Gazing out the window, I watch the fields, trees, sporadic homes, and motorway crash barriers slide past. I look around at my fellow commuters, who all sit with their eyes closed, and heads resting back. I was there with them a few minutes ago. Then found myself bouncing out of it to wake up.
So why have I not put any new posts up? Written ones anyway? Several reasons have stopped me doing it. One of them is lack of motivation. I seem to think about doing it, have the passion for it, but then when I'd go to do it, I'd just not have the motivation. Lots of sheep outside. I digress. I have been lazy then in some respects. I have been lazy generally, and I'm hoping to get out of the loop. I am writing this one in the hope to catch up.
I also have written anything because in many ways I have nothing to write about. I could write about the recordings I have been making, but they are so very simple that the posts would read very similar, like this: I recorded a riff I'd made before the recording session. After a few attempts, I added another guitar riff over the top. I then perfected a good vocal melody for the tune, and used the poetry I'd written months before and there we go. Song basically done, for now. And that's that. That's been the recent recording process.
I have to admit though, elaborating on the songs etc, I am very happy. I'm getting older. The possibilities of a music career are very very slim for me, pretty much non-existent, unless some kind of miracle happens. I get very little listens on my music, and when I do, I am delighted. I make all my music free to download, because the enjoyment of writing outweights any success or recognition. I love putting my thoughts, feelings and emotions down, and making them into my own external worlds.
With 'Under the Pyramids', I believed I wouldn't actually begin the recording of it. I believed I wouldn't find the time, nor have the motivation to record it. I'd written all the lyrics, and then would pick up the guitar and just see it as a big chunk of wood, with no life in it. But that hasn't happened. At all. I have played. Played very simple riffs. Created simple songs. And I'm very happy with them. I have no intention to impress anyone. No intention of proving my worth as a musician. This project is inspired by the way I use to write music. Inspired by simplicity and peace.
The songs have been going well. Rough and clean. That's how I would describe them. I have been asking a few musicians to collaborate with me on them including: Camine the Red (a U.S artist), Stuart Carroll (musician and good friend), and my brother, musically know as 'That Guy'. I intend to ask other musicians to add to my songs. I have the thought now, that if I were to stop writing and making music, for whatever the reasons: a lack of motivation, or desire; if I get mental health problems or loss my memory, or if something were to happen to me, that I'd have done as many different things musically. I want to make this music project different from my others, and know that I musical friends out there. Like me. Doing it like me. Where I am.
And so at present, I have 5 Under the Pyramids songs recorded that I'm happy with: White Lies, Sleight of Hand, Orchid and Thorns Embroiled, Caged Foundling, and An Ode to Willowby. I do have 2 Thessalonians 2:11 recorded too, but I will have to look at this song. I am pleased that this project is making head way, and I'm very delighted that there have been many nice comments made about the songs. Carmine the Red on soundcloud says the bass riff in 'Sleight of Hand' is 'killer', and the magician David Copperfield listened to 'Sleight of Hand' saying it was 'very nice'. My friend Stuart Carroll says it is some of the best work he has heard from me. These are the sorts of comments that keep me going. Keep me motivated. I'm very appreciative of all the comment from people.
So what next? Where am I musically? I am waiting to hear some of the remix/collabs with other musicians, to hear how this album with eventually sound. I'm excited about this, because I know each musician has totally different music tastes and styles. So the album, should if all goes well, be a diverse mix of sounds and styles, with an underlying simplicity. I will keep writing, until I finish this project. After that, who knows,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
(Listening to Elbow's 'Lippy Kids' the whole journey)
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Monday, 3 October 2011
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
New lyrics: Antithesis
I'm sat in a small town in North Lanarkshire. It's cold, and I still have a short while yet to wait until I need to be at the next job. My hands are cold and I'm finding this hard to write on my Blackberry. My hair is all over the place due to furious winds and rain. It has put me in a slightly fowl mood.
I had began to write some lyrics yesterday that I didn't finish. I left them because I didn't know what to do with them. It was a general set of lyrics, about different things. I was going for a kind of 'Fitter Happier' by Radiohead, type of song. Wanted it to be similar, even to go as far as it is all spoken, but not by one voice, but by cut up voices and audio. The lyrics were about different things: famine, war, social problems, greed of bankers, mps, and essentially just the divide between people.
Today as I sat here I began chopping the lyrics up and finishing them. I looked for a name. Something to sum up the fact that larger the song is about contrasts. So I found it: 'Antithesis'. I made the song, so that it is about the contrasts in the world, of the world. Where some people get stinking rich; and other struggle and die. Where, we, the 'first' world, like to neglect and pretend the 'third' world have no problems. That if we can't see it, it doesn't happen. That you not getting the latest phone, or piece of clothing is a big disaster; when others, who don't have food all day, go by, without a complaint. The song is short and general. I like the sentiments behind it, and was to make this song really well done when made into music.
Antithesis
We live in a world,
Where the undercurrant is forgotten,
What you can't see, won't hurt you,
Where you love thy neighbour,
Until the greed is all consuming,
Where the fat cats get bonuses,
And the antithesis live on famine,
The young complain for more luxury,
And the blind man contemplates sight,
A quick feeling of liberation,
Gunned down by allied oppression,
A journey to the ends of the earth,
And the antithesis live on famine,
With cupped hands they sit like buddha on the pavement,
You pass chirping on your phone, glaring in disgust,
Everyone needs someone,
Getting married? Getting divorced?
A kid left in a broken home,
A candidate for community service,
We live in a world,
Where the undercurrant is forgotten,
Does the end justifies the means?
And the antithesis live on famine,
Written 6 and 7 of September 2011. Part on the coach from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and in a town in North Lanarkshire.
I intend to tackle the social theme of beauty, and surgery. The idea of hiding yourself under a facade, making you more acceptable. I intend to. We'll see,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
I had began to write some lyrics yesterday that I didn't finish. I left them because I didn't know what to do with them. It was a general set of lyrics, about different things. I was going for a kind of 'Fitter Happier' by Radiohead, type of song. Wanted it to be similar, even to go as far as it is all spoken, but not by one voice, but by cut up voices and audio. The lyrics were about different things: famine, war, social problems, greed of bankers, mps, and essentially just the divide between people.
Today as I sat here I began chopping the lyrics up and finishing them. I looked for a name. Something to sum up the fact that larger the song is about contrasts. So I found it: 'Antithesis'. I made the song, so that it is about the contrasts in the world, of the world. Where some people get stinking rich; and other struggle and die. Where, we, the 'first' world, like to neglect and pretend the 'third' world have no problems. That if we can't see it, it doesn't happen. That you not getting the latest phone, or piece of clothing is a big disaster; when others, who don't have food all day, go by, without a complaint. The song is short and general. I like the sentiments behind it, and was to make this song really well done when made into music.
Antithesis
We live in a world,
Where the undercurrant is forgotten,
What you can't see, won't hurt you,
Where you love thy neighbour,
Until the greed is all consuming,
Where the fat cats get bonuses,
And the antithesis live on famine,
The young complain for more luxury,
And the blind man contemplates sight,
A quick feeling of liberation,
Gunned down by allied oppression,
A journey to the ends of the earth,
And the antithesis live on famine,
With cupped hands they sit like buddha on the pavement,
You pass chirping on your phone, glaring in disgust,
Everyone needs someone,
Getting married? Getting divorced?
A kid left in a broken home,
A candidate for community service,
We live in a world,
Where the undercurrant is forgotten,
Does the end justifies the means?
And the antithesis live on famine,
Written 6 and 7 of September 2011. Part on the coach from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and in a town in North Lanarkshire.
I intend to tackle the social theme of beauty, and surgery. The idea of hiding yourself under a facade, making you more acceptable. I intend to. We'll see,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
Thursday, 1 September 2011
New lyrics: White Lies
I'm on the coach again. I feel quite low and I don't really know why. I don't know if it is because I'm so isolated a lot of my working day, and because I have very little time to socialise with anyone. I don't know if it is cause of certain aspects of work. I don't know really. But I feel down. Sad. But I'm fine feeling it. It is a good thing. It allows me to feel emotions that I can write about. That I wouldn't otherwise be able to do. I have wrapped myself in music to reflect my mood such as, at present, I'm listening to 'Right where it belongs' by Nine Inch Nails. This song has one of the most powerful, tragic and beautiful lyrics I've ever heard in a song. The song is so sad and meaningful. With my mood sitting the way it is, and listening to the music, I have written a set of lyrics.
The title appeared first. It was first thing this morning, I came up with 'White Lies'. I thought that's quite a good subject to use for 'Under the Pyramids', as it is about different types of secrets and lies. This type of lying is said to try and not hurt or offend another individual; however, if the other person is aware of the lies, then this can have a deterimental effect on any relationship. And so that is what this song is about. It is written as someone viewing someone else, who they know is telling them white lies but never let's on that they are aware, but it tears them apart when they know it is happening.
White Lies
I want to believe every word you say,
And all the sentiments expressed,
I want to hear the passion in your voice,
And see the confused nature of the rhetoric,
I am dying with every word spoken,
Because of all those white lies,
The more you say, the more I'm broken,
Because of all those white lies,
I stare at you as you create an imaginative narrative,
Bewildered by fairytales you've written,
I watch as your tongue lashes a subtle morse code,
With which you begin to believe, live and breathe,
I am dying with every word spoken,
Because of all those white lies,
The more you say, the more I'm broken,
Because of all those white lies,
Written 1/9/11 on the coach from Glasgow to Edinburgh listen to 'What we will never know' by Innerpartysystem and 'Right where it belongs V2' by Nine Inch Nails.
I am still feeling a little down, and I'm sure I'll snap out of it soon enough.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
(New tracks for free download on band camp including 'In Cloud Cuckooland' songs)
The title appeared first. It was first thing this morning, I came up with 'White Lies'. I thought that's quite a good subject to use for 'Under the Pyramids', as it is about different types of secrets and lies. This type of lying is said to try and not hurt or offend another individual; however, if the other person is aware of the lies, then this can have a deterimental effect on any relationship. And so that is what this song is about. It is written as someone viewing someone else, who they know is telling them white lies but never let's on that they are aware, but it tears them apart when they know it is happening.
White Lies
I want to believe every word you say,
And all the sentiments expressed,
I want to hear the passion in your voice,
And see the confused nature of the rhetoric,
I am dying with every word spoken,
Because of all those white lies,
The more you say, the more I'm broken,
Because of all those white lies,
I stare at you as you create an imaginative narrative,
Bewildered by fairytales you've written,
I watch as your tongue lashes a subtle morse code,
With which you begin to believe, live and breathe,
I am dying with every word spoken,
Because of all those white lies,
The more you say, the more I'm broken,
Because of all those white lies,
Written 1/9/11 on the coach from Glasgow to Edinburgh listen to 'What we will never know' by Innerpartysystem and 'Right where it belongs V2' by Nine Inch Nails.
I am still feeling a little down, and I'm sure I'll snap out of it soon enough.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
(New tracks for free download on band camp including 'In Cloud Cuckooland' songs)
Saturday, 27 August 2011
New lyrics: Legalised Crooks
Again, on the bus. Got room to breath now that guy got off who was sitting next to me the majority of the way. Nearly at my destination. On the way back from work on the first of my bus journeys I came up with a new idea for a song. It was actually fuelled slightly by the taxi driver last night.
'Yeah, they are legalised crooks. That's what my gran use to call lawyers, legalised crooks' the driver stated.
I agreed with him - I mean, that's what you do with any taxi driver. Incase they turn out to be a raving nutcase and decides to either: a) take you home with him, or b) go nuts and try and kill you. Or is that just me? Anyway, I like the name of that paradox. I know the conversation was in relation to lawyers, but it made me think of politicians and the expenses scandal. How they are in power, make desicions for us. They help create law and issues. Yet, some believed they had a right to steal loads of money. They had a right to do so.
And so on this bus journey I wrote a set of lyrics about my own subjective feelings on the matter. I used a kind of tongue-twister style lyrics to confuse the song a little more.
Legalised Crooks
Trained to twist the tales of those that taint our trust,
The big wigs thump sticks and state lyrics made up by conservatives,
Testimony ceremoniously becomes an altered story of tweaked balony
The bank books, bouyancy sunk, defunct, all ills and lies,
Of legalised crooks, disguised, no laws, house of mayhem,
Party around the moat, no vote, which party? all of them
Inverted poverty causing controversy, casuality by stupidity,
Your suit could feed the havoc, banana, in the exhaust pipe,
The bank books, bouyancy sunk, defunct, all ills and lies,
Of legalised crooks, disguised, no laws, house of mayhem,
Written 27th of August about politicians, and the expenses scandal etc. Listening to Radiohead 'Lotus Flower (Live from the basement)'.
