Evolution of a Song :: Signal Chain

For quite a while now, I’ve been sitting on an idea to unpack each of the 14 tracks on our upcoming record. I’m going to do each song in two parts, one chronicling the sonic evolution from demo to studio to mix to master, the 2nd from the perspective of talking about lyrics, moods, themes, where we were when we wrote it, what we were going through, etc. I’ll post a new one every few days, now that the madness of the holidays is over.

I have always a huge fan of the liner notes. One of the great losses of the post iPod era is the artwork, in my opinion. I remember getting excited when I’d buy a CD and it felt heavy. That meant that there were pages and pages of pictures, lyrics, credits, and if I was lucky, something more.

I remember getting John Mayer’s “Heavier Things,” which has some VERY clever charts and graphs mapping out the location of where each song was written, in which key, which tempo, and even an amusing chart describing how you were supposed to feel while listening to it, complete with emoticons and whatnot. Very funny.

These days, the best we can hope for is an album cover that looks good on our iPhone. (What’s that? Chad got an iPhone for Christmas? What a lucky boy!) I heard someone say that the internet and one’s webpage is the new artwork, and in reality, it’s better, because it’s not static. I’m not totally certain that I agree. Artwork is great because it is static. It’s a portrait of a moment. It gets dated and then it looks silly and then if you’re lucky, it looks like a classic.

However, Pandora’s box is open and there’s no going back. In that spirit, one of these days we’ll drop a bunch of coin on making this website look fantastic, and you can all ooh and aah. In the meantime, I thought I’d satiate you with some digital liner notes, with a little added bonus.

Signal Chain was a song that was written in the middle of the process. It’s one of those songs that just sorta spilled out of me, with not a lot of effort. Erica, who plays the often unappreciated but totally necessary role of editor had really nothing to say about this one, which was another good sign.

When we first write a song, at least for this and the previous record, we do a demo. We do this for our own benefit as well as the band’s. For us, it allows us to listen a few times through and decide if it’s worth recording. It’s one thing to sit at the piano, in the thrill of creation, and sing and feel great. It’s another thing to hear it in the car, and clinically think… is this thing any good?

If the demo passes our ears, it gets put on the playlist of tunes for the record, and goes to the band. We don’t have the luxury of hours and hours to sit and figure out the arrangement of each song in the studio or in a rehearsal space, so the demo helps them get an idea of what we are hearing, and then they add their own special sauce.

Here’s the demo:

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So, from the get-go, the bass line defined the tune. There was just something about that phrase that did it for me. I remember the band guys all jumping at it, as the arrangement on this one was pretty solid. There are other tunes, as you will hear, that are very evolved in their final form compared to where they started.

The one exception to this was with Rosy, who got a little nervous about the drum part on the verses. I am not a drummer, so all the stuff you heard on that demo was programmed drums. A computer has no problem whatsoever playing intricate, two handed 16th note hi-hat patterns while doing cross stick at the same time.

Humans, however… not so much. This is not an issue of Rosy’s ability, mind you, it’s more a reflection on the fact that he, in fact, only possess two hands.

Another major change was simplifying the keyboard part and changing the verse from the a piano to a rhodes. I had to be convinced on that one, as I felt like the verse didn’t have enough movement in it. However, the first time I sat down at the big Genelecs at Eldorado and listened after Mike laid down a pass, and that first Rhodes chord hits and just swallowed me up, I was hooked.

So the song evolves, from the demo to the studio. From samples to real players. From an idea to a real song. After tracking, we took our raw audio home and started working on the final vocals. The next track is an unmixed bounce of the final vocals after they were recorded against the band. This is our rough mix for listening purposes.

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So, then, after about 10,000 listens, we decided that it was fully baked and ready to go to mix. When the mixer gets a hold of a tune, all bets are off. It’s his or her job to hear through everything and help the artist decide what’s important and what should be brought forward or back. At this point, we’ve lost all perspective on this thing. We’ve been through it so many times that we vacillate between thinking it’s the greatest song ever written one minute and then we hate it the next.

Stick got a hold of this one, and took right to it. He opened up the drums, using a lot of the room sounds to give it a more natural sound, especially in the bridge. Listen for how the snare just opens up and fills the whole sound field.

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Now, bear in mind that this is merely the final track and mix. All along this journey, there are variations on this song, with minor tweaks. For example, I had to rerecord my entire vocal. I did the whole thing, doubles, edits and all, listened to it for a few days, and then Erica and I decided that it wasn’t right, and back into the booth I went. This version of the band track that you’re hearing is one of about six we laid down. This pass was the one we felt was the best. The mix that you’re hearing is revision 5 or 6. I can’t remember. Push Erica’s vocal up, Stick! Now pull it back! More guitar! Less guitar!

Etc. One can almost understand how it took 14 years for Axl to make Chinese Democracy. Almost.

If you’re still reading and listening, you might have found yourself reaching for your volume knob on the final mix. It’s left quiet on purpose. The job of bringing up the levels and applying a final eq and compression to the whole mix is the job of the mastering engineer.

Speaking of which, here’s the final master!

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I think the cool thing on this tune is how close the demo feels to the final. The vibe, instrumentation, arrangement, vocal feel, and even the mix is similar. For example, when I first did the demo, I felt like it wanted big, long, epic delays on the vocals on the bridge. I was gratified to hear Stick’s first mix, as when we hit the bridge, what appeared but big, long delays. I hadn’t asked for them. The song did.

This is one of my very favorite tunes on the record, and in part two, I’ll give some thoughts on what the song means to us and maybe unpack some of the lyrical choices.

Happy new year to you all. We look forward to sharing our music with you in 2009.

Peace!