Production Questing in 'Breaking'

It was pointed out to me that a few of the production choices employed on ‘Breaking’ were synthetic versions of organic things. The omnichord is a take on the autoharp, and it sounds like it’s breaking apart as it shimmers. In the background of the song there’s a choral sound, I think it was made within a Mellotron plugin I use in Logic Pro. The choir sounds like an approximation of a choir. I think it sounds really lovely against Justin Grounds beautiful strings. The drum machine that underpins the song is like the memory of a drumbeat.. I almost took it out.

The dual vocals are actually a little ragged. I don’t know that this was deliberate but it fit a song called ‘Breaking’.

So there’s a kind of tension between the organic and the synthetic. These are choices you consider in production, you search and then you hope they fit. Sometimes in hindsight you can rationalise why you did something but it didn’t feel like a rational decision when you made it. Sometimes you just want something that sounds like another land.

Into the Search

Dear Reader, I wanted to share a new song. But it is a song that is far from finished. It’s just a kernel. Since I first recorded this voice memo I’ve changed the lyrics, and it’s moved from a sort of sparse PJ Harvey nylon string demo (which you can hear initially) to a bigger shoegazy atmospheric, Slowdive inspired thing. I didn’t really intend to write in either vein but when I listened back these artists were the most obvious references.

The lyric also has changed from filler lines that I really would never include, to something that struck me as a really cool idea for a song. I read that Ireland’s oldest man died at the age of 107 recently. His name was Joseph Veselsky and he immigrated to Ireland after the second world war. He was an amazing table tennis player, a jeweller and a survivor of the holocaust. His story stuck in my head for a few days after reading it. I’d written a melody on Christmas Day and when this was in the news in early January I began to wind it in to the song.

Songs for me take a little while to write. I have to sit with them for some time. Usually there’s an initial burst and I get curious about combining influences or lyrics. For a time, the melody just circles and circles, over and over until the phrasing fits the music. Sometimes I try to balance an interesting turn of phrase that makes sense with something that doesn’t make obvious sense..at least initially.

So this is an unresolved thing and I’m not sure where it will go. Isn’t that how life is sometimes?