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Here is a song jam packed with stuff I was studying at the time, the scales include harmonic minor, diminished, whole tone and chromatic. The song also
changes key frequently. I really tried to throw in everything I knew at the time here.
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I was fooling around with the classical "Flight of the Bumblebee" when I decided to try to write an original based on the chromatic scale, but in harmony. Sometimes on this song the 2nd harmony is guitar, and sometimes it's a synth. I think it sounds like circus music in a kind of funny way. There is also the riff in the "chorus" where I play 16th notes over a triplet background -- some people think that I totally lose the beat here, but it was intentional (not that I don't ever f**k up). This song was a real big experiment but I think it turned out okay.
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I was trying to write something very emotional, with lots of feel. In contast to some of the other songs, this song kind of wrote itself, if you know what I mean. Sometimes when I pick up an instrument I just begin to play and a melody or riff comes from nowhere. That's how this song came together. The title refers to Jimi Hendrix.
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A typical neoclassical song. It reminds me a bit of a song called "Eternity" off my first album. I used quite a lot of keyboards on this one. The riff on
both this one and "Eternity" is based on playing thirds instead of fifths on
the 5th and 4th string. If you're not careful it might sound awful!
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Here I used lots of odd meters, probably for the first time. Keyboards and
guitars join together in the intro. The idea here was to try to create something
dramatic. There is also a part here with only two acoustic guitars jamming away in a flamenco influenced sequence. In the outro, there is speech added in the background - backwards.
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This song was written 6 years before the rest of the album, I had already released a version on a 4 track vinyl EP in 1987, "Can't Go On Without Your
Love". The synth solo was played on a Roland GR-50 guitar synth. The marimbas
at the ending of the song was sequenced - it's 5 tuplets! 5 notes on every
beat. I read in a magazine about how Frank Zappa used to do this, and of
course I had to try it!
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Based on the classical "Adagio" by Albinioni, often played at funerals. But
this is not the same song - even though I tried to capure the feel. I really
love this song. Sad and emotional. My favourite on this album.
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Another neo-classical song with lots of different themes. Keyboards answer the guitars but all the hamonies were done on guitar. Not one of the best on the album.
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I tried to throw in a little bit of dissonance in the major riff, but actually most of this song is just jamming. This was probably the least stuctured song on the album. In a way, I find this song a bit comic.
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This song is based on a theme I wrote years earlier; it changes key center a
lot. The B part was added, and this song was meant from the beginning to be
an album closer, with a hopeful theme that keeps repeating and not too much
going on. The sitar sound was made on a synth - now I have the real thing!
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Vol. 17, No. 2: Feb.-Mar. 2012
