Music Archive

Waiting and Writing Songs

Written by Daniel Nicolas. Posted on August 12th 2008

Some people often complain about the length of time between albums or new releases from their favorite artists. While I understand this perspective (I am, after all patiently waiting for a 2008 release of both a Doves and Third Eye Blind release), take for a moment that music is not a pure capitalistic consumption - some of it is actually art. Imagine an old school artist who after sketching, painting, and repainting for months, even years. Do people ask to see the work in progress, and lightly mock that the work would be seen only after the death of the artist.

Writing a song isn’t hard. Anyone can write a song - you’ve probably already started in the back of your head and you might not even know it - but, not everyone can write a good song. With enough effort, a good song can be worked into a great song. There are much fewer great songs compared to all the songs in the world, which probably grow at an exponential rate, with bad songs making little baby bad songs. But where does that song writing stop? Can a musician take a great song a re-work it until it’s moved back into the ‘good’ category?

I would argue that musicians need to stop and get a set of trusted outside options that will be brutal enough to provide criticism in both improving music but also to stop them and kick them out of the studio once they have a great song. The producer of an album may provide this extra insight to the songwriter or musicians. Some producers even have the reputation of working with a band to take good songs and make them great and cut them off once they reach the great mark. But the question remains: How long should a writer work on good songs?

At what point does the song stop being a “new” song and become a “old” song that’s been killed by the tinkering and tediousness over the years? When does a song stop being fresh? If it’s not an “instant classic” that stays fresh for months and years to come, can an unreleased song lose it’s favor in the eyes of the fanbase and possibly the songwriter?

Scotlandish Views

Written by Daniel Nicolas. Posted on August 5th 2008

I recently talked to Kit Maxwell, a young man who recently emigrated from Scotland with his parents. Now living and going to school in Canada, he and I talked about the music scene for a short bit. He wrote a few paragraphs for this article, answering my questions about the music scene in Scotland and North America.

WAKING IDEAS: How do you compare the music of the United States and North America in general to the industry and scene over in Scotland?

KIT MAXWELL: The music in Scotland i must say far exceeds in originality and just better music than Canada and USA.

WI: That’s a little bit self righteous. What do you mean?

KM: It differs alot in Scotland, you see.

WI: You’re an immigrant, right?

KM: Born and raised in Scotland, until recently moving to Canada.

WI: So you’d say it’s a different experience? I mean obviously growing up in one scene and then being uprooted and having to find new music and bands to enjoy, especially in Canada, is going to be difficult.

KM: I play the bagpipes ok, So back in Scotland, if I where to play them outside my house at least thirty people would come to listen to me, they soak up the music and love it.

WI: I experienced that while I was there this past summer, even if people are terrible musicians there’s always a small crowd standing around talking and laughing. The Scottish really take their culture seriously.

KM: You see, the music there is cultivated and grown, from pubs to family backyards every song is given a flavour of the people who sing it. (more…)

Made in the Dark

Written by Daniel Nicolas. Posted on August 5th 2008

Have you ever just woken up on the wrong side of the bed and then had your morning change completely? This particular morning I had to take my brother to the train station and I wasn’t all that happy about waking up early. Now as I am not a morning person, waking up early is a rather laborious task nearly equivalent to the Twelve Herculean Tasks, but with less horses and hydras and more grumbling and griping.

This particular morning I had been woken up, moaning about how bright the sun was and how I might melt disappear in the fog on the way home. On the way out the door I spotted a CD from the night before and instantly a song stuck in my head, and I just sorta jammed along in my head and danced as my morning began to turn around. I grabbed the new Hot Chip album and shuffled to the car.

My brother yawned and asked what CD I grabbed. I just turned it louder, selected track 11 of Made in the Dark, and grinned. The road screamed as the car flew down the highway to catch the train, and hypnotized by the strangely fresh music he lost it. I laughed as my brother moved his arms and tapped his feet, bobbing his head and singing along as if he’d heard it a million times. After arriving at the train station exactly on time, my brother rushed to buy his ticket and I sat in the car laughing.

Hot Chip’s Made in the Dark is one of my recent favorite albums and it’s held up against time. After constantly listening it as it leaked, then buying and still listening for weeks after the official release, I took a break and gave it some time to age and realized that I would come back to it eventually and just totally dance and grin like that day. In late July, I put that notion to test and brought the album to work. It turned out to be nearly the best day of work ever (almost as good as the day I brought Daft Punk’s Discovery).

In Rainbows is Still Stuck In My Head

Written by Daniel Nicolas. Posted on July 28th 2008

In Rainbows was released to everyone in October 2007. It’s now nearing the end of July 2008 and it’s safe to say that all the fanboys have long since written their reviews, the hype of the “it’s up to you” price point has drifted off into space, and the critics have moved on to trash the latest new releases. In Rainbows could be seen as one of the highest points of 2007 music releases, but how does it hold up months later when no one is talking about it and you don’t score points for having the album on your ipod?

Radiohead’s latest album does more than hold its own. The opening seconds of 15 Step set the mood: minimal layering and simple arrangements allow the vocals and drums to take center stage in the haunting soundtrack. This isn’t your traditional haunting - Bodysnatchers reminds again - This is speeding down the highway, alone with your windows down, no sound but the rippling wind tearing past your ears. The sense of urgency builds at the first crash of the drums. Yet in the same way you lose the sense of speed, the slowdown at Nude doesn’t feel wrong, it feels like a strange out of body experience. The feeling of urgency builds while Thom Yorke’s vocals become softer and softer through the back tracks, almost like you’ve taken your foot off the peddle and coasting along at 120 MPH with your eyes closed. Jigsaw Falling Into Place picks up the cold, empty feeling by building the speed and volume back up to the previous highs. Videotape closes out the album softly.

Not because there should be more tracks (there are eight more on the bonus disc that provide a little more meat to the album), but after listening to In Rainbows, I’m more aware of all the little sounds: the hum of the optical drive in the powerbook, the airplane flying by a thousand feet above, the scratching of a mouse near a fern outside my window. Once the vacuum of sound that emits a blaring empty feeling has been cut off, suddenly the world start to fill the space. The click-clack of the keyboard, and bam - the music I was just listening to starts to play in my head. The rustle of a muffled car engine hums at the right tone and a few bars of Bodysnatchers play in your head. I smile as the more I try to escape the uncontrolled sounds that fill our days - the more they invade.

Still Fresh, Months and Years Later

Written by Daniel Nicolas. Posted on July 28th 2008

It’s the now at that point. You know the one I am talking about. The point where you’ve listened to an album to death, non-stop ipod to cd player to itunes and then back to your ipod for over a week. Then something else really good comes out and you have to move on, listen to the next greatest thing. But whatever happens, you’re not really sure why but you suddenly realize that it’s been enough time to turn on the music again.

Sometimes, for whatever the case, you get suckered into believing the hype and the first time or maybe the first week, or year, and you think the latest Rick Astley album is the best album since Houses of the Holy. But when you go back a few months later, you suddenly want to vomit, knowing that you actually like it then.

However, there are albums that stand the test of time, and are just as fresh as the day you heard it. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember dusting off an old vinyl record, dropping the needle, and just hearing the first few riffs of that Zeppelin song would take you back to the first time you heard it. This week the editorial features will focus on newer music (rather than writing article after article about Led Zeppelin or The Police) that remains fresh in our ears, living past the pre-release hype and marketing tricks to solidify itself as one of the best albums of the year.

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