Songs

Sonic inspiration – Sad Moon Above

My friend and I have been working on a song called Sad Moon Above for a while now. It started with just some lyrics (hers), then a few guitar chords (mine), culminating in a very rough outdoors acoustic demo, recorded on my iPhone and featuring a metronome and a barking dog. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Yeah, it was that rough. But it was just a proof of concept.

The was three years ago.

We got a little stuck, so to move things along, I made a really basic “karaoke” version of the song. I even sang even though I’m not a singer.

That was two years ago.

Now I’m trying to get to a fairly “good” version of this song. Or maybe 2-3 good versions. 🤷🏻‍♂️ In my head, I hear a New Wave version, a grunge version, and a dream pop version of this song.

So I just bought a keyboard, even though I’m not a keyboard player.

Aspirations keep us moving forward. Here is a playlist of sounds that I want Sad Moon Above to feel like when it’s eventually done.

I just bought a keyboard. Wish me luck. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The Sad Moon Above (karaoke edition)

22 April 202116 April 2022 patmcg1 Comment

Here is a “karaoke” version of The Sad Moon Above (barking dog demo), with really basic instrumentation to sing to and potentially record a voice track remotely.

Anyone can sing to this version, and then I can go back and re-record a few differently-styled instrumentations. I’m thinking a “dreamy” version, a “noisy” version, a 50’s version, a Weezer version, and a Walkmen version.

Here’s my own take. I’m not a singer. 🤦🏻‍♂️

We shall see where this ends up…

Music · Songs

The Sad Moon Above (barking dog demo)

14 June 202015 April 2022 patmcg2 Comments

Here is the official first “demo” cut of The Sad Moon Above.

This song was recorded on Erin’s back porch due to the raging pandemic situation. You can just barely hear the song over the metronome and the neighbor’s barking dog.

Erin and I had worked on this for a few while before this recording. She wrote some lyrics (“It took me five minutes.”), and I put some chords behind it and added a melody (“It took me 5 hours. 🤷🏻‍♂️”).

🎶 Erin wrote the lyrics, and I added, “Your heart breaks, your heart breaks, and so do you…” to the chorus.

Making this song was my first chance to exercise a new-fangled awareness of diatonic chords (here in the key of C). It was super hard, but I was happy with the results, especially the chorus.

🎶 I came up with the music, and Erin pushed the vocals over the top with a few tweaks around the chorus.

Erin was also “instrumental” (so to speak) in making sure we had a nice slow metronome so I couldn’t rush through the song on guitar. ⏱