A little bit of a departure here: it’s instrumental, and all sequenced drums and synthesizers. In order to get a bit of a break on writing (there are no lyrics) and performing (there aren’t any live instruments), I decided to go with an electronic arrangement. The title is just a reference to this time of year, and a condition that is very common among the Seattle populace in that time.
Musically, it’s just in D minor, and harmonically it doesn’t stray very far from minor i, III, and VII.
This one is pretty self-explanatory. I just wish it had taken me less time to adopt this philosophy. Very early on, I was in punk bands in high school and a little unabashed in my creative output, but afterwards I started working alone and being much more shy about music that was purely my own. It’s very easy to hide behind humbleness or other ways not to put yourself out there, but it’s better to just make your art and not care about who cares. There’s a great Thought Slime video that goes into depth on this very subject that I also found highly inspirational. I could have even applied this lesson to this very song, since I spent way more time than I needed to when polishing it.
Musically, the song is fairly diatonic, except for the F (flat-VII) in the chorus, which honestly is more of a passing chord than anything else, and there’s a little walk-up in the chorus that also uses flat VI, but that’s even more fleeting.
This was a “weekend song”, as I began writing and arranging it in the afternoon, which took way too long (instead of doing something rational like using sequences to quickly create drum parts, I arranged the whole drum track from scratch). I didn’t get around to the recording work until 10:30 PM, which lasted 5 hours. I took an hour to mix but decided to sleep on it at that point because… c’mon, it was 4:30 a.m. Some final touch-ups and mixing on Sunday morning and it was ready to go. I recorded it in my studio and spent way too long. I used Amplitube via my Radial DI box for the guitars and basses, and recorded the lead and backing vocals using my SM-7B.
When you are facing writer’s block, go meta. In this case, I was planning to take a day off until about 11:25, when I decided to see if I could write and arrange a song in a half-hour. I gave myself another half-hour to record the vocals and instruments (this included getting the studio set up, and the instrument recording, including time-wasting stuff like tuning), and a half-hour to mix and master.
Nothing fancy in here from a music perspective — just your bog-standard I, IV, V, and vi chords.
This was recorded in my studio, using my usual Radial Engineering DI box into Amplitube for the guitars and basses, and an SM-7B for the lead and backing vocals
Think about it… how many songs about Thursdays can you name (not counting Thanksgiving songs… which is another thing that doesn’t really exist, does it?). This song is about the worst day of the week or, rather, how the worst day of the week doesn’t deserve any songs.
Musically, this song just uses the diatonic chords, and mixes in a a flat-VII for fun, along with flat-vi at the very end. The a cappella opening is a reference to the NOFX song “Thank God It’s Monday.” I had originally planned to do a full punk rock version of this and finished 95% of the drum arrangement and base track programming when I decided to just go with a simple live recording instead.
This was recorded live on the Hohner beater guitar, using the Zoom recorder’s XY pair and a Shure SM-57 for vocals.
This song is based on a mantra that helped me get through the last couple months of the year.
This one is fairly straightforward musically — just the usual diatonic suspects, with a truck-driver modulation. I imagine a “full” recording would use clean, palm-muted electric guitars for the first half, with the full band coming in for the instrumental part right before the bridge.
I recorded this track live, with the Zoom H6 on the acoustic guitar, and the Sm57 on the vocals. There are overdubbed backing vocals, but otherwise everything is from the live take.
It seems so far in the long run
No indication of any rest
You can’t connect those far-off dots
And when will you catch your breath?
You know you gotta get outta here
You’ve got a direction but no plan
You worry you’ll stall forever
And you’ll be stuck where this all began
One step at a time, one step at a time
I know you’re feeling overwhelmed, one step at a time
One step at a time, one step at a time
Inch by inch we’ll get through this, one step at a time
So look to what you can do now
Where will your next step land?
This tiny piece is manageable
Not so hard to understand
Take a breath if you need some space
We’ll soon be on our way
Momentum helps to clear the air
And pulls to the next new day
Some steps are vast, some steps are small
But you won’t feel you’ve lost sight
We’ll take it on, we’ll fight them all
And we’ll know every step, every single step was right