Post by haydendavenport on Jan 15, 2016 21:04:49 GMT -5
Hey guys,
I just wanted to take the time to show you all a project I've been working on. I wouldn't post this in other forums around the internet like this, but I wanted to take the time to share this with the members of the community here (because you guys are really cool--including you, Owen!), and because I think it's somewhat relevant because Owen has been my biggest musical influence for a majority of my musical career (and I therefore drew inspiration from his music for this project). I hope that it's okay to share this here (and that it's perceived as more than just low-effort self advertising). Even though my music can't hold a candle to Owen's music, I hope that it at least resonates with a few of you. I'm also interested in constructive criticism if anyone cares enough to have a listen and share their thoughts. The music is free to listen to and download.
Kindlyn is an expanding multimedia album that I started with a couple of friends over a year ago. The idea is that we aren't going to release a physical album, but will instead release music periodically to add to the online album. We also plan to occasionally edit or update tracks (there are definitely issues that need to be fixed, and I have A LOT to learn about mixing/mastering), and add art/video (which is currently in progress). The project started as a way for us to express small "slices of life" in song format. At first we planned to work rapidly, and not spend much time on each song so that we could improve quickly. But of course, things changed, perfectionist attitudes set in, and now we are very very slowly building a complex world and decorating it with music and doing things to the best of our abilities.
Kindlyn is the name of the environment in which our story is taking place. Specifically, our first song takes place in Bloom (an area in the world of Kindlyn), and the second takes place in space (as in, essentially nowhere). I'll try to detail a little bit about what the lyrics are trying to convey, and what we did with the music to try and express those ideas.
The first song, Flamespitters, is about the experience of wonder, and how unique or exceptional events can cause us to perceive the world differently, or become hopeful in new ways.
Specifically, it's about a female protagonist in a bustling and disorganized urban location. She is visiting a traveling circus that is at the heart of the city. It's a circus that visits every year, and is actually a more important event for the city than one might expect. As she first glances between the city and the circus, they seem about the same. This makes sense to her because the circus was once a core component of the city, and is known to be inspired by the energy it embodies.
However, upon closer inspection, the circus seems to have a beating heart of its own, and there is a very special warmth to everything that takes place there. It's wonky, but somehow much more organized than the city.
The character quickly realizes that the city has lost touch with the carnival's ideals. They are both busy environments, but the carnival is organized and filled with talented and passionate individuals, but the members of the city have become more self centered, and focused on instant gratification. The energy still exists in the city, but it has lost its focus.
After noting the surprisingly stark contrast between the environments, the protagonist looks back onto the city, and finds that it suddenly seems dull and jaded. But at the same time, from the excitement and inspiration she draws from the carnival, she is filled with a sense of wonder for what the city once was, and more importantly, could potentially be again.
I just wanted to take the time to show you all a project I've been working on. I wouldn't post this in other forums around the internet like this, but I wanted to take the time to share this with the members of the community here (because you guys are really cool--including you, Owen!), and because I think it's somewhat relevant because Owen has been my biggest musical influence for a majority of my musical career (and I therefore drew inspiration from his music for this project). I hope that it's okay to share this here (and that it's perceived as more than just low-effort self advertising). Even though my music can't hold a candle to Owen's music, I hope that it at least resonates with a few of you. I'm also interested in constructive criticism if anyone cares enough to have a listen and share their thoughts. The music is free to listen to and download.
Kindlyn is an expanding multimedia album that I started with a couple of friends over a year ago. The idea is that we aren't going to release a physical album, but will instead release music periodically to add to the online album. We also plan to occasionally edit or update tracks (there are definitely issues that need to be fixed, and I have A LOT to learn about mixing/mastering), and add art/video (which is currently in progress). The project started as a way for us to express small "slices of life" in song format. At first we planned to work rapidly, and not spend much time on each song so that we could improve quickly. But of course, things changed, perfectionist attitudes set in, and now we are very very slowly building a complex world and decorating it with music and doing things to the best of our abilities.
Kindlyn is the name of the environment in which our story is taking place. Specifically, our first song takes place in Bloom (an area in the world of Kindlyn), and the second takes place in space (as in, essentially nowhere). I'll try to detail a little bit about what the lyrics are trying to convey, and what we did with the music to try and express those ideas.
