More work on Nightfood today, though going is slower. The gentle 'day' part is a piano solo, actually this turned out to be about two minutes long, but the mood here is drifting and gentle so it feels okay. This leads to some dramatic trills (these always create anticipatory tension) before its finale. I had to work on the trills a bit and recorded three different versions, the moods of those are so sensitive, both the speed, regularity, and the volume to build up tension. Come to think of it I don't think I've ever recorded a piano trill before but I've played them countless times.
After this it leads to a section that echoes the initial chords but without words, just a guitar solo so I recorded that too.
All that's left are the vocals. I don't feel like doing them here and now. Apart from anything else, my left ear is blocked and painful for the third day in a row. I have recorded some simple test vocals. I think I'll do that more often. Normally, I record the vocals at the end, I expect a lot of recording is done that way because you need a reasonably complete backing track to gauge the volume and mood of the vocals, but now I think it might help to have test or placement vocals there as soon as the melody is set, or even sooner, so that the timbre of the song can be crafted along.
Now I need to think of what vocal effects or layering I might need. I don't tend to use that many vocal effects, and if anything I'm using less, but for the 'they will drag you backwards' verse I might double these up. The range of this song is quite high, A1 to G2 (in my scales - that's a high G). This means I can comfortably double them an octave lower and might try that.
I took a walk to the park to meet Deb in this summery day (the week is set for wintery weather). I talked about Genesis, after listening to A Trick Of The Tail a few days ago. Tracks like Squonk aren't that different from later so-called 'commercial' recordings like Mama. Genesis were famously accused of becoming too commercial, as though this were a conscious decision to be artless - it might have been (a conscious choice!), but it seems that their music was always, gradually, moving towards a more 'commercial' sound with each release. Most progressive bands became more commercial, even by 1975; punk didn't end prog-rock, perhaps the lack of mass appeal did. Bands that didn't have hits, like Van der Graaf Generator, remained unpopular and failed to make enough money. Debts, and the Sword of Damocles of potentially losing contracts or jobs are probably powerful incentives to become more commercial.
The thing is, I think that many of the prog experiments ended too early, as though a trip across a desert was underway, and people decided to turn back due to worry and other pressures rather than continue, when they could have gone further on to new things, oases and ideas, that remain undiscovered. For me, what is 'progressive' simply means using all instruments, sounds, and tools to create an effect; like symphonic music, like all music historically, and now we have more timbres available than ever before, so a golden age, for the art if not for the money, is here and now.
Well, I hope to make as much music as I can... I must get Nightfood finished, then another album. I read about Roger Corman today. In one year, I think 1957, he made 10 films. I must try to do the same for albums, and certainly have the ideas; although it is rather a lot of work for one person. I listed Deep Dark Light on Smashwords today. I must write a book this year too.
