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.
Here’s two clips from a live set I did earlier this year for The Purple Sessions in Drogheda. The guys who organise the gig shoot videos of the performers, which is nice to see afterwards. Just this evening I got a DVD from them of the set I did, but they have these two videos up on Youtube already.
Water Phoenix
It’s two songs I’ve not even demo’d yet, but that I like playing live, but it’s good to actually hear what it sounds like from a listeners point of view, so I can think about whether I need to change the songs, or listen to how I’m playing them so I can make the performances better. I’m never entirely happy with any performance or recording, but that’s just how it is at the moment. :)
Galway Rain
The other songs I have video and mp3s of are “The Bliss Returns”, “Is This What They Call Romance?” and “Re-Run” which I might post up at some point. I never ever play “Re-Run” well though – and the recording is wonderfully scrappy and awful to my ears. So I might just keep that one to myself until I get it recorded properly sometime. Heh.
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.
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.
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) Read More
The lyrics for this song were actually written back in 2000 or so – a good decade old at least. I never even thought about putting them to music until maybe the last year or so. I was going through old notebooks and sheets of paper, searching for something I wanted to add into another song.
But even still, no music ever jumped out at me for it, and then the original idea I had for the song is completely different to what it actually has become. I remember sketching out a vague idea for the lyrics, and having this clear idea of how I wanted the subsequent section to sound – which was going to be completely instrumental.
However, this little piano riff snuck onto the keys one day, and I got completely addicted to it. Any time I’d sit down at the piano it was the first thing I’d play. It’s only a simple little riff, but I loved it. And then the lyrics one day just fitted over it – I could hear how they should go. The song has ended up something completely different from what I thought it was going to be, even after I’d previously thought it would never be an actual song.
This demo version may yet change and develop as I add more instruments to the song. I have a few ideas of what I want to add on – but at this stage, who knows what way it’ll change before I have a final proper recording of it that I like.
[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/blissjandemo.mp3] The Bliss Returns (demo) (right click and save to download)
