#pitinside

Direction by Patterns in Traffic

As is tradition around here, I’m finally getting around to wrapping up my series of “Inside” posts on my most recent release now that Direction is 18 months old. The only song I haven’t written about to date is the closing track, “Left.” So strap in and let’s get to it.

When I was brainstorming song ideas to correspond to each of the relative directions for this themed EP, I thought it would be a fascinating twist to think about the words themselves, including homonyms. I pretty quickly zeroed in on the word “left,” and the obvious non-directional interpretation of leaving a place or person. One goal of this EP was to expand my songwriting beyond the subjects of romance and breakups. I came up with a fictional story about a protagonist who is abandoned by their father at a young age and the evolution of that relationship over time. The first line of each verse ends with the word “left” as the story unfolds.

The vocal melody for this song actually came to me months earlier, while traveling with my wife. Our Pacific Northwest flight had just landed, and while we were waiting for our baggage, a melody popped into my head. I walked to the bathroom to try to find a place where I could record a voice memo on my phone without too much background noise. That original voice recording is a little hard to hear because of all the airport ambience picked up by the microphone.

I knew that “Left” would be the last track on the EP early in the process, so I wanted it to have a sense of finality. After all of the guitar-driven songs on the EP, I thought that starting this one out with just piano and vocals would be a great change of pace. However, I wanted to build toward a climax that would be a fitting resolution to this collection of songs. I decided to bring in some dissonant guitars and crashing drums to kind of rough up this pretty track as it comes to a close. I also thought this big, heavy climax was fitting for the song after the lyrics it delivers. I still really enjoy how chaotic the ending of the song becomes, with multiple guitar layers being added and nearly drowning out the vocals. Then at the very end, everything pulls back and the track ends with the same simple piano and vocal pairing that it started with. 

Direction by Patterns in Traffic

Hi everyone. You look fabulous today. Here’s some insider info about “Down” from the Direction EP. Let’s keep it between us, shall we?

The chorus of “Down” actually came about when I was trying to complete another song idea. I had a few parts that I really liked with no chorus, and I came up with a few options for choruses, including this one. I decided that one of the other ideas fit better for that song (and, like many of the songs I’ve written over the years, I have plans to record that one on a future release), but I liked this chorus so much that I took it and built a whole new song out of it.

The verses and bridge were ideas that had been sitting around for quite a few years by the time I got into the writing process for Direction. I really liked those parts, but could never find the right home for them until this song came along. So I would say that it’s another “Frankensong” in the sense that I smashed together a few ideas that weren’t originally intended to commingle and voila! A song was born.

Even though it’s technically part of the previous track “Up” according to the track dividers, I consider the transition piece from “Up” into “Down” to be a part of “Down.” Since Direction is intended to be a cohesive and themed piece, I thought it would be a cool idea to have each set of opposing tracks flow into each other. I wrote short instrumental movements to bridge the gaps between “Forward” and “Backward” and between “Up” and “Down.” I ended up deciding not to place “Right” and “Left” next to each other in the track sequencing, so there is no instrumental bridge between those two. Actually, I had this idea to connect the songs early on in the planning for Direction but did not decide to implement it until after I had almost completed the demoing process. It pushed back the final product to go back and write those instrumental pieces to link the songs, but it was something I felt like I had to do or I would eventually regret it.

To return from this tangent, I love how the transition piece that leads from “Up” into “Down” builds slowly with the gentle keys and the choir sample leading into the busier piano line and the drums and bass entering. The groove that locks in when the bass enters was originally planned to be the groove of the verses throughout “Down.” However, I was having a bit of trouble in the demoing process and I ended up picking up the guitar to work out some chords and timing. I soon began playing the current descending guitar chords that are heard in the verses because they felt like a more natural accompaniment to the melody once I was in an organic setting with the guitar in my hands. I really liked the original groove, so I used it for the intro (which is the first thing you hear at the beginning of the proper track if you were to hit play on “Down”).

The last line of the chorus, “Getting better means just getting by,” was a particularly hard one to write. I knew I needed one more line to serve as a hook coming out of the chorus, and I had the melody pretty quickly, but I probably went through 30 variations of lyrics. I ended up going with this one, and I still think it was a pretty good choice!

I really like this song. I think it has a lot going for it and it’s one of my personal favorites on the EP. I actually haven’t heard much praise for this one in particular out in the wild, so if you think it’s a standout, reach out and let me know! That would be very cool to hear. Any praise, really, is cool. Validation!

Direction by Patterns in Traffic

Oh, hello. Didn’t see you there.

So it’s been almost a year since Direction was released. Time flies. I haven’t been too focused on music as of late as I recently became a dad (finally my humor will make sense), but I am happy to report that I’m working on new Harsh Lights songs and new PiT songs and they’ll both be coming at you at some point in the future. Harsh Lights probably this year even! But we will have plenty of time to catch up soon enough. For now, pull up a chair and let me regale you with the origin story behind a track on my Direction EP, “Up.”

