The Bliss Returns

Lyrics:

devoid of anything nearing regret
my senses blunted and out of reach
sprawled over white cotton
caresses softly remind me
of the world surrounding.
whispers of the cityside
sing to the morning sun
as he inches across cotton folds
beauty blinding as I catch the sight.
smiling playfully
the warmth arousing
the smile arrives
the cotton moves
the bliss returns.

© eamon brett 2011

Writing the song:

The lyrics for this song were written back in 2000 or so. I never even thought about putting them to music until much later. I was going through old notebooks, searching for something in particular while working on another song, and I came across these lyrics again. I’d forgotten I’d even written them.

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.

Recording the song:

I tracked this song on the first day in the studio. At that point, I’d only booked one day, to see how well we worked together, and how I felt about working there. It was the first thing I tried tracking, and it was a bit of a disaster. I’m sure I still have the reference track from that day. I was rushing and falling over my fingers, I couldn’t get the hang of the click track in my ear, so we did it without one. I was really not happy with it, or with myself, so when I came back with another batch of days booked, it was one that was in my mind to retrack from scratch.

By the time it came around to tracking the piano for it again, I’d gotten much more comfortable in the studio, and I knew what I was doing. I could relax and the click tracks had become a tool I could use to my advantage. I’ve a lot of parts scored on manuscript paper, and it’s easier to link that to what you’re recording when you’ve got bars set out on the screen, defined by the click, and I could use the more familiar language of bar numbers for reference.

It was the first track we tried with the drummer too, and we stacked the parts for this song in different takes, layering up as we went along, as the piano line is so busy, and the string parts were going to be quite busy too, but conversely I wanted the overall mood to feel a bit laid back. So, building up the drum lines slowly like that worked better than expected, and gave me a chance to learn how to speak Drums in the studio at the same time.

The ‘cello line was an instrumental line I’d written initially with a different instrument in mind, but then when I’d settled on restricting the instrumentation for the entire record, I gave that melody to the cello. Initially I gave Aonghus that melody and we got a few takes of it down, and then he came up with the counter-melody that he also plays against it on the repeat.

The last bit we added was George’s double bass line, which comes in and gives weight to the music at just the right time. There’s a moment in his part that was one of those moments where opinions clash. He does this gorgeous discord right where the piano line plays with a suspension, and it really adds so much extra colour to that delayed resolution. It’s one of my favourite things that he added to the album, but it was one that divided opinion in the control room. But, you know, when it’s your record, you get to say what stays.

There are huge differences between the version of the song that ended up on the album, the one from the first day in the studio, and the home demo I’d done myself, and it’s been a thrill seeing this song develop and take form.

Song credits:

mister ebby – piano, vocals.
aonghus mac amhlaigh – cello
george guilfoyle – double bass
karl hand – drums

Videos:

Live performance at Charlie Byrne’s, shot by Mark Willis and Yvonne Ryan, with Phil Brett on sound. This was before I’d even found the studio I was going to use to make the record, and gives an idea of what this song sounded like live before the studio version.

Yvonne Ryan is a member of the wonderful Irish band The Ambience Affair, and Mark is the main force behind Bluestack Records. Over breakfast before this shoot, Yvonne recommended Charthouse Recording Studios to me, as that’s where the band had recorded their album Burials, and the studio had just gotten a piano in. I’d mentioned I was looking around at studios in the country that had a proper acoustic piano, as I was pretty adamant to get a good piano sound on the record. She passed on the contact details for Ian McNulty, who ended up engineering and mixing the record for me. Honestly, I can’t imagine the record without working with him.

Tiny little bit of trivia: the guy on the album cover for Burials is my brother, and he’s wearing a mask I made as a halloween costume when I was a teenager.