#theamends

(For the reasons why I’m posting and writing this, and for a bit of backstory, read this post first)

This song became "Make It So" also from our second album. It was written and recorded on 5/28 and 5/31/12, with Drew, Shay, and me. Total recording time (and time it took to write) is 52 minutes. Edited down to 26 minutes, including a take 3 days later with Chris tacked on the end. All except for that last take are sequential and on the same day. First 16 minutes are unedited to show whole process. After that, it’s details mostly. 

This song is a great example of Drew's insane ability to sing gibberish while finding the structure and melody. And sometimes pieces of that gibberish stick. By the end of the third take, he was singing, "Why don't you make it so?" on the chorus, and I'd be lying if I didn't start imagining Sir Patrick Stewart. 

You can hear the final version here. If the file doesn't load below, listen directly on Soundcloud. 

Creepily Detailed Notes: 

00:05 Drew starts playing the riff

At 00:17 Tyler starts trying to join in

At 00:38, Drew stops and is about to move on. Tyler tells him to play that again while he figures out the hook. And then we launch into an almost recognizable first version of the song, even though Tyler flubs along, trying to find the right notes.

 At 3:15 is the first attempt at a chorus, after which Tyler immediately screws up the riff

At 04:47 is the first attempt at a solo

At 05:37, we end the first take and Tyler says, “That actually might be something. It’s catchy as shit… It sounds like a blues song that turns into a pop song.” Drew corrects him, “No, it sounds like a pop song that turns into a blues song.”

Take 2 begins at 06:00. The riff starts to improve and become recognizable. At 06:20, Drew says, “I like that riff.” 

At 06:52, Tyler tries to change the riff for the second half of the verse. 

At 08:16, the chorus riff almost punches through for the first time. But Tyler still can’t get it. 

Take 2 ends at 09:05. 

At 09:15, Drew suggests Tyler take over the rhythm part when Drew solos. Takes Tyler about 45 seconds to learn the chords, but for how simple they are, that’s about 40 seconds too long. 

At 10:21, we start working on the turnaround. 

Take 3 starts at 10:59. 

At 13:25, Tyler and Drew switch for the first time, essentially completing the basic structure of the song. 

14:12 Drew: “Did you feel that when we were just pounding there? Oh Yeah.” Shay said, “That should be the song title.”

At 14:25, Tyler tries an aborted idea for Drew to incorporate some of the hook into Drew’s solo. But Drew can’t because it’s not in the blues scale. 

15:25, Drew points out we should switch rhythm/riffs during the second parts of the verses.  

15:57 Take 4 begins. First Edit, just removing the couple minutes of that take. 

Fell apart at the end, so at 16:05, Tyler suggests they come back to the chorus at the very end. 

Take 5 starts at 17:00. Edited out.  

 17:41: Tyler: “It’s a good sign when you’re out of breath for a pop song. 

Take 6 edited out. 

18:42, Take 7, complete. Tyler varies the riff on the verses. And the chorus riff is almost there. And Drew sings “Make It So” on the chorus. 

22:10: Drew: “Is there anything we can do better?”

22:13: Tyler: “Another one pulled out of the ether.”

22:15 : Related it to another abandoned song. 

(For the reasons why I'm posting and writing this, and for a bit of backstory, read this post first).

"A Certain Speed" ended up the second song on our second album. You can hear the final version here, and it's also attached to the back half of the Soundcloud file below.

The basic songwriting process, wherein most of the song was completely written (except for some lyrics), took 32 minutes, spread over two back-to-back recordings. That is a weird thing to be able to pin-point.

I edited the original 32 minutes down to the file below. Un-edited versions are available upon request if you're a psychopath. Timed comments are interspersed throughout, and pasted below the file. If it doesn't load for you below, you can watch directly on Soundcloud.

Creepily Detailed Notes: 

00:00-00:17 Finishing up an early version of “It’d Be Nice”

At 00:30, Tyler randomly starts on a riff that comes out of nowhere. Shay immediately starts playing along, and then at 00:53, there’s a pause and Drew starts singing. 

