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Looking For The Spring

from Conditions Apply: Demos From FAWM 2014 by TA Walker

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I was wondering how easily I would leave the starting blocks for this, my second FAWM… and surprisingly, song 1 didn’t have to come kicking and screaming (although perhaps on the lyrics front, it might have been a touch on the sullen side).

In weather terms, it’s been a pretty awful January in much of the UK, with very little sun (London apparently only got one day of it all month) and a seemingly-endless succession of Atlantic storms bringing almost relentless rain, high winds and general meteorological misery to much of the country. Parts of the south-west got over 200% of their average rainfall for January, leaving parts of Somerset under water for the entire month… and that sets the tone and subject matter for the song in hand. I don’t often write in a minor key, but I thought I’d try kicking off this FAWM with one (and there may be a few more to follow).

The obligatory techie bits: the song was recorded in Garageband on my iPhone 4S. I worked out the chords and structure using a drumbox loop I programmed in FunkBox (overdubbing bass and snare drums on a separate GB track), “smart bass” and “smart keyboard” (electric piano). All these survive to the mix you hear here, except the smart bass, which I replaced with real bass guitar, and added acoustic and electric guitar, topping off with double-tracked vocals.

I know we shouldn’t apologise for our FAWM efforts, but I feel I really should say something about the mix of this demo. Basically, it seems from my experience that Logic Pro 9 won’t import projects from the current version of Garageband/iOS (apparently, Logic Pro X is required)... which is a problem, as I can’t afford the Logic upgrade at present, and I was planning to do my mixing for these demos in Logic. (GB/iOS is hopeless for producing anything more than basic mixes - no EQ or insert effects per track, and only simple delay/reverb.)

The vocals and acoustic guitar in particular really need EQ and/or HP-filtering, but as it’s not possible right now, and time is against me: here’s the GB mix, run through Audio Mastering on the iPad to try and polish things up a bit.

lyrics

Grey - above us and below
And still no sign of snow
To chase the rain
Fall - to turn the fields to sea
The waves surround the trees
And flood the plain

[chorus]
Blue sky thinking
Looking for the spring

Stand - push against the flow
And fight the undertow
Of deep despair
Days - where no respite is seen
When grey conceals the green
Yet green is there

Blue sky thinking...

[bridge]
The tide retreats
Through the turning of the year
Like night and day
The clouds will surely clear

credits

from Conditions Apply: Demos From FAWM 2014, released March 4, 2014
Written and performed by TA Walker

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TA Walker UK

Guitarist/multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter, often with "electronica", "lo-fi" and "prog" inclinations.

Um... will that do?

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