The first song, Flamespitters, is about the experience of wonder, and how unique or exceptional events can cause us to perceive the world differently, or become hopeful in new ways.
Specifically, it's about a female protagonist in a bustling and disorganized urban location. She is visiting a traveling circus that is at the heart of the city. It's a circus that visits every year, and is actually a more important event for the city than one might expect. As she first glances between the city and the circus, they seem about the same. This makes sense to her because the circus was once a core component of the city, and is known to be inspired by the energy it embodies.
However, upon closer inspection, the circus seems to have a beating heart of its own, and there is a very special warmth to everything that takes place there. It's wonky, but somehow much more organized than the city.
The character quickly realizes that the city has lost touch with the carnival's ideals. They are both busy environments, but the carnival is organized and filled with talented and passionate individuals, but the members of the city have become more self centered, and focused on instant gratification. The energy still exists in the city, but it has lost its focus.
After noting the surprisingly stark contrast between the environments, the protagonist looks back onto the city, and finds that it suddenly seems dull and jaded. But at the same time, from the excitement and inspiration she draws from the carnival, she is filled with a sense of wonder for what the city once was, and more importantly, could potentially be again.
Music
We started this song off by trying to decide what sort of vibe the city should have, and ultimately determined that we wanted a sort of "city groove" feel. So the very first musical thing we did was find a drum beat that captured the feel we were looking for.
After we had a tempo/beat we liked, we wanted to establish a link between the circus and the city, and we decided to do this rhythmically, since we didn't plan on the harmonic structure of the parts lining up. The rest of the first verse is pretty straightforward, but as an added challenge for ourselves to improve, we tried to make sure the chord progression wasn't a looped progression.
The circus part was a unique challenge. We had to transition from an electronic groovy atmosphere to a completely wonky orchestral atmosphere in a few measures. Ultimately we decided that the only way we could make it work at all was to overemphasize the contrast. So we just smashed the key of the song down and had an explosive entrance. We tried to capture the wonky atmosphere of the carnival with suspended cymbals, a fairly intense accordion sound, and kazoos. Of course, the rhythm of the city can be heard here as well to show the perceived relationship between the city and the circus.
Once we transitioned back into the city music (the 2nd verse), we took out the drums to contrast the feel from earlier. The city is now supposed to suddenly seem less lively overall. We also took out the rhythm of the city to show that the two areas actually aren't as related as they first seemed.
Finally, at the end, when the character is experiencing hope and wonder for what could be, we decided to go with a looped chord progression with extremely fast synthesizers, so that we could quickly build a soundscape to capture the overwhelming emotion of wonder.
After we had a tempo/beat we liked, we wanted to establish a link between the circus and the city, and we decided to do this rhythmically, since we didn't plan on the harmonic structure of the parts lining up. The rest of the first verse is pretty straightforward, but as an added challenge for ourselves to improve, we tried to make sure the chord progression wasn't a looped progression.
The circus part was a unique challenge. We had to transition from an electronic groovy atmosphere to a completely wonky orchestral atmosphere in a few measures. Ultimately we decided that the only way we could make it work at all was to overemphasize the contrast. So we just smashed the key of the song down and had an explosive entrance. We tried to capture the wonky atmosphere of the carnival with suspended cymbals, a fairly intense accordion sound, and kazoos. Of course, the rhythm of the city can be heard here as well to show the perceived relationship between the city and the circus.
Once we transitioned back into the city music (the 2nd verse), we took out the drums to contrast the feel from earlier. The city is now supposed to suddenly seem less lively overall. We also took out the rhythm of the city to show that the two areas actually aren't as related as they first seemed.
Finally, at the end, when the character is experiencing hope and wonder for what could be, we decided to go with a looped chord progression with extremely fast synthesizers, so that we could quickly build a soundscape to capture the overwhelming emotion of wonder.
I Am a Blind Man (Click to listen)
Lyrics (Click to read)
The protagonist here is in a closed off environment (a house) that is suspended in space. He has isolated himself from all of the world, and plans to stay there indefinitely so that he can always be sheltered. He is horrified of the outside world, and believes that even if he is unhappy, as long as he sits there and waits, adventure will eventually come to him. In complete denial, he ignores the fact that he is suffering from the situation, and convinces himself that anything would be better than leaving his safe haven. So he stays there until the bitter end.