I quite like the quirky, sarcastic tone the lyrics have throughout. Another set, and still no music. I will soon, I will.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
'Yeah, they are legalised crooks. That's what my gran use to call lawyers, legalised crooks' the driver stated.
I agreed with him - I mean, that's what you do with any taxi driver. Incase they turn out to be a raving nutcase and decides to either: a) take you home with him, or b) go nuts and try and kill you. Or is that just me? Anyway, I like the name of that paradox. I know the conversation was in relation to lawyers, but it made me think of politicians and the expenses scandal. How they are in power, make desicions for us. They help create law and issues. Yet, some believed they had a right to steal loads of money. They had a right to do so.
And so on this bus journey I wrote a set of lyrics about my own subjective feelings on the matter. I used a kind of tongue-twister style lyrics to confuse the song a little more.
Legalised Crooks
Trained to twist the tales of those that taint our trust,
The big wigs thump sticks and state lyrics made up by conservatives,
Testimony ceremoniously becomes an altered story of tweaked balony
The bank books, bouyancy sunk, defunct, all ills and lies,
Of legalised crooks, disguised, no laws, house of mayhem,
Party around the moat, no vote, which party? all of them
Inverted poverty causing controversy, casuality by stupidity,
Your suit could feed the havoc, banana, in the exhaust pipe,
The bank books, bouyancy sunk, defunct, all ills and lies,
Of legalised crooks, disguised, no laws, house of mayhem,
Written 27th of August about politicians, and the expenses scandal etc. Listening to Radiohead 'Lotus Flower (Live from the basement)'.
I quite like the quirky, sarcastic tone the lyrics have throughout. Another set, and still no music. I will soon, I will.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
Friday, 26 August 2011
New lyrics: The Prophecies
I'm, again, on a coach. A coach going home. I literary got up there to finally get a row of seats to myself. It has been packet like sardines on this bus for the majority of the journey. I'm tired. Physically and mentally. I got up at 6am this morning, left at 6.30am, and it is 6.18pm, and I'm still not near getting home. Another 45 minutes maybe. And that's me finished early. However, don't get the violins out for me. I'll be fine. Just finished another sets of lyrics that have been sitting for the last few days and have slowly been written.
I don't know where it came from, but I was trying to think of subject matter possibly fitting to the themes surrounding 'Under the Pyramids'. I began researching - in detail instead of the hear'say that surrounds the internet, Nostrodamus. I was interested to read some of his prophecies, and to read up on how accurate these prophecies were. I read a bit about him one day, and it turns out most of his work is just random jargon, in a variety of languages. He is essentially only writing to attack the Governments and societies of that time, but he does so in a very clever and subtle way. Many of the prophecies could be attributed to many situations, if you so tweaked them to. And there had been the prophecy that he had predicted the twin towers collapse; however there is no real evidence to suggest this; and the circulation on the internet of his actual prophecy has been altered to be more fitting. Even though he and his prophecies are intriguing and interesting, the realities to events that happen are just not there. So I was originally going to write the song entitled 'The Man Who Saw Tomorrow' after a film of the same name about Nostrodamus. However, I began writing the song as a Diamante poem, which didn't quite allow me to call it that, as it was not biographical.
I have entitled the song 'The Prophecies', after the title of his most famous work, and have written the song as a contrast of his prophecies, which are complete guesswork, with objectivity, which comes from a completely scientific and so more accurate viewpoint.
The Prophecies
Prophecies
Vivid, bizarre
Warning, prognosticating, foreboding,
Brainwork, theorisation......Enlightened, scientific
Questioning, experimenting, answering,
Meticulous, factual
Objectivity
Completed on 26th of August 2011 on coach from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Listening to 'Be Yourself' by Audioslave. In the style of a Diamante Poem, contrasting Objectivity and Prophecy.
I am quite happy with these lyrics. It did take a lot of time to write the song. I thought I'd have been easier than it was, so I enjoyed the challenge. Soon, soon, I will get the chance to write some new music. Soon,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
I don't know where it came from, but I was trying to think of subject matter possibly fitting to the themes surrounding 'Under the Pyramids'. I began researching - in detail instead of the hear'say that surrounds the internet, Nostrodamus. I was interested to read some of his prophecies, and to read up on how accurate these prophecies were. I read a bit about him one day, and it turns out most of his work is just random jargon, in a variety of languages. He is essentially only writing to attack the Governments and societies of that time, but he does so in a very clever and subtle way. Many of the prophecies could be attributed to many situations, if you so tweaked them to. And there had been the prophecy that he had predicted the twin towers collapse; however there is no real evidence to suggest this; and the circulation on the internet of his actual prophecy has been altered to be more fitting. Even though he and his prophecies are intriguing and interesting, the realities to events that happen are just not there. So I was originally going to write the song entitled 'The Man Who Saw Tomorrow' after a film of the same name about Nostrodamus. However, I began writing the song as a Diamante poem, which didn't quite allow me to call it that, as it was not biographical.
I have entitled the song 'The Prophecies', after the title of his most famous work, and have written the song as a contrast of his prophecies, which are complete guesswork, with objectivity, which comes from a completely scientific and so more accurate viewpoint.
The Prophecies
Prophecies
Vivid, bizarre
Warning, prognosticating, foreboding,
Brainwork, theorisation......Enlightened, scientific
Questioning, experimenting, answering,
Meticulous, factual
Objectivity
Completed on 26th of August 2011 on coach from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Listening to 'Be Yourself' by Audioslave. In the style of a Diamante Poem, contrasting Objectivity and Prophecy.
I am quite happy with these lyrics. It did take a lot of time to write the song. I thought I'd have been easier than it was, so I enjoyed the challenge. Soon, soon, I will get the chance to write some new music. Soon,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
Saturday, 20 August 2011
New lyrics: 2 Thessalonians 2:11
Like yesterday, it's a similar envirnoment and situation. Sitting on a Coach. Can see the landscape slide past out the corner of my eye. Have my white headphones in listening, again, to 'Money' by Innerpartysystem, remixed by Cenob1te. A slight digression, but on this journey the lovely musicians from Cenob1te contacted me via Twitter to say thanks for my comments. Absolutely lovely people. Can also see some head and limbs moving around by the other passengers. But this story begins from first thing this morning, 5.15am to be precise.
Try to be as quiet as I could, as not to wake my wife. We've only been residing in our new home for just over a week. I have to travel constantly now to get to and from work. So I left at 5.45am, walking to the bus station and thought I'd try writing a new song. Wiping my tired eyes and trying to not allow myself to get annoyed by the wind blowing my hair all over the place, I took out my Blackberry and began thinking of ideas. I thought about lies, and who the biggest liar is in the world. I couldn't think. So I googled it. Turns out there is a 'biggest lair competition' in this country. Crazy stuff. Anyway, I thought 'who could be the biggest liar ever'?
I thought about religion. I thought, people blindly believe and follow a figurehead they've never seen. Ok, some say it's not an individual or physical being etc, but still. I'd regard myself an atheist. I'm a scientific man. An evolution guy. Then I thought about thee supposed 'God' him/her/itself, and thought about searching the bible for any references to God actually lying (which I thought I'd be wrong about...), and it turns out, he/she/it did! In a part of it called '2 Thessalonians 2:11'. I couldn't believe it. There can never be a bigger liar than a God. I'm sure in some other cultures there is a god of lies. But our cultures god, is a liar.
So this new set of lyrics is a subjective and objective Villanelle poem about my feelings towards religion and God, and how essentially, I will not believe in something you will a) try and force me to believe in and b) have no proof of existence.
2 Thessalonians 2:11
I will not believe your truth,
Your maker is the greatest lie the world knows,
A belief is nothing without proof,
Your God of deceit, throwing at you Satan's judgement,
In a most far-fetched and ridiculous prose,
I will not believe your truth,
Enter into an unrequited agreement,
Converse with an apparition that never shows,
A belief is nothing without proof,
The warring nature of man comes from all statement
That deplores those who do not follow, instead grows,
I will not believe your truth,
Cordially invited to the god and satan engagement,
Sin and truth mixed above and below,
A belief is nothing without proof,
When a loved one dies, and you stare in bewilderment,
Science will extrapolate like overhanging crows,
I will not believe your truth,
A belief is nothing without proof,
Written from 5.50am to 6.25pm on Saturday 20th of August 2011 from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and then later from Glasgow to Edinburgh listening to a combination of 'Other Lives', 'Airborne Toxic Event' and 'Cenob1te'. Written in the style of a Villanelle Poem.
I'm quite happy with these lyrics. I'm also enjoying writing lyrics in different poetic styles. It is allowing me to write differently. I absolutely cannot wait to start writing the music for this. I have so many ideas and want to start. Badly.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
Try to be as quiet as I could, as not to wake my wife. We've only been residing in our new home for just over a week. I have to travel constantly now to get to and from work. So I left at 5.45am, walking to the bus station and thought I'd try writing a new song. Wiping my tired eyes and trying to not allow myself to get annoyed by the wind blowing my hair all over the place, I took out my Blackberry and began thinking of ideas. I thought about lies, and who the biggest liar is in the world. I couldn't think. So I googled it. Turns out there is a 'biggest lair competition' in this country. Crazy stuff. Anyway, I thought 'who could be the biggest liar ever'?
I thought about religion. I thought, people blindly believe and follow a figurehead they've never seen. Ok, some say it's not an individual or physical being etc, but still. I'd regard myself an atheist. I'm a scientific man. An evolution guy. Then I thought about thee supposed 'God' him/her/itself, and thought about searching the bible for any references to God actually lying (which I thought I'd be wrong about...), and it turns out, he/she/it did! In a part of it called '2 Thessalonians 2:11'. I couldn't believe it. There can never be a bigger liar than a God. I'm sure in some other cultures there is a god of lies. But our cultures god, is a liar.
So this new set of lyrics is a subjective and objective Villanelle poem about my feelings towards religion and God, and how essentially, I will not believe in something you will a) try and force me to believe in and b) have no proof of existence.
2 Thessalonians 2:11
I will not believe your truth,
Your maker is the greatest lie the world knows,
A belief is nothing without proof,
Your God of deceit, throwing at you Satan's judgement,
In a most far-fetched and ridiculous prose,
I will not believe your truth,
Enter into an unrequited agreement,
Converse with an apparition that never shows,
A belief is nothing without proof,
The warring nature of man comes from all statement
That deplores those who do not follow, instead grows,
I will not believe your truth,
Cordially invited to the god and satan engagement,
Sin and truth mixed above and below,
A belief is nothing without proof,
When a loved one dies, and you stare in bewilderment,
Science will extrapolate like overhanging crows,
I will not believe your truth,
A belief is nothing without proof,
Written from 5.50am to 6.25pm on Saturday 20th of August 2011 from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and then later from Glasgow to Edinburgh listening to a combination of 'Other Lives', 'Airborne Toxic Event' and 'Cenob1te'. Written in the style of a Villanelle Poem.
I'm quite happy with these lyrics. I'm also enjoying writing lyrics in different poetic styles. It is allowing me to write differently. I absolutely cannot wait to start writing the music for this. I have so many ideas and want to start. Badly.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
Friday, 19 August 2011
New lyrics: An Ode to Willowby
I'm travelling on the bus between Glasgow to Edinburgh right now. It is 5.54pm according to my phone, and I have one leg elevated on the heaters to my left, and my foot on the floor to my right. I'm conscious that my music is far too loud on the bus and that it may be heard by others, but I don't care. I'm listening to a remix of 'Money' by Innerpartysystem by Cenob1te, which is a great dubstep tune. I'm passing fields, and a rock thing in the distance that resembles a rubbish Ayres Rock (if that's how it is even spelt). I'm hungry, I haven't eaten anything since 9.30 and I won't be home until at least 7pm. However I'm quite happy that on this bus journey (and from the previous Motherwell to Glasgow journey) I have been able to write another new set of lyrics.
