https://soundcloud.com/phil-leith/im-alive-original

This song ... literally came to me in a dream. Like, last wednesday morning. Ok, sort of. What came to me was the "I'm Alive, I'm Alive blah blah blah blah" part. Complete with the melody and harmony for that snippet.

Picture yourself in a convertible, driving up the Pacific Coast Highway on a warm sunny day, reflecting on your life, when you listen.

Here's the cool thing about BIAB. Less than a week later... this. Not possible without BIAB. Not for me anyway.

Wrote, arranged, and produced, and sang all the vocals except for the quiet ooh's and aaahs leading up to the chorus ... I tried their ooohs and aaahs. Mechanical ... probably because they were sampled at 085 and my song is at 140 BPM, but at this volume, they work ok. I kept them pretty subtle.

I bounced all this off Bob Buford, who was adamant that I find filler instrumental for the breaks between lyrics. It's a thing. He was right, though, it's better. I was looking for a decent dobro soloist, but I ended up using the Knopfler style "Dire Bluesey" and I think it works. Very close to what I had in mind.

Lyrics are on SoundCloud.

****** Song Summary *************
Title: I'm Alive
File:I'm Alive.SGU
Key=E , Tempo 140, Length (m:s)=3:47
No intro. 131 bar chorus, from bar 1 to bar 131. Repeat x1 chorus
No Melody
Soloist track has 868 notes, Soloist harmony is < no harmony >(0)
Song is saved with Volume, Pan, Reverb, Chorus, Bank0,
Style is _BOWE110.STY (Acoustic Guitar w/ Even Bow Bass)

RealTracks in style: ~2488:Bass, Acoustic, Bowed Held Ev 110
RealTracks in style: ~405:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 120
RealTracks in song: ~405:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 120
RealTracks in style: ~522:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 120
RealTracks in song: 512:Guitar, Electric, Soloist Dire Ev 140 (Bluesy)
RealDrums in style: NashvilleEven8^3-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, HiHat Open
RealTracks Vocal Oohs-Aahs, Rhythm Pop3-part Ev 085 David Wise/Shelly Justice

*******************

Produced in Reaper using Xcomp, ReaVerb, Acon Digital Multiplier, ReaTune. And Bob Buford to bounce it all off of.

I'm doing something else while I listen and the lyrics keep making me pay attention, the way the singer matches the rhythm and chord , the nice guitar work. Really nice.

Someday you'll learn to listen to me.

A fine job, indeed.

Bob

"I'm doing something else while I listen and the lyrics keep making me pay attention...."


Excellent! A lyric man. Then I have succeeded :-D

Thanks for giving it a spin!

Someday. :-)

Yeah, I really thought it would overpower the intentional pause in the melody, but it didn't. It does make it more interesting.

Cool tune Phil

Hey, Scott, thanks man.

Thanks for sharing the dream.

We enjoyed the upbeat feel of this via the lyric, vocal and arrangement.

Nice!

J&B

Song ideas that have come to me in dreams are usually very simple and that's why they usually work so well, like in your case. Very nice upbeat pop song with positive feel good message. Good production.

Janne

Phil,

A really nice "feel good" song. A really nice overall sound, an infectious melody.

The track works really well. And a nice mix. (at times I thought the bass needed to come up a hair).

Your background "aaahhhs" are terrific. Some of the best I've heard done here..they really made the chorus shine. Nice.

fj

Nice.....

Love the chorus.

Reminded me in places of John Denver.

Thanks, Floyd.

You and my wife would butt heads over bass. :-D When the bass is about perfect for me, it's a few db too high for her. I do want a nice solid bass in it. I was playing it in our living room and in our cars and it was overpowering so I dropped it 4 whole DB. But I haven't re-tested it in the car since then, I just uploaded it because it didn't sound too bad on my monitors.

I should do the car-stero test again. But I've been riding my bike to work, though.

Well, Guitarhacker, I am a big JD fan, to be sure.

If you can't tell, I'm also a big Beach Boys/Brian Wilson fan. And a Jimmy Buffett fan. And a Mark Knopfler fan. The way this song worked out, I think it sounds like Jimmy Buffet and the Beach Boys met at Mark Knopfler's house for a jam session.

I really wanted the harmonies in the chorus to hit you like a tsunami. Hope I succeeded!

Doesn't happen to me very often, jannesan, I have lost a few of them by not writing it down and recording the basic tune. I ALMOST lost the tune on this one, but it did come back to me eventually. It was just that one snippet "I'm alive, I'm alive blah blah blah blah blah ... " that I had anything for ... and why I'm saying blah is I had no words there at the time, just the tune.

This tells me GET UP and SING IT INTO YOUR PHONE or something. Before you forget!

Phil,

Some really strong work here—catchy melody that just flows, accentuated by some solid lyrics with great lines throughout. Terrific job on the harmonies. Very nicely done.

Best regards,

Deej

I fixed all the little issues I had with my vocal last night (I introduced one other, but I'll fix that tonight. Mixing issue) and I brought up the bass just a touch just for you :-)

Well, no, the "car stereo test" told me it could come up a smidge.

