Title: Fight For Your Rights

Link: Fight For Your Rights

This is a protest song.
Because I'm in a bad mood.
A really bad mood.
But before you ask: No, I have no idea what exactly I'm protesting against, but I'm pretty sure it's important.

For a change, I tried a wild mix of end rhymes and internal rhymes.
I think it kinda works.
At least I'd like to think so.

Feedback (the good, the bad and the ugly) as always highly appreciated.
I'd suck even more without you guys!

As always, a BIG thank you to Marty for taking the time to listen to my unfinished song and give me feedback.

Some technical information:
Style: DEVIANT.STY

The band:
Bass: 3586
Drums: PraiseWorshipUptempo16
Guitars: 407, 1120, 1682, 4386, 4387, 4388, 3931
Vocals: Natalie + BG vocals Cong and Solaria

Mixed (as always) by yours truly

You can find the lyrics in the next post.

Title: Fight For Your Rights

(Verse)
You feel big each time you make me small
But no matter what you do, I'm not scared at all
Just because you're big doesn't make you right
No matter what you do, no matter what you try
I will fight for our rights

(Chorus)
I won't back down, I won't stay quiet
I'll never shut up, I'll start a riot
I won't accept whatever is wrong
I'll shout it out loud with a song

I won't back down, I won't stay quiet
I'll never shut up, I'll start a riot
I won't accept whatever is wrong
I'll shout it out loud with a song

(Verse)
You build your power on our bare despair
Exploiting the weak like a bloodsucking vampire freak
You trample on dreams, instill constant fear
But we stay here and will not disappear
Angry voices you'll hear

(Chorus)
We won't back down, we won't stay quiet
We'll never shut up, we'll start a riot
We won't accept whatever is wrong
We'll shout it out loud with a song

We won't back down, we won't stay quiet
We'll never shut up, we'll start a riot
We won't accept whatever is wrong
We'll shout it out loud with a song

(Bridge)
In the shadows of your tower so tall
You think you own the world, you think you've got it all
But your wealth will never silence the voice of the small
You will never, ever silence us all

(Chorus)
We won't back down, we won't stay quiet
We'll never shut up, we'll start a riot
We won't accept whatever is wrong
We'll shout it out loud with a song

We won't back down, we won't stay quiet
We'll never shut up, we'll start a riot
We won't accept whatever is wrong
We'll shout it out loud with a song

(Outro)
Your power will never silence the voice of the small
You will never, ever see us all crawl

Hi,

Good song and especially the chorus,

As always I'm in awe of Natalie's vocals - amazing.

Well done.

Best Regards
Nigel

Brain, this is a really great all-purpose protest song. Could be about something big. Or everything. Very clever in how you put this together, even with your bad mood. The instruments, arrangement and mix sound stellar.

Your vocalists sometimes have little nuances in delivering a line that sound incredibly human. At other times the vocal delivery is not that of a natural sounding human, but quite ethereal and still very cool. This is a long winded way of saying that I love whatever you're doing with Natalie, Cong and Solaria.

So...two thumbs up from me!

Brian,

I think this sounds awesome! Natalie sounds great with this arrangement and tracks selection.

I am actually getting an early Blondie vibe that I really like.

Excellent song!

Bob

Thank you for listening and your nice comment, Nigel.
Much appreciated!

Brian,

Ron's right - this is written such that it could be used to protest almost anything - kudos.

Good BAND. Catchy Pop.
Good mix.

Well done.

fj

Thanks a lot, Ron.
However, I'm not 100% sure whether it works despite or because of my bad mood

Brian...that was great...I'm so amazed at the AI voices...stellar production of both instrumentation and vox...I was going to protest the song but not quite sure what the song was protesting...so I'll protest protesting...how's that?...at any rate I enjoyed the song very much...BTW how long does it take from start to finish on a song such as this?

Really nice music, lyrics and video! Very good contras between vers and chorus. You should put this on Spotify if you haven't already!

I love your setup for the song:
"This is a protest song.
Because I'm in a bad mood.
A really bad mood.
But before you ask: No, I have no idea what exactly I'm protesting against, but I'm pretty sure it's important."

Great chorus and Natalie's voice soars on it.

My only critique is when she sings "like a bloodsucking vampire freak." Her phrasing is garbled and awkward. Maybe it's too much of a mouthful of words for a synth girl like her. Send her back to the studio to re-sing that line.

