Lots of work on Life in the Mirror today. I started by re-recording almost all of it. The song is piano based and begins with smash sounds, lots of random explosions over the keyboard, which coalesce into a chord and tone. I thought this might need more melody. The song also ends, or evolves into, more explosions, I added more of those on the piano too.
After this, I decided that the original version was better, but still used the end explosions, so it shows that sometimes re-recording can help. Generally, a first take or first attempt is best, but I've learned, especially due to poetry, that one shouldn't just accept that but that it's always good to explore everything you can do with it to improve it, swap things; add things, remove things. This extra layer of quality control really helps.
I'm not sure what I think of this track at all; it's so different and atonal, but I'm starting to like it. I recorded a guitar part at the end which is a broken version of the main riff in the preceding I, Sisyphus. I feel very confident with the guitar and with my voice now. It's been a long day of working in this song which seems so simple, almost minimalistic in production terms - piano, some smashing glass, some guitar and vocals which are almost monotone, yet this had taken hours to get just right, and many pauses and independent listens. One thing I have done is panned the second version vocals hard right to distance them from a sound in the left (they describe a room 'behind me', so it seems to make sense). I'm unsure about this as it can sound odd, but perhaps that's why I should keep it.
I still have the ending to do though I've sketched a melody for it.
Joe Biden has been confirmed as U.S. President today, a welcome restoration of normality after the extremism of the clearly mentally unfit Donald Trump. Brexit, an ultimate populist policy, will also fall, it is just a matter of when.
In politics there are a few populists making building up followings of people with various extreme, and always false, viewpoints, from David Icke with his 'lizard alien' theories to Nigel Farage and Covid-19 deniers, and, well, many more. These are not, however, elected politicians, but self-important Napoleon-Hitler-type egotists. In an age where knowledge is easily accessible, it's amazing that such people can gain traction with their claims. I suspect that Donald Trump would not have been elected initially without the help of the Russian state, and unchecked online media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. which, now, has at least some small amount of editorial control.
Enough of such inner thoughts. At least today, things seem a little happier. Mr. Trump may rant and evade, but The Republican Party can't afford such self harm and will probably force him out quickly.
