Written Yesterday: "A Fire is Waiting"

[K-dub]

I'm not certain about the lyrics yet ... inspired by the crappy New England weather these days ...

... but the whole thing took me about an hour to write and record ... so ... eh -- there's still time to change things around.



K-

A Fire is Waiting

 

[Anfontan]

Sounds great as it is in the Singer/keyboard version-especially being done in such a short amount of time. It has quite a Billy Joel sound-your singing style for this one is similar-but I also think it has a John Lennon feel during the intro.
I will sure check back on this one to see how it progresses.
--Tony

 

[tojo]

that's a solid recording, and holy crap... only in an hour. I wish I could pull that off... at least with that quality and a better voice. What's your signal chian?

Maybe some more instrumentation?

 

[K-dub]

Sounds great as it is in the Singer/keyboard version-especially being done in such a short amount of time. It has quite a Billy Joel sound-your singing style for this one is similar-but I also think it has a John Lennon feel during the intro.
I will sure check back on this one to see how it progresses.
--Tony

Thanks Tony!

There are some songs that just sort of get vomited, and I was playing initially around w/ the verse chords and fooling w/ lyrical ideas -- looking outside at the sun reflecting off the snow and the wind blowing the trees ... with the temperatures outside here being about 8 degrees F ... which is WAY below 0 Celsius ...

... and as I was dabbling absent minded with the chords I went to the C chord which starts the chorus and the melody popped into my head as I played "But inside, honey, a fire is waiting ..."

... and I knew I had the beginnings of something. So I quickly jotted down how far I'd gotten, before it became forgotten (it gets bad eventually -- I can't remember shit no more for nuthin'), and that's basically what is heard here.

Kev-

 

[K-dub]

that's a solid recording, and holy crap... only in an hour. I wish I could pull that off... at least with that quality and a better voice. What's your signal chian?

Maybe some more instrumentation?

Hey T-

Thanks!

The piano is a Native Instrument Akoustic ... which I doctored quite a bit ... for though I liked the basic sound ... it sounded a little too basic. So I flanged the heck out of it.

My signal chain for the vocal is an AT4050 through a Peavey VMP-2 straight into my Layla 24 Sound Card.

In the box, I applied a Renaissance Compressor followed by a Boost 11 plug in Sonar.

I then auxed the signal out to a delay, a flanger and a reverb ...


... mixed to taste (eq'd a bit between the two instruments so they'd play nice together) ...

... and voila' ...

The mix took less than 15 minutes because I knew exactly what sound I was going for in each, and mixing between two instruments is relatively fundamental.

I may take this to another level. If I did, I'd see breaking off where I left off for an instrumental change, maybe a soaring guitar solo(?), come back in strong for one or two chorus repeats with full blown orchestra and then end w/ a big finish ...

Best,

Kev-

 

[heatmiser]

Nice, I like it. You could go in so many different directions from where you left off...

Soaring would be cool, or maybe a nice melodic clean guitar solo with bass/drums kicking in behind it...and/or some strings?...anyway. It is pretty solid as is. Basic, yes (from what little I know of your stuff), but solid nonetheless .

I admire your ability to hit those higher notes with confidence.

 

[Greg_L]

Not bad for just knocking one out. The vocals seem off in some spots, but you can always redo that. Just vocals and piano is kind of boring. Get some accompanying stuff in there.

 

[K-dub]

Not bad for just knocking one out. The vocals seem off in some spots, but you can always redo that. Just vocals and piano is kind of boring. Get some accompanying stuff in there.

heh ... the vocal is off in a LOT of spots ... which is indicative of an uncertain performance ... I wasn't certain what note I was going to sing next because I was generally making it all up as I went along. I even got words all mangled up.


I agree with everything said ... and I've already started to put thought to arrangement, and since I KNOW you're good w/ your sense of arrangement, I've a question:

I'm entertaining the idea of leaving things kind of sparse right up to where it ends currently ... except for the final "for you" resolution -- which I'd remove from where it is now (that would come later at the very end) ... from there, the drum would "snap" and everything would suddenly kick in ... I'm thinking an orchestral sort of bed driven by drums ... maybe with a soft horn ... like a French of Flugel sort of thing driving a melody-esque line ... maybe w/ a lead guitar over the top.

Then the whole thing would crescendo into a large finishing chorus and ... out.


I'm interested in how YOU might do it? Would you bring in the "band" much earlier -- even perhaps from the very beginning?


Thanks G!

Kev-

 

[K-dub]

Nice, I like it. You could go in so many different directions from where you left off...

Soaring would be cool, or maybe a nice melodic clean guitar solo with bass/drums kicking in behind it...and/or some strings?...anyway. It is pretty solid as is. Basic, yes (from what little I know of your stuff), but solid nonetheless .