Brian,

First off, 2 things that caught my ear, is the great sound of the drums/bass combo! Also, this has a great mix to my ears and the work with the vocals is so good! It's a great rockin' tune!

Thanks, TB

Thank you very much, Bob.
Sounding like Blondie is new.
I assume you mean the older stuff where Blondie was more punk.
I'm fine with that

I guess in times like these it's always good to have an all-purpose protest song at hand, just in case....
Thank you Floyd for listening and your feedback.
Much appreciated

Hi Brain,

I saw the song passing by on YT some days ago, but I couldn't listen then.
I knew one thing for sure; it must be a great song, with great lyrics and a wonderful videoclip.

Well, today I listened. You exceeded my expectations! Not by much because they were already high.
Natalie is so good. How you did the video was really cool too. They exceeded my expectations the most.
So simple, but so effective (if you can read ;-))

Oh, and about what to protest for; I can give you a list of names from people and institutions. Interested?

Hans

Hi BD.
Love the sound of this racing along. Reminds me of a band I've heard before but can't put a name to it at the moment. Like Soft Punk with a melody.
The vocal is like a young male to my ears which is fine.

Good one.

Vic

Thank you Dan for listening and your feedback, I really appreciate it

For some reason I'm often asked how long it takes me to write my songs.
Of course it always varies a bit.
Here, the first BIAB version was saved on January 17th, the song was finished on February 2nd
and the final video was uploaded on February 6th.

So I worked on the music for about 16 days, and normally I work (give or take, I have a family
and more children than an African herder has cattle) about 2 hours a day on a song.
Some days I haven't worked on it at all, other days more, but I think my average is close to that.
That's 32 hours for this song.
I spend by far the most time on the lyrics, but that's to be expected if you're stupid enough
(like me ) NOT to write in your native language.

The same calculation applies to the video, which needed around 8 hours.

Hello Brian
This is a very very cool song
Very good songwriting
The topic is more topical than ever before
And because you keep the lyrics quite general, the song speaks to many people and their problems
Very well done
Many greetings
Andi ;-)

Brain, if I didn't know Natalie was a synth voice I would have thought a human was singing.
Excellent job on that and the backing tracks and mix.
This is a great protest song so maybe you should get angry more often?
Loved it.

Another good pop rock song with a powerful message. When there are many small voices, they can overcome one bigger one.
Pleasant and catchy melody. Very good arrangement, nice dynamics once again, I enjoy very much those acoustic parts.
My only very tiny problem is with the vocal effect, I feel it is not needed, because the music and lyrics speak enough for the anger.

Janne

BDT, you certainly know how to put a song together. Brilliant use of the synth vocals and the stops, dynamics and editing are very well done. I like yourself am not sure what you are protesting but is very effective nonetheless. Your long hours and dedication to the music paid off as this is one of the best I’ve heard from you, Tom

Brian,

I'm mad as hell
but you can't tell
Still I wish you'd use more words like hell
Or maybe some others that rhyme with duck
People mad on the forum
But you try your luck!!
And it's everything
It's the same damn thing!
Don't know what that is but it makes me scream!!
Going to sing about it going to make me sing
Going to shake my tongue
Shake everything
Cuz I love this song
And I don't know what's wrong
But I fight like hell
Fight all day long!!
Just to fight
And make it right
Going to fight all day
And fight all night!!!


Hey man, this is a really cool blondie song and that's what I was thinking!!!

Maybe we should do a collab!!!!

Brilliant song, arrangement and mix. Totally relate too as in the UK the government are trying to clamp down on protests. One 'head that's a diminutive of Richard' politician said he's pro the right to protest, but why can't people just protest at home? !!! What?! Missing the point, much!

Great tracks. The power rock groove is fits the lyrics perfectly. Nice Synth V work. I never heard Natalie sound so good. Have you tried Ninezero? He may bring a bit more edge to this type of song. Very nice work

Nice song. I love the dynamics from rocker to acoustic and back again.

Hi, Brain.

Nice song! I was going to make a couple comments, but I see you beat me to them...

Yep. Perhaps a bit too generic, but then, people are always saying that songs should be universal, and what could be more universal than a song that applies to everything?

Yep, the work well enough. The inner rhymes were fun.

You've got some sort of distortion on the vocal that didn't work for me. Not a big deal.