The song is written in an ode poem format about an elderly woman both me and my friend Stuart met one day in Glasgow's George Square when we were aged around 14. We were sat upside down on a bench, chatting to one another in fake American accents. Someone sat next to us on the bench (which we found incredibly odd as who sits next to two teens who are on a bench upside down!), an old lady. She started instantly chatting to us. At first we conversed with her, in American accents, upside. However to be polite, we sat the right way up...still talking in the accents however. Stuart told her he had 9 sisters, all from Texas (or some other random U.S state). She completely believed all these lies. But as she confided in us, all the stories of her family moving away or dying; the family she'd never met; the horrible flats she lived in, and the solitude her life was filled with, we felt immensely guilty. We had lied to this woman for a long long time. She even at one point took her purse out, and being so trusting opened it infront of us to try and give us both 2 quid each. We refused and suggested to her not to take her purse out in public like that (as she had quite a bit of money in it by the looks of it). She left, happy and fulfilled. Like we'd let her release years of misery. But she was a paradox, because she did it in the most jovial way. I had and still have respect for her. She didn't care about the far-fetched lies; she enjoyed it. She enjoyed the company, and I felt sorry for her, even though she seemed so happy. Who knows what happened to Mary Willowby, but I hope she is in a happy and better place,
An Ode to Willowby
Her quiet still waits, in a square so loud
As jokers sit, our shoes, pointing at the sun,
A blemished voice through the crowd,
And as brash 'Southerns' we succumb,
Where moths may crawl, gold there glistened,
Honest decline unlocked that isolated prison
Lullabies, all lies, facade spun as she gasped and listened,
Papermashy collequialism with no accurate rhythm,
Wrinkled tales of people unknown,
An abandoned soul, who sails alone,
Directs our eyes to skyscrapers of bone,
She'll go there, with no one to phone,
The jovial refuses to shine, shrouded in reality,
And she packs her trunk, saying goodbye to our circus,
Under the quiet umbrella of brutality,
Us, a short remedy, to her ongoing curse,
Her quiet still waits, in a square so loud
Who sits on that bench in our memory, continuously,
We hope you've gone to a better place,
Written 19th August 2011 from Motherwell to Glasgow and Glasgow to Edinburgh. Listening to Other Lives: 'Tamer Animals' and 'For 12' and Placebo 'Breathe Underwater (Piano Version)'. In style of an Ode poem, in memory and praise of Mary Willowby.
And so as I catch to my wife over Blackberry Message about her making me a pie and a mini pizza (which sounds amazing!), I will leave you now,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
The song is written in an ode poem format about an elderly woman both me and my friend Stuart met one day in Glasgow's George Square when we were aged around 14. We were sat upside down on a bench, chatting to one another in fake American accents. Someone sat next to us on the bench (which we found incredibly odd as who sits next to two teens who are on a bench upside down!), an old lady. She started instantly chatting to us. At first we conversed with her, in American accents, upside. However to be polite, we sat the right way up...still talking in the accents however. Stuart told her he had 9 sisters, all from Texas (or some other random U.S state). She completely believed all these lies. But as she confided in us, all the stories of her family moving away or dying; the family she'd never met; the horrible flats she lived in, and the solitude her life was filled with, we felt immensely guilty. We had lied to this woman for a long long time. She even at one point took her purse out, and being so trusting opened it infront of us to try and give us both 2 quid each. We refused and suggested to her not to take her purse out in public like that (as she had quite a bit of money in it by the looks of it). She left, happy and fulfilled. Like we'd let her release years of misery. But she was a paradox, because she did it in the most jovial way. I had and still have respect for her. She didn't care about the far-fetched lies; she enjoyed it. She enjoyed the company, and I felt sorry for her, even though she seemed so happy. Who knows what happened to Mary Willowby, but I hope she is in a happy and better place,
An Ode to Willowby
Her quiet still waits, in a square so loud
As jokers sit, our shoes, pointing at the sun,
A blemished voice through the crowd,
And as brash 'Southerns' we succumb,
Where moths may crawl, gold there glistened,
Honest decline unlocked that isolated prison
Lullabies, all lies, facade spun as she gasped and listened,
Papermashy collequialism with no accurate rhythm,
Wrinkled tales of people unknown,
An abandoned soul, who sails alone,
Directs our eyes to skyscrapers of bone,
She'll go there, with no one to phone,
The jovial refuses to shine, shrouded in reality,
And she packs her trunk, saying goodbye to our circus,
Under the quiet umbrella of brutality,
Us, a short remedy, to her ongoing curse,
Her quiet still waits, in a square so loud
Who sits on that bench in our memory, continuously,
We hope you've gone to a better place,
Written 19th August 2011 from Motherwell to Glasgow and Glasgow to Edinburgh. Listening to Other Lives: 'Tamer Animals' and 'For 12' and Placebo 'Breathe Underwater (Piano Version)'. In style of an Ode poem, in memory and praise of Mary Willowby.
And so as I catch to my wife over Blackberry Message about her making me a pie and a mini pizza (which sounds amazing!), I will leave you now,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
New lyrics: 'Orchid and Thorns Embroiled' and 'Concrete Clowns'
Since moving to Edinburgh, I haven't even had the chance to pick up a guitar. I haven't had a chance to sing, so do anythingf musically at all. It is quite annoying as I have so many ideas that I would like to start experimenting with.
I have however been writing, and trying to think of new ways to write. Educate my mind a little. So I have been using different poetic styles of writing to try and give my songs a different character.
I wrote 'Black Arts' in a Haiku style poem, and I did the same for a new set of lyrics entitled 'Orchid and Thorn Embroiled'. This song is about being in a relationship and how it fails because things are not discussed. It centres largely around cheating, and my experiences of having someone cheat on me. The secrets and the arguing and not understanding.
Orchid and Thorn Embroiled
Darling petals fall
Orchid and Thorns embroiled
Time heals old quarrels
Mistakes will be made
All should learn from them one day
Broken hearts will mend
No such covenant
Under the mind's own duress
When two minus one
All the reasons why
Take the time to understand
A once bitter grudge
Darling petals fall
Orchid and Thorns embroiled
Time heals old quarrels
No saint, both sinner
Unsung songs by both gender
Hearts apart blossom
All the reasons why
Take the time to understand
A once bitter grudge
Darling petals fall
Orchid and Thorns embroiled
Time heals old quarrels
Written as a Haiku poem on 15/8/11 on the bus from Glasgow to Wishaw, listening to 'Tamer Animals' by Other Lives
I also began another set of lyrics, but in a different poetic style. I want to explore as many different styles as possible, and so started writing one as an English sonnet. The song entitled 'Concrete Clowns' is about the recently rioting throughout England. My own personal feelings and opinions on this topic is that a small group of anti-social individuals hi-jacked a peaceful protest, and used it to begin a campaign of unnecessary destruction. No excuses, or reasoning by those involved can explain the terrible behaviour including the looting, arson, and even murders that happen that week.
Concrete Clowns
Hear the marching of boots,
See the riot vans deployed,
A cause that's loots,
Is a cause destroyed,
With each sea of fire,
Concrete clowns rampage the streets,
A inaudiable orchastrated choir,
Free money and endless treats,
A pup lies with a shattered skull,
The peelers are ripped to pieces,,
Showers bring about a quiet lull,
It's time to iron out the creases,
What to do with the concrete clown,
After they have burned England to the ground?
Written 15-16/8/11 on buses from Glasgow to Edinburgh/Edinburgh to Glasgow, in the form of an English sonnet poem.
I will continue to write more poems as time goes on. I will not be able to write or record any music over the next few weeks, but hopefully will do in the next few months or so. I'm looking forward to starting to create the sound for the sister album to 'Anonymous'.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
I have however been writing, and trying to think of new ways to write. Educate my mind a little. So I have been using different poetic styles of writing to try and give my songs a different character.
I wrote 'Black Arts' in a Haiku style poem, and I did the same for a new set of lyrics entitled 'Orchid and Thorn Embroiled'. This song is about being in a relationship and how it fails because things are not discussed. It centres largely around cheating, and my experiences of having someone cheat on me. The secrets and the arguing and not understanding.
Orchid and Thorn Embroiled
Darling petals fall
Orchid and Thorns embroiled
Time heals old quarrels
Mistakes will be made
All should learn from them one day
Broken hearts will mend
No such covenant
Under the mind's own duress
When two minus one
All the reasons why
Take the time to understand
A once bitter grudge
Darling petals fall
Orchid and Thorns embroiled
Time heals old quarrels
No saint, both sinner
Unsung songs by both gender
Hearts apart blossom
All the reasons why
Take the time to understand
A once bitter grudge
Darling petals fall
Orchid and Thorns embroiled
Time heals old quarrels
Written as a Haiku poem on 15/8/11 on the bus from Glasgow to Wishaw, listening to 'Tamer Animals' by Other Lives
I also began another set of lyrics, but in a different poetic style. I want to explore as many different styles as possible, and so started writing one as an English sonnet. The song entitled 'Concrete Clowns' is about the recently rioting throughout England. My own personal feelings and opinions on this topic is that a small group of anti-social individuals hi-jacked a peaceful protest, and used it to begin a campaign of unnecessary destruction. No excuses, or reasoning by those involved can explain the terrible behaviour including the looting, arson, and even murders that happen that week.
Concrete Clowns
Hear the marching of boots,
See the riot vans deployed,
A cause that's loots,
Is a cause destroyed,
With each sea of fire,
Concrete clowns rampage the streets,
A inaudiable orchastrated choir,
Free money and endless treats,
A pup lies with a shattered skull,
The peelers are ripped to pieces,,
Showers bring about a quiet lull,
It's time to iron out the creases,
What to do with the concrete clown,
After they have burned England to the ground?
Written 15-16/8/11 on buses from Glasgow to Edinburgh/Edinburgh to Glasgow, in the form of an English sonnet poem.
I will continue to write more poems as time goes on. I will not be able to write or record any music over the next few weeks, but hopefully will do in the next few months or so. I'm looking forward to starting to create the sound for the sister album to 'Anonymous'.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Friday, 12 August 2011
Under the Pyramids
Before I began 'Overzealous Work Ethic', I'd had another idea. It was called 'Under the Pyramids'. The title sat there with a load of other titles, but wasn't used in the E.P. The title had connotations to themes that I didn't feel fit in 'Overzealous Work Ethic', so I kept the title aside possibly intending to use it in the future.
I do tend to keep titles aside and never get back to them (or can even get back to them years later), but I had the idea to use it a few weeks ago. The title 'Under the Pyramids' comes from a ficitional Harry Houdini book. Harry Houdini himself is an intriguing individual to me. His image, his art, his stunts, his showmanship. All very interesting and amazing. All the secrets and deception used in magic etc, is all very interesting to me. So the basic theme began to come together around lies, secrets and dark arts - particularly centred around magic.
'Under the Pyramids' is about the lies deep within ourselves, with others and in society on a bigger scale. It is also about the secrets that we all hold, and about the bigger secrets in society such as the ones kept by Governments. And the theme does extend into the art of magic and other arts similar to it. Basically the arts that we all enjoy, yet we know that it is all lies. It is this paradox in society that some lies can be for the greater good.
So that is the basic idea of 'Under the Pyramids'. It will branch out a little more no doubt as time goes on. I have some ideas of how I'd like it to sound - as I have at the present not recorded or wrote any music for it at all. I'd like to use cut up speech and vocals, and create maybe some songs like 'The Avalanches', with a simple acoustic/electric type sound like that of maybe 'Kelly Jones' solo album. I don't know exactly yet however. I have begun writing lyrics for 'Under the Pyramids' and created the art centre piece for it. I'm happy with both. The art I created last night, a drawing of Harry Houdini bent over chained up. I have made him more muscular by mistake than he is, but it still looks good in my opinion. It is an ink on paper drawing. I put the title over the picture, in a similar style and same font as 'Anonymous'. I want it to be a kind of 'sister album' to 'Anonymous'. The lyrics themselves are an old set I wrote in 2010, entitled 'Cage Foundling' (which can be found in an earlier blog entry) and a new set written in the style of a haiku poem. At the moment I have it called 'Black Arts' but I am thinking of changing it. The lyrics and song are about magicians and again, the idea of how they entertain us with deception and lies, and we enjoy this.
Black Arts
Movements burn all eyes
Of spectators mystified
Rapturous Applause
Dirty trade secrets
Under-handed showmanship
Astounding delight
Now do as I do
Mix, cut, pick, hide, read your mind,
Fake reality
You want to believe
In deceit, repeat, the lies,
All in good humour
Buy the illusion,
Of silk that defies all laws,
So blindly aware
Manipulation,
And twisting of the aces,
Exhilerating
You want to believe
In deceit, repeat, the lies,
All in good humour
Written as Haiku peom 6/8/11
So over the next few weeks I may get the chance to try and record or mix some stuff towards 'Under the Pyramids'. I'm looking forward to beginning this project. If it goes the way I want it to, it will be one of my best projects. I will put a picture of my new art for this up soon.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
I do tend to keep titles aside and never get back to them (or can even get back to them years later), but I had the idea to use it a few weeks ago. The title 'Under the Pyramids' comes from a ficitional Harry Houdini book. Harry Houdini himself is an intriguing individual to me. His image, his art, his stunts, his showmanship. All very interesting and amazing. All the secrets and deception used in magic etc, is all very interesting to me. So the basic theme began to come together around lies, secrets and dark arts - particularly centred around magic.
'Under the Pyramids' is about the lies deep within ourselves, with others and in society on a bigger scale. It is also about the secrets that we all hold, and about the bigger secrets in society such as the ones kept by Governments. And the theme does extend into the art of magic and other arts similar to it. Basically the arts that we all enjoy, yet we know that it is all lies. It is this paradox in society that some lies can be for the greater good.
