Memories of my youth: Recent Episodes
hearthis.at
This is a journey back in time - and me doing cover songs hitting the charts during the 1980's. Everything has been recorded, mixed and mastered on 8 square meters with the help of following tools: Apple Logic Pro X Band in a Box Focusrite pre amp iZotope Nectar and Vocal Synth Boss Audio Technica Washburn, Ibanez, Cort and Yamaha guitars
I must admit, that I hated every note and everything about this song, when I was in my late teens. And it was long forgotten until I found myself in the middle of a music quiz, and as the song played along I tapped my feet and actually found that it was groovy. The composition is pretty basic, and the needs a lot of energy to get alive (no pun intended) - so I though why not take it into a more heavy direction? The pedal steel solo is taken from my Band in a Box composing program - which I honestly couldn't do better with a guitar - these a pro studio recording and the fellow playing the bit is Paul Franklin......credits to him - even I don't know the bloke.
……if I ever got the chance to perform on a big stage…..this is what this song is all about. I removed the horrible synth and plastic drums of the original…and allowed myself to think big and act flamboyant.
I forgot all about this little masterpiece. Until one afternoon in my car, when ”come with me into the trees” sneaked out of the car stereo – then I knew what I had to do! I’ve already covered Depeche Mode before – but I’ve taken some giant steps from a production wise point of view, since my last cover 3 years ago.Awesome song – it needed the spice of guitars mixed with few synth textures, and artificial vocal effects. So no, the songs is not stripped to the bone – someone else must do that.
Hands down! my version is nothing near to the original. I wanted to find the beauty rather than the energy in the song. This has been a bit of a mental struggle, since the Simple Minds album ’New gold dream 81, 82, 83, 84’ is absolutely stunning, and today it still sounds fresh and alive. I have used hours to create a mix, where my version wouldn’t fall too far behind compared to the techniques of the early 80’s. This should take to a warm place in your mind, which you should cherish.
I just love this song!!! I had to do it. The melody and lyrics deserved to be tested in a less synthezeiser dominated texture. Ok ok! I did use a synth texture, but at least it’s not dominant. I also decided to get rid of the french speaking part – it worked well on the original, but it would have been tacky or akward on my version, as I wanted to express the pain and isolation presented in the lyrics. After I completed my version, I stumbled into a version on Youtube, where Midge Ure plays it live, with just himself and his guitar. I suspect my idea with the song is closer to how it was originated, that I would have guessed.
OMD – Orchestral Maneuvres in the Dark was one of the more mysterious bands, which I was fascinated of, but I honestly didn’t quite understand what they were up to those days.With this song I have a picture sitting in an apartment with a bunch of friends getting drunk and listening to music. When this song came up – everyone was drumming madly at the coffee table, because the drums was so significant at that time. Little did I know, that this was a ¾ beat song, but when I started working on it I knew, I had to make solid drums, but making sure that the musical theme was intact. As a sligt twist the theme was played on a Mellotron at that time – I used the Mellotron to create ambience to my guitar.