Phil, You can really sing! Great lead vocal and BG vocals. Nice job on the editing of the guitar parts. Mix sounds good. I seemed to be getting an imbalance on the bass. Maybe check to make sure it's centered and in mono. You are sounding good and getting the hang of everything very quickly. Glad you're here, Tom

Thanks again, Tommy.

I'm still trying to get used to people complimenting my voice. It's a pretty new concept to me.

Bass is (or was... sometimes a finger slips on a touchpad) intentionally set about 5-7% to one side for panning. I need to re-mix that "oo-oh" harmony in the first verse tonight (it is not balanced the way I want it - mistake I made last night). When I do that I will listen for that bass and see what I think. I did bump it up a bit at Floyd's suggestion. That may have made the panning more noticeable so it might need a tweak. I will likely leave it just a tad off center, like arranging a band on the stage.

The ending is the way the style played my chords I entered. I liked what it did so well that I wanted it in the beginning so they'd mirror each other. So I just went in and put the same chords I ended with at the beginning and BAM! Just what I was looking for. One of my favorite things about how it turned out.

Glad all of you are here. This is a neat community. I'm hearing some really good stuff and getting so much input.

Guess I should add, re: editing the guitar parts.... yeah, I generated the solo track for the entire song, and just edited it down to the places I wanted it. Had to fade the bits and pieces in and out sometimes (not always), but I am happy with the result.

Next time I'm going to use envelopes in Reaper. Bob just told me about them. I looked them up. Oh yeah! That's what I need! Those will be very useful. Where has it been all my life?

Phil,

This is a great song. I love the James Taylor / John Denver vibe. A very cool singer-songwriter piece.

Nice mix as well.

Bob

TommyAD you were absolutely right about the bass. It was way the hell to the left. Back closer to center now.

Fixed the "oo-oh" and pulled the rhythm guitar back so it doesn't start right away, let the two noodling guitars start it off cold with no other instruments.

I'm callin' it done

Very eagles sounding. The chorus took me back to the mid seventies. The is very well constructed and easy to listen to. Great mellow stuff. Thanks for listing Rob

<<< "I'm still trying to get used to people complimenting my voice." >>>

Get used to people complimenting your voice. It was the star of the song. You have a wonderful voice. But along with the great vocals you've also written some quality lyrics, did a nice arrangement and mix and turned out a first rate production to my ears.

This is a good singer/songwriter piece and I agree you're in the wheelhouse of the 70's but the energy of your song felt the closest to Jim Croce to me from the bouncy energy of the music. Change the instrumentation and style to move the song back 10 years earlier, with jangly guitars, heavy bass and vocals drowned in reverb, it would fit the Hollies.

<<< "I'm callin' it done" >>> That's ok for this mix but I'm not so sure I'd recommend you be through with the song itself. To me, this song 'fits' into a lot of places and that's a sign of what I view as a quality write. It seems the song holds more than is being let out. I really like your song and think you've got more than maybe you think you have...

Enjoyed my listen and I look forward to hearing more of your songs. I'm impressed.

Nice work! As others have (correctly) said, you've got a nice voice. That Jimmy Buffet inflection comes through strong, which is good.

I had to turn the volume up on the mix to get it sounding where I wanted it. That's unusual with a lot of mixes - usually I need to turn things down. Clearly you aren't listening to enough contemporary music.

Bob was right about the fills - they keep the energy going between the verses. I also like to slide instruments in and out of fades, and whatever you did here was smooth, as I was never distracted. Envelopes in Reaper are indeed your friend.

Speaking of Reaper, you might want to have a look at stretch markers. Not that anything in this song made me think that it needs editing with timing, but it's one of those "I wish I knew there was a super easy way to do this" kind of thing.

The Aaaahs help give the chorus a nice punch. They sound great to me.

Sounds a bit like a theme song to a 70's television show - and I also mean that in a good way.

You didn't ask for extensive feedback, so sorry if this is a bit much. The short version is that I enjoyed the song, thanks!

It's not too extensive feed back. I'm all ears.

And thank you.

Yes, the "70's TV Show Theme" popped into my head listening to it. I have a buddy that says EVERY James Taylor song sounds like a 70's TV Theme Show. He's not entirely wrong. And yeah, I don't consider it a bad thing. It's not what I was going for, but it's not NOT what I was going for, either. I get an idea, I know how I want it to sound, and I just ... aim at that and it sounds like whatever it sounds like. I like so much and so many different styles of music, it's just music to me. If it's got a decent melody, proper tempo for the mood, and if it's got lyrics, decent lyrics ... I am not that concerned with what style it sounds like.

You can tell I am a huge harmony fan. I've always loved it. I started using it to mask my voice ... and I've never studied music beyond listening to a crap-ton of it. Somehow one day harmony lines just started coming to me.

I really have no idea what I'm doing with it. Just singing what I think sounds good. Doesn't come out right the first or even fourth time a lot of times, but I get it.