So that is the basic idea of 'Under the Pyramids'. It will branch out a little more no doubt as time goes on. I have some ideas of how I'd like it to sound - as I have at the present not recorded or wrote any music for it at all. I'd like to use cut up speech and vocals, and create maybe some songs like 'The Avalanches', with a simple acoustic/electric type sound like that of maybe 'Kelly Jones' solo album. I don't know exactly yet however. I have begun writing lyrics for 'Under the Pyramids' and created the art centre piece for it. I'm happy with both. The art I created last night, a drawing of Harry Houdini bent over chained up. I have made him more muscular by mistake than he is, but it still looks good in my opinion. It is an ink on paper drawing. I put the title over the picture, in a similar style and same font as 'Anonymous'. I want it to be a kind of 'sister album' to 'Anonymous'. The lyrics themselves are an old set I wrote in 2010, entitled 'Cage Foundling' (which can be found in an earlier blog entry) and a new set written in the style of a haiku poem. At the moment I have it called 'Black Arts' but I am thinking of changing it. The lyrics and song are about magicians and again, the idea of how they entertain us with deception and lies, and we enjoy this.
Black Arts
Movements burn all eyes
Of spectators mystified
Rapturous Applause
Dirty trade secrets
Under-handed showmanship
Astounding delight
Now do as I do
Mix, cut, pick, hide, read your mind,
Fake reality
You want to believe
In deceit, repeat, the lies,
All in good humour
Buy the illusion,
Of silk that defies all laws,
So blindly aware
Manipulation,
And twisting of the aces,
Exhilerating
You want to believe
In deceit, repeat, the lies,
All in good humour
Written as Haiku peom 6/8/11
So over the next few weeks I may get the chance to try and record or mix some stuff towards 'Under the Pyramids'. I'm looking forward to beginning this project. If it goes the way I want it to, it will be one of my best projects. I will put a picture of my new art for this up soon.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
Friday, 5 August 2011
I'm with Stupid and the end of 'Overzealous Work Ethic'
Where have I been? I tell ya, packing up my house, that's what. Myself and my wife made the decision to pack up and move to Edinburgh. The day of posting this, we only have about 3 days before the removal firm come and take away our stuff and then the new humble abode will be in Edinburgh.
Before all the packing and working and stressing however, I managed to record another 'Overzealous Work Ethic' song. This - I knew at the time, will most probably be the last of the 'Overzealous Work Ethic' songs. When I move I will have to leave my keyboard and acoustic guitar with my family as I can only take a couple of instruments due to space. I'm greatly chuffed by this, but it is a compromise I am having to make. I will be taking my Electric and Bass guitars however, so I will no doubt, still write and record some music.
So I began writing a new piano tune. It flowed nicely, and came together as I recorded it. It took over 90 attempts to get the actually piano part, by which time I was starting to give up. I knew I had to get the song recorded that day as it'd be my last opportunity to do so. I still feel I have so much to offer 'Overzealous Work Ethic', but because of the move I cannot.
When putting the song together, I used an earlier messed up part as the intro, and another messed up part as the outro. Both of them end with me smacking fuck out of the keys from frustration. Adds to the theme of the song I think. I think put the finished and best part as the centre piece and added vocals. One take, all done. And I'm quick happy with it.
So later I added some brass and string samples, cut up and arranged. This took quite a bit of time and was done the next day. I edited the song and that was that.
The song itself is called 'I'm with Stupid' and is about a time in your life when you change. When you become someone else. When you drift away from who you really are, and then only now in retrospect can you say to yourself 'what the fuck was I doing?'. Where you look back and it could be amusing, or fills you with dread. A moment you're unhappy with, or feel you just took a wrong direction. I wrote this from personal experience. I feel I have made a couple of bad turns in my life, and the only person to blame, is me. That's stupid. The side of you that changed.
I'm with Stupid
I've had to eat humble pie,
Seen a man, about a dog,
Been there, done that,
Such is life,
My overzealous work ethic
That's what I have to say goodbye to
I'm no longer with stupid
This is my new start, my new beginning,
No guts, no glory,
Couldn't even, swing a cat in here,
I was my own, faux pas,
Tuned to the moon, some might say,
My overzealous work ethic
That's what I have to say goodbye to
I'm no longer with stupid
This is my new start, my new beginning,
Written July 2011
So I made this song into a video for youtube, and I'm glad I did. My computer days later got another virus...and it did the same thing as last time, wiped all the music audio files. I thought I'd lost this new song until I found the video and changed formats etc to get an MP3 version of it again. So I'm very happy with that. Also I saved 'Anonymous', 'Opus. 1' and 'Overzealous Work Ethic' have all been saved to cd. So I still have all the 2011 recordings, so no great loss.
So this seems to be the end of the road for 'Overzealous Work Ethic'. I've enjoyed making the orchestrated sound for the E.P. It is something I always wanted to do and never thought I would, so I'm very happy with it. Just wish I could have added more to it. So the E.P., when up on bandcamp will look like this:
Overzealous Work Ethic
1. To Scratch an Itch
2. Evil Eye
3. The Busker
4. Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover
5. Chameleon Child
6. Oil Painting
7. I'm with Stupid
When I can, I'll put all songs up on bandcamp. The next project I will start on will be made in a new house, in a new city. I have no idea what I'll do next.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
Before all the packing and working and stressing however, I managed to record another 'Overzealous Work Ethic' song. This - I knew at the time, will most probably be the last of the 'Overzealous Work Ethic' songs. When I move I will have to leave my keyboard and acoustic guitar with my family as I can only take a couple of instruments due to space. I'm greatly chuffed by this, but it is a compromise I am having to make. I will be taking my Electric and Bass guitars however, so I will no doubt, still write and record some music.
So I began writing a new piano tune. It flowed nicely, and came together as I recorded it. It took over 90 attempts to get the actually piano part, by which time I was starting to give up. I knew I had to get the song recorded that day as it'd be my last opportunity to do so. I still feel I have so much to offer 'Overzealous Work Ethic', but because of the move I cannot.
When putting the song together, I used an earlier messed up part as the intro, and another messed up part as the outro. Both of them end with me smacking fuck out of the keys from frustration. Adds to the theme of the song I think. I think put the finished and best part as the centre piece and added vocals. One take, all done. And I'm quick happy with it.
So later I added some brass and string samples, cut up and arranged. This took quite a bit of time and was done the next day. I edited the song and that was that.
The song itself is called 'I'm with Stupid' and is about a time in your life when you change. When you become someone else. When you drift away from who you really are, and then only now in retrospect can you say to yourself 'what the fuck was I doing?'. Where you look back and it could be amusing, or fills you with dread. A moment you're unhappy with, or feel you just took a wrong direction. I wrote this from personal experience. I feel I have made a couple of bad turns in my life, and the only person to blame, is me. That's stupid. The side of you that changed.
I'm with Stupid
I've had to eat humble pie,
Seen a man, about a dog,
Been there, done that,
Such is life,
My overzealous work ethic
That's what I have to say goodbye to
I'm no longer with stupid
This is my new start, my new beginning,
No guts, no glory,
Couldn't even, swing a cat in here,
I was my own, faux pas,
Tuned to the moon, some might say,
My overzealous work ethic
That's what I have to say goodbye to
I'm no longer with stupid
This is my new start, my new beginning,
Written July 2011
So I made this song into a video for youtube, and I'm glad I did. My computer days later got another virus...and it did the same thing as last time, wiped all the music audio files. I thought I'd lost this new song until I found the video and changed formats etc to get an MP3 version of it again. So I'm very happy with that. Also I saved 'Anonymous', 'Opus. 1' and 'Overzealous Work Ethic' have all been saved to cd. So I still have all the 2011 recordings, so no great loss.
So this seems to be the end of the road for 'Overzealous Work Ethic'. I've enjoyed making the orchestrated sound for the E.P. It is something I always wanted to do and never thought I would, so I'm very happy with it. Just wish I could have added more to it. So the E.P., when up on bandcamp will look like this:
Overzealous Work Ethic
1. To Scratch an Itch
2. Evil Eye
3. The Busker
4. Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover
5. Chameleon Child
6. Oil Painting
7. I'm with Stupid
When I can, I'll put all songs up on bandcamp. The next project I will start on will be made in a new house, in a new city. I have no idea what I'll do next.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
Sunday, 24 July 2011
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
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
Friday, 8 July 2011
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
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
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
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
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
Monday, 4 July 2011
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
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
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
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Evil Eye
Today I sat down at the keyboard and began recording the new piano tune I'd come up with days earlier. After numerous attempts, I managed to get one I was happy with. I then decided to use the 'Evil Eye' lyrics I'd also recently written. The vocals turned out well on the first take, and so I left it at that. I then added some noise in the background to fill out the song a little.
The lyrics themselves are about feeling like that guy that never gets the big break he wants, needs or deserves. The guy who sees those around him accumulating wealth or success and has little chance to do anything about it. The guy who hates others for doing well; or is envious when they have something he wants. The lyrics and experiences are based around thoughts and feelings I have. An example of this is that I don't drive. And when I get fed up of walking and busing it everywhere, I get envious of those who can drive. Sounds stupid, but it is true.
I'll have a double check from time to time to see if I can improve the song in anyway, but I want to keep the songs quite plain and to the point. I also added some french speech behind 'To Scratch an Itch' and edited it a little so it sounds a little basser, as I felt it was sounding a little flat.
So that's another new addition to 'Overzealous Work Ethic'.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
(Available on soundcloud for free download)
The lyrics themselves are about feeling like that guy that never gets the big break he wants, needs or deserves. The guy who sees those around him accumulating wealth or success and has little chance to do anything about it. The guy who hates others for doing well; or is envious when they have something he wants. The lyrics and experiences are based around thoughts and feelings I have. An example of this is that I don't drive. And when I get fed up of walking and busing it everywhere, I get envious of those who can drive. Sounds stupid, but it is true.
I'll have a double check from time to time to see if I can improve the song in anyway, but I want to keep the songs quite plain and to the point. I also added some french speech behind 'To Scratch an Itch' and edited it a little so it sounds a little basser, as I felt it was sounding a little flat.
So that's another new addition to 'Overzealous Work Ethic'.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
(Available on soundcloud for free download)
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
'Overzealous Work Ethic': Future Ideas
As the 'Overzealous Work Ethic' project develops throughout the second half of 2011, I'm going to put up the odds and ends that lead me to come up with the songs, lyrics and music that I do get. I didn't really do this so much with any of the previous projects as I have written about them. I feel this will allow you to get a better idea of the, sometimes, haphazard ways I eventually end up with a finished product. In my phone at the current time, I have a note entitled 'Album ideas: titles, etc...' which I have incorporated certain aspects with the 'Overzealous Work Ethic album ideas' note. This is how the ideas are at the moment:
Description - an idea of an album could be of weird and wacky stories: from made up ones, and real ones. Subject matter is of the weird and sublime, e.g self-combustion.
Art - get the words in scrolls and have the background behind the scrolls all weird pictures etc. Call it something like 'the weird and wonderful'
Album titles
Overzealous work ethic
Satirical Oxymoron
Under the Pyramids
Song titles
To Scratch an Itch
Evil Eye
Song title ideas -
Tuned to the moon
Catalyst
Such is life
Been there, done that
...And all that was left were his shoes (song about self combustion)
Faux Pas
No Guts, No Glory
Sod's Law
See a man about a Dog
Lyrics -
I'm living under the umbrella of Sod's law,
The rain drenches my hair from the inside out, (under the shelter),
I'd be sort of scared to smile and cause a crash,
Gaze at a summer's sky, and it overcasts and shatters,
My sleep-wake cycle is fucked,
When your eyes are whitewashed with a daydream
My bitterness with society, lies not with you alone, but with all you cunts,
Captured in a flash and a click,
Surrounded by passion and printed images,
With my heart on my sleeve,
And mental prowess advancing,
All of these notes have been taken from 2010 onwards. They have been mixed up and I feel they may be able to eventually contribute in some way to the 'Overzealous Work Ethic' project. The description is not the idea that I have now. It still slightly brings in those aspects, but it is more the striving and getting turned down that is the main subject. The other album titles I may use elsewhere. The song titles are good, and are allowing me to write the songs I want to. So, I'll see what happens with all this random information,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
Description - an idea of an album could be of weird and wacky stories: from made up ones, and real ones. Subject matter is of the weird and sublime, e.g self-combustion.
