Category: music

Download: Galway Rain – demo.

London

I’ve had the house to myself again today, so after spending a while in town being sociable I came home and spent the evening playing with the cat, cooking dinner, and demoing a song.

This song is one that popped up in the video clips from a gig I did in January, so I’ve been wanting to start recording it in some way. I never really get to hear the songs until I hear a recording of them, as when you’re playing them it’s hard to be an outside listener too.

Regardless, this demo is scrappy: bum notes on the piano; bum notes in the vocals; rough sketch of the middle bit with the layers. Just generally a bit scrappy all round, but it gives a good idea of the whole song.

I’m not 100% sure of about this song yet – it feels too long, and I’m pondering whether I should cut a section, or merge some parts or something. As it stands, the lyrics were mostly written when I lived in the UK in 2005 or so, and the music was written when I was living in Galway a year ago at this stage. It’s a song that has kinda hung around for a while without really becoming anything until it just popped out while I was playing around with a piano idea one day.

Anyways, here’s the demo I put together this evening.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/galwayraindemo.mp3]
Galway Rain (demo) (right-click and save to download)

Lyrics Read More

Rainy days.

rain out my window

It’s been raining so much this week. I’m typing this to avoid actually having to go outside and head to town to meet some friends. But honestly, I’m just gonna let the rain ease off a little.

However, the rain is good for forcing me to stay indoors and work on some music for a while, so today I ended up reworking one of the demos I’d recorded. I moved one of the sections around, and re-recorded piano and vocal parts for it. I’m gonna take a break and listen to it later tonight or tomorrow and see if I like what I’ve done to that particular song. If I do, then I’ll probably upload that rough version here.

Additionally, I did a really rough take of “Galway Rain” too, which I’ve never recorded. There’s a live cut of it, and a live video, but that’s about it. It’s rather apt to be doing a take of that song today.

Cover: Under The Ivy – Kate Bush

On a whim while practising piano yesterday, I decided to record a few cover versions as it had been a while since I’d tried using my little home studio setup. I used to play Under The Ivy a lot when I was in university – it’s one the more beautiful piano based Kate Bush songs, and has been one of my favourite of her songs for many years.

I’ve not really done anything major or drastically different to it, although I do sing it in a different key, to try and suit my voice a little better. But, here it is, regardless.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/undertheivy.mp3]
Under The Ivy (Kate Bush cover)

Incidentally, I did a cover of “Donut Song” by Tori Amos in the same session, which I may post here later sometime. I’m not very happy with it, but it was an experiment.

Inspiration: Michael Nyman – “The Piano”

The Piano

I started playing piano quite young, and went through the RIAM classical piano grades. I started to lose interest somewhat at about the age of 15, when I was coming to the end of my grades, and wasn’t really interested in doing a Diploma. But something that reignited my love for playing was the movie “The Piano”, and particularly the beautiful score by Michael Nyman. I saw it on VHS when I was about 13, if I recall correctly, and I remember my parents making a special exception to allow me to watch a movie that was rated 15.

But I was really taken by the soundtrack, and I love the fact that Holly Hunter played the piano parts seen in the movie. Initially, it was the piece “Big My Secret” that I loved and played a lot, but I was won over to all the pieces over time, and they became some of my favourite pieces of music for piano. I spent the rest of my teenage years without going to piano lessons, and discovering pieces of music that I wanted to play, as opposed to just having to learn them for an exam. It’s something that I think was very important in continuing my love for the instrument. That, and discovering artists like Tori Amos and Kate Bush, who used piano in their music in ways that I hadn’t heard before.

The main theme from the piano, “The Heart Asks Pleasure First”, also called “The Sacrifice”, has become one of those standard pieces that piano students all love and learn:

It is a beautiful piece of music, but my favourite is still “Big My Secret”. Some people feel that it’s played too fast in the movie, as the recording by Nyman is much gentler and slower, but I like the flexibility of the piece, and it’s appropriate in the scene, I think:

Holly Hunter in the movie:

(Nyman’s version and some other bits after the cut)
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Free Download: Rebel (demo)

I’m never sure about titles. In fact, I often hate titling songs, and sometimes have short nicknames for songs which is how I refer to them in set lists or whatever. That’s definitely the case with this one. It was nearly called “Running For Miles”, but I’m not too sure about that either. I guess I’ll see what I think when the time comes that it is released properly recorded. This song is another really old lyric (one from when I was a teenager) that decided to become a song in the last year.

There’s a section in the demo where I think it’s clear that there’ll be a fuller instrumentation in the song from that point. This is one of those songs where the melody and piano part just came together at the same time. It’s a simple little song and I’ve grown rather fond of it. It’s about someone I know, sort of. But I guess it’s true that any song I write about someone I know, or something I’ve experience, is fictionalised in some way. Most of the elements remain, but altered just enough that I feel more comfortable with them.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/rebel.mp3]
Rebel (demo)

kali

Lyrics
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