Author Archives: callumunimusicblog

For our songwriting assessment we had to write an original song, perform said song and then record and rearrange/remix the song. I worked on this assessment with Joey Francis and Jacob Simmons. Joey and Jacob were on guitar and I played bass and although we usually play in a band we tried to make a song that was a bit more ambient than the music we make under ‘The Joey Bill’. The name of the song we wrote is ‘Electric Tiger Striped Vest’.

Writing/Performance:

The writing of the song started with a guitar piece that Joey and Jacob had made. The song was musically influenced by Sam Gendel and Nick Drake. We structured the song into two parts, starting with the interweaving guitars and melodic bass line which then leads into a more intense section and then fades back into a peaceful outro.

Writing for the guitar piece I kept the bass straightforward playing a simple melody that wouldn’t sound cluttered. For the second section of the song I played a more rhythmic bass line as we weren’t using any percussion for this song and this section needed more of a pushing bass line. In the outro we felt there was an almost lullaby feel and I think my bass melody emphasises that feel.

The lyrics were written by Joey based on the idea of a tarzan-like man swinging around in the jungle. We felt the idea of this man swinging on vines was appropriate imagery to accompany all the interweaving melodies. This character is the reason for the titular line ‘Electric Tiger Striped Vest’.

When it came to the performance we were well rehearsed however it wasn’t our best run-through of the song. To improve on this performance we could possibly use different guitar tones to separate them in the mix.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to get the video of the performance but hopefully our lecturer will be able to.

Recording:

For the recording of the song we dropped the song from the key of Bm to Am as changing the key was part of the criteria for the assessment. We recorded over the course of three days, including the rearranged version, in Jacobs room on a pretty DIY setup. We recorded the guitars on an Audio Technica 2020 mic and recorded the bass through a DI into Logic. For this recording we added some extra guitar layers with an electric guitar, also through a DI. For this recording I wrote a slightly different bass line that I felt more confident with.

When starting  the recording we set the tempo to 140 BPM and programmed in some midi drums to record to. As one person would record their part the others would wait in the conservatory working on other assessment work which created a nice work process for us to record in. 

For the second section we found that the tempo changes to 108 BPM, recording this was the same process.

Once the track was recorded we worked together on the mix, each adding little tweaks on logic. At the end we decided to take out the programmed drums as we felt the song sounded nicer without and adding them felt unnecessary. The end result was a mix that we were all pretty happy with.

https://soundcloud.com/thejoelygrail/electric-tiger-stripe-vest/s-9aFi4?fbclid=IwAR1qugk655yNEleAtYhMYzpsvYljhwbfBcgeJmFcj4vcNO6L1tY4QMBSMCU

Rearrange/Remix:

Our first thought for the rearranged final track was to make a house influenced remix of ‘Electric tiger striped vest’ however through the process of making the track it became more of a sonic rollercoaster than we were expecting. Rather than the initial house influence, the remix takes on many different influences. 

The tempo for this remix was 120 BPM. We started the track by programming an electronic drum beat on logic, then I recorded the bass line from the second section of the original song. Although it was the same bass line on this recording I used a pic and palm muted the strings to give the bass a different tone from the original and fit more in line with the feel of the remix. For the remix we re-recorded parts of the original song but added entirely new instrumentation. While keeping elements of the original, the remix is worlds away from the first recording. The process of recording this track was rather spontaneous as we’d take it in turns to add our own parts and arranged the track as we went along rather than work out what would go where before hand. This was definitely a more creative process as we were never really sure where the track was going to go next, unlike the first recording where we knew exactly what we were going to record before we started. 

The end result  of our rearrangement/remix is a real journey, starting with some ambient pads and taking you through psychedelic and jazz guitar solos with a house inspired beat underneath. Nearing the end a flute solo takes you into the outro which takes the bass and guitar of the original but with the added pads and beat, before fading out with just an acoustic guitar and pad.

https://soundcloud.com/thejoelygrail/rearranged-tiger-striped-vest/s-yWE9R?fbclid=IwAR3UaWtpCfC9HAjJPboIoiOWU1yCSDzptAUSBIYzaKujIMXGZDS9mGbR618

The line between camp and authentic can be hard to define. The line could be seen as camp being an act and authentic being a true expression of the self. One artist that has rode the line between the two is Frank Zappa as he can be heralded as a truly authentic artist and yet play into the act of his persona.

In 1968 Frank Zappa released “We’re Only in it For The Money“. The album was a critique on both the mainstream and counterculture of the time. The cover of the album was a parody of The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band“(1967), suggesting that The Beatles and the culture surrounding them at the time was inauthentic. In the song ‘Who Needs the Peace corps‘ Zappa sings about the hippie culture becoming part of the mainstream. Although Zappa was a key figure in the creation of this kind of counterculture he felt the following were inauthentic.

This is where Zappa draws the line between authentic and camp. Although Zappa wrote many song that weren’t true representations of himself and were ridiculous to the point of parody (eg.’Bobby Brown Goes Down‘ ) Frank himself remained to be an authentic artist. With his passion for classical music and composition he could create some of the most off the wall and experimental music ever and remain an authentic artist.

Although his wacky persona and look can be seen as camp as an artist Frank Zappa has always been authentic.

Music has been a way for artists to express their political leanings for a long time and now music is intrinsically linked to politics as it has long been a media that people with the same views can rally behind. One artist trying to tackle the complex political and social systems of our time is Kate Tempest. In her song ‘Europe is lost’ Kate takes a look at the consumerism rife in our society and how it can distract us from the greatest issues of our time. The music of the track itself has a very industrial feel that ties together the themes of a system that holds people down, and kate’s delivery is forceful and angry showing how she’s tired of the monotony of our society.