Art - get the words in scrolls and have the background behind the scrolls all weird pictures etc. Call it something like 'the weird and wonderful'
Album titles
Overzealous work ethic
Satirical Oxymoron
Under the Pyramids
Song titles
To Scratch an Itch
Evil Eye
Song title ideas -
Tuned to the moon
Catalyst
Such is life
Been there, done that
...And all that was left were his shoes (song about self combustion)
Faux Pas
No Guts, No Glory
Sod's Law
See a man about a Dog
Lyrics -
I'm living under the umbrella of Sod's law,
The rain drenches my hair from the inside out, (under the shelter),
I'd be sort of scared to smile and cause a crash,
Gaze at a summer's sky, and it overcasts and shatters,
My sleep-wake cycle is fucked,
When your eyes are whitewashed with a daydream
My bitterness with society, lies not with you alone, but with all you cunts,
Captured in a flash and a click,
Surrounded by passion and printed images,
With my heart on my sleeve,
And mental prowess advancing,
All of these notes have been taken from 2010 onwards. They have been mixed up and I feel they may be able to eventually contribute in some way to the 'Overzealous Work Ethic' project. The description is not the idea that I have now. It still slightly brings in those aspects, but it is more the striving and getting turned down that is the main subject. The other album titles I may use elsewhere. The song titles are good, and are allowing me to write the songs I want to. So, I'll see what happens with all this random information,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
The Story Behind: Merchant City Man
I hated living in student halls. Well for the most part. At the end of 2006 I moved out of my mum's home, and moved into student halls. Before then I was pretty down and pretty much a whole different person. I dressed differently, thought differently and acted differently. I lived in a highrise student accommodation until around March of 2003, and in these months I had gone from an aggressive, politically-minded, lonely unconfident individual; to someone who had greater confidence, with a fashion sense, and a calmer and happier temperament. I met new people, had relationships, wrote a new style of music that I hadn't touched on before.
I later moved to another student accommodation, in the Merchant City area of Glasgow City Centre. From April 2007 onwards, this was the time I felt myself become me. I wrote Thursday 5th April 2007 @ 11.51am, in Queens Park, overlooking the city. I got my tattoo that day. And so in the summer of '07 - apart from working, I relaxed and enjoyed life. I wore sunglasses - which I never did; I relaxed in the sun for a tan - which I never did. I was relaxed and content. Up to this point in my musical writing, I'd never written anything happy. It was all dark, depressing or even disturbing.
As the summer progressed, I'd listen to 'summer' tunes (or that I would regard as summer tunes) such as Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm' and the Stereophonics 'Performance and Cocktails'. I would listen to 'I wouldn't believe you radio' by the Stereophonics, and kept thinking that I'd like to write something that cool and upbeat. So one night, staring out my window watching the distant traffic through the gaps between the highrise buildings, with my feet on my desk, I began writing the guitar tune. I got the basic chord, but I felt they needed jazzy up and so I added little licks inbetween them. And that was how the tune came to be.
The lyrics I wrote over a short period of time, based on all my experiences I had in the Merchant City area. I use to pop into Tesco and the staff would look at me like a dick; I'd walk down the street and everyone would be trying their best to look like cat-walk models; the streets would shine in the sunshine; the heat would carass my body; I'd buy smoothies and junk food and go home and watch 'Scarface' three times in a row. It was a beautiful time. Those were the days.
One vivid memory I have - which is the last verse in the song Merchant City Man, is of an old man. As I walked back from wherever I had been, I turned a corner and saw an old man dancing and singing loudly. I have no idea if he were drunk or not, but he sang with real passion. Every word. So I wrote him into the song. And the Merchant City Man with his hat, that's me.
Merchant City Man
When I'm running around this city,
I feel it's damn to pretty for my eyes,
All the gorgeous people staring,
I just grin and bare it and walk on by,
I get served by a miserable few,
All I did was buy a smoothie and ice,
What's wrong with being nice,
I see vanity it makes bulk
I let the sun stroke over my face, over my shades
And what does it mean to me,
To be where I want to be,
In the sky,
I might smile when nothing is funny,
But that's fine, I want to be a looney for a while,
While it lasts,
The shadows walk those groovy steps,
No common sense, bad dress sense, makes no sense at all,
Merchant city man with his hat,
Escape, berate the man singing out loud,
But he's so proud
And what does it mean to me,
To be where I want to be,
In the sky,
Written May/June 2007
Since then I have made three seperate recordings of this song: in 2007, 2009, 2011. I have performed it numerous times at gigs and it gets a good reaction. The most recent version is on 'Opus. 1', free to download at bandcamp.
Those were happy days,
Watch this space for more 'The story behind...',
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
I later moved to another student accommodation, in the Merchant City area of Glasgow City Centre. From April 2007 onwards, this was the time I felt myself become me. I wrote Thursday 5th April 2007 @ 11.51am, in Queens Park, overlooking the city. I got my tattoo that day. And so in the summer of '07 - apart from working, I relaxed and enjoyed life. I wore sunglasses - which I never did; I relaxed in the sun for a tan - which I never did. I was relaxed and content. Up to this point in my musical writing, I'd never written anything happy. It was all dark, depressing or even disturbing.
As the summer progressed, I'd listen to 'summer' tunes (or that I would regard as summer tunes) such as Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm' and the Stereophonics 'Performance and Cocktails'. I would listen to 'I wouldn't believe you radio' by the Stereophonics, and kept thinking that I'd like to write something that cool and upbeat. So one night, staring out my window watching the distant traffic through the gaps between the highrise buildings, with my feet on my desk, I began writing the guitar tune. I got the basic chord, but I felt they needed jazzy up and so I added little licks inbetween them. And that was how the tune came to be.
The lyrics I wrote over a short period of time, based on all my experiences I had in the Merchant City area. I use to pop into Tesco and the staff would look at me like a dick; I'd walk down the street and everyone would be trying their best to look like cat-walk models; the streets would shine in the sunshine; the heat would carass my body; I'd buy smoothies and junk food and go home and watch 'Scarface' three times in a row. It was a beautiful time. Those were the days.
One vivid memory I have - which is the last verse in the song Merchant City Man, is of an old man. As I walked back from wherever I had been, I turned a corner and saw an old man dancing and singing loudly. I have no idea if he were drunk or not, but he sang with real passion. Every word. So I wrote him into the song. And the Merchant City Man with his hat, that's me.
Merchant City Man
When I'm running around this city,
I feel it's damn to pretty for my eyes,
All the gorgeous people staring,
I just grin and bare it and walk on by,
I get served by a miserable few,
All I did was buy a smoothie and ice,
What's wrong with being nice,
I see vanity it makes bulk
I let the sun stroke over my face, over my shades
And what does it mean to me,
To be where I want to be,
In the sky,
I might smile when nothing is funny,
But that's fine, I want to be a looney for a while,
While it lasts,
The shadows walk those groovy steps,
No common sense, bad dress sense, makes no sense at all,
Merchant city man with his hat,
Escape, berate the man singing out loud,
But he's so proud
And what does it mean to me,
To be where I want to be,
In the sky,
Written May/June 2007
Since then I have made three seperate recordings of this song: in 2007, 2009, 2011. I have performed it numerous times at gigs and it gets a good reaction. The most recent version is on 'Opus. 1', free to download at bandcamp.
Those were happy days,
Watch this space for more 'The story behind...',
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
Monday, 27 June 2011
Overzealous Work Ethic: A description and new lyrics
I realise that I have put up artwork and lyrics for the new project entitled 'Overzealous Work Ethic' and not elaborated or explained what the new idea is about.
'Overzealous Work Ethic' is a quote I took from the television show 'Lost'. The character Sawyer describes Hurley as having an '...overzealous work ethic...'. The humorous aspect of the expression in the show touched a nerve with me, and I immediately wrote it down wishing to use it later. I thought it would be a good title for an album, but wasn't sure about using it.
So later I am struggling to come up with any new ideas. 'Anonymous' is at an end, and I am absolutely delighted with how it sits as a collection of songs, but I needed something new. Something different. I tried recording an acoustic tune with a dance beat. I thought, that's a cool route to go down, acoustic songs with dance beats. Quite simple. But then I thought it is too similar to Opus. 1 and so would get a little boring. So I pondered over ideas, but still nothing.
My life at the moment isn't in the best shape it could be: putting on weight, needing to look for new work, disputes with people, low financial income, etc, etc. An endless list of negatives. With all this, it has been bringing me down quite a bit. I have ben feeling helpless, frustrated and undermotivated. As a person, I try my hardest to get my standard of living better, but I always feel like I get the shit end of the stick.
I had a set of lyrics sitting entitled 'To Scratch an Itch' written in october time 2010. I had never used them, and read them over. I thought they were actually really good and honest. I put it first to an acoustic tune I had written, but didn't think it worked too well. So I went back to the drawing board, and thought about recording an old piano I had and loved, and adding the lyrics to it. So I did. And it turned out to be a good move.
The day after recording the tune I was in the mood to try and make some art for it, but hand drawn and painted, not graphic. I had an idea of making the art look like a Harry Houdini poster I found on the net when I was considering ideas for new album titles and art. So I took inspiration from this, drew it in ink, coloured with highlighters and permanent pen, and painted. I drew a bowel hat I have, and wrote a French phrase next to it taken from Rene Magritte. The end result made me think of some old French artist or something, and I thought it was perfect for what I wanted to do now, and gave me some direction.
So I started looking at the title 'Overzealous Work Ethic' and what it means to me. The theme behind it will be in regards to those people who try and do their best but always seem to get nowhere. It is a realistic album about pursuing your dreams, and not getting where you want to be. Some of the songs will be about me, from my own thoughts, feelings and experiences, and other songs will be about similar situations or people. I have written two new sets of lyrics in a similar vain, one about being envious and jealous of those with wealth entitled 'Evil Eye' and the other is about the fictional story of a Busker who has been pursuing their dream of getting a record deal his whole life, to eventually die without ever achieving it, entitled 'The Busker'
Evil Eye
I can't get near negotiating with the big bucks
See, I'm neither upper nor middle, I'm the lowest of the low
You rub your notes, with the queens face on,
I rub sticks, fire, and burn my house down,
I hear what you say, there's envious undertones,
But it's how I feel, it's what I see,
It's who I am, and what I'll always be
At the bottom of a ladder
I have my own glass ceiling,
There's nothing at the end of the rainbow,
Well for me anyway
You rub your notes, with the queens face on,
I rub sticks, fire, and burn my house down,
I hear what you say, there's envious undertones,
But it's how I feel, it's what I see,
It's who I am, and what I'll always be
Written June 2011
The Busker
'I want to make it in this world' he proclaimed,
And with that, he left with his life hanging over his shoulder,
Everyday the same routine, counting pennies in his newly purchased cap,
'When will I get my big break?' He would quizz,
Staring into a glass half empty,
The routine depletes, the enthusiasm the same,
And as the aging cap holds together by each hand stitched strand,
Ambition lingers, the pennies wain,
The busker passionately screamed,
He never gave up, but no one understood,
Those songs that were so close to his heart,
He never fulfilled his dreams, and died an empty man,
'I don't understand?' He sadly weeps,
Staring at wrickled hands, with youthful eyes,
His six string companion has seen better days,
The trusted cap which tirelessly remains,
And as he remembers those forgotten days,
And the lyrics that made him feel alive,
He takes his final breath, and his final bow,
Written Monday 26th June 2011 on the bus
I have a piano tune I'm working on and wish to use with Evil Eye, but it is still a work-in-progress. 'To Scratch an Itch' isn't finished yet, as I would like to either try and put some brass behind the piano, or use noises of either an old frenchman talking or the sounds of a French bar or street scene. I think it would create a nice atmopshere behind the music.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
'Overzealous Work Ethic' is a quote I took from the television show 'Lost'. The character Sawyer describes Hurley as having an '...overzealous work ethic...'. The humorous aspect of the expression in the show touched a nerve with me, and I immediately wrote it down wishing to use it later. I thought it would be a good title for an album, but wasn't sure about using it.
So later I am struggling to come up with any new ideas. 'Anonymous' is at an end, and I am absolutely delighted with how it sits as a collection of songs, but I needed something new. Something different. I tried recording an acoustic tune with a dance beat. I thought, that's a cool route to go down, acoustic songs with dance beats. Quite simple. But then I thought it is too similar to Opus. 1 and so would get a little boring. So I pondered over ideas, but still nothing.
My life at the moment isn't in the best shape it could be: putting on weight, needing to look for new work, disputes with people, low financial income, etc, etc. An endless list of negatives. With all this, it has been bringing me down quite a bit. I have ben feeling helpless, frustrated and undermotivated. As a person, I try my hardest to get my standard of living better, but I always feel like I get the shit end of the stick.
I had a set of lyrics sitting entitled 'To Scratch an Itch' written in october time 2010. I had never used them, and read them over. I thought they were actually really good and honest. I put it first to an acoustic tune I had written, but didn't think it worked too well. So I went back to the drawing board, and thought about recording an old piano I had and loved, and adding the lyrics to it. So I did. And it turned out to be a good move.
