An imagined journey of how the VeeDub on the road basic recordings could develop.

Blog theme. A fictional premise.

Imagination of future possibilities. As said, a fictional premise here, but a very real desire to dream of an ongoing pathway in life that becomes future truth. I get maudlin on Jack Daniels. But I always bless its influential properties on my current mind state. It allows seeing clearly through the fog of confusion.

And so the story goes.

I am imagining I am on the local beach, in the VeeDub Bus and seeking which path to tread musically. Setting up the technology for music recording status, I begin..

Outdoor recording through the Tascam Model 12 mixing desk I have set up. Followed by arriving back home.

Two stage story. Beach/Home. I record onto an SD card in my mixing desk in the VeeDub Bus on the beach. Then, arriving home, uploading the SD card outdoors captures from the, as said, Tascam mixing desk to the Mac M2 home recording set up in ‘The Den’ music room. In The Den I can develop songs onto a more progressive phase that way.

Tonight, before this Jack Daniel’s birthday excursion, I was thinking of how progression from a basic ‘out there in the open air’ capture would possibly change when I return back home with the Mac M2 recording technology and GarageBand app to newly add various enhancements. I have a song that shows a journey that could well be the future hoped for.

INTRODUCING EDDIE.

The song now called Eddie began as a ‘Baby, baby I just want to dance’ ad hoc lyric. Just to get a tune going. I have dozens of examples of ideas that have changed upon changed upon changed like this. But all recorded at home.

Here, no beach recording. I start off with an idea of simplicity captured directly on the Mac M2 recording gear. I luckily keep emailing these staggered results to my site as they develop bit by bit. The result is that I end up with a dozen plus results.

Listening to this ‘Eddie’ song, now called ‘Eddie Lives/Loves to Rock and Roll’, I have chosen four simple ongoing stages from a dozen plus progressive building blocks and try outs of this song. Basically a journey of hoped for stages that could develop and approach some satisfying conclusion. That is….a keepsake song.

First up, if on the beach, I set up a drum beat on the AKAI MIDI system and, once captured, play acoustic guitar and sing a simple basic lyric and melody. I can do this from the VeeDub easily. By using the analogue Tascam Model 12 mixing desk with a microphone plugged in to record acoustic guitar and then a vocal. I can add up to 12 separate tracks this way. No internet need at all. Stand alone technology. I remember those days fondly. I can plug the Tascam into the Bluetti battery power bank and house it inside the VeeDub Bus with microphone outside or inside. Weather depending which.

First vibe? Just busk. Enjoy self vibe-ness and explore ideas. The joy of the unknown. The basics? Musicians know that something always happens from a deep rhythmic content that usually comes from drums. I can use the AKAI MIDI keyboard to self drum out a simple inherent track on the 8 pads offered to give a beat to put a guitar rhythm on to the result. But dream of an even more soulful baseline. That is to use the djembe drum. I love the djembe for therapy. Often play it for the vibe it offers. But, never use it on songs. It often doesn’t match the guitar notes chosen when writing my songs. I need to lay down a Summers felt djembe and match it with the guitar.

BELOW. ME PLAYING AD HOC DJEMBE IN A ‘TURN ON THE IPAD VIDEO CAPTURE AND…..SIMPLY CAPTURE FOR CAPTURE’S SAKE’. WARTS AND ALL. AS SAID HERE IN THE VIDEO…’WHO KNOWS?’.

The acoustic guitar can be played over the drum beat, maybe future djembe, cemented down and recorded. Then? I can sing anything naively that comes to mind. For example, a ‘Baby….I don’t wanna Dance’ idea. An imagined scenario of not enjoying your own dance abilities, but desperately dancing in a way to keep a relationship alive. I thought of John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction when I sang this. True. The natural affinity between the two resulted in magic happening. Didn’t envisage that Adrenalin stab into the heart conclusion in my story though. Just a ‘Heart beat away’ idea. And it did find itself into my final song lyric.

The ‘We can work this out’ vocal added meat onto a third track/channel on the mixing desk. As said about lyrical boundaries to songs. Sea air can give so many negative ions that imagination goes haywire. So much so, that when we write songs, people never get to hear the extras we leave out from our finished product. A novel exists. But, again as said, a song has the limits of a few verses and a chorus. As a lyric, ‘We can work it out’ allows the listener to work it out themselves. Passing the buck onto the listener is a great way of avoiding complexities. I suppose Bob Dylan tried to include the writing a novel idea into a song when writing Subterranean Homesick Blues. Joke!

Back to Beach recording to Home scenario. I added a tiny bit more vocal onto another GarageBand track afterwards. I can also do this on the Tascam whilst sitting on the open seaside beach. Maybe the hoped for second chance dance can be developed into answering questions regarding the relationship that is showing the ‘cracks’. Lyrical diarrhoea is too often a hindrance. You can’t have its inclusions of what a song can include.

Imagination….throws its spell over you.

On the beach it starts to rain. Home time. I pack up and drive home. The simple tune develops in my head. ‘Dance’. I remember those Northern Soul dance competitions I watched on YouTube and a competitor guy or girl named Eddie develops in my head. Initially the name comes from the singer called Eddie Reader. Perfect. Excuse the pun. If you know….you know. Clue? Fairground Attraction needs an internet search.

Arrive home and transfer the mixer desk SD card into the Apple Mac home recording system. I upload the beach song and polish the brightness a little bit. But in reality, the beach transfer has allowed ongoing ideas. I can add all the GarageBand possibilities and use the AKAI keyboard for a plethora of sounds.

Imagination knows….you’re not an empty room.

Then, I consider changes and write down lyrics to the Eddie the Dancer idea. He’s a Northern guy from ‘The Edge of Hope’ ready to hit the ‘Smoke’. Smoke is London Town. So after I set up the M2 and GarageBand to transfer the beach song and brightened the sound up a bit on the GarageBand edit choices, I add a new vocal track on GarageBand and sing the lyric of above. Northern guy visits the London vibe. Same time? Add some AKAI MIDI keyboard sounds to build a rhythmic improvement.

Imagination sees…..the possibilities.

The idea changes. You want a story. People watching Eddie dance and who are mesmerised by his moves. He hits the grooves. A synergy exists between the watching crowd and Eddie in his trance dancing state. The song’s holistic vibe develops…..simply from people watching Eddie performing her/his dance for the simple love of dancing for dancing’s sake. A freedom of escape in the form of uninhibited expression. Exhibiting joy in unique dance moves. There is joy to be found by dancing in soulful abandonment. Like Travolta.

You develop and tweak the song’s possibilities a bit more.

Imagination realises….it has to expand.

The ‘Eddie’ song isn’t really done here. It has further promise. But it is nice to imagine how an outside capture of a Baby, baby, dance song can be developed into an Eddie visiting London outcome. This is how I imagine the Gray Summers Cloud 9 YouTube results to be achieved in the future. But who knows. The story often changes as new ideas develop. My Mantra? Not ‘Never keep still’. But… ‘I simply can’t keep still’. And I like it like that. Warts and all.