In Cloud Cuckooland: From Beginning to End

From 2009-2010 I recorded my album entitled 'In Cloud Cuckooland'. At that time it was the best album I'd ever recorded. Maybe not for the songwriting which I still believe 'AFTER. THE. RUSH. HOUR'S. GONE' has better, or for the guitar riffs, but for the theme and for the quality and for the sound.

When recording the album 'AFTER. THE. RUSH. HOUR'S. GONE' I had only used the recording programme Making Waves. This means all the music is recorded in both left and right speak outputs. Recording each layer was complete guess work, which means bits are out of time and there was no way to mend that. So 'AFTER. THE. RUSH. HOUR'S. GONE' is a very raw, gritty sounding album.

'In Cloud Cuckooland' however was the start of experimenting with Making Waves and Audacity. The first song I began to experiment with was the first of the In Cloud Cuckooland songs, 'Spitting Feathers'. This song set the tone for the rest of the album - an idea which I had been wanting to do for years, about mental health, dreams and the mind. I wanted to make an abstract world. This album was it. Very dark, raw and gritty. I had the ambition to make a dark dance industrial record. The album was not to be as structured as the 'AFTER. THE. RUSH. HOUR'S. GONE', with each song being weird and complicated.

'Spitting Feathers' developed and set the tone. The layered vocals coming from left and right outputs at different times. The dark riffs and keyboard tones. The use of the echo machine pedal, producing horrible jerks and stops and starts. The dance beats and wacky lyrics. From then on I came up with song titles or music and wrote them around one another. I had never written or recorded like this before. I tended to have the songs done on guitar with vocals and add to it. Two songs for me really set the tone and created the dark aspect for the album I was looking for: 'One Billion Dollar Nuclear White Elephant' and 'Putting the Monster in the Box'. Both songs are complicated and mixed up, the former for the mix of beats and weird atmosphere and the latter for the layers of vocals which creates the solo near the end. There are 7 layered vocals and no music, and it works tremendously well. This was also the first song where I used extremely deep tones for the backing vocals. Works amazingly well. And so the album developed this way.

I had got to 17 songs and was going to finish it at that, even though I had numerous other songs incomplete that I could have used. However not once, or twice but three times I got a virus on my computer, which destroyed the audio files on my computer. This ment that the 'In Cloud Cuckooland' album was lost. Apart from the odd song I'd save here or there on soundcloud and cd, I had lost pretty much all of it. Songs I had recorded, I'd never hear again. I was raging. 2 years of work, pretty much all gone. I had until recently only managed to salvage 7 of the 'In Cloud Cuckooland' songs: 'One Billion Dollar Nuclear White Elephant', 'House of Mirrors', 'Spitting Feathers', 'Putting the Monster in the Box', 'In a Wilderness', 'Trip to Mars' and 'Art Imitating Reality'. 'Art Imitating Reality' wasn't suppose to be an 'In Cloud Cuckooland', it was more a go between that album and 'Anonymous', however it fits well and so I decided to put it amongst the 'In Cloud Cuckooland' songs.

I had lost 10 songs and was raging. Some of them were fantastic (in my biased opinion), and I'd have done anything to get them back. So only a few weeks ago, my friend George messaged me saying he'd found a bunch of my music on his external hard drive. I enquired about 2010 (as that's when the album finished), but no, nothing in it apart from one song that wasn't an 'In Cloud Cuckooland' one. I was annoyed. But then I thought maybe it'd have been in 2009. I asked him over Facebook and eagerly awaited his reply. Surely he'd have some of the missing songs? He replied, and he did. He had songs 1-10, which are: 'One Billion Dollar Nuclear White Elephant', 'House of Mirrors', 'Spitting Feathers', 'Putting the Monster in the Box', 'Dream Analysis - Leopard and the Polar Bear', 'Convincing Mask of Sanity', 'La Rue. Noir. Paris (A street scene of Paris at night)' , 'Dream Analysis - Ames Room (When the Moon Implodes)', 'On the Verge of', 'Dream Analysis - The Girl in the Red Dress'. I was delighted. I wanted to listen to these songs so badly it is unreal. I still haven't got them off him, but I will. And that means I can put 'In Cloud Cuckooland' up as an album the way it should have been on bandcamp instead of as an e.p. It was never suppose to be an e.p.

That's a short explanation to 'In Cloud Cuckooland'. Over time I will get round to putting it on bandcamp and may add some onto soundcloud too. I really want to get the songs soon, because I haven't heard them in ages...and don't even remember what some sound like...