The day after recording the tune I was in the mood to try and make some art for it, but hand drawn and painted, not graphic. I had an idea of making the art look like a Harry Houdini poster I found on the net when I was considering ideas for new album titles and art. So I took inspiration from this, drew it in ink, coloured with highlighters and permanent pen, and painted. I drew a bowel hat I have, and wrote a French phrase next to it taken from Rene Magritte. The end result made me think of some old French artist or something, and I thought it was perfect for what I wanted to do now, and gave me some direction.
So I started looking at the title 'Overzealous Work Ethic' and what it means to me. The theme behind it will be in regards to those people who try and do their best but always seem to get nowhere. It is a realistic album about pursuing your dreams, and not getting where you want to be. Some of the songs will be about me, from my own thoughts, feelings and experiences, and other songs will be about similar situations or people. I have written two new sets of lyrics in a similar vain, one about being envious and jealous of those with wealth entitled 'Evil Eye' and the other is about the fictional story of a Busker who has been pursuing their dream of getting a record deal his whole life, to eventually die without ever achieving it, entitled 'The Busker'
Evil Eye
I can't get near negotiating with the big bucks
See, I'm neither upper nor middle, I'm the lowest of the low
You rub your notes, with the queens face on,
I rub sticks, fire, and burn my house down,
I hear what you say, there's envious undertones,
But it's how I feel, it's what I see,
It's who I am, and what I'll always be
At the bottom of a ladder
I have my own glass ceiling,
There's nothing at the end of the rainbow,
Well for me anyway
You rub your notes, with the queens face on,
I rub sticks, fire, and burn my house down,
I hear what you say, there's envious undertones,
But it's how I feel, it's what I see,
It's who I am, and what I'll always be
Written June 2011
The Busker
'I want to make it in this world' he proclaimed,
And with that, he left with his life hanging over his shoulder,
Everyday the same routine, counting pennies in his newly purchased cap,
'When will I get my big break?' He would quizz,
Staring into a glass half empty,
The routine depletes, the enthusiasm the same,
And as the aging cap holds together by each hand stitched strand,
Ambition lingers, the pennies wain,
The busker passionately screamed,
He never gave up, but no one understood,
Those songs that were so close to his heart,
He never fulfilled his dreams, and died an empty man,
'I don't understand?' He sadly weeps,
Staring at wrickled hands, with youthful eyes,
His six string companion has seen better days,
The trusted cap which tirelessly remains,
And as he remembers those forgotten days,
And the lyrics that made him feel alive,
He takes his final breath, and his final bow,
Written Monday 26th June 2011 on the bus
I have a piano tune I'm working on and wish to use with Evil Eye, but it is still a work-in-progress. 'To Scratch an Itch' isn't finished yet, as I would like to either try and put some brass behind the piano, or use noises of either an old frenchman talking or the sounds of a French bar or street scene. I think it would create a nice atmopshere behind the music.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
Saturday, 25 June 2011
To Scratch an Itch
This is a new song even though the lyrics were written in 2010, and the piano tune written in 2005. It is about being honest with people about how you are feeling, and them throwing your feelings back in your face. It is currently a work-in-progress. I don't think I will do a lot more to it, just maybe put some sounds in for atmosphere. It is the first song of the new project 'Overzealous Work Ethic'.
To Scratch an Itch
Yeh sure, you can crack a joke,
But you are emotionally stunted
Your smile hides everthing that is you,
Tell me your story, or pretend it didn't happen,
I'll say sorry, when I don't mean it
I'll make up, when I didn't break it up,
I don't care anymore, you have pushed me to far, in a smelly corner,
There are some feelings in life,
You find too difficult to express,
For you, it's all of them,
I hurt inside, but ignornance is bliss,
I could unscrew my head, and nothing would fall out
All the energy has left me, I feel older, none the wiser, a shadow of my former self
Like someone has replaced my short-term memory with someones nightmares,
My head hurts sometimes, and I can't soothe it,
Numb, ever so numb, sombre thoughts all glum,
There are some feelings in life,
You find too difficult to express,
For you, it's all of them,
I hurt inside, but ignornance is bliss,
Written from end of October time, 2010
I also have another set of lyrics and have a new piano tune in the making at the moment. So...
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
To Scratch an Itch
Yeh sure, you can crack a joke,
But you are emotionally stunted
Your smile hides everthing that is you,
Tell me your story, or pretend it didn't happen,
I'll say sorry, when I don't mean it
I'll make up, when I didn't break it up,
I don't care anymore, you have pushed me to far, in a smelly corner,
There are some feelings in life,
You find too difficult to express,
For you, it's all of them,
I hurt inside, but ignornance is bliss,
I could unscrew my head, and nothing would fall out
All the energy has left me, I feel older, none the wiser, a shadow of my former self
Like someone has replaced my short-term memory with someones nightmares,
My head hurts sometimes, and I can't soothe it,
Numb, ever so numb, sombre thoughts all glum,
There are some feelings in life,
You find too difficult to express,
For you, it's all of them,
I hurt inside, but ignornance is bliss,
Written from end of October time, 2010
I also have another set of lyrics and have a new piano tune in the making at the moment. So...
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Opus. 1, and Sockpuppet, Juxtaposition and You can make money without doing evil
I'll try and start this as far back as I can remember. The most recent posts to this are the ones regarding Opus. 1. So I'll start there.
I had got quite a few Opus. 1 songs finished in the two days I dedicated to it. I, however, wanted to add more. So over the next few weeks after the day 1 and 2 in the last Opus. 1 blog post, I had recorded some more songs including: Be Lucky (you made me smile when nothing else could), Armed for Revolution and Psychology of War. They all turned out fairly well, as I recorded them on the same settings etc. However with a few of the last ones the volumes are a little too high. Nonetheless, they all sounds pretty good. I have 20 songs for it now, but I have gone back and forwards thinking what to do with it and I've decided to only add songs to Opus. 1 that are a) a good recording, b) are not well known, performed tracks and c) songs that are the best acoustic sounding. So for instance, I recorded a piano version of the 'In Cloud Cuckooland' song 'House of Mirrors'; however, I don't feel it would fit at all, or convey the mood I'd be going for. I had come up with a quick album cover for Opus. 1, purely to be able to fire some of the songs on youtube, previously mentioned in the old post. However since then - and if you see my last post, I finally made a cover for Opus. 1 I am quite happy with. The styles of ink drawing, graphic art, photography and collage, all cover the years and styles of art from 2000 onwards. I think it sums it all up rather well. This is again, like most things a work in progress. At the moment though, I'm very happy with it.
So now I will move on to Anonymous, which for a period of time had nothing going on. It had stopped for a period after recording the songs 'Turn on, Boot up, Jack in', 'Clean Slate Program' and 'Dot-com Bubble'. I didn't really know what else I wanted to do with it. I had started the song 'Sockpuppet', which sounded nothing like the end result. I won't go through all the different things I did to record and complete all the new songs, but I'll briefly go over them. I have completed three new songs and have recordings on the internet: 'Sockpuppet', 'Juxtaposition' and 'You can make money without doing evil'.
I began work on 'Sockpuppet' and cut up some sounds and beats to create the underlying beat. They I added the bass riff which was quite difficult to come up with due to the timing of the beat. I then added a guitar riff throughout it, but decided to only use it towards the middle to end of the song. I managed to record the vocals and wanted the melody to be slightly shouty and broken up. I then cut up the vocal and messed about with this. I had a finished version like this, but then I decided to put a rock beat in to break the song up and not make it sound like lots of the other songs I have. And I am very happy with the end result. Quite simple, but good.
Sockpuppet
A sockpuppet persona,
Under a masquerade of lies,
Her despicable disgrace,
Behind a little boy's eyes
Her final words, are of the vulnerable
Strikes a chord, with even the toughest heart,
"You’re the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over."
The sockpuppet took her life, before it could start
The victim was at an age
Where her life bloomed and blossomed,
The sockpuppet's evil game,
Left her wilting in a cupboard,
The sockpuppet, an alias called josh,
Raised the girl's spirits with gentle words,
Flipped the coin, darkened her esteem,
A joke, a hoax, an online maim,
(Available to download for free on bandcamp)
'Juxtaposition' came next. I was up late, until about 3am in the morning. I couldn't sleep, got up and went on the computer. Plugged my pendrive in with different sample beats on it. I took one noise and beat and repeated it, in a very simple way. Then I added another beat. Then another. And another. I layered it this way until I had about 15 different beats layered, and I took beats out and put some in as the song progressed. It sounded amazing. The next day, I added to it: put dubstep and other noises into a tune for the beats. I then put the lyrics I had written for it to the song, they worked out well on first take. Then added a guitar solo after the first chorus and one at the end. I edited the guitar solos to make stops and starts. And that it was it. Done. Quite simply done, but sounds great. I feel it is one of the best 'Anonymous' songs.
Juxtaposition
The line begins to blur
Don't know their arse from their elbow,
Reality sinks in,
It's all the more pityful
A second chance at life,
Even when your first has not transpired,
Juxtaposition, and you'll see, nothing has changed,
Ironic personalities,
Of people you'll never be
Obese ugly truths
Streamlined nonsense, awake to see
A second chance at life,
Even when your first has not transpired,
Juxtaposition, and you'll see, nothing has changed,
Failure to be, who you wanted to be,
To live either side of a coin, in a room, with a machine
(Listen to 'Juxtaposition' on youtube)
After this I began work on 'You can make money without doing evil'. This was a set of lyrics about google that didn't have a title. So I decided to use this title, which was a lyric I left out. So, I began by starting with a very simple beat and noise. I wanted something different from 'Juxtaposition'. So I added to this song, in a similar way to the previous song, but in a different way order. I added a simple bass line, simple guitar riff to beef up the bass. Then added a cool lead riff throughout the song. I then added vocals, cut them up, etc, and made it more interesting. Then I made three solos, which I think are all incredibly good. The first one on the song is made up of dubstep notes; the second is made up of noises and scratch and decks samples; and the third is a guitar solo, which at points I have edited and cut up, to make it jump. The end edited song sounds great, and very different from 'Juxtaposition'.
You can make money without doing evil
A connected web of information
Your tiny robots pick me apart,
A brain constructed of tiny boxes,
Update now, don't be evil,
Stop tracking everything I do,
Watching me on your internal cctv,
Your hundreds of servers pollute us,
The terrorists, what happens if they get you,
You know me better than I do,
You film my house from up in space,
Tell everyone around the world about me,
Have an e-mail, blog, ebook, on us,
We know what you want,
We know everything about you,
Hold your information for decades,
Stalk and track and watch and laugh at you,
A couple of lab rats,
Biting through cables,
Honeing information perfection
(Listen to 'You can make money without doing evil' on youtube)
So at this point, as I post this, I have got 20 songs on 'Anonymous'. I am wondering whether to finish the album now, or make a few more songs for it. I'm incredibly pleased with the collection of songs and how they sound. I have captured the internet in the way I would have liked. However I still haven't covered all the subject matter I would have liked at the moment, so I want to do that first. It's more than likely I'll add more to it. On bandcamp I have 14 of the 20 songs up for free download now. At home we only have an internet pendrive with a max of 400MB to use in a month, and the connection is poor, and hence why all 20 are not up. But I will get there. All will be available for free download. But there may be more to come. I also have some ideas for a new project. So we'll see what happens there. And that's it. Nothing more new to add. Yet.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.myspace.com/wullaewright
www.twitter.com/wullaewright
I had got quite a few Opus. 1 songs finished in the two days I dedicated to it. I, however, wanted to add more. So over the next few weeks after the day 1 and 2 in the last Opus. 1 blog post, I had recorded some more songs including: Be Lucky (you made me smile when nothing else could), Armed for Revolution and Psychology of War. They all turned out fairly well, as I recorded them on the same settings etc. However with a few of the last ones the volumes are a little too high. Nonetheless, they all sounds pretty good. I have 20 songs for it now, but I have gone back and forwards thinking what to do with it and I've decided to only add songs to Opus. 1 that are a) a good recording, b) are not well known, performed tracks and c) songs that are the best acoustic sounding. So for instance, I recorded a piano version of the 'In Cloud Cuckooland' song 'House of Mirrors'; however, I don't feel it would fit at all, or convey the mood I'd be going for. I had come up with a quick album cover for Opus. 1, purely to be able to fire some of the songs on youtube, previously mentioned in the old post. However since then - and if you see my last post, I finally made a cover for Opus. 1 I am quite happy with. The styles of ink drawing, graphic art, photography and collage, all cover the years and styles of art from 2000 onwards. I think it sums it all up rather well. This is again, like most things a work in progress. At the moment though, I'm very happy with it.
