Shine - AndyR Original

[AndyR]

Thanks folks

I was a bit worried I'd over-egged it on the arrangement and especially the backing vocals.

It was conceived/written as "live" sort of thing. Strap on a tele and tell a tale in a stripped down blues folk 3 or 4 piece environment. But the original demo tracks (I think the teles are still on there) sounded a little scratchy for my liking. But I knew it was a good song (because of the look on the missus's face when I played it to her! ).

When I got all the kit out in the new place, and plumbed it in, I used this thing as the test for each bit of kit as it got wired up. That's when the organ parts started appearing. I jammed along with a lot of guitars as well. The more I jammed and fiddled about, the more melodic hooks kept appearing - none of those are in the original.

It was begining to turn into a bit of a mess - there were so many ways it could go, but the song seemed to be getting lost in the jamming. Then a couple of weeks ago I was practising the vocal with just an acoustic guitar in the living room. I suddenly realised I had to whack that acoustic down the middle (it wasn't there) and send everyone else off either side as supporting "stuff". The moment I recorded it we knew we had a project that was finishable.

Of course, I didn't stop there! I found that all the groovy electric parts in the chorus were better off getting submerged by some more acoustics strumming in stereo. And then the gorgeous hook I'd discovered weeks earlier, destined for a "Mark Knopfler" strat sound suddenly ended up on acoustic. I was going to use the acoustic parts as "body" for the strat, but then I pushed the acoustics up and suddenly "gypsy" vibes appeared.

There was always meant to be a lead electric. When I came to do this, it was obviously the 335, but the planned and rehearsed lead parts (especially in the 2nd verse) just seemed distracting. And the Dave Gilmour/Eric Clapton stylee lead on the intro just seemed to obvious. So I just left it all out, the final instrument is the 335 doing some delicate "lead rhythm" chord work over several tracks.

Then I did the drum part last Friday on a day off work, we decided it sounded pretty good then. Mrs R would have probably posted it then... but I'd always intended some backing vox on the choruses. With the problems on getting decent vocals in the new room, I couldn't get the original plan to work - harder "in your face" harmony from just two or three voices - so I switched to my tried and tested "choir" technique. I'd also intended to use voices in the verses to even out the rather staccato sound of the track (which a rich lead vocal would have pulled together, but I didn't have one). I decided to use voices instead of a keyboard pad. That got quite amusing over the weekend - especially the "mmm" parts on the third verse. I couldn't use them as much as I wanted, it would have buggered the track, but turned up they sound like The Vikings (Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis film) .

After all that, I had some close harmony to do on some of the verses. Again I wanted a harder "second lead above the main vocal" vibe - but I couldn't do it. When I went to plan B, double the harmony an octave lower, I suddenly found that all of verse two could be tracked like that - AND it covered up the worst "hollow" tone in the lead vocal that I'd got from the room.

After that, it was mixing and posting. Today I suddenly remembered that I'd forgotten the song during all this overdubbing and arranging vocals. I'd gone for full and expansive, and it sounded gorgeous, but that's not what the song was about... so maybe I have over-egged it... but I listened to it again when I got home, and well, maybe I got away with it

[Flash Harry]

Outstanding.

I love the arrangement, the organ falling in semitones gives that slightly eery feel to it. Nice up beat juxtaposed with the minor key, making a jaunty eery! Hmm..
Playing, singing, production, harmonies make a really good song great.

Bingo I say, Full house they shout!

[Hook]

What a great song Andy, just absoulutel, rocktastically, Flash Harry's New Toothbrush. I can only echo other comments on the quality on songwriting and production, it's just of the hook!
Rock on!

[Hilary]

Mighty fine Mr R in every way. 

[MrBud]

Pow.....!   First listen dove straight for my headphones---------- Love it.
What a voice.

[Gnasty]

This is a lot to take in! This is one immense powerful song and production Andy!
To judge on the song alone i would have to say it is just top-notch out of this world song-writing.
Your vocals are pro and to add that acoustic was a great idea. It`s sorta banjo sounding to me
(your playing style i mean)which is really different. And the organ is just perfect for this song.

The production is just perfect crystal clear. I wish i had your skills and i agree with Geir. It`s a craft!

Incredible man! Great work and welcome back!

[SwanSong]

HI . Fabulous song. great creativity , catch y  title. love the
vox and lyrics. very smooth production cheers NEIL.!

[bruno]

Very cool. Everything works on this. Great vox, arrangement and production. Can't find a fault with this.
Bloody excellent.
B.

[AndyR]

Thanks some more folks

Can't find a fault with this.

I can!

There's some niggles with tambourines, but that's just nit-picking. There's a few organ stabs out of time (didn't notice until I tried to sing the vocal), but they add to the "organic feel"!

The main one that gets me at the moment is the dual vocal at the end of verse 2. When I was doing it, the lower part just had to go up on the last phrase. I had a lot of trouble singing it too. But when I came to mix I couldn't get it to fit right, then I realised why - it should have gone down like it did in the first half of the verse. I thought it should go up because I was treating it like a lead vocal, and it sounded better not repeating myself. With the lead vocal itself beside it, that side of things doesn't matter and the verse would have ended better with the dual lead repeating itself. It's in quite an important place in the song, and I'm vaguely worried that it gives the ear a little hesitation... but once I'd figured it out I though "oh so what, it's just me that'll notice it, mix anyway".

The one thing I missed until after posting it (or the one thing I've spotted so far), I didn't bring out the "So" of the "So I will try" after the last chorus. It's there, plenty, but it's suffered from some sort of frequency masking. A push on the fader would have sorted it no trouble. I might even go back and fix that one, wouldn't cost too much, because that's a terribly important word in this song(! - for me anyway).


Overall though, I listened to it last night, and I was able to listen to it closer to how someone else might. I'm happy the emotions haven't got submerged in the arrangement now. I could hear the sadness and penitence I wanted.

So I'm quite pleased with myself!

[Redler]

Very strong performing, Andy!! I can't find words to describe this!! Awesome job.

Kari