Fall (Initial Structure)

Fall (Initial Structure)

So, I've extended the song into a full length demo, and some of it is beginning to take shape. You'll notice some changes, some small, some not so small, to the previous demo, so just to break it down a little.

Some overall changes - I have sped the song up again, now at 150bpm, and put on a totally different rhythm track. This comes from discovering a free drum loop site, MacLoops, and downloading all of their metal loops. This is more effort than I would usually put in, but I did find it made a pretty big difference on the loops.

The lyrical hook has changed to meet the chorus rift as well.

Don't let me fall

Because I count on you

To keep me sane

Keep my head in the game

 Introduction 

This is still largely the same, and still likely to change. This is still largely a place holder. I also noticed that my timing got sloppy when I turned up the tempo, but not too worried at this point.

Verses

So, if you've listened to the demo, this is where the first big change has happened. The drum track, despite being sped up, actually sounds slower due to the new drum loop I'm using. I know our drummer, Pony, has some fairly similar beats that don't rely as heavily on kick in his repertoire, so I'm pretty certain he'll find something cool to do with this.

I've also extended the guitar rift to de-emphasise the reliance on the 3-note structure I (over)rely on. While it still sounds slower than I originally wanted, I'm pretty happy with this now, and its given me some rhythms to play with for the lyrics.

Transition

Another big change, but not one I'm particularly happy with, either way. The chord change sounds OK, but something we already do in several of our songs in exactly the same place (see Babylon, Voice, The Shot). This will hopefully come together in the band room as something different.

I  hate the double kick in this drum loop, by the way. It sounds particularly sloppy for some reason, but it could be it just doesn't work with the guitar...

Chorus

So, the Chorus is largely the same, but the drum loops underneath it give it more of the power I had originally wanted. The first thing our drummer Pony said when he heard this was "are you trying to kill me with the drums?" because of all the double kick, but if there is one point in the song I would like to keep it, it's here.

Please excuse the massive screw-up in the final chorus. This is meant to be a demo, so I'm not too worried about the little mistakes here and there, but that one particular mistake grates when I hear it. 

Bridge

What a difference the tempo shift made here. It was originally meant to be one of the quieter parts of the song, but after speeding up the track and playing with the drum loops, I ended up with this. Playing the rift ended up a lot more difficult, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

What's next?

Well, not everyone in the band has heard the demo yet, so it might end up a case where everyone listens to it in the bandroom and says 'eh' and we consign it to the rejection pile. But I'm happy enough that if that's the case I will probably move on to writing the whole thing anyway, for my own personal amusement. Our drummer has listened to it, however, and he seems pretty happy on the whole.

It's now on my phone, so I will be listening to it repeatedly over the next few days, trying to get lyrical ideas. I'll talk about this more as the lyrics come together, but the first stage is to try out different rhythms and melodies for the lyrics before I think about the actual words. I'm guessing there are some purists out there who would comment on the lack of "purity" to this - how it puts the poetry of the song at the mercy of the rhythm. Funny thing is I often find the rhythm of the song inspires lyrical ideas I would never thought of...

But that's for the next blog...