Words out of sound

First posting of Syl, Alain's kid bro.

After listening to the bits of songs I have in my possession, I couldn't stop myself from sitting to my black desk, light a candle, take a piece of paper and scribble my thoughts. What came out was a totally different world than the first try of lyrics on the other song, in some ways lighter, more poetic, but essentially as original as the first one.

Trying to capture the essence of the sound, the richness of the world in motion and letting the creative vibe do the rest.

Very excited to hear about how to bring those two songs forward by applying what works and trying to enhance what doesn't. Merging words to such a great sound should be taken one step at a time, allowing an harmonious - no pun intended - collaboration...

Signing off.

Assonance

Sylvain has pointed us to Assonance, a Montreal band. The vocals are strong and full because of the male-female mix and the music is jazz-pop.

Serious

Ok, this has become serious. I bought a guitar on impulse today. Almost unpremeditated, although I was getting a bit fed up with the troubles with the old fake Les Paul. Just playing around in the store, looking for one that was more in the Fender style, found one that played well, nice touch, and then noticed that it had a built in digital signal processor. Also relatively affordable. So I asked my adviser who shall remain nameless and he said go. So be it.

So we are more or less ready for live stuff - all it takes is time and polish.

Alain's brother has completed a first draft of lyrics, very cool, humourous, original, and now we must workshop it as they say in the theatre.

Must also re-work some of the improvs and fills and nail down patterns on some of the first musical drafts. It is incremental, but there is constant progress. On a roll.

P.S. A link to Eno's oblique strategies

Bass neck is ok

After 6 hours of swearing and fine tuning, Alain was able to get his bass neck straightened.

Vocal line

Alain sent to Tony and Andrew an idea for verse and chorus on dentier.

Original material

We really like the creative process used to create original material. We almost have enough material, nothing finished, but enough ideas to finish 10 songs.

The hard part still remains, voice melody and lyrics. Tony sent some songs to Andrew, we need help.

This is pretty cool and extremely fun.

Influences

Found some interesting influences, always publicly funded (heard on CBC radio).

First there is Nouvelle Vague, a sort of samba cover band of non-samba songs. I like in particular "I just can't get enough".

Lesser influence, but more for the haunting voice (all lead to Sarah..), there is Jill Barber with the track: "In perfect time" and to a lesser degree "Oh heart". Seems that firefox and IE behave differently on this sample site... some songs are not accessible in firefox.

I am also taken by Jill Sobule and her jazz sound, "Heroes" from the Pink Pearl album remains my favourite, and "Loveless motel" a close second.

Finally, there are the Virgin Prunes and some interesting bass lines.

Can't wait to play some of the covers we chose together, with a strong restrained psychedelic slow syncopated beat.

Bass neck problems

Alain tried to fix the buzz on his Fender Jazz, problem seems the buzz is getting worst.

Alain tried an el cheapo bass from the corner music store, pretty good feel on it and it is 24 fret. He will probably try it on his Bass POD to see how it sounds.

Music everywhere

Am providing a link to some homegrown music - there are musicians all around: Adam's stuff.

Soundcard issues fixed

Alain snapped and bought a new soundcard, his problems are going away.

This is a good thing!!

Comments from Alain's brother on the potential lyrics

Alain gave access to his brother to the Blog.

Sylvain, Alain's brother, provided the following ideas as potential themes for lyrics for the songs.

"Vos titres sont inspirants, même si j'imagine que ce sont des working titles. Je t'offre un léger brainwash non-censuré fait en 5 minutes de ce que les titres m'inspirent. C'est la démache que j'aimerais faire pour vos textes, au lieu d'écrire quelque chose et de le faire fitter. Je veux m'inspirer de ce que vous faites. J'irai bien entendu beaucoup plus loin que ces simples ébauches d'idées et j'attends la musique pour continuer en ce sens of course, mais je me dis que ça ferait pas de tort que je te partage ça.

- Liege: (Alcool, Europe, bouché, popping out, coming out, seigneur, médiéval, château, peuple ---- and it goes on)
- Serious bus: (Voyage, transcandance, transport d'un âge à l'autre, entrée dans la trentaine, co-voiturage, syndicat, chiâleux de chauffeurs à m(*&, bus tour, travelling, making money in the States...)
- Tordue: (Idée tordue, femme déchirée entre deux hommes, musique ou guitare tordue entre musiciens endiablés, société tordue, femme crampée à me voir tout nu)
- Surprise (Je ne suis pas moi je suis ça: surprise!, étonnement d'une foule lorsque le band arrive sur la scène..... sujet assez vaste zillion de possibilités, de surprises!)"

Alain will send a CD with the draft music to Sylvain.

A.

Today, had lunch with a drummer that Nadine knows. Setting up regular practices will be a challenge since we all have other things going on. On the plus side, he has access to a space, and the fit seems quite good.

Once again delved into the humbuckers in my guitar. One of the pickups has all four wires available. I managed to find a diagram that indicates how to series connect the two pickups to get a good sound.

after the practice

Alain and I got together Saturday to practice some songs, Nadine could not make it this weekend. My guitar was acting up again, and we determined that it was the guitar not the amp (after I had already rewired the speakers, and changed the tubes), by plugging in the bass. So I rewired the guitar, removed the phase inverting switches, and cleaned up the wiring.

We had met (all three) on Thursday to listen to CDs at Alain's place, and selected some pretty mellow tunes. Surprising given my previous tendencies, grunge, but ten years makes a difference.
We will need to continue this process as our practices progress.

The next step is to meet a drummer, and to find practice space, for regular weekly meetings.

Andrew is helping us remotely, doing electronic production.

This whole thing started with time-lapse recording, Alain putting down bass tracks, me guitar, and then meeting Nadine, and then Andrew getting involved for some of the production aspects, and creative advice.

We have four pieces of original material - to evolve. Randomly named:
- Liege
- Serious bus
- Tordue
- Surprise

Alain's brother was asked to try his hand at lyrics. We will do french music for now, although most of the covers are in english.

Some ideas:

Translate to french literally.
Look at Cowboy Junkies version of Oooh Las Vegas for stylistic inspiration - psychedelic feedback guitar. I tend to favour the Jesus Mary Chain sound anyhow.

The syncopation is also a big plus on anything.

We will achieve some sort of sound soon.