Originally Posted By: Tano Music
I’m curious whether there is a real Aberdeen or is it totally fictional?

Well, there's always emotional truth, but I try not to make my songs that autobiographical. My life isn't that interesting, and I'm glad for that!

The way I figure it, a songwriter's obligation to the listener to provide an emotionally satisfying story outweighs the need to tell a personal story. For me, that means using proxies that are easily recognizable and evoke similar emotional resonance without requiring a lot of backstory.

One of the things that attracted me to this piano track was the feeling of nostalgia, and I was trying to capture that. I was thinking about the song Ventura Highway. It reminds me of when my older brother headed off to college, and I remember watching the Greyhound bus carry him off to Los Angeles, and the being left behind in cloud of diesel.

So I was listening to the melody line that I'd worked out ahead of time, looping it over and over, trying to find words to fit the pattern, and finally a line came to mind:

Aberdeen's gone to Texas...

That pretty much wrote the song. I figured that since it was a three verse song, it would make sense to re-use that line at the start of the verse to create the transitions for a a going/going/gone sort of storyline.

There are a number of events in my life that inform the lyrics. One was a breakup with a girlfriend, and the realization at the time that I simply wasn't important to her anymore. I think that's the emotional center on the song:

No one in this town she's gonna miss...

The rest of the song was built in a similar manner. I only had three verses to work with, because I'd written the music ahead of time, and the piano was getting the bridge.

The "reveal" of the relationship in the third verse, because that's what a third verse does.

So there's no "Aberdeen", but there are specific events that I've drawn on in writing the song. Plus, this is clearly written in a "classic" country song style, so which sort of emotional touchstones it uses are influenced by that genre.

Did that answer the question?

Quote:
I liked you vocal, very easy to listen to. I’d say too much angst over something that, as it stands is a really cool piece of work.

I appreciate the reassurance. I just figured that it might have value to people to hear a bit more about the process.

While recording the vocal, my son was playing D&D online with his friends, and I had to edit out portions where you could hear him say things like "...I've got 1000 gold pieces" and chair squeaks. smile

Thanks for the support!

-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.