Week 20, Dig In

Song 20 is called Dig In.

YouTube link for iPhone

I might finally be able to get myself out from under the end-of-the-week problem. I’m going to try to work on two songs next week so that I can get back to posting songs early in the week.

In my head this song is pretty heavily influenced by Guided by Voices, but I’ll leave it to you guys to decide if it sounds obvious or if it’s just in my head. I consider myself a pretty big GBV fan, though I’m not quite up to the level of some folks I know. But I’d say that Robert Pollard and GBV have been a pretty strong influence on my songwriting for a while now. I get that their music isn’t for everyone, but in my humble opinion it’s some of the best songwriting out there. I think that if you haven’t given them a good hard listen, you owe yourself that opportunity.

The song was written in standard tuning and was entirely recorded on the iPhone. There are two mostly mirrored and hard-panned guitar tracks (they’re the same except for a couple notes and a little inflection during the verse that you can hear clearly in headphones) and a third guitar part over the chorus. The guitar was recorded using an Audio Technica ATM29HE to mic my Orange Crush 3oR and into the iPhone using the custom break-0ut cable. I just recently had my pair of ATM29HE’s returned and am thrilled to be using them again. I’d take them over an SM57 mic any day. The vocals, melodica, and percussive elements were all recorded using just the iPhone’s mic. All the tracks were recorded as usual using Harmonicdog’s MultiTrack app into the iPhone and were mixed and tweaked in Reaper.

There are a few touches of percussion throughout the track. I continue to find myself using my son’s instruments in the recordings. I can’t help it – they’re everywhere. A couple of weeks ago he was given a Melissa and Doug Band-in-a-Box. If you’re wondering who Melissa and Doug are and why they’re putting bands in boxes, then you most likely don’t have a kid right now. I’ll catch you up: They make wooden toys, puzzles, and in this case, kids’ instruments. For this song, I used everyone’s favorite three sided instrument, the triangle, and something that M&D call the “clacker.” It’s a little wooden handle with a wooden flap on either side. It does make a clack sound,;I think it’s pretty well named.

I’ve been thinking about adding a new feature to this project… like I need to create more work for myself, I know. I’ve been trying to set up podcasting for the songs. I’m a bit new to podcasting, so bear with me. Hopefully I should be live in iTunes soon. Here’s my feed, let me know if you find that it’s working or not.

Thanks,

Corey

Tags: Band-in-a-box, bandcamp, Cockos, Corey Layman, developer, GBV, Guided by Voices, Harmonicdog, hovland, indie, indie rock, iPhone, Karl Hendricks Trio, lo-fi, Melissa and Doug, MultiTrack, phone-fi, Pittsburgh, podcast, Project 52, Reaper, Robert Pollard, Woolslayer and Main