so, now that the album is out and we're heading towards the end of the remix eps etc, no doubt all your minds, as mine is, are thinking about what our next album will be. as promised a few days ago in the car on the way home, this is a post to find out what people might think would be a good direction to go for the next major piece of work.
i have literally dozens of half finished songs/pieces of music (for bec's benefit) on my hard drive but, rather than just keep making things as they happen, i thought it might be nice to do something we've never really done which is to plan out a bit of a direction before we start. we may well use lots of things that already exist, but pushing them in a uniform direction would be good, i think.
soooo...what are some ideas people think we might pursue? some key words maybe? artists to look at? could be to do with the sounds, the lyrical themes, anything. should we all pick up new instruments and make a garage rock album? a folk album? an acappella album (raw or processed)? an all electronic instrumental album? something combining some of those?
would love to hear what everyone thinks...
i have literally dozens of half finished songs/pieces of music (for bec's benefit) on my hard drive but, rather than just keep making things as they happen, i thought it might be nice to do something we've never really done which is to plan out a bit of a direction before we start. we may well use lots of things that already exist, but pushing them in a uniform direction would be good, i think.
soooo...what are some ideas people think we might pursue? some key words maybe? artists to look at? could be to do with the sounds, the lyrical themes, anything. should we all pick up new instruments and make a garage rock album? a folk album? an acappella album (raw or processed)? an all electronic instrumental album? something combining some of those?
would love to hear what everyone thinks...
Comments
what if we balanced the album between choral arrangements and solo performances (i.e. cherry sings one; choir sings one; adrian sings one; choir sings one; etc.)?
so i think we should focus on recording and not on performance. i have only really enjoyed our gigs at the gate and at blacktown arts in the last while, and i guess that is partly because we weren't trying to play a set that stayed interesting to a loud and rowdy crowd (which is definitely not our strength!).
it might be interesting to tie the album together lyrically by featuring one line or phrase in every track.
none of which precludes any of your suggestions, bec and blake. particularly in terms of singing, i'd also be very interested in using more massed voice ideas. shiny electronic minimalism under 1 or 2 acoustic instruments and lots of voices?
And I still think Blake's verbal idea (not featured here) of naming the thing first or using a phrase throughout would be nice.)
Sorry, these are very vague ramblings. I definitely think the big, fat choral arrangements idea is a great one - and a lovely way to involve people we know (or want to get to know). I think we should also use Blake's accordion and the Elmers' organ in the mix. There's also this idea I'd love to do where all of the titles of our songs, when you string them together and read them one after the other, form a sentence.
Apart from that, I'm a little vague. But keen! Vaguely keen!
It was great to be a part of the remixes with the last album, and I think that openness and inclusion is a musical strength that you can definitely hear in your last few albums.
When you consider how that coincides with more singers in the group it makes sense to focus on the voice and vocals even more.
Bec, I've really enjoyed reading your Tolstoy quotes on facebook - each quote seemed epic in itself! Has it inspired any poetry/story/songwriting of your own through your reading of it?
just a couple of immediate thoughts there, keen to contribute more!
Steve, there is always room for you!
I haven't written anything inspired by Tolstoy as yet but perhaps we could have a book-ish thing going from what we have read.
and maybe the theme should be the letter 't'?