So now I will move on to Anonymous, which for a period of time had nothing going on. It had stopped for a period after recording the songs 'Turn on, Boot up, Jack in', 'Clean Slate Program' and 'Dot-com Bubble'. I didn't really know what else I wanted to do with it. I had started the song 'Sockpuppet', which sounded nothing like the end result. I won't go through all the different things I did to record and complete all the new songs, but I'll briefly go over them. I have completed three new songs and have recordings on the internet: 'Sockpuppet', 'Juxtaposition' and 'You can make money without doing evil'.
I began work on 'Sockpuppet' and cut up some sounds and beats to create the underlying beat. They I added the bass riff which was quite difficult to come up with due to the timing of the beat. I then added a guitar riff throughout it, but decided to only use it towards the middle to end of the song. I managed to record the vocals and wanted the melody to be slightly shouty and broken up. I then cut up the vocal and messed about with this. I had a finished version like this, but then I decided to put a rock beat in to break the song up and not make it sound like lots of the other songs I have. And I am very happy with the end result. Quite simple, but good.
Sockpuppet
A sockpuppet persona,
Under a masquerade of lies,
Her despicable disgrace,
Behind a little boy's eyes
Her final words, are of the vulnerable
Strikes a chord, with even the toughest heart,
"You’re the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over."
The sockpuppet took her life, before it could start
The victim was at an age
Where her life bloomed and blossomed,
The sockpuppet's evil game,
Left her wilting in a cupboard,
The sockpuppet, an alias called josh,
Raised the girl's spirits with gentle words,
Flipped the coin, darkened her esteem,
A joke, a hoax, an online maim,
(Available to download for free on bandcamp)
'Juxtaposition' came next. I was up late, until about 3am in the morning. I couldn't sleep, got up and went on the computer. Plugged my pendrive in with different sample beats on it. I took one noise and beat and repeated it, in a very simple way. Then I added another beat. Then another. And another. I layered it this way until I had about 15 different beats layered, and I took beats out and put some in as the song progressed. It sounded amazing. The next day, I added to it: put dubstep and other noises into a tune for the beats. I then put the lyrics I had written for it to the song, they worked out well on first take. Then added a guitar solo after the first chorus and one at the end. I edited the guitar solos to make stops and starts. And that it was it. Done. Quite simply done, but sounds great. I feel it is one of the best 'Anonymous' songs.
Juxtaposition
The line begins to blur
Don't know their arse from their elbow,
Reality sinks in,
It's all the more pityful
A second chance at life,
Even when your first has not transpired,
Juxtaposition, and you'll see, nothing has changed,
Ironic personalities,
Of people you'll never be
Obese ugly truths
Streamlined nonsense, awake to see
A second chance at life,
Even when your first has not transpired,
Juxtaposition, and you'll see, nothing has changed,
Failure to be, who you wanted to be,
To live either side of a coin, in a room, with a machine
(Listen to 'Juxtaposition' on youtube)
After this I began work on 'You can make money without doing evil'. This was a set of lyrics about google that didn't have a title. So I decided to use this title, which was a lyric I left out. So, I began by starting with a very simple beat and noise. I wanted something different from 'Juxtaposition'. So I added to this song, in a similar way to the previous song, but in a different way order. I added a simple bass line, simple guitar riff to beef up the bass. Then added a cool lead riff throughout the song. I then added vocals, cut them up, etc, and made it more interesting. Then I made three solos, which I think are all incredibly good. The first one on the song is made up of dubstep notes; the second is made up of noises and scratch and decks samples; and the third is a guitar solo, which at points I have edited and cut up, to make it jump. The end edited song sounds great, and very different from 'Juxtaposition'.
You can make money without doing evil
A connected web of information
Your tiny robots pick me apart,
A brain constructed of tiny boxes,
Update now, don't be evil,
Stop tracking everything I do,
Watching me on your internal cctv,
Your hundreds of servers pollute us,
The terrorists, what happens if they get you,
You know me better than I do,
You film my house from up in space,
Tell everyone around the world about me,
Have an e-mail, blog, ebook, on us,
We know what you want,
We know everything about you,
Hold your information for decades,
Stalk and track and watch and laugh at you,
A couple of lab rats,
Biting through cables,
Honeing information perfection
(Listen to 'You can make money without doing evil' on youtube)
So at this point, as I post this, I have got 20 songs on 'Anonymous'. I am wondering whether to finish the album now, or make a few more songs for it. I'm incredibly pleased with the collection of songs and how they sound. I have captured the internet in the way I would have liked. However I still haven't covered all the subject matter I would have liked at the moment, so I want to do that first. It's more than likely I'll add more to it. On bandcamp I have 14 of the 20 songs up for free download now. At home we only have an internet pendrive with a max of 400MB to use in a month, and the connection is poor, and hence why all 20 are not up. But I will get there. All will be available for free download. But there may be more to come. I also have some ideas for a new project. So we'll see what happens there. And that's it. Nothing more new to add. Yet.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.wullaewright.bandcamp.com
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.myspace.com/wullaewright
www.twitter.com/wullaewright
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Opus.1 - Artwork
This is the new artwork for Opus. 1. I have not updated my blog for a little while now, but do intead to over the next while.
Watch this space,
Wullae
Five free songs to download at Bandcamp
Saturday, 14 May 2011
The Story Behind: The Search
'Why are there so many people in the world with the same fucking name!!'
Through my teenage years to the present day, the internet has been a vital part of my life. So many different significant parts of my life and lifestyles have been affected and sustained by the internet: from relationships to my lifestyle choices, etc. It has been a massive influence on myself, my generation, and continues to be.
One of the most beneficial uses for the internet - in my opinion, is the ability to keep in contact with lots of people you wouldn't otherwise be able to do with. Not only this, but the fact that you can search and find the people you have lost or forgotten about, until one day you remember them again. So many people I have remembered, and tried to search for.
The search: Stuart
One person I did continually search for over the internet for years after losing contact was my friend Stuart Carroll. Years, I'd periodically search for him: on google, bebo, facebook, myspace. I could never ever find him. Years, from around 2005 time. So one day on facebook in early 2010, I find an old friend, add him and browse through his friendlist. Flicker past the unknown names and faces, I rest my elbow on the desk in university. I had got bored of studying, and in the quiet area of the library, there was nothing to do but breathe, and even then, they would try and stop you doing that. Flicking through the names and faces I see him. Right there. Stuart. I added him straight away. Not long afterwards, we chatted and caught up. It has been magic doing so.
The search: Tina Thomas
I use to be on youtube around 2004-05, before I had the account I have now. I would post up political videos from the 20th century including videos on Che Guevara, Gandhi, MLK, JFK, Khrushchev, etc. I would converse with many other politically minded folk on youtube, but began a friendship with a lovely lady from Chicago, Tina Thomas. She has a warm heart and great soul, and is an inspirational person within my life. We would chat about all sorts, and particularly at this time I felt low and lonely, and Tina was a great friend to me. My account was closed down on youtube, and Tina had troubles at her end too. We spoke occasionally on myspace until she experienced problems there too. And so, from around 2007 until 2011 I periodically search for Tina. You have no idea how many Tina Thomas' there are in the world! So on facebook for instance, it was impossible. However, on Twitter, I got a message from a 'wind_parade'. It started 'Siggy?'. It was Tina. Since then we have chatted and hopefully this will continue.
The search: Kevin Curran
In college in 2005, I made a great friend by the name of Kevin. For that year in college we had the best laughs. We tried to create a new college president office, as we were against the college student president voted in that year. We argued with them. Put up propaganda posters about them. It was such a laugh. Kevin opened up to me and told me things he hadn't told others. And as the year progressed, he slowly got close to another friend and moved away to live with her and her man. We completely lost contact. However, this man lived much of his life over the internet, and so I thought it would be easy to find him. However, since 2006, I have periodically searched for Kevin, and I still to this day cannot find him. The search continues...
The search: Alan McKechnie
I hated working in that hotel in 2005. I had a huge verbal with the head chef (where I feel I fucking beat his ass!), hated the waiters as they were all aged 15 or under, and the manager was a fruitcake. However, there was one guy, one fucking gent who kept me sane. Who made me piss myself laughing in tears. His name was Alan McKechnie. This guy was a proper ladies man, and a lads lad. Totally genuinely great guy. I was very out of character at this time, dressed like a Communist vagabond and had done it to myself. Alan was so accepting. And when we went out a few times, he made me realise what I had lost. I was filled with admiration for the guy. He probably has absolutely no idea how big a kick up the arse he gave me. When I moved out of my mum's house a year or so later, I changed my appearance, lifestyle and attitude, and large parts of these were influenced by this man. However, when I left the hotel in 2006, I lost contact with Al. Again, like with Kevin, no amount of searching has allowed me to find him. The search continues...
So I wanted to write a song about this. About missing someone you lost, even when you didn't mean to or want to. The memories are great, and you think 'why do they have to be memories!?'. The web has allowed people to find those they cared about, from way back. I wrote the lyrics about this song listening to 'Codex' by Radiohead. It really set the mood I was looking for. The lyrics are inspired by the song too.
The riff itself however, is an old one. Written back in 2006, it was know as 'Liberation'. It was about leaders of the 20th century who liberated their own peoples'. However, I felt that the emotion felt in the music allow did not suit that subject matter, and so used it in 2011 for 'The Search'. It is my favourite Anonymous song, and means the most to me. The recording is great in my opinion and has a very old style of recording for me.
The Search
There are so many people I have abandoned,
So many faces I have lost,
I feel a quiet saddness,
Inside my thoughts,
I'd like to speak to you one last time,
To say goodbye, the way I should have,
To have one last moment, Ending on a peaceful silence,
Indistinguishable faces flicker past,
All the names their all the same,
And amongst the smiles and cuddles,
I don't see you, none of them are you,
You are that needle in a haystack,
And I can't find you, no I can't find you,
There is an emptiness,
I will continue to search for you
Written early 2011
The Search will, and does, continue...
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
Go to youtube to see an acoustic version done at home of 'The Search'
Through my teenage years to the present day, the internet has been a vital part of my life. So many different significant parts of my life and lifestyles have been affected and sustained by the internet: from relationships to my lifestyle choices, etc. It has been a massive influence on myself, my generation, and continues to be.
One of the most beneficial uses for the internet - in my opinion, is the ability to keep in contact with lots of people you wouldn't otherwise be able to do with. Not only this, but the fact that you can search and find the people you have lost or forgotten about, until one day you remember them again. So many people I have remembered, and tried to search for.
The search: Stuart
One person I did continually search for over the internet for years after losing contact was my friend Stuart Carroll. Years, I'd periodically search for him: on google, bebo, facebook, myspace. I could never ever find him. Years, from around 2005 time. So one day on facebook in early 2010, I find an old friend, add him and browse through his friendlist. Flicker past the unknown names and faces, I rest my elbow on the desk in university. I had got bored of studying, and in the quiet area of the library, there was nothing to do but breathe, and even then, they would try and stop you doing that. Flicking through the names and faces I see him. Right there. Stuart. I added him straight away. Not long afterwards, we chatted and caught up. It has been magic doing so.
The search: Tina Thomas
I use to be on youtube around 2004-05, before I had the account I have now. I would post up political videos from the 20th century including videos on Che Guevara, Gandhi, MLK, JFK, Khrushchev, etc. I would converse with many other politically minded folk on youtube, but began a friendship with a lovely lady from Chicago, Tina Thomas. She has a warm heart and great soul, and is an inspirational person within my life. We would chat about all sorts, and particularly at this time I felt low and lonely, and Tina was a great friend to me. My account was closed down on youtube, and Tina had troubles at her end too. We spoke occasionally on myspace until she experienced problems there too. And so, from around 2007 until 2011 I periodically search for Tina. You have no idea how many Tina Thomas' there are in the world! So on facebook for instance, it was impossible. However, on Twitter, I got a message from a 'wind_parade'. It started 'Siggy?'. It was Tina. Since then we have chatted and hopefully this will continue.
The search: Kevin Curran
In college in 2005, I made a great friend by the name of Kevin. For that year in college we had the best laughs. We tried to create a new college president office, as we were against the college student president voted in that year. We argued with them. Put up propaganda posters about them. It was such a laugh. Kevin opened up to me and told me things he hadn't told others. And as the year progressed, he slowly got close to another friend and moved away to live with her and her man. We completely lost contact. However, this man lived much of his life over the internet, and so I thought it would be easy to find him. However, since 2006, I have periodically searched for Kevin, and I still to this day cannot find him. The search continues...
