Saturday, October 31, 2009

The Speed of Sound - disposable music?

A friend posted a link to this article on facebook the other day, and I thought it had some interesting points.

Particularly the stuff about listening attention span, given that with Spotify et al, we have more-or-less free, infinite access to any song we want from any era at a moment’s notice - Mr Harris’s point being that there will soon be no room for ‘filler’ material or ‘grower’ albums, as songs which don’t grab you first time will be immediately discarded in favour of something more catchy.

Now, the lack of filler material on an album can only be a good thing, encouraging artists to pay more attention to putting out an album that is of a brilliant standard all the way through, but I’m less convinced on the ‘grower’ part.

I don’t know about you, but if and when I get round to (affording and) buying a new album, I’m usually tenacious (or bloody-minded) enough to listen to it repeatedly until I ‘get’ it. There’s something delightfully satisfying about that sense of slowly getting to know and appreciate a deep work of art, hearing a new layer or catching a previously undiscovered nuance on each listen.

Many of my favourite albums come under that category of ‘slow grower’, which on the first few listens did little to grab me, but later on reward me with that ‘old friend’ feeling, still having something new to offer even after countless repeats. Disposable music is a sad thing.

The challenge for the artist, more now than ever, is to create something with just the right blend of catchiness and true depth - a tall order!

Friday, October 30, 2009

AHMTS Song by Song 6 - Icarus

listen here

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, sometimes I read a phrase somewhere or hear a line in a song which makes me think ‘nice idea, but they could have developed that so much further... wait, why don’t I do it?’. In this case it was a line from Phish song, The Squirming Coil. I think it’s fair to say that in many of their songs the lyrical content is very much secondary in importance to the intricacies and ebb and flow of the music, and on the whole this one is no exception. However, the lines

“...like Icarus, who had to pay
With melting wax and feathers brown
He tasted it on his way down”

seemed to be crying out for stretching into something more expansive. My favourite songwriting experiences are when the words and music develop simultaneously, and kind of meld together of their own accord. This was one of them. The descending chord sequences in the ‘spiralling down’ and guitar solo sections are a couple I’m particularly fond of.

I’ve been playing Icarus live for a few years now, but I only got round to recording it properly more recently. The outro jam pretty much wrote itself in the studio. Using the loop pedal is a good crowd-pleaser for live performances, but it’s great to be able to multi-track stuff properly on the computer and edit it afterwards. I just think about what each band-member in my imaginary multi-Jo supergroup would be doing in the jam, and do my best to emulate it.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

AHMTS Song by Song 5 - Missing

listen here

Written as I was first getting to know my wife, this is about as close as I’m likely to get to a love song.

From another perspective: after coming back from studying up in Aberdeen, there was a lengthy-ish period when I very much missed it - having my bunch of friends around me, sharing Flat 3 with the guys, my church there, and to a lesser extent the place itself. Then one day I realised that I was no longer missing them, despite still loving them very much. There was as much sadness in that realisation as there was in missing those things in the first place.

Monday, October 26, 2009

AHMTS Song by Song 4 - Romans 7

listen here

This is one of the ‘oldies’ (being all of a venerable 3 years old!). Chapter 7 of the book of Romans contains this passage which is one of the most aggravatingly tortuous pieces of discussion I’ve ever come across - and yet it remains one of the few bits of Paul’s writings that I find I can readily identify with, wrestling with the mismatch between our good intentions and our less good inclinations.

After being played live for a while as an acoustic guitar tune for a long time, it was great to be able to give this one the ‘full band’ treatment. Despite not being a drummer myself, I quite enjoy programming the beats and fills. For the drum fills I transcribe an imaginary Carter Beauford doing something improbable.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

AHMTS Song by Song 3 - Economology

listen here

The other day, a friend of mine shared a thought along these lines: Your train is just about to pull out of the station, and you are running along the platform trying to catch it before it goes. In your haste, you barge straight into a guy going the other way. He is in your way. Now there’s an arrogant thought: He is in my way! What makes my way any more important than his?

