Matt Bowen's minutes of music, photography, et cetera
This track is more like my stuff I had been doing in reason and record. It was fun to put together, but I don’t feel like it really gels as a song; several of the parts make me happy, but they just don’t play together correctly. But, maybe I’ll be able to reuse some of the ideas.
It’s been a whole year! The format of my Minutes of Music has evolved quite a bit (this one is more like two minutes), but I keep loving doing it, and I’m so glad to have the opportunity. I’m hoping in the coming year that these can move from “whatever I can manage to put out in time” to “sketched for a coherent album of music.”
As for this one specifically, I’m starting to really love playing guitar, and I think this reflects that. We’ve got vocals again, only this time I didn’t write the lyrics, which feels like an improvement.
There’s not a ton to say about this one; it’s not one of my favorites. I mostly was playing with the new synths I’ve got, trying to get a feeling for what they could sound like. I think after doing a whole song, and with a good deal going on at work, I’m running a little dry on creative juice. But, hopefully by the end of the month, I’ll be back on my game.
It’s a full song! Not just a minute of music, but nearly six minutes of music, with multiple verses and everything.
The lyrics veer surprisingly (if you know me well) close to praise music, but that’s not the intention; they’re inspired by a visionary art installation, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, which is a 180-piece collection of objects made for the second coming by WWII veteran James Hampton. Hampton spent 14 years making the throne room out of old furniture, cardboard, craft paper, and foil; it’s really quite moving — if you’re in DC, go to the American Art museum in Chinatown and give it a look. We wanted to be respectful, so I wrote from what I hope is an empathetic position.
The music was put together in Ableton Live, using Absynth, Battery, and Guitar Rig from Native Instruments’s Komplete 6; AAS’s String Studio; me on guitar and bass; and my regular mystery vocalist. The mix is not perfect, but it’s as close as I’m going to get it any time soon; I figure I’m going to be revisiting several of these later once I have a large collection of songs anyway. I hope people enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing it; it has pretty much made my last few weeks to work on it.
I saw these guys with Sharon Jones and the Dapkings at the 9:30 club last night, and they were all excellent.
FITZ & The Tantrums “Breakin’ The CHains Of Love” Live Performance (via chynahblue)
