You know the feeling. You ride your bike/you walk a mile/you do some repetitive task and suddenly YOU GOT IT! The most brilliant idea for a song ever.
You start working it out only to figure out that it is impossible/VERY hard to do. Either you don't have the right medium for it, or its just impossible to write a song with the idea. Or you just go....NEH ...
HAVE NO FEAR, POST IT HERE!
Last week I was eating chocolate mouse pudding, as I said something with my mouth full (disgusting!).
However, I noticed that my voice was really altered by the substance, which made me think if other sorts of food alter my voice in a different way.
TURNED OUT IT DID! Talking with potato-chips in my mouth sounded different than chocolate mouse.
Coca-cola sounded different than water (bubbles anyone?)
I thought about doing a song with this by just reciting the name of the food with the particular food in my mouth, but then I thought....NEH ...
i wanted to do a whole ep based around soup, using samples to convey the nationality, flavour and character of each soup... so like gazpacho would be refreshing and light, with airy production and lots of eddie palmieri samples... or like miso would be thin and bittersweet (maybe using koto samples, handily) and then big 808 claps/cowbells in unexpected places (these are lumps of tofu) i got this idea while i was eating a nice bowl of soup.
maybe you should think again? haha
interesting concept. Maybe you could do an album and each track could be a certain food.
1.popcorn
2.watermelon
3.habanero peppers
4.taffy
etc.
haha, could be very interesting.
I was gonna form a band with my friends
we'd play epic garage electro prog
combining live synths and laptop wizardry, self-indulgent yet face exploding guitar riffing, submarine-deep bass, some hyperactive tinkerings on a farfisa organ and some fucking insane live drums. I even had our gigs planned out, we'd start our show with four minutes of an air raid siren going off and then end it with an epic duel between me on the roland tr-909 and the real drummer. There would be no survivors...
then I realised I couldn't possibly afford that and neither me nor any of my friends can play our instruments for shit...
if you are reading this you are spending too much time at your computer. go outside and get some fresh air.
Once I was going to do the whole "band thing" as well with my friends. We would all take turns playing different instruments on different songs. We even came up with the band name, "Jackalopes on Fire". Then I realised that the only people who can play instruments well in our school are way older than me. I Still really want to start a band with singing.
i had this idea for a concept album (codeword for "self-indulgent, overlong mess") that was 5 parts/songs long, 8-12 minutes each.
the idea was that there's this group of people (sort of a cross between native americans and elves), that are living by this enormous mountain. they are very connected emotionally to nature and the mountain and the wildlife, etc. part 1 is about them, and ends with a vague feeling of unease as summer transitions into autumn. (this part would sound kind of like a combination of godspeed you! black emperor and boards of canada)
then a highly advanced group of people arrives (sort of a cross between eurpoean settlers and dwarves, but with technology). they decide that this mountain is going to be the location of their new civilization. but they're dwarves, right? so they drive off the natives and start tunneling under the mountain, and build these huge, spacious, caverns, which will become their new city. part 2 is about the process of building of their new civilization. (this part would be very tense, lots of buildup, would sound kind of like isis, russian circles, and the dillinger escape plan).
then they finish building their city, and it's this amazingly beautiful and serene place that showcases the creativity and artistic abilities of their civilization. they live in peace and excess and keep expanding the scope of the city. part 3 is about the completion of their new city and their life in it. (this part would be the release of all of the tension and buildup from the second part; very triumphant, beautiful, but almost overly so. sounds kind of like the epic parts of explosions in the sky songs, and those parts in radiohead songs that have the amazing, soaring vocal harmonies. then transitions into a more relaxed, but still optimistic and confident feeling)
but then things go wrong. after many years of living here, they start to neglect the actual city, and focus entirely on expansion. the foundations become weak. the city (and the area surrounding it) becomes polluted. and then there's this huge explosion up at the top of the city, and the whole mountain collapses; everyone and everything is destroyed. that's part 4. (beginning is a very uneasy, almost staggering sort of buildup, followed by a huge climax [the explosion/collapsing of the mountain]. very chaotic. sort of like the fall of troy, kayo dot, and the dillinger escape plan.)
then the ending is about the aftermath; about how the earth slowly recovers, but the original inhabitants never return. it has been changed, but in the end, it perseveres longer than any group of people. and all that was both great and terrible about it has disappeared. this is part 5. (sounds sort of like stars of the lid, godspeed you!, brian eno, etc.)
