll take my loop pedal out and just improvise, saving it on the machine if I like it, dumping it if I don’t.  In this case, I had just received my black violin from my dad, changed the tuning and was totally just messing around.  I liked it, saved it, and played it for Guy today.  It ended up the starting point for this song.  (Before we worked on this song, I pulled out some improv on the pedal for a few loops he will hopefully use later, so I’m excited to hear what he does with them.)

(Guy can remember everything.) I'm dumb and didn't get a picture of Guy today. Lame. Here's Google's offering of G. Capecelatro.

As I listened to the loop, I had a general melody run through my mind.   The cool idea Guy had was to each record vocals independently, neither one being privy to the other’s melodic idea.  After we both recorded the vocals by ourselves in his little studio, we came together and listened to them fall into one another, I think, quite nicely.  I improvised the second voice under my main vocal, experimenting with my higher, (more falsetto) register, which I don’t get the opportunity to do very often.  I like the effect.  I always listen to the song of the day on repeat as I write about it here.  And the more I listen to this song, the more I love it.  Guy’s influence is so good for me; freeing and lovely.

The reason I love Guy so much is his total willingness to try anything.  I think this is what makes him such a great artist and musician.  He is literally not afraid to try something (or at least, that’s my take on it…), and it was infectious.  I was able to begin teaching myself how to let go, which is why when I hear the character of my vocal, though I wish would have allowed for a little space for silence (as Guy did), I hear some things I really like and wouldn’t have done otherwise.

Examples of Guy’s awesomeness for this song: beautiful lyrics, two tracks of electric guitar, thumb piano, and “Hey“s at the end (with Jonathan, too!) that I love.  (I will later address my secret wish that as many songs as possible contain “Hey!”, “Yeah!” or “Woo!”.  We’ll talk about it soon…)  My contributions?  A little cello pizz, the loop, lyrics, a want for hey’s!, and a fast hand with a tiny music box.  I wrote some of my lyrics on a bus at 2 am coming back from DC to New York just a few days ago.

I’m quite sad to leave Portsmouth and Hog Farm.  The more I collaborate with people on these songs, the more I believe the world really is an amazing place full of stunning, beautiful, and talented people, all with experiences to share.  It’s so easy to take people for granted, and it’s sharing these experiences with others that I hope will engrave gratitude upon my mind forever.

Guy and I worked on this from about maybe 12-2:30 pm.  Not long after we had finished, Aly Spaltro, or Lady Lamb the Beekeeper as most know her, came down to Guy’s home with dear friend Maisie to collaborate.  A full day of writing and recording for the 365! It was awesome! Lady Lamb the Beekeeper played the Hog Farm show with me last Friday night and is an unbelievably captivating performer and wonderful writer with an unbelievable voice (more on that tomorrow).  Based out of Portland, Maine, she drove an hour to record a song with me today in a cemetery in the middle of winter in New Hampshire.  I love her, love her, love her.  That post will show up tomorrow, so please visit to hear it! (We took a video of it, too.  Oh!  Technology!)

Are you thinking, “Wait. Two songs in one day? That means you’ll be ahead tomorrow.  Will you write a song tomorrow?”  True, and yes!  It will even out at some point, to be sure!

Bird in Girl’s Clothing

instrumentation: pre-prepared loop, electric guitar, thumb piano, music box, cello, Jonathan Clark, Guy Capecelatro III

(Jan. 21: I had Guy remix this because I, frankly, did a crappy job.  So up loaded the new version today.)

Are you making a nest up in that tree

Or are you spying on me?

Are you some bird in girl’s clothing?

Can you sing something soothing?

I’ve sometimes likened myself to a squirrel

Furtive, nervous and furry

Will you be there as I come awake?

And head into a brand new day

You are five, five miles wide (Going home)

Stay the entire night

Sad boy with wings to come

To this house you brought me home

Clothed you are but nigh forsaking

You, some sweet, worth the taking

Will you be there as I dream?

When I awake to some new day.

All at once, a sweet second and gone

Yet still living

Did you fly away when I wasn’t looking?

I thought you were some kind of something.

See you tomorrow!  Stay safe and well…

11. Etiquette

DAY ELEVEN

How are you today?  Are you okay?  I hope so.  Thank you for reading and listening today.  I’m a little blue, but I think I was due for a blue day.  I’ve had some really red ones as of late, so blue isn’t so bad.  This week has been full, so I decided to empty my mind a little and create something in which to put the contents.

Baltimore. Oh, how you are a city I visit sometimes.

Etiquette: There are two separate recordings of people talking here.  One set of recordings is a microphone being hung from a stairwell near a circle of unsuspecting people who were in a living room in Baltimore, taken a few days ago.  Used here, it has been duplicated and the tracks off-set.  The other is a recording of the same group of people, minutes later, with a microphone on the table in front of them.  There was an bit of a change in demeanor and conversation when the latter happened.  Ironically, the topic of discussion in the recordings where the mic was unseen was about social etiquette; but it’s also interesting since it’s not exactly polite to record people without them unknowing.  (Who knows, maybe they knew?)  Hence, the title.  I made them do some hand claps for me.  Even that was a bit uncomfortable for them.  I suppose someone walking into the middle of your conversation requesting hand claps might create an odd vibe.  I had them clap a steady rhythm and then later I cut them up “by hand” into single claps and placed them where I wanted them.

At Ugly Purple Sweater‘s house I found a thumb piano which I used for this little piece.  I played it for a few minutes and found a melody and progression.  I really like this thumb piano.  I have one of my own, but I like this one better.  I sat in their bathroom on the floor to record this which took about 15 minutes.  I love the overtones of this instrument so much.  I thought of over-dubbing some cello, but just couldn’t do it.  It was so lovely as it was.  A tiny bit effect was used on it, but overall, it’s just as it sounds in real life.

The thumb piano, after stumbling initially, attempts consistency to the end until it’s done, ever traveling, only wavering for a second or so here or there.  The hand claps come in and out, sporadic and random, though for a few seconds they might come together “perfectly” or at least complimentary, each affecting the other: voices affecting harmony, claps affecting rhythm, and sometimes, vice versa if you get distracted listening for it all…

Etiquette

instrumentation: thumb piano, hand claps, Baltimore-people in a blue house.