I Like It As It Is - AndyR Original

[The Gobi Desert Canoe Club]

Hi Andy, this is pure class from top to bottom. I could see this played as the first dance in a million weddings. Just supurb. Roscoe

[Farrell Jackson]

Great guitars, great vocals, and the dynamics just make it all work so well! This song is a perfect example of how to make the space work for you. It shows that not every section of a song needs to be filled with something. It so spacious and yet so full.....I'm on my second listen because I was so caught up in the overall sound that I forgot to write anything, lol. Nice, nice, nice work Andy!

Farrell

[AndyR]

Cheers folks

TC - there is a choir of angels there! They took ages to sort out! (not so much to sing/record them, but to get them into the mix right - the idea was to kind of morph them with the organ in the last "chorus"... sounds like it almost worked!)

Farrell, yeah, I actually learnt a lot about less-is-more while arranging this. I was stuck with it for well over a year. And part of that was "how on earth do I arrange this??". The structure, number of bars, verses/choruses, was obviously already right as I recorded it, but it just sort of "droned on" for my money.

The biggest improvement was dropping the "signature" guitars from the intro (the bass left in the intro was just a lucky break, I'd never have thought of that). It's weird, when I listen to it now, the intro hits me with "crumbs, that's not you, is it!?" - so dropping those guitars is still a bit "left-field" for me.

I'd like to hear the demo some time, too.

I thought long and hard about this, I was even listening to it today with a view to converting it to an mp3 small enough for posting it down here in the thread (rather than hosting it on alonetone - I don't want two versions there).

But in the end I decided not to. Sorry, but you're not really missing much

It's a silly reason really, but I think most of you will get it. This song really was a message to someone back in Aug 2012. The original vocal was where the lyrics were written and recorded in one take - I actually meant it while I was singing it, I was talking to her over the music. When I found the demo and finally sent it to her a few weeks back, that kind of sealed its fate in my mind - she's the only one who's got that version at the moment, and although she probably wouldn't view it in this light herself, I kind of want to keep it that way

In some ways the demo feels, to me, like a private conversation (it's not, obviously, the lyrics ain't changed), this one is just another AndyR recording. Another aspect is that the demo is like the piece of paper I usually write a song on (this one is unusual, I "wrote" it on the recording) - I'm quite "reverential" about these pieces of paper that were originally scribbled on when I was writing a song... I've got them all, going back years (except for the ones where the object of the song asked if they could have it!!)

Btw, happily, it turns out that the woman in question likes this version too... Otherwise, I would have been somewhat disappointed with myself!! (and possibly more tempted to post the demo version if she thought it was better - you're not really missing anything folks! )

[Blooby]

Oh, this is a masterclass in production and performance. Really impressive, but most importantly, what a great tune. Love it when that organ sails in over the top. Did I hear you correctly saying you doubled the bass? Where as it sounds perfect? It does sound like Pino by the way.  I just got a cheapo fretless Squier, and I am amazed how good that thing sounds.  I thought it might sit there because I figured I couldn't play it in tune well enough, but I find it much more forgiving than slide guitar (I injure the neighborhood cats when I try that). It helps that mine still has the fret markers on it.

Really lovely vocal delivery as well. I have bookmarked this one to revisit later.

Blooby

[Hook]

Spectacular, your hours spent have certainly paid off. That vocal has so much emotion in it, very moving.
Rock on!

[AndyR]

Blooby - the "bass part" itself isn't doubled, that plonks on all the way through. There's an extra bass line taking the place of a third harmony guitar.

Yep, work that fretless . When I first got mine, all I could do with it was make slidey noises. Very satisfying, but didn't do much for any songs... Then I learnt somewhere that a good plan is to learn to play it so that it DOESN'T sound fretless. It took a bit of doing, but it was worth the effort.

Mine's a Mexican Fender, and yes, mine's got the fret-marks on it too. Although, they are more of a distraction than an aid now . The best advice seems to be to jam along with stuff, trying to play as in tune as possible, making it sound like a fretted instrument... Hitting the right notes (without a little initial slide up or down) starts to become second nature after a while. It seems that when you can do that, a deliberate slide or whatever sounds SO effective.