I’ve been laid low with a cold this week so not much progress to report on song # 4 – hopefully I’ll be able to post some updates this weekend. I’ve added a guitar and mellotron overdub but it’s still basically the same as the initial demo below.
I also wanted to clarify what I meant when I talked about the “indifference to climate change” theme I’m using to try and tie these songs together, lest anyone fear things were going to get a bit preachy. If you take a listen to songs like Get It Together, Draw the Line or You Don’t Care from the Sunny Days Ahead record, those songs all have an element of social comment without it being too overt. That’s the sort of thing I’m shooting for in terms of lyrical content – something with a message that’s still ambiguous enough that it can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
onto song # 4 . . . .
so far this one just has some bass guitar, drums and a scat vocal. no title or lyrics yet. it’s a pretty funky little thing 
click the link below to check it out.
demo # 4
It’s fair to say that the last song, Fire and Ice, triggered some fundamental changes in this project.
Firstly, Gary and I came to the realization our musical ideas weren’t as compatible as they once were, so SSA has reverted to a solo project again, as it was for the first record.
Secondly, it occurred to me that my contributions so far had a recurring theme of elements – Touch the Sky, Fire and Ice – that I wanted to explore further as some sort of theme throughout the record. What came to mind was exploring the idea of people’s apparent indifference to climate change – that maybe by the time everyone’s satisfied it’s actually happening it’ll be too late to do anything about it.
Maybe human civilization has come and gone many times before and on some deeper level we know that if climate change wipes us out, human life will always re-emerge through evolution. Or maybe we’re all just narcissists . . . .
How do I take those ideas and make power-pop songs out of them?
Watch this space . . . . .
Here it is folks – third song from our third record. Just click on the title and a little player should pop up, along with the free download link. Let us know what you think!
Fire and Ice
as promised, below is some video footage taken from various guitar and vocal overdubs for Fire and Ice.
its been quiet around here for a few days but we’re about to kick things into gear with the third song, Fire and Ice.
as I mentioned in the previous post, I had the idea for the chorus/hook a little over a week ago and as I was recording the demo that appears below the rest of the song kind of fell into place. this is actually the opposite of how I usually work – usually I get an idea, jot it down quickly on paper or on tape, then come back to it weeks, months or even years later. it’s been a challenge to force myself to focus on one thing at a time but so far it seems to be making the songs stronger – and it’s quite a buzz to write a song, record it, mix it and have people hearing it all within a few days.
anyway, as it happened we ended up keeping a lot of what was in the original demo – what was supposed to be a rough vocal take has ended up in the final mix and we just built some guitar, bass and mellotron overdubs on top of it. I have some video footage to upload later today and then I’ll post the final mix of Fire & Ice tonight – hope you enjoy it!
a new week, a new song. song # 3 is called Fire and Ice. here’s a rough mix:
Fire and Ice (rough mix)
the intro part came to me less than a week ago while I was driving in my car and the verse part really materialized by accident as I was recording the first part. so far we just have drums, guitars and vocals but you’ll get the idea.
speaking of drums, Chris Campbell make his debut appearance on the record with this song. we’re glad to have him onboard!
Well, here we are just a week and a half since releasing the first free download in this process, and we’re already releasing the second one! It’s a toe tapping little number called “I Get Tongue Tied.” Take a listen and give us your feedback. We hope you enjoy it!
I Get Tongue Tied
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