Watch this space,
Wullae

www.myspace.com/wullaewright
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com

Oil Painting

I knew that from the recent 'Overzealous Work Ethic' recordings I wanted the next song to be a simple straight forward recording. A nice flowing piano tune, about something nice again, but I wasn't sure what. I began writing a new piano tune. Instead of primarily using the lighter keys, I wanted to use the deeper ones. I then quickly again came up with a lovely flowing piano tune. Quite complicated but still quite a simple song and set up.

I considered what to do with it. I had a song title I had come up with (with the bundle of others I have sitting at the moment) entitled 'Oil Painting'. I thought this was a really nice title and wanted to write about a nice painting. Something you would paint and it would be beautiful to you. And so, as soppy as it sounds, if I were to paint a painting of my wife I think that'd be one of the most beautiful things I could ever paint.

Oil Painting

The canvas sits
With an elegant sketch
Of your beautiful outline
painting in your eyes,
That dark wooden oak
Brings you to life

If I were to paint this oil picture of you
It'd be the most beautiful piece of work, I'd ever view

The strokes gently brush on the skin,
Pale and soft as delicate as silk
The colours develop your beauty
Sit back and take you in,

If I were to paint this oil picture of you
It'd be the most beautiful piece of work, I'd ever view

Written 7/7/11, at home

This song really didn't take a lot of time to record and is very simple and is suppose to be that way. I recorded the vocals to the piano tune I had come up with. It actually took quite a few attempts as the vocals had to be spot on with the tone or it just didn't work. I finally got one I was happy with, and then, inspired by a Joseph Arthur song, I used my keyboard and created strings for the song that were very deep. I did this by using the violin setting, pressing the key down and turning the volume up and down at the same time. It sounded perfect. Exactly what I wanted. So I then added a phone ringing half way through the song - just for atmosphere, there is no logical reason to why it is a phone. And that is that. However, I do feel that this song could use something else in ti and so it may change.

Watch this space,
Wullae
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover and To Scratch an Itch

On the night of the 4th of July, I sat staring at the computer screen, tired and almost thoughtless. I had recorded two good recordings, which set the tone for the rest of the album. As I sat there I began to think (as my mind woke up a little at about 1am) I should write a cheery, upbeat song for the album. I felt a lot of the songs were long, complicated, and very dramatic. I wanted something a little more little hearted to break that up, so the album doesn't sound like it is just one big song.

I sat at the keyboard, knackered, in darkness with only light coming from the hallway and the computer screen. I almost instantly came out with the first verse. It just happened. I genuinely felt like I was on autopilot when I wrote this song. I managed, after 30 mins to an hour to come up with the song. By this point of course it was the 5th of July. As my finger did what they wanted, and my mind wandered, I began recording this song. Quietly of course. It took two attempts and that was it. I actually had my own song 'Merchant City Man' in mind when recording it. I wanted a happier song for the album, and this is the 'Merchant City Man' of 'Overzealous Work Ethic'.

So I had the tune recorded. I then cut up some brass and strings, and added them in. Not too much, just a little strings and primarily brass at the chorus. After a while this came together and is simple but I think very good. By this point my brain was gone, dead, pretty much asleep, so I turned the computer off etc and hit the hay.

Next day, I went back to the recording and listened. I liked it. But I had no lyrics for it. I wanted something qwirky and happy. I thought I'd use the analogy of 'Don't Judge a Book by its Cover' to society and how people are judged, particularly by appearance, when this shouldn't be done. There are some lovely people and they get judged for appearance or other aspects. And that's essentially what the song is about.

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

You see life's one big analogy
So I'll begin
Whether you're a papaerback, hardback or jacket cover,
It don't matter see

Don't judge a book by its cover
Cause you might miss out on a good read, you know what I'm saying?

See life's one big analogy
Sometimes it stinks...sometimes it's as sweet as a nut
We are what you would collectively call 'humanbeings'
Nobody's perfect so for christsake stop acting like you are,

Don't judge a book by its cover
Cause you might miss out on a good read, you know what I'm saying?

You paint your pretty little mask on in the morning,
To cover and hide those blemishes that you're keeping,
But see, we all have them, it's just a social thing,
See life's one big analogy

Don't judge a book by its cover
Cause you might miss out on a good read, you know what I'm saying?

Written and recorded on 4th and 5th of July at home

So I wrote these lyrics above. It didn't take me very long to write them, but I do like them. So I then recorded the vocals. The song sounded good. But it could use a little something more. So I put an audio of clapping in the background for atmosphere, and a set of vocals repeating 'Don't Judge a Book by...' and another set of vocals doing a kind of bee-boop type harmony.

