The last song written for The Bleak, Barbarian Pines began life as a painting.
It was a couple months ago, when the temperatures were still nice. We spent a nice, lazy afternoon at Madison's Art Fair on the Square. One painting immediately drew my eye. It depicted several children flying through the sky on a magic carpet. One girl stood bravely at the "bow" of the carpet, apparently navigating through the ethereal landscape. The image stuck in my mind, and inspired my new song's protagonist a few days later. If I would have known the painting would spark a song, I would have remembered the artist's name. As it is, I have only my memory of the image. Thank you, anonymous collaborator!
In the early stages of the song, I knew I wanted to start the lyrics with the character's name. The melody dictated that it needed to be four syllables. So, I Googled "four syllable female names" and chose "Audrianna." Of course, Google was convinced that I was a father-to-be. Every ad I saw for the next week was baby related!
The music and lyrics were completed fairly quickly after the initial spark, though I did leave a few holes until the last minute. The lyrics for the "one by one, we'll take to the sky..." part were not actually written until about 30 minutes before the vocal was recorded. I had been struggling to write words to put in that section of music, so I gave myself a deadline. Sure enough, I thought of something!
The instrumental skeleton of the song is the acoustic guitar, with mandolin and electric guitar fleshing it out. I have some footage of the recording session here:
I have footage of the vocal session as well, but the girlfriend has advised me not to post it due to how goofy I look. Probably a good idea.
The finished track is available here. Thanks for reading!
It was a couple months ago, when the temperatures were still nice. We spent a nice, lazy afternoon at Madison's Art Fair on the Square. One painting immediately drew my eye. It depicted several children flying through the sky on a magic carpet. One girl stood bravely at the "bow" of the carpet, apparently navigating through the ethereal landscape. The image stuck in my mind, and inspired my new song's protagonist a few days later. If I would have known the painting would spark a song, I would have remembered the artist's name. As it is, I have only my memory of the image. Thank you, anonymous collaborator!
In the early stages of the song, I knew I wanted to start the lyrics with the character's name. The melody dictated that it needed to be four syllables. So, I Googled "four syllable female names" and chose "Audrianna." Of course, Google was convinced that I was a father-to-be. Every ad I saw for the next week was baby related!
The music and lyrics were completed fairly quickly after the initial spark, though I did leave a few holes until the last minute. The lyrics for the "one by one, we'll take to the sky..." part were not actually written until about 30 minutes before the vocal was recorded. I had been struggling to write words to put in that section of music, so I gave myself a deadline. Sure enough, I thought of something!
The instrumental skeleton of the song is the acoustic guitar, with mandolin and electric guitar fleshing it out. I have some footage of the recording session here:
I have footage of the vocal session as well, but the girlfriend has advised me not to post it due to how goofy I look. Probably a good idea.
The finished track is available here. Thanks for reading!