Comments on: Song-A-Week #8: Not Yourself

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 01:02:59 +0000

This is my favorite song you’ve done so far. Keep it up, a few more songs and you can record an album.
I also liked hearing a little bit of intro before the song. That would be a nice addition.

By: Chase

Chase — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:38:09 +0000

Hmm, yeah.
Well, I think all around the Fulltone pedal is just a really good overdrive plain and simple. Can be bluesy, can be rocking, can be metal, can be just a tad also…
I think Steve used a Sparkle Drive. Chesnut used a Fulldrive though.

By: John

John — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:47:51 +0000

I, like Chase, think that this is my favorite song second only to Worlds Unknown. This song’s got the potential for an intro with balls. Listen to “The birth and death of day” off of Explosions in the Sky’s new album or some flaming lips stuff from the soft bulletin. maybe adding some vocal harmonies in the beginning like “house of the rising sun” or something like that. I love (read: LOVE LOVE LOVE) the ambient stuff that you do. the trick with the slide and delay i would do on “revive me” all the time cept i would throw on a huge amount of reverb and use the ebow. that makes it sound pretty cool.
lyrically, i think this is the strongest song you’ve written yet. I love “hand me a pen/i want to color inside of your lines”. that is the balls matt. and so are you. I will not let you record this song without me on it in some way.

By: matty

matty — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 06:44:19 +0000

Dan – no… Redoing it didn’t really help. I know what you’re talking about though. Sometimes it does. But this time I had the mix tweaked better, and by the time I got the thing nearly reassembled, i was tired, so I went over the mix with a larger umm paintbrush than I did before. Mostly I was just too tired and had things pretty good before the reboot.
Chase, its got that build sorta that red raindrop has. Mmm yeah this one needs real drums. I’m thinking more seth than ethan, if you get my drift. For something like worlds unknown, more ethan than seth, but this more seth. yeah. that. Actually, that little guitar line you don’t like… That was just me doodling. Then i edited it out. Then my computer rebooted. Then i forgot to edit it out after I reimported the audio file. I think its distracting too. But all i gotta say is THANKS BE TO FREAKIN GOD IN HEAVEN FOR PROTOOLS SPOT MODE. Seriously. Spot mode. Kicks ass.
That ambiance – that’s the same trick I pulled on “metaphor.” I hook up an electric guitar with some delay – not an insane amount, but plenty. And i fret the chords with my left hand while I kinda oscillate the slide over the 12-ish fret with my right. It makes WIIIERD sounds, sometimes actually related to the chord being played. All the electrics on this song are the goldfish through Silverface Dave, and this technique sounds much different on the goldfish than it did on whatever I was using for metaphor – probably the yamaha. Lots of cool high harmonics. Anyway… I really like that trick. There’s not too much processing on it… just a healthy amount of delay.
Fulltone, eh? Didn’t steve sebastian use one of those? Bluesey or what?

By: Chase

Chase — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 01:57:55 +0000

This song is second favorite to Worlds Unknown, which is, if you know me, haha, saying a lot. I love Worlds Unknown.
This song feels like Red Raindrop to me minus sadness plus hopeful, yet not sappy, real, and not major motion picture, sandpaper love.
I think that makes sense, let me read it again. Yeah, it does.
This song will sound fantastic with a live kit. Especially if it came in with a good cymbal hit and such around 1:50, building to the chorus.
I’d cut out the lead guitar in the 2nd stanza of first verse unless you make less intrusive. It distracts me from your melody, and lyrics too much.
Intro is great, I like all the processing and ambiance (pronounced OM-BI-ON-SS). Is that more delay pedal stuff or whatsit?
I like the lyrics a lot too. We want harmonies though on key phrases, and chorus.
Try playing the bass line with a slide, and tune the E string real low, see what happens…
Last thing, I bought a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 today. It sounds so good. Anyway, we’re recording again this weekend, so maybe you can hear some early stuff…

By: Kristina

Kristina — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:39:02 +0000

I like this song a lot. No comments, just yay. And I like the idea of the podcast as well.

By: Dan Costalis

Dan Costalis — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:44:20 +0000

Actually, its uh… still pretty much a demo. Hahaha.
I like how you’re doing the podcast. Keep doing that! Maybe I’m retarded, but I’d like to hear a bit about where the song came from and so on each week.
One question for you… did having to redo the entire song (for the most part, mixing and such at least) seem to give you a better version? I find that doing something over that i JUST did ends up giving me a slightly better version because I already know how I want it
I love the miniature “build-up tease” where you think it might totally break down for a minute… but then kicks right back in. Usually that pisses me off, but it works really well here (1:55 or so)
I don’t have much to add this week so i’ll just rate it? (out of 5)
song structure – 4.5
lyrics – 3.75
replayability (2x weighted) – 4.5
“feel” – 4.0 (i’m sure that was on your mind from last week. you nailed it as far as I’m concerned)
*4.3 overall. Thats a pretty good judge of how much I like it in comparison to your other songs as well. Good show this week, as usual.