This song started with a StephenM's unnamed guitar song I liked and offered to add backing. He asked me to document what I did with his 2 mono guitar rhythm tracks that I started with but the process was pretty straight forward. First I panned them to the maximum sides and balanced the volumes and created a stereo track to work with. Then added bass, drums to taste which created a pretty good backing track. Then I added piano and some organ. Might be considered a stand alone instrumental at this point:
https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=31525
I then added Trevor's outstanding vocals and Mike_S ripped an outstanding guitar lead for it. A few tweaks later and here's the result. It's not a perfect clean mix but that seems to be my style....to much of a good thing....None-the-less, it's become one of my favorites! Hope you enjoy it too!
UPDATE: Uploaded a revised version based on everyone's comments so far. Has stronger drums in the 1st half along with pushing the vocals a bit.
Jezz
Love it all from first to last beat. I mean the organ and the piano panned apart sounds gorgeous, as do the guitars /bass and of course Trevor's vocals... is the icing on the cake.
The arrangement and the mix is to die for.
U playing the drums?
Ken is playing drums...that's how this whole thing started...I know Ken is a drummer and he loves to play on others tunes...the problem is I play also though not as well..but I like it so...I had actually 4 guitar tracks that I sent Ken to play drums on and actually already had a drum track but decided I wanted to hear what Ken would play ... so he dumped the 2 acoustic guitar tracks...really really scrubbed those other two guitars clean and added bass and drums...then he did the keyboards...before I ever even thought of Ken playing on this I asked Trevor to sing about 1 minutes worth of lyrics...the idea was to have 3 different singers do about a minute...That obviously didn't happen but this did...so essentially it's a cool jam song with a great Mike S lead and about 1:30 of Trevs vocals...
I think Ken did an amazing amount of work, and good work on this...all I did was have the idea and provide 2 guitar tracks....
Trev as usual provided his genius as seen all over the site here...
and I love Mike S guitars...just one of my favorites...
Ken is a great producer eh?
and if you read this far I am producing a very psychadelic version of this that I will put out down the road somewhere...
Good to have the lyrics posted as well.
Thanks for the good words! I'm never totally happy with any of my mixes and the more systems I hear a song on, the many different versions I hear. I'm now thinking the vocals may need pushing or the organ reduced some? Any advise greatly welcome!
This is a whole mass of psychedelic goodness! I love the separation and movement in the acoustic guitar tracks, and all the other instruments sound great. I think the organ is fine if you are going for a kind of psychedelic vibe. The vocals are vey cool and I love the lyrics. Biggest thing for me is that IMO the drums are way too low, I can hardly hear them at all until the later part of the song. But then I like loud clattery drums a la Steve Lillywhite :D
Wacky and weird! Psychedelic weirdness with an almost progeish feel at times. The melodic hooks are great, and the organ playing is a perfect fit. The drum fills are also worth a mention.
Gotta hear this on repeat :)
Great job on the mix Ken and top organ /piano playing. You done marvels with all of the elements. How you did it I don't know. A lot of vision to create this slice of psychadelic coolness.
Mike
Great tune overall. One suggestion I could make is to bring up the drums a bit more in the mix. Ken's performance is very dynamic but It seems to be back a bit too far and you need to hear those crash cymbals and toms more. But by and large you guys did a great job with this.
:) John B
Cool creative arrangement and some excellent musicianship going on in this track. The drumming is so cool and in the groove a la Ginger Baker; Ken, you keep better time than a Rolex. Great collab, guys.
I'm getting a uriah help vibe with this. What a cool collaboration, great playing, super creative, love it
B
This sounds awesome guys. Its like a nursery rhyme produced by led zeppelin and pink Floyd lol. Fantastic vocals from Trevor and the music sounds fantastic. Great guitars, drums and organs.
Smoking collab guys well produced and Trevs vocal is the icing on the cake
Tim
oh yeah ... I like it !!!
this is a REALLY cool track the instrumentation and performances are brilliant, I too would have liked the drums and maybe the vocals a little higher in the mix, but it really sounds good as is !
well done
Yep, mighty cool sounds.
I can't make up my mind whether I'd want the drums louder or not. In places it would pull the thing together, but in others it would be too much.
Excellent playing and vocal (didn't realise it was Reg at first, sounded familiar, though)
A really nice collab, excellent production skills too, the vocal and organ really bring that psychedelic feel.
Well done guys!
wickedly good lads....hell yeah
Great to hear all the positive comments! The more I listen to it, the more I like it (and that's rare after 100's of plays in edit).
I'm thinking now it's worth the time to remix as per the recommendations just to get it right as this song has grown a life of it's own! Thanks all!
(going back for another late night listen to Mike's lead!) 8)
Yah. This has got a lot of stuff going on. The drums are tight and well captured. Vocals are crisp and clean. Guitars a snappy. It has a Zappa vibe going on. I really like this
Mighty fine collab guys. I've hearing some great tunes here tonight.
This is quite a piece of work. Very good job fellas.
Mach
Wow this is such an impressive collaboration Stephen, Ken, Trevor and Mike! It has all the progressive/psychedelic goodness that I like to hear! This is quite an undertaking Ken and crew but you all pulled it off with high colors!
This has a really unique and funky style and lyrics to it. All the tick boxes are ticked - powerful guitars, drums (real?), and ear catching vocal. And good production. Nice job all around.
Quote from: des0free on August 25, 2021, 09:55:36 PMdrums (real?)
If you can't tell the difference, I've done my job!
https://youtu.be/TMA1tGlwJ0U
Thanks for the good words!
Listening on this day and came across this gem missed it the first time glad I get to hear it now outstanding collab
Tim
yeah, what a mix and the drums are wicked good... man... that is how you do it...
but then Ken did the organ and bass too... dude... what a great job on this..
then throw in Trevs cool lyrics and vocals... and Mike playing his lead thing...which is always such a delight..
but the production does blow my mind... and to think it started with 2 rhythm guitar tracks... and it has been 3 years... we should do another one.
Great collab , I didn't realize that this was done a while back ..
Really enjoyed the the progressive/psychedelic vibe to it ,.
Great work