MORE THAN ANYTHING

Well, I wish that I had all the answers
I've got no second sight, no crystal ball
Still, I'm willing to take my chances
I will bet it all

Please believe me
I believe in me and you
You're the one thing in this world I know is true

You say nobody can promise
a future nobody can see (Make no promises to anyone)

      Maybe love doesn't last forever
      I can't say what tomorrow brings (Who know what tomorrow brings?)
      All I want is you and me together forever
      More than anything

Now I can't see my future without you
You're my best friend
My heart's home

I was wandering with no direction
Now I'm not alone

It's easy
It's easy when there's two
You showed me that the missing part was you

I'll give you more than I'll promise
Each day I'll make it come true

      Maybe love doesn't last forever
      I can't say what tomorrow brings
      All I want is you and me together forever
      More than anything

Instruments
~701:Bass, Electric, PopHalfNotesSync Ev 085
2650:Guitar, Electric, Background DreamyPopBalladFillsBrent Ev 085
839:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopBalladClean Ev 085 (A:arp)
840:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopBalladClean Ev 085 (B:strum)
840:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopBalladClean Ev 085 (B:strum) (Held)
Drums: Addictive Drums 2 (Fairfax Vol. 2, Repetition (replaced snare with Ludwig Black Beauty)
Lead Vocal: Synthesizer V - Kevin
Background Vocal: Synthesizer V - Kevin, Ryo AI
Electric Piano: The Famous E

Effects Chain
Main Buss: Greg Wells MixCentric (Fairydust)
Lead Vocal: Greg Wells Vocal (Lead Vocal), LX480 Essentials (Joe C Vocal Warm Ballad)
Harmony Vocals: Greg Wells Vocal (Backing Vocals), LX480 Essentials (960 Vocal Plate)
Bass: Schepps Omni Channel (Bass DI), ReaEQ (mid cut)
Drums: Trackspacer 2, Sunset Sound Studio (Live Room, Studio 3), ReaEQ (high pass)
Guitar Buss: Vulf Compressor
Guitar 1: NastyDLAmkII

Short Blah Blah
Any sort of feedback is welcome! smile


Tediously Long Blah Blah Blah...
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I don't write all this stuff because I think people are all that fascinated by me or my songs.

I'm just trying to figure this songwriting thing out, and most of these comments are notes to myself about things I learned, and hopefully you find some amusement in reading them. If not, please skip them!


The genesis of the song was my normal process: I found a demo style I liked, changed the chord progression, exported the backing track to SynthesizerV, added a melody... and then flailed aimlessly trying to think of lyrics.

The basic style is _ANGSTY4 Demo - Angsty Youthful Pop Dream Guitar.

As a completely arbitrary rule, I don't like my songs to go over 3:30. After dialing the tempo up from 85 BPM to 90 BPM, it clocked it at 3:40. That meant no bridge, no extra verses, and probably no doubled chorus.

I'm using the "Kevin" vocal here, which helped set the narrator POV and character. I'd recently listened to one of Noel's songs, and was again struck by the utter sincerity and sentimentality of his lyrics.

I'm pretty emotionally guarded and defensive, which isn't helpful for writing heart-on-your-sleeve sincere lyrics. So I figured writing a trying for something heartfelt and sincere would be a good exercise.

To some extent, the issues the narrator is addressing from his off-screen lover are arguments to myself against writing schmaltzly love songs. Read into that what you will. wink

The right way to write lyrics is to do the chorus first - are at least, a title - and then have the verses explain the chorus.

For some reason I keep doing things wrong by working out the verse first, and then trying to figure out a chorus. I sort of muddle through the first verse, trying to figure out who the song's protagonist is, and what they're all about. It's mostly a process of throwing words into the notes, and seeing if they resonate.

I'm a great admirer of Paul Williams' songs, so I had a listen to some Carpenter's music to see if that would jump start the process. In particular, "We've Only Just Begun", does an amazing job of capturing a wide-eyed enthusiasm that Noel so effectively taps into. But that song is series of vignettes, and I was trying to get to the feeling, not rewrite the song. It didn't give me an "in" to finding a voice for the narrator, so I wasn't making much progress on that front.

So went back to writing words and searching for something that would get the song going. Finally, I hit on the line:

      Well, I wish that I had all the answers

And something clicked. in retrospect, I realized that I'd been listening to Ben Folds' "Still" earlier in the day:

      I must give the impression
      That I have the answers for everything
      You were so disappointed
      To see me unravel so easily

And by "listening", I mean trying to figure out how the song worked. Ben starts out by having the narrator acknowledging a fault - the core conflict in the song. It just turned out that the issue in my song was the justifying the leap of faith that love requires.

Finally, I wasn't writing an "I love you" song - it was a sales pitch! And that was something I could write. wink

From there, getting the first verse and chorus was mostly just writing and rewriting. It was a painful slog - it almost always is - but at least it didn't take days and days.

That also got me into the "I don't have anything left to say for the second verse" problem. Obviously I eventually got past that, too.

I'm pretty happy with the lyrics, if only for the relief of getting something coherent written. I'm always sort of astonished when a song comes together.

Note to self: Stop ending lyrics with "you"... It really limits rhyming options!

I kept the harmonies on it pretty simple, mostly paralleling the melody, and not a lot of echoes. I figured that would better fit the feel of the song. When I was done, I found out I had written a Boy Band song.

Imagine my surprise. crazy

I didn't do that much to the backing tracks. I added a "simple" strummed guitar, one strum per chord change, and then cut out the chords that didn't need to be there. I then added in the additional guitar parts, cutting out the bits that didn't need to be there. Normally I edit the dynamics of the tracks, but that didn't happen here.

There didn't seem to be a need to add any additional instruments, I put the strummed guitar and another in the center, and the other two guitars left and right.

On some other thread, Josie had mentioned BiaB drums really overplay the cymbals on the B section, and that's certainly the case with this style. It's the sort of thing that once you hear, you can't un-hear.

I ended up replacing the drums with a simple MIDI drum part. I did minimal editing to the MIDI, since I wanted to keep it simple. I ended up picking a drum kit from Addictive Drums, swapping out the default snare for one I think fit a bit better.

After the mix was mostly in place, I had my son tweak it. He moved the two guitars out of the center and added a delay to one of them to balance it. He also finessed the bass and drums, mostly by adding some EQ.

I tried to find a fitting guitar solo for the intro, but didn't find anything I liked, so I put something together with the Indiginus guitar, which I later replaced with an electric piano.

I normally use the some effects to widen the stereo field, as well as the Lurssen Mastering Console, which is one of my favorite plugins. This time, I figured I'd try out the Greg Wells MixCentric plugin, and forego the widening effect.

As always, feedback of any sort is appreciated! laugh

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?