Hello
This is our latest transatlantic collaboration - more to follow - all comments/feedback appreciated
MP3 Unsigned - The Best MP3 s from New and Unsigned Artists
ABOUT THE SONG
A Little Romancin’ on the 23rd Floor
This is a third collaboration involving James Bell (Alive) and Terry Wigmore. The first was a tune about wedding angst (Getting Married), the second was more of a psychological exploration of relationships (The Room), and now a light-hearted romantic story. Although the cello is used in all three songs, it is used more as an opening and closing musical motif in this one, with phrases heard throughout.
What has emerged in the process of recording 3 songs together is a friendship and a sense of being on the same page, creatively. It is easy to make decisions and move ahead when you allow each artist the freedom to contribute to their strengths, and develop a sense of trust in the outcome. That has been the joy of these songs.
This one is loosely based on watching the black and white Cary Grant flicks on the re-run movie channel. At this point, nearly 25 years after the fact, I think it was “Holiday,” with Kate Hepburn, that provided the inspiration. The original recording ( a 4 track Fostex and Ensoniq 8 track sequencer/keyboard), is still on my webpage
MP3 Unsigned - The Best MP3 s from New and Unsigned Artists
It was challenge to visit a tune that was a product of the sequencer and sound module (Roland MT-32) of the day. Now, with the power of modern software and home computers, it seemed that the tune could be up-dated a tad, at least that is what James wanted to do and so it exists as the third in the series of collaborations.
The choice of removing the original (and badly performed
Cary Grant monologue, and replacing those lines with Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 was a result of James’ acting interest, and my fascination with his accent (since I am from Canada, British accents are intriguing to me). We had exchanged audio messages as part of our collaborations previously, so I knew I wanted to have James narrate something, but until he sent in a file labeled “ Romancin’ with added Shaky” I had no idea he wanted to include his spoken voice in the song. I was pleasantly surprised with both his performance and his selection of, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” arguably the best-known piece of romantic poetry in the English language. This fit in so well with the lyrics in the first verse alluding to “romantic lines…” and so we put it in. The ending lines was a whim that James sent along and we left it in at the end.
Notes on production: All of this has been recorded on a Yamaha Workstation in Newcastle (James) and assembled in Cakewalk Music Creator in Bobcaygeon, ON, Ca (Terry) *if you look up Cakewalk online, you will see that this is purely an entry bit of software ($39.00 USD) , but we used every ounce (ml) of its processing power to get all the parts in this to perform this tune. A few crashes later, we got this one out. Amazing what you can get out of an Pentium PC and Cakewalk, I think! Challenging and FUN!
Stay tuned for the next in the collection of tunes. Anyone heard of the Walker Bros.?
TW/JB
31-10-2011, 01:40 AM
31-10-2011, 01:40 AM
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