PSRSotwNotes03.07-16

Peter's Song of the Week Club!

7/16/03

It's a Bad, Bad Life

Peter's Comments:
You know, I really have no excuse for this song apart from "I had to get it out of my system." One day the following sentence occurred to me: "I was born in the 70's -- when every movie, and I mean every movie, had a gritty scene with a junkie fighting a pimp, while the title track, 'It's a Bad, Bad Life' pounded in the background." And I immediately realized that one of these days, I'd have to write that song.

I learned a valuable lesson about recording this time. Specifically, I learned plugins in n-track (things you'd use for echo, flanging, etc.) use a ton of system resources even when they aren't doing anything. So, if you put echo on a mute track, it still bogs down your computer -- which is what happened when I tried to transfer the drum tracks from MIDI to audio -- all those empty tracks were bogging down the computer and making the drum lines uneven. Incredibly frustrating until I figured out what was going on.

And no, I don't know why junkies would control the economy. It made sense at one in the morning.

Anyway, I think this was another good learning experience. This is the first time I've cobbled together a drum part that I've liked, and it brings me back to a more MIDI-centered version of songwriting that I haven't done in a while. Couldn't do voice-leading I was happy with for the MIDI brass section -- hopefully by next year or so I'll have some of those fundamentals a little more solid. Vocally challenging as hell -- not only was I pounding on the highest notes I can sing, I was switching between that and falsetto, too. Ack!

Would have killed for a wah pedal, though, y'know?

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