Shanna's Theme (2008)

The tangled origins of some of the tracks on the Unevolved CD are almost spooky. Shanna's Theme is one example.

This track started out as a tracker file that was started in about 1996. Trackers were free programs that allowed you to create sound patterns using samples. These sound samples were available on hundreds of web sites as well as the actual songs created using these tools.

The frustrating thing for me was that almost all of these files were dance music, trance, etc. Long loops of weird bass lines and disco like drums. So I learned how to make my own samples.

My first attempt was to digitally sample our old piano. Digitally sampled in my case meant sticking a cheap microphone under the hood and recording the results on a shareware recording program called Goldwave. On Goldwave I saved a number of short segments of various piano notes which the tracker programs then allowed me to play in any key and in any combination.

Tracker was fun technology because it allowed you to create as many tracks as you wanted (if you had the patience) on a very basic computer and create a very thick wall of sound using dozens of instruments.

At some point in 1999 I dumped dozens of tracker files I had created to cassette tape (which is a good thing because the computers hard drive crashed shortly after that). Then I digitally sampled the cassette tape to PC in 2007. At that point I loaded the file into Audacity and began adding guitar tracks. But I wasn't finished there. The song was too long so I cut out various sections in the middle and re-ordered some of the sequences.

So that track spanned almost 10 years, had dozens of digitally sampled tracks, six guitar tracks and numerous cuts and edits. It's one of my favorites though and that's why I named it after my daughter.

The trumpet sequence in the chorus of The White Dove Sailed was pulled from a license-free copy of a sample of the Indiana Jones movie theme. I grabbed four notes that I thought would fit and dropped them into the chorus expecting to have to play around with the pitch and speed of the sample. To my amazement, the trumpet blast happened to be in exactly the right key and even fit the pacing of the song. More serendipity. It’s not my favorite song but I love the trumpets, the sliding bass and the distorted voicing and the lyrics are strange, but they have meaning for me. Almost all of this string of words came out while driving. (Hey, I’m worried about my sanity too so you’re not alone.)

That’s the way it goes.
We pinwheel down
And then we eat the dirt.
How was I to know?
They were dreaming up
A new kind of hurt.
That’s the way it goes.
Feeling small
And standing even smaller
That’ the way it feels.
Standing tall But always evil’s taller.

I’m a sound hoarder. The good thing is that sound doesn’t crowd the hallways and stack up in the sink. My hoarding is almost invisible. A one terrabyte hard drive times two for security is all I need. The sound bite at the end of Unevolved CD was my mom calling down to the basement for supper in 1969 when we lived in Selkirk. Toivi does the same thing today. If someone didn’t remind me I might just go for days without eating. How I play around with songs now is quite unique (I think) from the sit-on-the-bed with pen and paper style most people are familiar with. I call it backwards writing because the flow of the process is exactly the opposite of the conventional ways a song might be written. First I record some sound snippets. Nothing purposeful, whatever sounds interesting.Then if they survive a few days on my hard drive, they get reorganized into longer strings. This becomes a much more computer-centric process of cutting and pasting sections of notes and drum beats together with the goal of stretching out the likeable stuff into a two to three minute piece. One good example of this is Spring. The musical bed is based on four different recordings. Then I took the parts I liked the best and stitched them all together. Then I added more percussion. Then I cut up the track again. I had no idea how this would turn out in the end. It was like throwing paint on a canvas. But then, I didn’t care about the end result and had no real expectation of a final result. It just so happens I love editing music too. I love the surprises you get. Then I record the piece onto a CD and listen to it in the car going to and from work. I sing along with the music. It’s intentionally a very distracted process. I’m looking for subconscious help. I have sung along with an instrumental for days, dozens and dozens of times, with no real results. Then suddenly, usually when I am focused on something else, like a lane change or a red light, a line or a phrase bubbles to the surface. I grab it. Write it down later. Yeah, I look like a fool in the traffic. And it hasn’t improved my voice either. Come to think of it, all of the lyrics I’ve used for the past five years on these projects were written while driving. I guess I could have called this project On The Road. I also thought of Writing Backwards as another possible title. (You may have noticed I also love titles.)