#badsongclub #metal #noise #improv

Okay, so this year, I'm determined to learn how to put multiple instruments together. I've never actually been happy with a multi-instrument production of mine. So when I saw the forum challenge of "Bad Song Club", it spoke to me. In brief, I had 30 minutes to make a song, and then I had to post it, no matter how I felt about it. FAWM is a safe space, so this is a good reason to just... try.

I wanted it to be my first track this year, because the entire month is gonna be full of things that aren't quite up to snuff (probably), so why not just jump in the deep end? So what I did was this:

I was playing a metal guitar tone, and I realised, "Hey, it's FAWM! I should be recording everything I do this month!" So I recorded a few minutes of utterly manic guitar. I was gonna post it as just-guitar, but I knew I needed to push as hard as I could. So I picked up my bass. In the end, I turned the monitoring level of the bass down so low I couldn't hear it (even though the recording was still full-volume), simply so I could listen to the guitar part while playing bass. I didn't need to hear every bass note to be able to play the instrument, y'know?

So I recorded the bass having heard the guitar part exactly twice. Once while playing it, and once before picking up the bass.

After that, I had about 7 minutes remaining, so I got the levels right so I could hear the guitar and bass together while playing my e-drums. This time I could actually hear the drums, but they were quieter than the rest. Didn't have time to listen back - just had to one-take the drums.

Admittedly, minor tweaking and exporting and listening back took me a little over the 30 minute mark. But this is actually, ironically, one of the most coherent pieces of music I've ever made outside of electronica.

FAWM is a go!