As mentioned in my post of July 20,
I'm going to write about my own music for a few weeks as a way to get
some song comments together for an updated website. My goal is
eventually to have a few paragraphs written for every song on my website
and I figured I'd start with all the Nur Ein songs I've written over
the past six years. Nur Ein is a songwriting competition in the same vein as Song Fight!,
wherein a title is presented each week and participants must write and
record a song using that title. The songs are posted and listeners vote
for their favorites. In the case of Nur Ein, there is a judging panel
that ranks the songs and participants are eliminated each week until
"only one" (nur ein) remains. There are also additional
challenges that must be incorporated such as "lyrics in the form of a
sonnet" or "guest rapper." Nur Ein has been around for seven years and
I've entered four times and won twice. NBD. :D This is post #8.
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Song #223 of 9999
Title: Kick Start
Artist: Frankie Big Face
Year: 2008
Album: Nur Ein 3
Click here to listen!
Oops, I missed a day yesterday. I think I may have been subconsciously avoiding writing about this particular group of songs. Nur Ein 3 was not a pleasant experience on a number of levels and these are not my best songs. If you want to ignore the blog for a week and come back for Nur Ein 4, I won't be offended. You have been forewarned!
So what happened? Well, for one thing, I switched software. I was doing just fine with the limited features of GarageBand but decided to invest in its big brother, Logic. The learning curve is (comparatively) pretty steep and, honestly, I still haven't mastered it. Also, I seemed to have lost interest in the guitar during this time period, preferring to write almost entirely on the piano for this Nur Ein. Even the guitar you hear in this track is sampled and played on a keyboard. Finally, I wasn't very happy in my personal life at this time and was feeling uninspired and isolated. I didn't involve anyone else in the recording process until week six, when I was finally eliminated.
All that being said, I think there are some redeeming qualities about my Kick Start and I do occasionally play it live in an acoustic arrangement. If I remember correctly, this is one of those rare instances where I constructed a musical element (the chorus) before I had a melody or lyric. I liked the icy synth sounds and thought they fit nicely with this idea of a frozen heart that needs to be thawed. My favorite line ("win me over like Napolean Bonaparte") seemed to confuse at least one judge so maybe it's not as good as I thought, but I was trying to express the idea of longing for the feeling of submission or surrender. The line "let's go a little too far" plays into this concept as well. I think this arrangement has a lot of clever elements (cold synths, pulsating heartbeats) but sorely needs a remix. By someone more skilled than me. Any volunteers?
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