Tag: track

Free Download: Water Phoenix (demo)

I knew what I wanted from this song as I wrote it. I knew what I was writing about, and how the song would be structured, more or less. But I was still surprised by the melody that came from the lyrics. Sometimes I can sit and just hear the melody that is meant to be there when I read the lyrics, other times I have to work on it quite a bit to get something that works. But for this, there were melody ideas there as I was writing the lyrics, so when I sat at the piano, the whole song was waiting for me to find the piano part.

The demo is just an idea of what it’ll be like – I think this is going to be a very richly arranged song when it is finished, and I hope that the person it is about likes the song. It’s quickly become one of my own personal favourites to sing.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/phoenix.mp3]
Water Phoenix (demo) (right click and save to download)

Hipstamatic photo of the liffey

Free Download: Bewerunge

This is a piano instrumental track that I released as a b-side to the single I Wish You Were Here in late 2007, but it was recorded well before then.

It’s an example of what happens when I just sit and improvise at the piano, and the track itself is an excerpt of a longer improvised session.

I had been recording Anna Lee doing some of her songs, using the piano and just using the room for other tracks, and she was taking a break. So I pressed record and sat at the piano while she was gone. I improvised two separate tracks and just chilled out.

When I went later on and looked at what I’d recorded, I realised I’d set some levels badly, and any of the much louder moments in the improvisation were distorting noticeably. Thankfully, the quieter moments were coming through beautifully, and there was this whole middle section of the track that I just loved.

I edited out that middle section from the larger piece, and decided that I really liked how it sounded by itself. I named the track Bewerunge because that’s the name of the room it was recorded it.

The two main lecture rooms in the Music Department in NUI Maynooth are called the O’Callaghan Room and the Bewerunge Room. The piano in the Bewerunge room is where this track was recorded. It’s a beautiful piano, and I spent the three years of my music degree in one or the other of those rooms.

[audio:http://www.misterebby.com/previewtracks/bewerunge.mp3]
download the mp3