The track opens with Kate describing the life of Esther, a carer in London who finds herself struggling under the pressure of her work and the worry she feels about the world at large. “She’s worried ’bout the world tonight/ She’s worried all the time/ She don’t know how she’s supposed/ To put it from her mind“.

From this intro Kate attacks the mundanity of normal woking lives as she believes they aren’t truly making people happy “All that is meaningless rules/ We have learned nothing from history/ The people are dead in their lifetimes“. I don’t believe that she means people are literally dead in this line, but more in a metaphorical sense as they are living for large systems rather than for themselves. She then explains how there’s a sense of hopelessness when considering these systems with the lines “But look how the traffic’s still moving/ System’s too slick to stop working“. However this thought is interrupted by the distractions of a life of excess “Business is good, and there’s bands every night in the pubs/And there’s two for one drinks in the clubs”

Later on in the verse Kate explains the isolated sense that she feels in the city “I can’t ask for help though, nobody knows me/ Hostile, worried, lonely“.

In the second verse Kate brings back the imagery of traffic, representing the systems that are out of her control “Feeling the onset of riot/ Riots are tiny, though/ Systems are huge/ Traffic keeps moving, proving there’s nothing to do“. In this verse Kate continuously brings up the biggest issues that our world is facing only to be consistently silenced by commercialism “Stop crying, start buying, but what about the oil spill?
Shh, no one likes a party pooping spoil sport/ Massacres, massacres, massacres, new shoes“, this is to represent how people get distracted by the real problems that our society is facing with the enticement that commercialism brings. The lines “Half a generation live beneath the breadline/Oh, but it’s happy hour on the high street/ Friday night at last lads, my treat!” demonstrate how every time Kate begins a thought she is interrupted by the distractions that are found in everyday city life.

Later in the verse Kate once again reflects on the mundanity she sees in a regular working life “It goes work all your life for a pittance/ Maybe you’ll make it to manager, pray for a raise/ Cross the beige days off on your beach babe calendar“.

‘Europe is lost’ questions the way our society is constructed and makes it clear that the way many people are living will not make them truly happy but simply keep them in blissful ignorance to the problems that we as a world are facing.

Prosody is a writing technique commonly found in poetry however is often used in songwriting. In a musical context prosody is when musical and/or rhythmic elements relate to the lyrics or narrative of a song. If a lyric contains the word “down” and a descending bass line kicks in that would be an example of prosody. This can be used the emphasise a specific lyric or message that the song contains.

Another writing technique is negative prosody where the music is acting in the opposite way to the lyrics or narrative. This is the reason why you often hear songs that sound upbeat and cheery with a darker meaning. A classic example of negative prosody is ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ by Foster the people, where on first listen you believe the song to be an upbeat summer jam but looking at the lyrics you realise the song is much darker as it is from the perspective of a school shooter. I believe the reasoner for this is to show that although this song is dealing with a very dark subject matter from the perspective of the narrator he sees no issue with what he’s doing.

My band The Joey Bill have used prosody in our song ‘Lillys Lullaby Sweetness’ when in the bridge most of the instrumentation cuts out (including the drums) and the first lyric is “Break this beat to find…”

You can find this in the video below at 20:00 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BewnFu1tTU&t=1204s

This is the song that The Joey Bill (Joel Fraincis-vocal/rhythm, guitar Jacob Simmons-Lead guitar, Rob Grady-drums, Callum Bashford-Bass, Jeremy Burne-keys) wrote for the set task of making a summer song incorporating the tresillo rhythm. You can hear the tresillo rhythm incorporated at the start of the song when the bass first comes in, however we felt that this constant rhythm would eventually become monotonous therefore we added some variation.

listen to the song below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb0WLGtGUaE&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2F1YdjH0C2_V5eafhrEZDwPrqFDbTGQCx0J-K8spduPZiHGwijNKmGaCE

The Tresillo rhythm has a rich history behind it that has taken it from being a most fundamental rhythm to cuban and latin music to being in a large portion of todays contemporary pop music.

Introduced to the western world through the Atlantic slave trade in the Colonial period the Tresillo rhythm has become a staple of todays pop music and can be found in modern hits such as, ‘Treat You Better’ (Shaun Mendez) and ‘Cold Water’ (Major Lazer).

The Tresillo rhythm is a more basic form of the Habanera rhythm that originated in Spain and in the 18th century spread through Spanish America. The cuban version of this rhythm then incorporated the African cross rhythm known now as the tresillo rhythm. Once the Habanera rhythm became popular in the western world the tresillo rhythm started to be found in lots of western music. The Tresillo rhythm could be found in the rag time music of the early 20th century and went on to heavily influence/inspire the Charleston of the 1920s where the last beat of the Tresillo is removed.

Then the Jamaican Dance Hall style of music introduced the Tresillo rhythm to modern pop music, the best example of this is probably the track ‘Dem Bow’ (Shabba Ranks) from 1990. Once Jamaican Dance hall music started to reach the western mainstream music its influence on western music became clear through artists such as Sean Paul with tracks such as ‘Like Glue’ from 2003.

Now in our contemporary pop music the Tresillo rhythm can be heard from many acts such as Drake, Jax Jones and Craig David. 

The Tresillo  rhythm may now be taken for granted as just part of the formula to write a summer pop hit however we shouldn’t forget the history behind this simple rhythm and the way it has shaped modern pop music in general.