Additional Info: Thursday 17/11/2023 Notes written @ 2040 hours. Had my management call with Adam @ 1100 and we discussed which songs we could add to Holiday '22 as we only really have I Wanna Be Adored. My Life isn't really working, even at Version 3. And The Chopin track will be played by Adam. I did a version of Rent but I'm not really vibing on that either. I'm not really feeling our version of "Running Up That Hill", I mean it sounds OK but every man and his dog has done the track since Stranger Things, so I don't see the point now. I wanted to do some more rocky 80s anthem songs anyway, so Adam and I came up with a shortlist (from the 50+ songs I already had on Google Sheets!). the Top3 are Journey - Any Way You Want It Hole - Malibu Deff Leppard - Pour Some Sugar on Me
I went to see Doctor Crockett @ 1445 but didn't see him till 1515. I got 2 weeks leave for my fractured pinky. It's not easy typing this, let me tell you. I cam home around 1545 and walked the dogs and then to the studio and thought about maybe starting one of the songs. I downloaded tabs for all three songs and booted up Cubase and loaded Sparkle to see which song I could start first. It was a toss up between Hole and Journey, and I decided to go with Journey because I love Commander Grayson and the Orville. At 1735 I loaded up the stripped multi tracks at 1630 and then started playing with the foundation of the song, adding the drums, percussions and bass. At 1858 I recorded the Chorus vocals 1859 Verse 2 vocals 1910 Chorus Backing Vocals 1913 Chorus Backing Vocals high 1935 Verse 1 vocals 1953 Bridge vocals 2023 Solo vocals Sharyn just texted me, she's landed back in Melbourne from Sydney, just in the nick of time. It's now 2046 and V1 just printed. I'll print an instrumental and then send Adam an mp3 to listen to. I'll leave shortly to meet Sharyn. Roger and Fritz will be very happy to see her! 2245 Came back from Sharyn's a while ago. The boys were having a conniption fit - they were so happy to see Mommy! I'm back in the studio working on V2 of the song now. I'm adding some Gary Numan and Kraftwerk samples. No one will ever know where they came from. I figure it's time to go back to my Parralox roots! It's now Thursday the 18th of November @ 0008 hour and I think I've finished the track. I'm just printing V2 now. I added some final adlbim vocals at the end, and just tidied up the arrangement. Got rid of a lot of stuff. It still sounds a bit full, but I think it works. I have some Pesto Gnocchi on the boil now, and The Twilight Zone - The Intruders is queued up next. I think I'm happy with the track. Not too bad for half a day's work. It feels like when I started Parralox. I think I'm energised again, both for original tracks and these few cover versions. Jack is looking at me, I think I need to join him on the couch for some cuddles. Nighty Night!
Saturday 19/11/2022 Notes written @ 1530 hours. Got a message from Katja von Kassell this morning about doing vocals for Holiday '22, and so I called my manager Adam to discuss that, and he thought it was a good idea. We chatted about song possibilities, so I sent a message to Katja. Went to the gym this morning, and then caught up with Venus for a coffee @ 1300 on Swanston Street for an hour. Went to sharyns @ 1400 to pickup Jack and heaed back to the studio. Sharyn mentioned doing Steve Winwood - Valerie as a possible cover for Holiday '22, which I think is a great idea. But we already have enough tracks, so maybe it can go on Holiday '23. I mentioned to Sharyn that I was going to start work on Hole - Malibu, which she thought was a great idea as she loves that song - and actually knows it - unlike some of the obscurities I tend to cover! So I got to the studio and was planning on starting Malibu, when something compelled me to open Any way you Want It. Not sure why, but I was going to fix the intro and outro, which I kind of did, and then I listened to the solo and something struck me. I wasn't so keen on having the actual distored guitar solo, and was wondering what I could so instead. So I toyed with the idea of doing some chopped vocal locks (la Pete Hammond) after the middle 8, when inspiration struck. I realised I had some long solo notes that I sung in the middle 8, as well as at the outro, and wondered what it would sound like if I used those parts to replcoate the solo. I considered that grabbing a snippet of vocal and playing back the sample but thought it would sound too predictable, so what I'm doing it actually chopping up the entire vocal part into the sperate notes that the solo is playing, and then manually transposing the vocal notes to match the notes the guitar is playing. It's taken me several hours and I've done the 2nd solo, and now I'm halfway through the first solo. I took a break to type these notes. I always loved the Jimmy Urine track in Guardians of the Galaxy and was planning on doing some formant shifts, but with the drastic transposing that I'm doing I don't think it's necessary. It's got a good balance of natural and articifial now. OK back to the editing. Notes end at 1653. 1710 - Just finished editing the Guitar Vocals Solo Parts. 1912 - Just finished V3 and printing all the mixes. 1932 - Just created the cover art for the song. I caved in and used Dall-E. It's OK. But I think I prefer to create artwork from scratch. Time will tell.
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