Tripecac - Renewal

This was my first "real" song with lyrics since 1997.

The music is light funk, maybe even easy listening. I wanted something that didn't get irritating over the course of twelve verses.

The lyrics are an "epic" retelling of my musical history. They conclude with the song itself. The last bit is improvised talking. You can barely hear it, and the song fades out in the middle of it, but I've kept the lyrics intact because I like what I was trying to say.

This is a return to the familiar mix of jazz, funk, reggae, and pop that I used to make with my old gear. It's another "epic" song, but fortunately is more focused than "Renewal".

The lyrics are about my dependence on music. At the time I was using my walkman every weekend on my long (2+ hr) jogs. These days I rarely use my walkman anymore, prefering to focus on reading, but the spirit of the song is still strong. I still feel like I need music, both to listen to it and to create it.

The song is very repetitive. I had written a lot of verses, and didn't know how to whittle them down, so I fit the song around them. The piano solo in the middle provides a nice break, however, and for some reason the groove doesn't get as tiresome as the one in "Renewal". I still felt it was a little long, though.

Also, the production is super muddy. There's hardly any treble. I was experimenting with effects, and probably used too much reverb and/or flange. The coolest effect is the 1-beat delay, which makes it sound like there's a second singer.

My dad liked this song so much that he selected two versions of it for Dad's Picks: this vocal version and the instrumental version.

The original version of "Trail Running" was actually an instrumental. I had recorded some quick vocals (the "I've got to get out" chanting), but decided the song didn't really need vocals. A few months later, when I was assembling the Renewal CD, I saw that I needed another vocal song to fill it. I decided to record a vocal version of "Trail Running".

I unmuted the old "I've got to get out" chanting and added the "Gotta run and run..." and some panting and meowing. In all, the vocals took about 30 minutes to record.

Although the lyrics are incredibly simplistic, I actually had a story in mind. It's from the perspective of my parents' dog Woodie. He's cooped up inside, and is itching to go for a run. Somehow he gets out of the house, and finds a trail. He runs along the trail. He hears a cat (that's the name of the synth sound, and there's also meowing in the vocal version). He keeps running along the trail, enjoying himself. The solos represent the different scenery and critters he sees on the trail. Eventually, at the end of the song, he hears thunder and then it starts to rain. He slows down, and then heads back home.

In real life, I was doing a lot of trail running of my own. I had recently moved to Bellingham, and found lots of trails nearby for my weekend jogs. I loved running through the woods, or along the water, and still do.

The lyrics are really just garnish; it's the music that's the soul of the song. It's dancy, jazzy, and more "electronic" sounding than "Renewal" and "Walkman", which tried to sound like live bands. When I first started working on it, I regarded it as a joke; it felt like a parody of "mindless" dance music. By the time I finished it, I absolutely loved it. It's probably my favorite Tripecac song, and one of my favorite songs ever, by any artist. Other people don't seem to be as affected by it as I am. Then again, they don't like trail running either.

This "epic" ode to my sister Jessica (a/k/a "Icky") is a medley. It's a collage of memories and impressions, some fictional and some true. The different parts of the song are linked by a "heartbeat" (the bass drum) and occasionally recurring lyrical and instrumental motifs.

I love the piano solo in the middle of the song. It's one of the most soothing and "heart-felt" solos I've ever recorded. Also, my singing was at a peak of tunefulness (for me a "peak" is more like a mound of dirt).

It took a while for Jess to be able to hear it, since she didn't have a way to mp3s at that point. She read the lyrics first, and said she "objected to some of them". I had the impression she felt uncomfortable being the subject of a song.

No one else gave me much feedback about the song. Maybe it's too long? Maybe they don't like the subject matter? Or maybe the song just isn't all that memorable? There's no real "hooks", nothing to get stuck in your head. It's pleasant background music, though.

This was a birthday song for my mom. It's about her driving her previous car, a Mazda Miata.

This is one of the few songs where I (deliberately) changed the tempo. I gradually sped it up over the first several minutes, and then slowed it down more quickly towards the end.

The mix is a little muddy; I think I added too much reverb in an effort for it to sound "live". Also, I wish it had some more solos in it instead of being so dependent upon the vocals.

Dad liked it, though, and selected both this vocal version and a much shorter, instrumental version of it for Dad's Picks.

Groan. I really don't like this song! Anyway, it's my duty to talk about it, so here I go.

This song was an experiment. I was worn out from working on "Momiata", which I felt was too long, took too much work, and had too few interesting moments. I wanted to find a new way of working that would let me finish a song more quickly. I decided to establish some "rules" for myself, some self-imposed limitations. I wanted to see their effect on my musical productivity.

The rules I selected were:

1. no more than 8 non-drum tracks
2. one track per channel
3. keep it under 5 minutes
4. only one solo
5. spend no more than 10 hours on the song total

I managed to satisfy every rule except the last one. In all, I spent between 12 and 13 hours working on the song in my apartment. I composed most of the lyrics outside, usually on walks, and decided not to count those hours (since I was "multitasking"). It ended up taking me several afternoon walks to finish the lyrics, probably another 10 hours or so. In terms of calendar time, this song consumed roughly the same number of days as "Walkman", which was a much longer (and cooler) song.

The title is a pun; I felt the music sounded "old school", like something I'd put together in my SY55 days. The lyrics babble aimlessly about education, nature, and moving to Bellingham. I think I was trying to say that we can learn more from nature than from school.

In my opinion, the experiment was a failure. Not only did I fail to stick to all the rules, but I failed to save calendar time, and failed to create a song that I actually liked.

However, Giovanna likes it, and Dad liked the instrumental version, which he put on Dad's Picks. Am I the only one who thinks it's annoying?

This has a nice, jamming bluesy bridge which I like. The rest is easy listening. I was trying to sound like a live band, and so used lots of reverb, resulting in a very muddy sound.

Lyrically, this ends the album (Renewal) on a strange note. For one thing, it's depressing; none of the other songs on the album are negative overall. Also, the lyrics were (except for the choruses) completed improvised. I babbled away about the early days of the Master Anchovies, and some of what's happened since then. Mostly, I just complained about having a day job.

Fortunately, I quickly shook off the "blues". I immediately started working on the next album, opening it up with the catchy, powerful, motivational punch-in-the-face called "Convenience".