I had a long overdue holiday in Tenerife between the 15th and 22nd November - much needed and enjoyed with temperatures reaching 30 deg C (90F) so no recording for me over this period.
Got back refreshed to find Rob had sent through his 3rd (our 5th) song on 18th November - and what a beaut it was (already I am beginning to sound like a New Zealander).
The song "Only in Dreams" reminded me of something George Michael might have recorded in his time. The chord sequence is fantastic - very hard to do on a guitar - and it is really the only one I had to write out the complete sequence of chords in order to play along with them.
I experimented with a few sounds, but it was crying out for an electric piano to go along with the guitar in order to retain the "smooth" sound the song generated. Rob had put a Spanish guitar in the instrumental break and originally wanted me to play over the top of this with grand piano, the guitar would then be deleted later. I e-mailed him back insisting that the guitar solo be kept in and I could do mine on the second insrumental section. I am glad he agreed as it is one of my favourite parts of the song.
On 25th November, I recorded and sent off the track with my parts added. The grand piano solo was fairly high and Rob persuaded me to re-record it an octave lower which is the version you can hear. He was quite impressed I had managed to work out all the chords for the electric piano, as there was quite a fair few in there (what did he expect from a fellow pro?).
I played the finished version to our youngest daughter, Rachel who,at 25, certainly listens, in the main, to a very different sort of music than Rob or I produce - and she loved it. Straightaway - she commented on how nice she thought the song was - superb - a breakthrough into the generation that likes staying out until four in the morning listening to brain damage - a bit of street cred for the old boys. Actually, Rachel has a very varied taste in music, and she would not say she liked something if she didn't - I took it as a real compliment.
Here is the clip
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Haha!! Well I have to say this is perfect listening for the day after I have been out til 4 raving to 'Brain Damage!' Very smooth, very relaxing - liking the work boys... Still can't quite get over the fact you are on opposite sides of the world and making such fantastic music. A great project, looking forward to hearing more :) xxx P.S. I agree with the George Michael reference and the very beginning reminds me a little of The Eagles possibly?!
ReplyDeleteHey Rach - thanks for that - much appreciated. Well at least Rob is doing his job, as our original concept was for Eagles type stuff. I have recorded absolutely nothing that sounds like the Eagles whatsoever but then I could never do as I was told - even by myself!!
ReplyDeleteKeep watching the blog - more to follow xx
The title of this song was the first thing I had before I gave any thoughts towards any music.
ReplyDeleteI was sitting one Saturday afternoon watching some horse racing on tv, something I've been interested in since the mid eighties, and
there was a horse running called "Only In Dreams" I liked the name and thought what a cool title for a song!
Later I came up with the chords for this song while mucking around on the acoustic guitar.
Always having an ear for something a bit different like a chord structure I have not played before, I quicky started getting the chords together for the melody that was now forming in my head. After a while I got it together and then thought about a lyric to match my song title, and then the song was born. Trying to imagine what Paul would play, I kept the song fairly sparse, concentrating on the vocal mainly, but added a guitar solo to give the demo a bit of colour, telling Paul to just play over it and I would take out what I didn't need of the guitar later on!
Well Paul had other ideas and said he liked the guitar, and that we should keep it, so remain it did. Paul's electric piano compliments it great! and he also added in a cool grand piano solo.
I did feel at one stage the song needed something else going on, but once again Paul said he loved the simplicty of it and so we scrapped the extra percussion idea I had, and, yes Paul, you were right mate!