Love it when a new chord pattern comes together quickly. Was messing with a D minor line last week, thought it might make the bones of a new track but turns out it fit mightily well with the ‘Ashes’ lyrics. The most recent revisions hadn’t been sitting well with me and I don’t think I had played any of em live since the original at ‘Lights off’ last year when Dermot had a drum’n’bass vibe rhythm alongside it. The new rhythm seems to suit the lyrics better, less dramatic, more manic but still with some melody lines to break it up after each verse. Have only run thru it once or twice with Dermot as we wont be including it at the gig next Sat. Had a good jam Thursday night, good few hours amplified, seems to be the only way to do it-hammer em out repeatedly. Bit stuck for time over the next week as Dermot’s gotta be practicin with the Deep Down Detox too.
Unfortunately we wont get the chance to test run any of the random instrumentation on sat night but hopefully by the next gig we’ll have marimba, fife and kazoo on a few numbers. ‘Jungle fever blues’ is slowly coming around after we made the change to a reggae feel. The unusual pauses took some practice but the more I play it the more the phrasing of the lyrics is slotting into place. ‘The old tin Drum’ now has two rhythms playing back and forth on the last verse/chorus/build part instead of the one. This gives it more breathing space and made it less of a rush towards the end.
Had some bad news on Monday as the Happy Valley Fest, and so the website too, were cancelled for this year. Pity as I thought it was some of the strongest design work I’ve done. I’ll still use it in the design portfolio on the new site thou. Speaking of which, as I now have some free time before the next commission, I’ve begun to draw up the content and layout plans for wax botanical dot com version 3. I may go for a complete design overhaul or use the current layout, not too sho yet. Drawing up the plans has forced to focus more on defining what it was I hoped to do with the business and more importantly how I can go about it without going too crazy with the solitude/cabin fever :P