Like many of my songs, “Up” was born out of a vocal melody idea which became the chorus. The lyrics came to me very quickly, and I liked how the refrain (“turn the lights on”) was expressing the opposite sentiment of “Turn the Lights Out” from my debut album Silhouetting. I came up with this idea a few years ago, prior to coming up with the concept for Direction, and I toyed with using “Turn the Lights On” as the title to further draw the comparisons between the two songs (of course, musically they turned out very different!).

Within a few months of writing the chorus melody and vocals, I came up with the first verse and prechorus, bringing the song more into focus. It seemed like it would be well-tailored to an upbeat, dance-influenced, and possibly electronic feel. When I later decided to pursue direction as the theme of my EP, I quickly realized that this song idea was the perfect fit to represent “Up.” It has a positive and uplifting message, and I had already used the word “up” a couple of times in the original lyrics I wrote! I got to work fleshing out the rest of the song during the demoing process for the EP by writing the second verse and the bridge.

I really enjoyed programming the drums for this track to bring to life the driving beat that I imagined. It makes the listener want to move (at least it does when I’m the listener), which is a unique quality for my music up to this point. As a bassist at heart, I took great pleasure in playing a prominent bass part on this song with some cool fills. It's a bit of "lead bass" you might say, with the guitar taking a backseat for most of this tune. I also had fun throwing in some other elements such as synth bells, which pop up in the intro and at other points throughout the song, and handclaps, which add some rhythmic accents. When I added the handclaps, I was definitely thinking about the claps in the chorus of The Format’s song “The First Single” and how the crowd would clap along at concerts (I will admit to even clapping along to the recording if the mood strikes me). I’m not sure if I’ll ever have the opportunity to perform these songs in a live setting, but it seemed like a fun and interactive ingredient to add to this track.

If you’ve read these “Inside” posts before, you probably know that I have a personal “bucket list” of songwriting and recording tricks that I love hearing in other people’s music and will try to work into my songs at least once if given the opportunity. There were a ton of these on Silhouetting and I just discussed one in a previous post about “Right,” where I employed the “fake ending” trick. Along with the handclaps, one sonic element I’ve always wanted to try to use in a song is the “ooh” or “aah” background vocals. It’s such a classic, throwback technique that is still used brilliantly today by a lot of artists, and it’s something that doesn’t come naturally to me. I am usually drawn to using instruments to create more layers of sound, and using vocals solely for lyricism. I had a blast using my voice on this track to just add some texture to the sound with some three-part harmony “ooh”s.

Direction by Patterns in Traffic

Hello, friends! Can you believe that Direction is already two months old? In some ways it feels like it was released just yesterday, and in some ways it seems like it’s been much longer. After a short break, I’m back to continue giving some insight into the songs on my recent EP.

“Right” is a unique case in that it’s more of a social commentary, whereas my songs usually focus on interpersonal relationships. Without getting too far into the weeds on the meaning, I tried to tackle the issue of marketing (personal or professional) and surface-level image through the lenses of an evil corporation and a self-obsessed Patrick Bateman-type protagonist.

When I first started working on the EP, there was a different song altogether that was going to be “Right.” In fact, I got so far as to have a full, completed demo for that song (which will appear on my next release, but let’s focus on the here and now). During the demoing process for the EP, I heard a song by another artist and had a moment where I could anticipate exactly where the chorus was going to go before I heard it. I was pleasantly surprised when the band took the chorus in an entirely different (but also awesome) direction. However, I really liked the “anticipated” chorus that I came up with and I decided to use it as inspiration for a song of my own. I quickly came up with the chorus lyrics that are still present in the final version of the track, which repeat the word “right” three times. I knew that this new song had to be “Right,” as it fit the Direction motif a bit better than the song I had been demoing. I wavered a bit because of the extra time and energy it would take to demo a new song from scratch, but I ended up taking the time to make sure that I wouldn’t have any regrets about the final EP.

Musically, I had fun trying to get that heavy, hard-rock guitar tone on this song. I was going for a Muse type of sound, though I have no delusions that I achieved any such thing. It is also probably my most extensive use of lead guitars, with lead guitar riffs trading off with the vocals in the verses and an extended solo in the bridge. Speaking of the bridge, it is different from any other bridge I’ve written in that it has three distinct sections. The first section builds in intensity up to the line “We’ll make you undeniable,” which contains probably the highest note I had to hit on this EP (and maybe in any of my recordings so far). My voice was pretty raw after recording that part. The second bridge section is the guitar solo, which was something I really wanted to fit into this very guitar-centric track. It is the only true guitar solo on Direction. Finally, there is a section with a kind of bluesy progression which leads back into the final chorus. When I first wrote the song, this section was a prechorus and it repeated before each instance of the chorus. As I assembled the demo for the song, I realized that this part was a bit long to repeat three times, and the chorus worked well coming right out of the verse. I ended up finding a home for it as a transitional part between the guitar solo and the final chorus.

