I’ve been back at working on the Scratcher mixes for a few days. By Monday night I turned out 5 versions of Lately for the band to check out. I think they came out pretty good. The band wanted a 70’s Cheap Trick kind of feel, but I think I went more in the 2000’s Cheap Trick direction. I have since moved on to our next big rock song, Crashing Down. This one has a lot of dynamics to it and tone changes in the guitar. The guys want a Neil Young/Pearl Jam feel. The 2 reference tracks I was given couldn’t be more different from each other. One track was a live version of Pearl Jam covering “Fortunate Son”
and the other was a Guided By Voices track called “Chasing Heather Crazy.” The Pearl Jam track kinda sounds like a board mix with really loud, mid-rangy guitars, while the GBV track is very polished sounding, with a feel like the Church meets the Ramones.
I have also gotten back to working on an original composition I have been working on since the flight home from Japan called “Conversations With Myself.” It is all electronic using soft synths, except some percussion is natural. The instrumentation consists of a string section, flutes, trumpets, an English horn-sounding instrument, bells, several pads, and bass synth. I would describe it as regal sounding at times, while others describe it simply as a movie soundtrack song. While it has these elements it is a simple piece built on many layers of tensions created in the pads and strings.