Deb's birthday today so a few hours of socially distanced walks and gift giving. Really nice, though, very different in these Covid times from a normal day. I expect it will be at least six months before anything like normality.
For music inspiration I listened to bits of Scott Walker's Tilt and Climate of Hunter, inspiring in the fact that there's so little there in most of the songs, in terms of melody, most of it in the vocals. Farmer in the City remains beautiful, but Cockfighter is such a loud and powerful contrast that it makes me laugh with astonishment almost every time I hear it. Today I watched a video about the making of Bowie's song Heroes, Tony Visconti (with glasses rather like the ones I've just ordered - coincidence or fate?) talking through the different tracks and creation process. One key thing is that Bowie was a fast and pragmatic (and social) creator and just got on with building and layering and didn't fuss too much about alternatives, radical changes or global structures, just sticking with things created by the band, and getting it done quickly. No angst, simple commitment. Of course, in the pre-digital era this was often a necessity anyway, as with watercolours vs. digital art; the first stroke must remain so this encourages instant expression as well as speed. In the past I've generally operated in a similar way and for most of my music or paintings or anything I do things once and instantly and get it over with, calling a first draft the last and leaving it at that. Now though, in the past five years or so since ArtsLab, I tend to explore alternatives and often make several versions of things; whether poems, songs, or just alternative lines or melodies, laying out several options before choosing the best. This is a lot more time consuming - I made three completely different versions of the Siamese Twins song for Apocalypse of Clowns for example, but it does tend to produce better results. It's a like evolutionary design: make two things not one, then pick the best and repeat.
I also watched a short video about the making of Strawberry Fields, which took 27 takes or something. That's the other extreme.
I've settled on the melody and chords for The Dream of Wasps, it's rather a floaty and drifty song generally in D-minor (like the finale Take This Rose, the melodies and chords from that song are constantly in my mind because the three songs here must be musically linked). The second verse, in my first draft, switched to male choirs and complex chords; F, B-flat, G, E, A... is a sort of Vivaldian cycle but this sounded too energetic and positive, and too much of a contrast, so I moved back to a simpler F and then E (minor then major at the end). I also added a moody intro and improvised some guitar there. This sounded okay, something like the guitar parts in Wish You Were Here - or is it Dark Side Of The Moon, well something of a hum with guitars over the top). My melody needs some refinement so I think I'll sequence a guide track and play to that. I think I'm generally settled on the structure of this now though not much of it has actually been done yet.
The second song will be more up-beat and rocky because this one is quiet. The three songs will be themed around broken love; the first bleak and lost, the second perhaps angry, the third bitter, of walking away.