The title doesn't seem to match the song. The POV of the title addresses people, telling them they need to fight for their rights, while the POV of the song is the narrator addressing the towe-dwelling bloodsucking vampire freaks. Not a big deal at all.

I like the contrast between the verse and chorus - it's always good to have a song make the sound different.

Anyway, good job.

Well, we’re ready to march with you so when do we start?! 😉
Of late whenever we see the news we get the same angry feeling.

Natalie and the bgv’s sound great and the lyric rhymes work very well.
That is one amazing vocal ... the intonation and phrasing is outstanding.

Great mix ... clean, open and a nice soundstage on the KRK's.

Excellent!

J&B

Thank you, Sören, for listening and your nice feedback.
It's not on Spotify yet, but it will certainly go there

Thank you, Scott.
This song is basically part 2 of the F-word song, but this time without swearing.
When I look at what's going on in the world of today, it really pisses me off.

And another "thank you" for pointing out the vampire freak hickup. It's already fixed (locally), I'll upload it again somewhere in the future.

Hey Brain

You're pretty good at this song-writing stuff, ya know?

Excellence in every facet. Lytric, synth vocals, backing tracks - all top shelf. I fully agree with the message - nicely done. It's always a pleasure to listen to your music. there's never a disappointment. I'm glad you joined the forum a while back. Hope you stay for a long time.

Best to you,

Alan

Gave this a spin when you first released it, and good to give it another!

Excellent in all aspects, loved it.

Thanks for listening and your feedback, Torrey.
I always start with drums & bass.
It doesn't make sense to build the rest of the house before the basement is finished

Thanks for listening and your kind feedback here and on YouTube, Hans.
I really appreciate it

And as for the list of names, we both live in the same region of Europeland, so your list won't be very different from mine

Thank you, Vic, for listening and commenting.
I really appreciate it.
(Pop-) Punk with melodies, yep, that's what I like.

Wow cool groove to the song. Low end was awesome. Had my sub pumping. Cool hook in the melody. Well done

Thanks Andi!
Your feedback is (as always) much appreciated

Thanks Mario

Reading the news is enough to get me in the right mood

Thanks, Janne, for listening and your constructive feedback.
The vocal effect (which is a delay) is only a fraction of what I normally use, but the parts where it's still there sounded "empty" without it.
But I totally understand what you mean, they're not necessary for the actual message.

Knowing how good YOUR stuff is, this means a lot to me.
Thank you, Tom.
I really appreciate it!

I will always envy you native speakers who can come up with such texts spontaneously ... for me, it's always hard (but rewarding) work in your language.
Thanks for listening and your protest lyrics, David!
A collab with Debbie? I'm in

That is indeed a _real_ WTF statement.
Thank you for listening and your nice comment, Wao

Thank you, Elliott, for listening and for your nice feedback.
I actually have Ninezero, but hate his annoying nasal sound.
If I had known that this nasal sound could not be configured away, I would never have bought it.

Thanks, Herb, for listening and your positive feedback

Hi David,
thanks for listening and your detailed feedback.
Much appreciated as always

The distortion you mentioned is intentional. I figured an angry girl shouting out loudly into a mic wouldn't care that the meters are deep red, giving it more authenticity.
I have to admit that it's not so pleasing to the ear.

You have a good point with the POV, it wasn't an easy decision between "...for my rights", "...for our rights" and "...for your rights".
The first one sounds selfish and the last one is not exactly what the song is about.
But the second option, in my opinion, has such a bad flow (as a title) that I didn't like it at all.

Thanks J & B for listening and commenting, especially on the vocals and the production.
Watching or reading the news is indeed a good source of emotion when you want to write a protest song.
I try to avoid that, though...

Thank you, Alan, for listening and your words of encouragement.
I don't think I'll be leaving this place anytime soon.
Nice people, great music and always something new to learn

It's very encouraging for me when musicians from different genres find something good and/or interesting in my music.
Thanks Dave

Thanks Scott for listening and your comment.

I always start the mixing process with drums and bass.
For my workflow, it doesn't make sense to do anything else until a solid low end foundation is in place.

Hi B.D. Thomas

Beautiful, very eye-catching construction. It's pleasant with its softer passages and this rhythm which comes back in force. well done.

Jani

Thank you for listening and your comment, Jani.
Much appreciated!