And that was that. Another 'Overzealous Work Ethic' song. This one is a wee upbeat tune and stop the songs in the album being too similar. I like it a lot and think it is quite a catchy wee song.

I had also edited 'To Scratch an Itch', putting in a lot of strings etc, and this has created an already powerful song, to be even more dramatic and powerful. I am particularly pleased with the intro, which creates a great opener for the album.

Watch this space,
Wullae

www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright

Chameleon Child

So not long after finishing 'The Busker' on the 4th, I began thinking about what other song I could record. I wanted something quite long, and different. It made me think of an old recording I had from 2001 time entitled 'Chameleon Child'. This song was about me feeling like a boy who was never noticed, and who just blended into the background. I was considering changing the title and sujbect matter from the song but then I thought it actually fit very well considering it was 10 years later.

Chameleon Child

Know the end of the story before it's told,
Never wanted anyones advice
Paint a self-portrait of me new,
And you stand and stare,
Let it be me, let it be you,
Chameleon Child

I have turned to my final farewell,
There is a crowd of people, and I think I am amongst them,
Acres of past and present,
Move back the pain, so many memories

Written 2000-2001; rerecorded 2011 for 'Overzealous Work Ethic'

I logged into my soundcloud profile entitled 'More Cassette Tapes', of the old cassette recordings of me, Stuart and Marc as the Heads of State. The Chameleon Child version on there is about 12 minutes long, and has Stuart in it. I listened to it, worked it out again, and began trying to record it.

After several attempts and punching and screaming at the keyboard later, I had the tune done. I then went to work on the vocals. It didn't take long to record the vocals as they are not very diificult. I then had the idea to put part of the actually 2001 recording behind the entire song. I did this and then I added some speech of Stuart and I from the 'WriCarHam'. After puting these touches to the song, I began work on adding the classical cut up samples. It again took quite a while, having look through all the files and cut them up, then place them at the right bits of the songs, edit the tone, or change the pitch, or speed it up, or slow it down. Takes hours. When complete, it sounds great. Again, like 'The Busker', it makes a more dramatic song. It has even bigger starts, stop and gaps than 'The Busker' and I think makes it quite interesting to listen to.

Obviously this is me recalling the recording process very quickly but it did take several hours to complete the song. I think it is a good piece of music, suits 'Overzealous Work Ethic' extremely well, and it had been nice to bring back an old track like this, and keep it largely sounding the way it did 10 years ago.

Watch this space,
Wullae

www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic

The Busker

I had the house to myself for a week, and apart from working, and looking for other things, I began recording more 'Overzealous Work Ethic' songs.

I came up with piano tune over a number of hours. I wanted something almost classical sounding, with lots of stops and starts. I first got the verse part, but it took a fair time for it to develop into the finished verse it is in the song. After this I managed to get a chorus, but was initially finding it difficult to link them. I managed to link them with a simple piece inbetween. I then towards the end of the song, came up with the intro and outro, which had been a simple version of what it finally turned into. So the underlying tune was complete.

I had the lyrics for 'The Busker' sitting, but I didn't know if the song would work well with it. I didn't know whether it'd be better to use the lyrics with an acoustic song, to compliment the title. But I thought I would try it out. Due the song being about a busker who has failed to fulfil his dreams of becoming famous, it seemed that the emotional piano music could work with it. So I tried it out.

I recorded the piano tune as a whole, which took countless attempts and had me punching the keyboard time and time again. I got a version I was eventually happy with, and recorded the vocals. It took a couple of attempts, but I eventually got to a set I was happy with. I also recorded a second set of backing vocals, which I made pan left and right throughout the song. So at this point, it was sounding good, but it needed more. I wanted to add some classical samples in again like with 'Evil Eye'. But what happened was I used lots of cut up samples, and the tune started to progress into this abrupt, dramatic classical motion picture sounding tune. It took me about 3 hours to do this. To begin with, it was completely unintentional, but sounded amazing - in my opinion. I was so happy with the dramatic sound. I'd always wanted to create a classical sounding album, but never thought I'd be able to. I then took an audio of me and my younger brother Andrew jamming in 2008, and put that behind the song.

I edited it all and then went back and listened to it. There are parts that are slightly out, but I think that in some way also adds to the drama in the song. I am very happy with the song, and it has set the tone for the rest of the album - a classical, dramatic, motion picture soundtrack.

Watch this space,
Wullae

www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic

More New Art for 'Overzealous Work Ethic': 'To Scratch an Itch'

Watch this space,

Wullae