At 01:17, the chorus kicks in and Drew sings pretty much exactly what ends up on the final version. The fourth version of the main verse riff remains sloppy and unfinished for a while.

At 03:54, we finish up this very first take. Drew says, “I like this riff.” Tyler says he has to do something more with it and messes around a bit.  The band starts up a second attempt pretty much right away. The second version isn’t much different than the first so at 04:53, there’s a fade-out (about 3 minutes is cut from the original recording here, where we just repeat it a few times).  

When we fade back in, we start to get excited about it. Drew says something about either his toenail or his guitar tone haha. Tyler recognizes that “the first few notes are basically Lonely Boy (by the Black Keys).” But we quickly agree it’s totally different after those first three notes. 

There’s another fade-out at 05:11, which is just a couple minutes of everyone screwing around.  Coming back, Tyler expresses concern about the bridge— that it sounds too much like another song, which would ultimately become “Tick Tock”. 

At 05:40, it fades out because Tyler starts a new recording so that he won’t have to find all this in the middle of a long recording. Only a few seconds pass here. 

From  05:45-6:50, we practice the bridge. We fade out again as Tyler teaches Drew the riff so he can add to the bridge.  About five minutes pass here. 

At 06:57, Tyler’s still trying to figure out how to differ the bridge from “Tick Tock”. 

From 07:00-9:15, we run through the whole song— the best version of the day, and as Drew says right after the end of it, “We’re almost to a total song.” 

In fact, the only things that will really change in the final version are: a) Tyler cleaning up the end of the verse riff, b) Drew’s guitar accents between the verses, c) adding to the bridge d) verse lyrics, and e) adding the bass. Otherwise, it’s pretty much exactly how it ends up on WWCB. 

After 09:15, Tyler spends some time trying to “smooth out” the riff. Shay helps. 

Bands these days are lucky*. The easy access to decent quality, mobile recording technology allows us to chronicle everything. In theory, you can leave a recorder running throughout every rehearsal. You can capture every ephemeral, tossed-off riff, every spontaneous lyric. Technically, there need not be ghosts anymore. No haunting, nagging regrets about that great hook none of you can recall. No.  spur-of-the-moment jams that no one is able to remember. Everything can be preserved. Everything can be revisited. 

As it turns out, The Amends preserved quite a bit, and I’ve been revisiting it lately.  In case you couldn’t guess from the title, some of “The Ruins of Tropicalia” is about origins and foundations. It’s about understanding and accepting our histories— both collectively and personally. Identifying influences and not shying away from them, but using them to build something new. For that reason, I thought it might be interesting to re-visit the writing process of some of the songs from The Amends’ first two studio albums.  

So once or twice a week throughout the course of TROT, I’m going to post some of these (mostly spontaneous and accidental) songwriting sessions. We ended up capturing the actual moments when several of our songs were scooped out of the ether and turned into something tangible. Sometimes it happened in the middle of playing a different song, or jamming mindlessly. Other times, the recorder was turned on minutes after one of us came running in with a new idea. 

An argument could be made that this is a purely masturbatory exercise. But what isn’t, these days? In many ways, it is. I started listening to these old recordings because I was personally interested in how we made what we made. And exposing the raw, unfiltered origins of these songs is a bit embarrassing. Sometimes we get too excited, or pleased with ourselves. Other times we mention other bands a little too frequently. 

Putting aside (yet acknowledging) all that, I decided to send these recordings out to the wires because there’s a chance a few of you (whether fans of ours or not) may stumble upon this and be genuinely interested to listen to the entire, raw, songwriting process. 

I took these old recordings and edited them down to (semi) consumable lengths. Some are still inexcusably, self-indulgently long. I’ve never claimed to be a good editor (says the guy who edited and compiled TROT). I’ll embed these files here from our Soundcloud. I’ll put notes in the “timed comments” on SC, but I’ve found it to be a little janky, so I’ll also paste the notes below the song. 

I hope some of you get something out of these songs— whether it be inspiration, hatred, pity, or something in between. First up tomorrow will be "A Certain Speed" from our second album.

(Picture below is of Drew in his creepy basement, where most of these songs were written)