Tag: songwriting

Songs

Sad Moon Above – New wave instrumental take đŸŽ§

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Alright, I put my new keyboard and old bass to use and came up with a backing track for Sad Moon Above inspired by an early-1980’s new wave sound.

As always, this is a work in progress and more evidence that I am not a perfectionist. Vocals and more refinements to come.

This version is a big departure from the original acoustic backyard version, which I still love. I’m just happy to be pushing into new directions and make something that sounds closer to what I want for this version of the song.

And recording a bass line for the fist time was super fun. đŸĒŠ

Music · Songs

Say It (backyard demo)

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Whereas I liked to play around with the guitar parts and sometimes the drums, Erin thought our songs would be “better” if they had “words” and “structure”.

Hmm, I think she might be right. 🤔

After playing around around with Pointe West for a while, Erin asked for a stripped down version. We got together in her back yard, and Erin brought it home with the perfect vocals. 🤩

We still need to record a true version of this song, hopefully in the style of Pointe West!

Music · Songs

The Sad Moon Above (barking dog demo)

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Here is the official first “demo” cut of The Sad Moon Above.

This song was recorded on Erin’s back porch due to the raging pandemic situation. You can just barely hear the song over the metronome and the neighbor’s barking dog.

Erin and I had worked on this for a few while before this recording. She wrote some lyrics (“It took me five minutes.”), and I put some chords behind it and added a melody (“It took me 5 hours. 🤷đŸģ‍♂ī¸”).

đŸŽļ Erin wrote the lyrics, and I added, “Your heart breaks, your heart breaks, and so do you…” to the chorus.

Making this song was my first chance to exercise a new-fangled awareness of diatonic chords (here in the key of C). It was super hard, but I was happy with the results, especially the chorus.

đŸŽļ I came up with the music, and Erin pushed the vocals over the top with a few tweaks around the chorus.

Erin was also “instrumental” (so to speak) in making sure we had a nice slow metronome so I couldn’t rush through the song on guitar. ⏱