“Clouded Eclipse” Echo

Revisiting the Choose Must playlist: Day 3

22 April 2016
I was worried about getting this one done. I had nothing — no ideas, no inspiration, no reason to write. This was going to be work. The kind of work that happens when you have a deadline and no idea what you’re going to do to meet it.

This happens to people in creative fields all the time. It still happens to me regularly in my day job. But creative work is still work. You put in the time. You roll up your sleeves. You make something. And then the next day, you make something better.

So with nothing to go on, and rain obstructing our view of a lunar spectacle, I leaned back on my old friend, harmonics. This time, though, it was on a bass.

I’ve had the same bass for decades. It’s a Gibson G3 like one Gene Simmons used to play that I got in a shack full of old guitars in Tallahassee. A guy named Hugh had access to a seemingly endless supply of assorted ’60s to ’70s Hagstroms and Fenders and Gibsons and Gretsches. It was usually very expensive for me to visit with him — I bought 3 guitars and that bass in less than two years in that shack. But I digress.

The main bass harmonics were all I had for hours, so I kept playing it over and over. I liked that it sounded like it was a round, so I tried to find a similar pattern in a walking bass line to go with it. Once I got that down, it needed another layer. That’s when I went back to my Fender Mustang.

I knew I could get a woody sound from the Mustang, so I set up the switches to just use the bridge pickups for the recording. I think I took the bass notes and rearranged them — I don’t really remember. By muting them as I plucked, I accentuated that woody quality I was looking for. I have no idea how I came up with that drum line, but I remember wanting the end to open up a bit, so I rode the crash hard at the close.

When I mixed it, I let the bass in the opening idea get a little into the red so that it growled a little more. There’s probably three tracks of bass guitar on the finished mix.

Oh, and do you hear that buzz? It’s on every track of every song in this entire series. The outlets in our apartment aren’t grounded. It drives me crazy every time I plug in. Or try to record. Or listen to a record. If you have any advice on how to get rid of it, I’m all ears.

\m/ #100DaysEcho