Don Miller puts it eloquently in his book Blue Like Jazz, where he describes coming to the sudden earth-shattering realisation that “everybody is I”. It’s also nicely put in downhere’s excellent song The Problem:

“Everybody's wondering how the world could get this way
If God is good, and how it could be filled with so much pain
It's not the age-old mystery we made it out to be
Yeah, there's a problem with the world
And the problem with the world is me”

My friend went on to ask what it would look like if we went around with the attitude that everyone else’s way was more important than our own - maybe we wouldn’t get where we were going very fast!

I wonder if climate-change-denial will ever be put on the same level as holocaust-denial? Surely it’s an equally bad level of humanity-caused destruction? - just more insidious and with many more to blame. Including me.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

AHMTS Song by Song 2 - Since 3 Days Ago

listen here

For this one I had the chord sequence and structure for one verse worked out, and more unusually, a melody... which then sat around for a few weeks doing nothing.

But it seemed too good to waste, so eventually I thought to myself: just pick a good story, put it into your own words and try and fit it into the melody. I’m quite pleased with the result. The bridge was great fun to write and play, and gives the Rick Wakeman influence a suitable outlet! The backing vocals were entertaining too.

And it is a great story. Some of us are weird enough to believe it’s the centrepiece of history.

Also, He Made the Stars... OUT TODAY!





Buy CD here



Listen/Download: DLDown Download Store / iTunes music store / Amazon mp3


Also, He Made the Stars...

...is a collection of revisited old favourites and brand new material. Some of the songs were written before we recorded Puzzle, but had to wait until now to find a place where they fit. Some of them were written specially for this album, and re-wrote themselves even as I was recording them.

This has been my full-time employment over the last few months, so I very much hope you enjoy it. Please let me know your feedback on it - any reviews welcomed!

Over the next few posts, I’ll be telling you a little bit more about each song: sometimes notes on music, recording or songwriting; sometimes an insight into what I was thinking about when I wrote the song. So without further ado...

1. Planetarium

listen here

A little overture. The bass solo reflects the bass lines of a couple of the other songs (I’ll leave you to work out which ones). I like harmonics.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Monday, October 19, 2009

Hear here

<a href="http://dldown.bandcamp.com/track/since-3-days-ago-single">Since 3 Days Ago (single) by DLDown</a>

<a href="http://dldown.bandcamp.com/track/icarus-single">Icarus (single) by DLDown</a>

Friday, October 16, 2009

Gigs! And a CD launch!

In excited anticipation announcing: 3 gigs!

1. A slot at Henry's Cellar Bar - 8pm, Fri 23rd Oct, £2

2. Supporting davesnewbike at The Lot - 8pm, Sat 31st Oct, £7.50 on the door/£5 in advance

And best of all...

3. Also He Made the Stars... album launch gig at The Lot - 8pm, Thurs 12th Nov, ticket price tba. With Dan Glover Band? supporting. It's gonna be great!

Keep an eye on our live page for more details!
J

Friday, October 09, 2009

Cover art and tracklist

Tracklist:

Planetarium
Since 3 Days Ago (Listen here)
Economology
Romans 7
Missing
Icarus (Listen here)
Left to My Own Devices
The Turning Song
Hide & Seek
Found You
Starmaker
Lilies & Sparrows
You Come Running
Good Night

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

A job-hunting haiku

Sid sighs, his smile slides:
"Justify your existence
On two A4 sides"

Monday, October 05, 2009

website back up, downloads still up!

So, yeah... go listen! And let me know what you think...
J

Icarus
Since 3 Days Ago

Sunday, October 04, 2009

website down, downloads up!

Well, the web-server seems to be playing up, annoyingly just as I was in the middle of updating the site...

In the meantime however, point your browsers at our new downloads page for some agreeable soundwaves.
J