the story is a sort of a parable. it references both the colonization/development of america and the human race in general. basically, it's a warning about the dangers of progress for the sake of progress, the idea that our society is becoming unsustainable and will eventually collapse, the idea that the earth will continue on long after we're gone, etc. it's not a terribly original story (in fact, just about everything is ripped off from LOTR and other fantasy novels), but what makes it compelling is the fact that it is the music that tells the story. sort of like how good classical music tells a story.
but then i (mostly) abandoned the idea because:
a) for it to succeed, i would need an immensely talented group of musicians around me, including an incredible vocalist;
b) if i were to be happy with it, we would need to spend weeks and weeks in the studio, with an incredible producer, which would require loads and loads of money; and
c) it would be almost impossible to not make this contrived and ridiculous.
but it's fun to imagine that i've somehow managed to make it. i can hear it in my head, and it's totally awesome.
it sounds expansive. Not only would you need the music, you would need an entire book to explain the concept. Best medium for this would be...well...opera. Kinda like "einstein on the beach" meets "Der Ring des Nibelungen"
i'd actually kind of like to not even explain the concept, beyond perhaps the album art/liner notes and vague lyrics. and leave the details up to the imagination of the listener.
the important thing, to me, is the ability of the music to convey the general story arc and the emotions involved, and to evoke those emotions in the listeners. basically, i want this album to do to people what kid a, music has the right to children, loveless, lift yr skinny fists, and my other favorite albums did to me. but i want a definite sense that there is something happening, some story being told.
it would also be really cool to actually get a whole load of people involved, like writers and actors and artists, and turn it into this massive, expansive thing. like a music video/rock opera, or something.
this all sort of reminds me of coheed and cambria. and green day's recent albums.
but, like, if they could actually write good music.
Thing is... I might actually do this when I get time.
Some kind of downtempo melodic BoCish type music 5 track EP type dealo, with a picture book of my artwork and photography that goes with the music to tell a story. Trouble is getting a person to somehow be on the right pages with the corrisponding point of each song. Other trouble is that it would kind of be a one of a kind organic thing that nobody would really be able to enjoy... Unless of course I scanned it in and make it a film of some kind. Maybe I could film myself flipping through the book super 8 style. Old school sesame street story time-ish.
my idea is about a group of people massaging an idea out, and as the idea become apparent, it equals one singular message.
and that message is love, but as it becomes apparent, it turns invisible, and the message is a blank chair.
with words as arm rests that have silver tongues.
i want them to feel more important than you with a message of a dream of love
no unfamiliar thoughts, the songs ends with everyone who watches, asleep in a philosophical position in a comfortable seat.
dono wrote:Thing is... I might actually do this when I get time.
Some kind of downtempo melodic BoCish type music 5 track EP type dealo, with a picture book of my artwork and photography that goes with the music to tell a story. Trouble is getting a person to somehow be on the right pages with the corrisponding point of each song. Other trouble is that it would kind of be a one of a kind organic thing that nobody would really be able to enjoy... Unless of course I scanned it in and make it a film of some kind. Maybe I could film myself flipping through the book super 8 style. Old school sesame street story time-ish.
Eh... Eh ?
Anywho, that's all.
there's this indieish sort of band called mae who did something like that.
their name stands for "multisensory aesthetic experience."
on their second album, "the everglow", you're supposed to flip the pages of album art between certain songs, and each piece of artwork is supposed to represent that part of the story.
it's a decent album. but the artwork isn't particularly good, and it's often difficult to know when to tun the page.
it's a good idea though, if you can figure out how to actually get people looking at the right thing at the right time.
I like this thread, we have lots of visionaries ^^
I told you guys somewhere on the forum the deal about people from my ex-band asking me to open for them, well I just got the great idea to filter my guitar through a 4-track, get one of my friends drumming for me and a bassist, completely wreck up the place, then 'd be recording the guitar on the 4 track as well, then give them the tape. I play guitar and drums but I'm waaay better at drums. Messy messy
This may have been said already (it was a big post so I'm sure I missed SOMETHING from it):
If you do ever use that concept you may want to have the ending be very similar to be beginning, which would hint that the process is going to repeat itself. Which is sort of true if you look at the history of humanity, with the wars and such. We seem to be going in a self destructive circle.
A writer and musician with too much free time on her hands.
...
I Still really want to start a band with singing.