One other notable aspect of “Right” is the “fake ending.” I always thought it was a cool trick when a song sounded like it was coming to an end before coming roaring back from the dead. I wanted to use that technique in one of my recordings at some point, and this one fit the bill. I ended the final chorus with a dissonant note on the lead guitar, leaving the final guitar riff unresolved. This gave me an excuse to bring back the intro riff and chords from the beginning of the song, which I really like, as the surprise “return” of the track after it seems to be fading out. After coming in hard for one more cycle of the verse progression, the song finally comes to a resolute conclusion.

Direction by Patterns in Traffic

Today is the one-week anniversary of the release of Direction! I’ve been getting great feedback on the new music and I’ve heard each song singled out as a favorite by one person or another, so that has been super cool to hear. Keep it coming! I’m going to take advantage of this momentous anniversary to write a little bit about “Forward,” the first track on the EP and hopefully some new listeners’ introduction to my music.

“Forward” is a “Frankensong,” which could be said about several of the tracks on Direction. By that I mean I had multiple unrelated musical ideas that weren’t intended to go together, but I set them up on an awkward first date at a coffee shop and before I knew it they were happily married.

I wrote the chorus riff a few years ago, but didn’t do anything with it right away because it didn’t seem like something that fit with the identity of PiT. The riff actually started out in a 4/4 time signature, and over the next couple of months it continued to come back to me and get stuck in my head. I eventually removed a beat from the riff so that it was in a 7/8 time signature (or one bar of 3/4 followed by one bar of 4/4, if you prefer). This is a pretty unique time signature and definitely not one I’d used or considered when working on Silhouetting. The riff wouldn't leave me alone and was persistent enough that I knew I had to use it in a song.

When I came up with the concept for Direction, I thought that the driving riff sounded like a good fit for “Forward.” I soon had the simple vocal line to lay over the riff, “I’m gonna keep moving forward.” Then came the issue of coming up with a verse. I had a guitar recording on my phone from years earlier that was just a quickly-strummed progression which used a variety of chords that changed at somewhat unpredictable intervals. I always thought this was a cool progression, but again hadn’t used it since it didn’t feel like a PiT song at the time. I took this chord progression (in 4/4 time by the way) and mashed it together with the chorus riff and they worked pretty seamlessly! It wasn’t the easiest process to map out the song in Logic with all of the time signature changes, but the result expands into musical territory that I didn’t think I would be exploring.

The other notable section of the song is the bridge, which contains a rhythmic vocal part that seemed crazy when I first came up with it. I was stuck on the thought that this didn’t sound like the music I had made on Silhouetting (noticing a pattern here?). But I remember dancing around the room and singing along with the instrumental demo when I first wrote that melody, and I knew it had to be in the song.

I am really proud of this track and how all of the pieces came together to show a new side of my songwriting. I think it is a powerful and attention-grabbing introduction to Direction that shows that this set of songs is going to be a bit more energetic and take some new risks.

Backward by Patterns in Traffic

Tomorrow is the release of Direction and I am thrilled to have the full EP out there for everyone to hear. This is only the second time I’ve gone through it, but there is nothing quite so simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking as release day. I hope you all find something to enjoy on the EP!

In preparation for release day, I thought I would continue my series of “Inside” posts and talk a little bit about “Backward,” the first song released from Direction last week. As I did with Silhouetting, I intend to eventually write one of these posts for each track on Direction.

I actually came up with the idea for “Backward” in 2010/2011 during a somewhat tumultuous time in my life when I was exploring the not-always-friendly post-college dating pool. I guess I had a lot of inspiration (or ammunition) at the time as this was probably my most prolific songwriting period to date. I hope to record and release most of those songs as an album in the future, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

When “Backward” was in its infancy, it was a hard rock/metal influenced track. It was so far removed from the style of music I had been writing that I didn’t take it seriously for a long time. I basically considered it a parody of hard rock music. In fact, the repeated line in the chorus that is now “fall back to you” was originally “bleed into you.” Kind of grotesque imagery to be sure, but it fit with the kind of metal-parody mindset I was in at the time. That part was intended to have a gang vocal effect that is popular in hard rock, though the final version obviously turned out quite a bit differently.

I never seriously considered completing or recording “Bleed into You” (the working title for many years), but the idea never really left my subconscious. Every few weeks or months the chorus would pop into my head and stay for a while, and while I knew that it was a catchy hook I never thought it was something that I could pass off as a PiT song. It didn’t fit in at all alongside any of the other tracks that I had written.