I admire your ability to hit those higher notes with confidence.

When I was writing the tune, P, I didn't even know that I could hit the notes and went to a falsetto break on the high chorus note to reach it.

I tend to write quietly ... mostly in my head ... occasionally singing lightly to myself (it cracks my family up because I sound like an insane street person humming strange stuff to myself), so that I don't the other house occupants batty with the constant repetition. Writing often doesn't come this quick, and if I were to sing out loud over and over and over etc ... then my wife would quickly have her hands around my throat.

Your hearing the first time I went to "full voice" on this ... and I didn't know that I could actually hit that note full voice until I did it. Otherwise, I would have broken to a falsetto jump.

Hence, why there are some minor "rough patches" in spots that Greg caught.

This one's an hour old ... still miles to go before it rests.


As a side note: I'll pose the same question to you that I did to G. What would you do for the arrangement here? Where would you kick things in?

Just gathering food for thought and I appreciate the input!

Best,

Kev-

 

[Greg_L]

heh ... the vocal is off in a LOT of spots ... which is indicative of an uncertain performance ... I wasn't certain what note I was going to sing next because I was generally making it all up as I went along. I even got words all mangled up.


I agree with everything said ... and I've already started to put thought to arrangement, and since I KNOW you're good w/ your sense of arrangement, I've a question:

I'm entertaining the idea of leaving things kind of sparse right up to where it ends currently ... except for the final "for you" resolution -- which I'd remove from where it is now (that would come later at the very end) ... from there, the drum would "snap" and everything would suddenly kick in ... I'm thinking an orchestral sort of bed driven by drums ... maybe with a soft horn ... like a French of Flugel sort of thing driving a melody-esque line ... maybe w/ a lead guitar over the top.

Then the whole thing would crescendo into a large finishing chorus and ... out.


I'm interested in how YOU might do it? Would you bring in the "band" much earlier -- even perhaps from the very beginning?


Thanks G!

Kev-

I can personally hear this going a lot of different ways. For me, I think I'd add a little piece with each phrase or section. Start with just piano in the first verse, add strings or mellow horns in the second, then maybe some simple percussion in the first chorus, and so on and so on eventualy leading up to full drums and stuff. Gradually build the song up to a big ending and then cut everything as you near the end and maybe sing the last phrase with just piano and vocals like the intro. That's just how I'm hearing it in my head.

 

[K-dub]

I can personally hear this going a lot of different ways. For me, I think I'd add a little piece with each phrase or section. Start with just piano in the first verse, add strings or mellow horns in the second, then maybe some simple percussion in the first chorus, and so on and so on eventualy leading up to full drums and stuff. Gradually build the song up to a big ending and then cut everything as you near the end and maybe sing the last phrase with just piano and vocals like the intro. That's just how I'm hearing it in my head.

Ah ... the gradual build. Add some aural interest little by little, seasoning it light early on ... yet keep it relatively sparsely populated and held back until the big, satisfying tension release comes after the slow burn build.

Yeah, I can see that. It might be a better direction than what had occurred to me.

My path sort of would have relied on "the element of surprise" ... like ... "Whoa, it ISN'T just a piano/vocal piece" ... "there's MORE" ... but there would have been no nice build, only "Whoa" as things kicked in ...

The problem with that approach is keeping the listener engaged with just a piano/vocal for two verses and choruses ... and they might drift off before the big bang hits.


Good thoughts, G. Thanks!

Kev-

 

[joeym]

This can become a real great song, Kev!
I hope you keep working on it, it's got a very good hookline, kinda stays in your head...... Sure, in a full-fledged recording you'll do the voice right, the important thing is that you've got the song idea down. I should do that more often, I tend to forget my ideas the next day...
Hope to hear a full version soon.

Joe

 

[heatmiser]

As a side note: I'll pose the same question to you that I did to G. What would you do for the arrangement here? Where would you kick things in?

I would probably just add an envelope filter laced guitar solo, distorted electric drums and a bunch of wildly inappropriate FX and call it good...

But if I were you, I would try to do both - retain interest and provide some surprise towards the end. Leave the first verse as is, then add some subtle layering gradually in terms of other vocal layers or mellow strings as a backdrop to what you already have. Then, where it leaves off now, you come in with a full rhythm section and a solo (guitar, but not crazy distorted rock guitar)...build up to one last chorus with mucho background vocals and then - greg's ending idea is awesome.

The just sounds so mellow and earnest as is, I would steer clear of getting too overblown or over-the-top with the instrumentation. It wouldn't take too much to contrast with what you have here now.

 

[anselm]

Sounds good. Nice expressive chorus.