The search: Alan McKechnie
I hated working in that hotel in 2005. I had a huge verbal with the head chef (where I feel I fucking beat his ass!), hated the waiters as they were all aged 15 or under, and the manager was a fruitcake. However, there was one guy, one fucking gent who kept me sane. Who made me piss myself laughing in tears. His name was Alan McKechnie. This guy was a proper ladies man, and a lads lad. Totally genuinely great guy. I was very out of character at this time, dressed like a Communist vagabond and had done it to myself. Alan was so accepting. And when we went out a few times, he made me realise what I had lost. I was filled with admiration for the guy. He probably has absolutely no idea how big a kick up the arse he gave me. When I moved out of my mum's house a year or so later, I changed my appearance, lifestyle and attitude, and large parts of these were influenced by this man. However, when I left the hotel in 2006, I lost contact with Al. Again, like with Kevin, no amount of searching has allowed me to find him. The search continues...
So I wanted to write a song about this. About missing someone you lost, even when you didn't mean to or want to. The memories are great, and you think 'why do they have to be memories!?'. The web has allowed people to find those they cared about, from way back. I wrote the lyrics about this song listening to 'Codex' by Radiohead. It really set the mood I was looking for. The lyrics are inspired by the song too.
The riff itself however, is an old one. Written back in 2006, it was know as 'Liberation'. It was about leaders of the 20th century who liberated their own peoples'. However, I felt that the emotion felt in the music allow did not suit that subject matter, and so used it in 2011 for 'The Search'. It is my favourite Anonymous song, and means the most to me. The recording is great in my opinion and has a very old style of recording for me.
The Search
There are so many people I have abandoned,
So many faces I have lost,
I feel a quiet saddness,
Inside my thoughts,
I'd like to speak to you one last time,
To say goodbye, the way I should have,
To have one last moment, Ending on a peaceful silence,
Indistinguishable faces flicker past,
All the names their all the same,
And amongst the smiles and cuddles,
I don't see you, none of them are you,
You are that needle in a haystack,
And I can't find you, no I can't find you,
There is an emptiness,
I will continue to search for you
Written early 2011
The Search will, and does, continue...
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
Go to youtube to see an acoustic version done at home of 'The Search'
Opus. 1
Acoustic versions. That's what I had it named as on my Blackberry notes page. But acoustic versions, is 1. The sort of title I have used before for songs, and 2. Is a bit fucking boring to be honest. So I wanted something to sum up the acoustic versions.
The main reason I wanted to make the acoustic versions, was to finally make a recording of 'Jinx' that I was happy with. It got me thinking that really I should record the songs at their most basic, the way I wrote them, the day I wrote them. I wanted to record all the early songs, and good songs that never made it onto themes that I have created, such as Anonymous. So I wanted this to be essentially an album to say this is the beginning; where it all started from and has been a continuous work ever since. Something that signifies that all the songs are intertwinned. And so, Opus. 1 was the name I chose. Where it all came from, the first songs, continuing to now, all with a similar story. All done on acoustic.
I didn't actually think this project would start at all, because I always come up with ideas in my head that seem so wonderful, and then it turns out I digress onto something else or I just never have the motivation to start. However, one day I did start. And I'm so glad I did. I didn't even hold back on the singing. The songs on Opus. 1 need to be as they should be. Perfect.
So this collection of songs are very simple, as they would be heard live at a gig. In their simpliest form, I believe the songs and lyrics can be appreciated a lot more.
Day 1
I can't actually remember which song I recorded first. I know I began by recording Red Bridge first of all, but didn't notice I had left my echo pedal on through the guitar piece, and so was fucked off at the end when listening to an electrofied acoustic. Definitely not what I wanted. I know 'Jinx' was one of the first, possibly the first. It was either 'Jinx', 'Induna' or 'Vixen - Part 1, 2, 3, and 4'. Whatever came first, the collection began, and in the first of two days I recorded 7 songs: 'Jinx', 'Induna', 'Vixen - Part 1, 2, 3 and 4', 'Merchant City Man', 'Thursday 5th April 2007 @ 11.51am', 'Halo Effect' and 'Dying Rose of January'. I was so so happy with the recordings, and needed to put them up on youtube quickly as a) I was running out of time and b) cause they sounded better than I thought they would and was eager to get them up.
I wanted some artwork for the songs. I wanted something quite personal and almost classical looking. I had a few nights before day 1 recordings, drew an abstract picture of my Blackberry connected to my old ipod, with some musical notes around it. The rest of the ink drawing has my Blackberry connected to a book I was reading at the time (Bronson 3: Up on the Roof by Charles Bronson), and drew some Blackberry and internet icons next to this. I took some photos of the drawing, put them on the computer, selected one, edited it into a square, put the chosen title 'Opus. 1', and instead of putting just my name, I thought I'd put 'Songs by Wullae Wright' as it is a general collection of all my songs. I didn't like it the way it was, so inverted the cover, and it looked much better. Classy in my opinion, with a modern twist with the ipod and Blackberry. Think it sums me up very well.
So I added these seven new songs to youtube. I have had positive comments so far and am pleased with the recordings.
Day 2
Eager to get as much done as I could, I set myself up again for the recording. I also thought that day that I'd maybe want to add some old piano tunes on it too, just to mix it up a little and to also let people hear these songs that are never played live. So I began by looking through the list of 'acoustic versions' I'd written on my phone and found 'A butterfly, A bouncy castle and A pole joust'. I have always loved that song and really enjoy playing it. It is a very personal song to me which always makes me feel good to play. So I recorded this. I had made sure that the fx pedal effects were exactly the same levels as Day 1, and that the volumes were all the same. I then moved to piano (or keyboard), and recorded 'Equilibruim' and 'House of Mirrors'. I wasn't too sure about 'House of Mirrors' but I thought, this is a collection of as much as I can do, and it is important to put as much in. So I then recorded Red Bridge and it turned out exactly as I wanted it! Perfect. I then relearned and recorded 'Loco Loco', which I performed once at a gig. I had actually forgotten it even had lyrics!! So I relearned them, and that was the last song I had time to record. Another 5 in the bag.
I have ideas for other Opus. 1 songs such as: 'Spitting Feathers', 'The Search' and 'Necropolis'. I still need to edit and record more songs on 'Anonymous'; however this Opus. 1 project is a good digression, and I'm happy to be finally recording all the unheard and unrecorded songs. Not to sound morbid, but it makes me think that when I pass away, they will all be there, and nothing was left undone. It makes me happy.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.myspace.com/wullaewright
The main reason I wanted to make the acoustic versions, was to finally make a recording of 'Jinx' that I was happy with. It got me thinking that really I should record the songs at their most basic, the way I wrote them, the day I wrote them. I wanted to record all the early songs, and good songs that never made it onto themes that I have created, such as Anonymous. So I wanted this to be essentially an album to say this is the beginning; where it all started from and has been a continuous work ever since. Something that signifies that all the songs are intertwinned. And so, Opus. 1 was the name I chose. Where it all came from, the first songs, continuing to now, all with a similar story. All done on acoustic.
I didn't actually think this project would start at all, because I always come up with ideas in my head that seem so wonderful, and then it turns out I digress onto something else or I just never have the motivation to start. However, one day I did start. And I'm so glad I did. I didn't even hold back on the singing. The songs on Opus. 1 need to be as they should be. Perfect.
So this collection of songs are very simple, as they would be heard live at a gig. In their simpliest form, I believe the songs and lyrics can be appreciated a lot more.
Day 1
I can't actually remember which song I recorded first. I know I began by recording Red Bridge first of all, but didn't notice I had left my echo pedal on through the guitar piece, and so was fucked off at the end when listening to an electrofied acoustic. Definitely not what I wanted. I know 'Jinx' was one of the first, possibly the first. It was either 'Jinx', 'Induna' or 'Vixen - Part 1, 2, 3, and 4'. Whatever came first, the collection began, and in the first of two days I recorded 7 songs: 'Jinx', 'Induna', 'Vixen - Part 1, 2, 3 and 4', 'Merchant City Man', 'Thursday 5th April 2007 @ 11.51am', 'Halo Effect' and 'Dying Rose of January'. I was so so happy with the recordings, and needed to put them up on youtube quickly as a) I was running out of time and b) cause they sounded better than I thought they would and was eager to get them up.
I wanted some artwork for the songs. I wanted something quite personal and almost classical looking. I had a few nights before day 1 recordings, drew an abstract picture of my Blackberry connected to my old ipod, with some musical notes around it. The rest of the ink drawing has my Blackberry connected to a book I was reading at the time (Bronson 3: Up on the Roof by Charles Bronson), and drew some Blackberry and internet icons next to this. I took some photos of the drawing, put them on the computer, selected one, edited it into a square, put the chosen title 'Opus. 1', and instead of putting just my name, I thought I'd put 'Songs by Wullae Wright' as it is a general collection of all my songs. I didn't like it the way it was, so inverted the cover, and it looked much better. Classy in my opinion, with a modern twist with the ipod and Blackberry. Think it sums me up very well.
So I added these seven new songs to youtube. I have had positive comments so far and am pleased with the recordings.
Day 2
Eager to get as much done as I could, I set myself up again for the recording. I also thought that day that I'd maybe want to add some old piano tunes on it too, just to mix it up a little and to also let people hear these songs that are never played live. So I began by looking through the list of 'acoustic versions' I'd written on my phone and found 'A butterfly, A bouncy castle and A pole joust'. I have always loved that song and really enjoy playing it. It is a very personal song to me which always makes me feel good to play. So I recorded this. I had made sure that the fx pedal effects were exactly the same levels as Day 1, and that the volumes were all the same. I then moved to piano (or keyboard), and recorded 'Equilibruim' and 'House of Mirrors'. I wasn't too sure about 'House of Mirrors' but I thought, this is a collection of as much as I can do, and it is important to put as much in. So I then recorded Red Bridge and it turned out exactly as I wanted it! Perfect. I then relearned and recorded 'Loco Loco', which I performed once at a gig. I had actually forgotten it even had lyrics!! So I relearned them, and that was the last song I had time to record. Another 5 in the bag.
I have ideas for other Opus. 1 songs such as: 'Spitting Feathers', 'The Search' and 'Necropolis'. I still need to edit and record more songs on 'Anonymous'; however this Opus. 1 project is a good digression, and I'm happy to be finally recording all the unheard and unrecorded songs. Not to sound morbid, but it makes me think that when I pass away, they will all be there, and nothing was left undone. It makes me happy.
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
www.myspace.com/wullaewright
Friday, 6 May 2011
The Lovers and Dot-com Bubble
Yesterday (06/05/2011) morning I had sat down at the computer, and had just under an hour. I had set up the guitar, etc, and was ready to record. I began recording one of the guitar tunes I had written a few days ago, whilst in the living room. I knew I was going to put the lyrics I had written entitled ‘Dot-com Bubble’ to it.
So I began by getting a beat. I wanted something dancey, so after a small search I found a very quick jungle-sounding beat. I then had to slow the beat down as it was a little too quick. I then found a good rock sound for the guitar, and recorded the main riff. It didn’t take too long, and sounded great. I then added bass, which consisted of using the echo machine pedal I have, which reversed the riff, and make it seem like there is an awkward beat in the song.
This was where I got up to. I had a basic song now. I did add a guitar solo; however it wasn’t very good, so I left it out. So later that night, I had more time to record. Good times, so I set everything up again.
I started messing around with ‘Dot-com Bubble’, editing the beat, adding duplicate guitars, etc. I got a little bored and so thought I’d add some vocals. I selected number 9 on my Zoom pedal, and recorded. I screamed where was required, and enjoyed doing so. The effect I used is a little to tinny for my liking, but the vocals I feel a good, so I will leave the vocals the way they are. The song is very raw. I didn’t finish editing the song until after I finished recording ‘The Lovers’. I edited ‘Dot-com Bubble’, which has turned it in a very quick paced rollercoaster of stops, starts and odd beats. Again it is very raw, and I like the sound this way.
Before editing the final version of ‘Dot-com Bubble’, I began work on ‘The Lovers’. I have had the idea in my head for a little while now, to record it on acoustic with violin. So I set up with acoustic, recorded it. Sounding great. Then I added vocals, which worked out really well. I added violins and piano, but didn’t feel like they fit, so left them out. Trying to record the piano piece took numerous attempts. It was incredibly frustrating. I then after a while added a basic drum and basic bass riff. This made such a different to the song, giving it a very deep quality. So once I had this: guitar, singing, drums and bass, I felt it needed one more thing. So I added the violin back in, cut half of it out, and I think the finished song sounds fantastic, and is perfect for the ‘Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey’ collection of songs. This song was originally written back last year (See previous posts) and I’m very happy to have finally finished it. I’m also delighted with ‘Dot-com Bubble’ which will fit well with the collection of ‘Anonymous’ songs I now have.
I will try and get these songs up on youtube as soon as I can,
Watch this space,
Wullae
www.youtube.com/wullaewrightmusic
www.soundcloud.com/wullaewright
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