I’ve been rushing round like a loon trying to get all my TV tracks finished as the deadline date is this Sunday, January 31 and I’ve still had ooodles to do!
I’m happy to report that I’m almost sorted now, but it’s been a right busy old week for me. I’ve been up at 6am everyday and in the studio 7am-10pm trying to get everything finished. I think it’s been good to push myself in this way but bloomin’ eck it’s been a wee bit stressful at times!
Along with my TV tracks I’ve also been trying to learn all the material for Miquid Licks (who, if you remember from previous articles, are the new Jazz/Funk band I’ve recently joined playing bass). It’s all wonderfully arranged stuff and all the bass parts are lovely to play, but each song is not straight forward to learn by any stretch of the imagination….
It all makes perfect sense… honest
We’ve got our first full band practice on Saturday, January 30, so fingers crossed I’ll remember everything ok and wont make a right eejot out of myself!
If you remember last week I’d just finished my ’60s Pop track and was moving on to Funk Rock which I was most excited about. All who know me will know that this is a genre I’m very familiar (and in love!) with. With the biggest, hugest grin on my face I put pen to paper and wrote a song that was kind of a cross between The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine, so it only seemed appropriate to name the song Chili Rage 
After having lots of fun writing and recording my new funky rock tune the next genre on my list was Punk. Now some of you will know that I played drums for over a year in Punk band The Reoffenders so I’ve had plenty of practise playing in this style – I’ve just never actually written a punk song… ever. So I dug out all my old Reoffenders set lists and starting trying get my head into ‘Punk mode’ and also trying to think what is it that makes a song sound Punky? My good friend Paul (who is The Reoffenders guitarist) had some great advice for me – ‘you got to miss a few notes while injecting glue into your veins or something!’ Hmmm… I think the glue idea might be a *bit* extreme, but I’ll do my bestest to hit a few bum notes here and there.
Anyways so I grabbed my beautiful bass and started trying to get some riffs and ideas going. It soon became very aparent that in order to get that classic driving punk sound I’d need to attack my bass guitar with something I’ve always vowed I’d never do… yes, I had to play the strings:
… with a plectrum!! Arrrrrggggghhh! Noooooooooooooooooo!!!
But I have to be honest, the sound was very effective and already gave the song a real punky feel… my poor bass didn’t agree with me however, and spent the rest of the day sulking. It took me a little while to be able to play the bass armed with a plectrum, as it does feel very wierd if you’ve not used to it!
Next up I thought I’d get the guitar parts recorded. I really wasn’t too sure what guitar to use and I played lots of different makes and couldn’t seem to find one that sounded Punk 
Out of desperation I grabbed my Fender Telecaster and plugged it in, as it was the only guitar I’d not tried and guess what? With a slightly driven amp sound it sang like an angel! (Or in Punky terms, it jumped about like a loon and then gobbed at everyone – grrr!).
Last on my list was the drums. I’ve not played with The Reoffenders for about a year now and I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to play that fast or be able to do all the fills and phrases at such a speed. Fortunatly the drums turned out to be much easier to record than the guitar and I managed to get it all sorted in a couple of takes (thankfully!). The only thing I had to be mindfull of on was my choice of snare drum. The one I had originally chosen (my gorgeous big fat Premier marching snare) just got completly lost in the mix – but armed with my Chad Smith signature it cut through the mix as smoothly as a Jackie Chan fist slicing through wood… Horrah!
So with my Punky tune all finished and mixed I had a look at what was next on the list…
… New Orleans Jazz…
What??!! Oh dear, this could be a tricky one! lol
Jazz I’m ok with, Jazz Fusion I’m also good with… but New Orleans Jazz I’m not too familiar with at all – why on earth did I say I’d do New Orleans Jazz? What was I thinking?! I wish I could go back in time to when I was sending off the list of what I could and couldn’t do and give myself a big slap round the face with a wet kipper and say ‘What on *earth* were you thinking!?’ lol
I had a look through my CDs and on Youtube to try and get some inspiration. Then I suddenly remembered that aaaagggeeees ago I did some session work for someone who was singing lots of Jazz tracks that had a New Orleans kinda feel – bingo! So I began wading through my pooter desperatly searching for these old tunes. After what seemed like an eternity in which I was beginning to loose all will to live, I finally came across them…Wooha! I took a listen and really liked a track that I thought I might be able to emulate. It only had bass, drums and some nice tasty piano chops. I grabbed my bass and began getting a song together.
About 30mins or so later I had written and recorded the bass ready for the piano to follow. I sat down infront of my keyboard and just starred at the keys rather blankly. I’d written this wonderfully intricate New Orleans style bass line with lots of jazzy piano chords in mind and had seemed to forgotten one very important thing – I haven’t played piano in about 10 years and I know about as much on jazz piano playing as I do on Pythagoras’ theorem (which isn’t a lot).
But me being me I was determind to get this song finished even if it killed me (which I thought it might well do!). So I grabbed a couple of books from my musical library…
…and began work!!!
A day a half later (I’m not kidding!) I’d finally managed to play the piano part *all* the way through!! Wooha! Now all that was left was the drums – how long did that take? 3mins! Grrr….
So yes it’s been a funny old week for me and my TV tunes mission is very nearly over (until the next Phase that is!). I’ve only got a couple more songs to finish (being Country and Traditional Blues, which will both feel like a doddle after New Orleans Jazz!!). I’ll let you know how they go next week!
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