When I came up with the concept for the Direction EP, I felt like the EP format provided a little bit more freedom to try some different ideas and styles that I wouldn’t have attempted on a full-length album. I’m not sure I can articulate why that is, but I guess I’ve always felt like EPs are a more relaxed format that is better tailored to experimentation. When I decided on an EP, I thought back to some of my oddball ideas and this one quickly came to mind. I eventually determined that with a minor lyrical change “Bleed into You” could become “Backward.”

Over the course of demoing and recording the EP, I completed the song by writing the verses and bridge and coming up with the arrangement. One notable aspect of the final recording is the drum performance, which I can attribute to the power and customizability of the new Drummer feature in Logic X (I recorded Silhouetting using Logic 9 and the Logic X Drummer is a prayer answered for this non-drummer who programs all my percussion). I’m also really proud of the lead guitar in the chorus, which is kind of a spastic and unrelenting riff. It’s the first time I’ve utilized that technique and it turned out well enough that I doubt it will be the last.

Silhouetting by Patterns in Traffic

Well, this is long overdue. Almost two years after the release of Silhouetting, I’m finally getting around to the final post of this “Inside” series about the tracks on the album. I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them, and I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to put my thoughts down about each and every track.

“Crash and Burn” was the second song that I ever wrote. I was in high school at the time and only played bass, so I plucked along as I sang. I played the song for the few close friends and family that ever heard me play, and then unceremoniously left it behind.

Years later, when I had learned guitar and was first considering putting together an album’s worth of material, I thought back on some of my early songs, wondering if any of them were worth revisiting. This one, which I would have dismissed as immature or simplistic in the interim, now seemed heartfelt and sincere. I reimagined the song on acoustic guitar and rewrote some of the original lyrics to bring it up to the quality of my more recent writing. After that, “Crash and Burn” was a song I would frequently open with when performing. It was a good warmup for my voice and a fitting introduction to my sound.

When I was considering different styles that I wanted to experiment with on Silhouetting, something that I really wanted to try was a piano ballad. One of my favorite artists, Butch Walker, has some beautiful examples, such as “Joan” and “ATL.” I love how raw and emotive a song can be when stripped down to just a piano and a vocal. Since I already had several acoustic guitar-centric songs on the album, I decided to reinvent “Crash and Burn” once more.

However, I am no pianist, so I enlisted the help of my Uncle Don to make this vision a reality. We worked together to create a piano rendition of “Crash and Burn,” and Don recorded the piano take you hear on the final recording. I have him to thank for allowing me to expand into that new musical territory!

Silhouetting by Patterns in Traffic

I was your stereotypical angsty and introspective kid during my middle school and early high school years. Before I had ever picked up an instrument, I wrote some forlorn poetry in the confines of my bedroom. Once I started playing and writing music in high school, most of my writing consisted of stream-of-consciousness lyrical ideas, similar to my earlier poetry. I did not yet have the musical knowledge to turn these ideas into actual songs, but I had plenty of lyrics printed out and sitting in a pile on the floor of my closet. 

As you can imagine, all of these ideas were mind-numbingly terrible, with the exception of one that stuck with me. I was in the midst of a torrid love affair with Brand New’s Deja Entendu, which led to a dark and metaphorical quality that was unique for my writing at the time. The song was originally titled “Born Again,” echoing the first line of the lyrics.

Years later, when I had started to learn some guitar, I came across the lyrics and started fumbling around with some chords to see if I could build the idea into a fully-realized song. At the time, I was in a band that used a free software called TabIt to share song ideas. It was a simple interface where you entered your music as guitar tablature, and the software would play the ideas back using an awful MIDI “electric guitar” sound. I tabbed out a full version of “Born Again” in the style of our band (think early Fall Out Boy or All Time Low). This time, I called it “The Ten Gallon Hat Song” for no particular reason. I thought it was funny, and we had a habit of coming up with song titles that had nothing at all to do with the actual song. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the band dissolved before we could ever properly learn or perform “The Ten Gallon Hat Song.”

Sometime over the following years, I formulated the idea for the “epic” closing section of the song. When paring down the song ideas for Silhouetting, I penciled this song in as the closer. The final version features most of the original stream-of-consciousness lyrics from many years ago. It also features some of the instrumentation from the “Ten Gallon Hat Song” version, and plenty of new additions including the slide guitar that I had previously utilized on “Can’t Give Up on Us.”

To lend some cohesion to the full album, the end of the song fades into a reprise of the swirling synthesizer effect that opens the first track, “3 Weeks.” The title of the song was also changed to “9 Weeks” to mirror the opening track and reinforce the sense of the album coming full circle. These two songs ended up being great bookends for the album, making opening and closing statements that (hopefully) tie together the overarching themes and the listening experience!