Thank you, Charlie. I am seriously humbled by the vocal praise. I should shut up about it ... it's just that hard for me to buy into. I'm coming around. I think I have found my voice ... finally ... I guess I just need to learn to be happy with it.

"<<< "I'm callin' it done" >>> That's ok for this mix but I'm not so sure I'd recommend you be through with the song itself."

Funny you should say that. Bob was listening to the mix after I said it was "done" and didn't quite get the added BIAB oohs and aaahs leading into the chorus. This was something I wanted to try. The chorus background vocals I'm actually singing "I'm A-liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive". It sounds exactly the way it did in my dream. But that leadup TO the chorus, I thought I needed to build some energy so that's why I thought "hey, I'll try the new BIAB Ooohs and Aaaaahs".

They sounded very mechanical. One reason I left them so low in the mix. The other reason is, they need to be subtle. I almost don't want you to consciously notice them.

He couldn't even tell what they were. And in his defense, they were harsh, mechanical and ... sounded like a bad synth.

Still, I wanted that in there.

SO tonight I went back and tried recording my own "oooh-aaaah" tracks for that buildup, and I failed miserably.

So I went back to BIAB and did it again. I'm not sure what I did different, but they sound a lot better. I fiddled with them in the mix, they're there, still, but they sound better. Still subtle, like they need to be for the effect I want.

All that is a long way of saying, I guess I wasn't done after all.

"I really like your song and think you've got more than maybe you think you have... "

Oh, I love the song and I think if it got to the right ears it might be a hit for somebody. I mean, even I think it's that good - I am stunned how well it turned out and I'm afraid I've set quite a high bar for myself now :-)

But I'm also realistic. There are a LOT of VERY talented people out there who nobody will ever hear of. People much more talented than I am. If this gets out, it'll be luck. I know that.

I do this because I enjoy it. I'm not trying to become famous and I certainly don't have any illusions of making money in this industry.

That being said I want to do the best work I can and I have much to learn.

Anyway, uploading the new mix with the better BIAB oooh-ahhhs leading up to the choruses. Listen carefully!

Done!

Thank you!

Not surprising, considering my age and my influences. That's the music I love.

<< "SO tonight I went back and tried recording my own "oooh-aaaah" tracks for that buildup, and I failed miserably." >>

Forum member Joanne Cooper writes a blog for beginners using BIAB/RB as well as offer a wonderful, thorough online course for writing a song in RB. It's inexpensive but very well worth the cost.
She has a Facebook Group for interaction between students and I highly recommend it.

One of her blogs details how she creates her wonderful sounding BGV's and harmonies and you may find her method useful.

Phil,

I really loved this. Great production. The Dire guitar was a nice touch.

Super lyrics, and good vocals.

Interestingly, I wrote a song by the same title last year. If you send me a PM and are interested I will see if I can dig it up and send it to you and you can see two completely different approaches to the same subject if you are interested.

Great song.

Very interesting @Dave ... the songs do share the same general theme, too. We all go through stuff in life ... maybe not the same things, but it's a struggle, and the fight to live to see its worth is real ... and may actually even be what life is all about.

This particular song just started out with that line "I'm Alive, I'm Alive and .... blah blah blah blah" didn't even really have lyrics there after the "I'm Alive" part. I woke up from a dream where I heard that bit, with melody and harmony and the whole bit. But that's all I had. Messed around with chords related to what I'd heard in the dream. Changed them up a bit for the verses. Still no words.

Started thinking about my life, and I got the line "Life hasn't always been such a comfortable road" and everything just flowed from that, actually pretty quickly. The basic song was born. Only there were a lot of changes and edits to make it work, especially when I finally got a mic out and tried to sing it.

I've thought about sitting down and writing an article about how this song came about and the process I went through because it is interesting (to me, anyway) and probably reflects how songwriting goes for most people.

Matter of fact, I think I'll do that.

What I find particularly satisfying about this song, though, is that the chorus sounds exactly the way it sounded in my dream.

@Charlie I have heard of this Joanne, and even seen some of her YouTube videos. So she uses RB to do backing vocals?

Hmmmmm....

@Dave you might be happy to know that I've occasionally sat and played and sang "Jesus Plays the Guitar" in my living room.

"I said come upstairs my friend, and I will show you where they are!"

Phil,

This is my new favorite of yours! You did a fabulous job in all aspects of this tune! The vocal work is very nice! Thanks, Torrey

Thanks, Torrey. Means a lot coming from you. You do excellent work.

Plus ... you're a fellow Missourian :-)

I like it a lot myself. I'm kind of amazed it came out of me. Under a week from initial concept to pretty much finished product. I'm afraid I may have inadvertently set a rather high bar for myself.

On the other hand... let's see what I can do!

Very well done! You definitely captured that summery essence perfectly. Some really nice lyricism, and catchy melodies too. I loved the harmonies on the chorus. The whole thing is definitely a solid road trip tune.

You should be proud of this one - thanks for sharing!