We started off with a very simple piano part, and a pleasant melody. This is home base for the song, the A section, where it will return over and over. This represents the known, where the character feels safe.
But still, the music appears to express a desire to move on (and therefore represent's the character's honest desire to move on), as if it knows that the familiar can't be dwelled upon forever. So it takes a risk, and ventures off to a new area, which we represented by both a new section, and a new mode (but we didn't introduce any musical accidentals just yet). However, the music very quickly shows its fear, and becomes a frustrated mess essentially collapsing into itself.
From here, not knowing what else to do but try to make itself comfortable again, the music starts over completely right at home base. But this time, the piano is joined by reinforcing cellos to imply that it is more serious this time, and that it is prepared to give a bigger effort.
As it strays away from its home melody, the music moves to a new happier sounding area. Since the key is the same the music appears to be fairly content with this new area. So it moves on, building more and more courage. Finally it works up the courage to take a truly adventurous step into new tonal territory. The key changes, and accidentals are introduced. It even manages to stay here for long enough to sustain a chromatic melody. This is the music's biggest effort to attempt to understand the unknown, but in the end it fails once again to find peace there, and (representing the character's emotion) collapses into a greater chaos than before due to the frustration caused by the unknown.
One final time the song resets to the beginning, but with a small addition of violins. They are here to represent peace with the idea of home. They aren't driving like the cellos. They are embracing and accepting, to show that the character plans to stay here forever. The music stays in this place while the vocalist continues to sing the main melody a few times. Finally, because the music cannot sustain itself in such a closed off environment, it dies away (representing the character dying inside), leaving the vocalist completely alone to sing his final phrase of denial.
This song is about the general fear of commitment that people often have, and the idea that we can become so concerned with setting up walls and protecting ourselves that we forget to live.
The protagonist here is in a closed off environment (a house) that is suspended in space. He has isolated himself from all of the world, and plans to stay there indefinitely so that he can always be sheltered. He is horrified of the outside world, and believes that even if he is unhappy, as long as he sits there and waits, adventure will eventually come to him. In complete denial, he ignores the fact that he is suffering from the situation, and convinces himself that anything would be better than leaving his safe haven. So he stays there until the bitter end.
Music
Our approach for this one was a little different. We wrote this song after the first and used what we learned from the first to move forward. The music in this song presents the same story that the lyrics are expressing, but it has a more honest, more emotional telling of the story. Essentially, we wanted the music to be saying everything that the character isn't--to imply the real truth behind the story.We started off with a very simple piano part, and a pleasant melody. This is home base for the song, the A section, where it will return over and over. This represents the known, where the character feels safe.
But still, the music appears to express a desire to move on (and therefore represent's the character's honest desire to move on), as if it knows that the familiar can't be dwelled upon forever. So it takes a risk, and ventures off to a new area, which we represented by both a new section, and a new mode (but we didn't introduce any musical accidentals just yet). However, the music very quickly shows its fear, and becomes a frustrated mess essentially collapsing into itself.
From here, not knowing what else to do but try to make itself comfortable again, the music starts over completely right at home base. But this time, the piano is joined by reinforcing cellos to imply that it is more serious this time, and that it is prepared to give a bigger effort.
As it strays away from its home melody, the music moves to a new happier sounding area. Since the key is the same the music appears to be fairly content with this new area. So it moves on, building more and more courage. Finally it works up the courage to take a truly adventurous step into new tonal territory. The key changes, and accidentals are introduced. It even manages to stay here for long enough to sustain a chromatic melody. This is the music's biggest effort to attempt to understand the unknown, but in the end it fails once again to find peace there, and (representing the character's emotion) collapses into a greater chaos than before due to the frustration caused by the unknown.
One final time the song resets to the beginning, but with a small addition of violins. They are here to represent peace with the idea of home. They aren't driving like the cellos. They are embracing and accepting, to show that the character plans to stay here forever. The music stays in this place while the vocalist continues to sing the main melody a few times. Finally, because the music cannot sustain itself in such a closed off environment, it dies away (representing the character dying inside), leaving the vocalist completely alone to sing his final phrase of denial.
