More Talent

Good news! I’ve been scouting out friends with musical talent, and have made a few more recruits. Allow me to introduce Amanda, Drew, and Carter.

Amanda is our first female vocalist, and has experience arranging acapella music. I think she has some good ideas for the project as well, so she’ll make a valuable addition to the team!

Drew is a lifelong friend that was also in my previous band with Patrick and Jake. He’ll be able to add some guitar and vocals (he can hit a pretty awesome low scream.) It’ll be nice to be working with the old bandmates again!

I got in touch with Carter after I saw he posted the video below (relish the facial expressions.) Fiddle? Yes, please. Back in the day my band played a show or two with Carter’s band, Exclamatron, in Northern Michigan. Glad to see we’re all still going!

Check out their added bios on the Musicians Involved page.

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First Blood

So I showed the blog to my friend Phil the other day, and this is what he had to say:

“this is interesting. but, i mean… all this theory is sorta meaningless until you start recording”

And I thought, Wow. Spot on, Phil. Spot on.

So, as it went, I decided that it was time to sit down and record my first attempt at blackgrass, or bluemetal, or… whatever we’re doing here. I strapped on my electric guitar, and plugged it into one of these:

the Line6 POD X2. it's for people who can't afford amps.

and out to a macbook with garageband.  This is not the best setup, as you will plainly hear.  The tone is awful and there are all sorts of static and crackling.  I will be looking into other options, and soon.

Anyhow, here is the progression I started with:

It’s almost kind of bluesy/jazzy, but then again, bluegrass was influenced by jazz.  There are indeed many similarities between the genres.  Please keep in mind that this is also recorded on electric guitar.  I’ll definitely be doing this on acoustic guitar when we get closer to a final version. Needless to say, it wasn’t bluegrass enough for me, so I added some ukulele.  I know, I know, that’s not bluegrass either.  However, if you play the ukulele with a pick (usually a no-no) it almost sounds like a mandolin.  I strummed away on the 2’s and 4’s, and this is what I got:

Ok…better. We’re definitely getting there, but something is missing.  The guitar and uke put out plenty of highs, but we need to balance them out with a strong low end.  Andrew is the bluegrass bass player here, but for right now, I just used a midi keyboard to play what I thought was a bluegrassy bassline.  I’m no expert, so you’ll have to let me know what you think.

The player below will take you through the three tracks in succession, which is pretty neat.  The last one has the bass line added (use headphones.)

I think that makes all the difference!  We have a full spectrum of sound and a fun little progression to work with, good deal. It clearly needs percussion too, but this recording is way off tempo and thus unusable for recording drums.

"Always use a metronome, kids!"

Anyhow, I added an intro to create some tension/build up (this may also allow for some dialogue.)  Distorted electric guitar was also necessary in the middle so we can bring in the black metal. To spice things up a bit, I also sprinkled in some uke here and there. Our new friend atleastimhousebroken mentioned on this blog that he liked the tremolo guitar in our experimental track. Just for him, I brought that back in ukulele form at minute 1:21!  Finally, I added some more uke picking at the end… I think we really need a mandolin player…

Without further ado, here is the first official Blood and Banjos rough draft (whatever that means.)  My apologies for the abrupt ending…I still have to figure out where to take this song!

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Breaking Down the Breakdown

This is bound to be a lengthy post, so let’s review.  Blood and Banjos is supposed to take this:

And somehow merge it with this:

This could be tricky…  But clearly it can’t be that far fetched!  I mean, the banjo player in the first video is way more metal than I could ever be.

Let’s analyze these videos a bit more though.  The first song is one of my favorites by The Devil Makes Three.  (Sort of a black metal name already, not bad.)  It’s very simple accompaniment: guitar, banjo, bass.  The singing is just great, and I love that male-female harmony! Instrumentation isn’t really highlighted here, as the vocals are really at the forefront.  (I’ll try to find another example where the instrumentation is the focus of the song.)  At minute 2:23 of this video, though, we hear an example of an instrumental “break” that is often found in bluegrass.  Similarly, a bluegrass “breakdown” would feature several instruments, one at a time.

Now, this breakdown is quite different than what you might expect from your everyday metal breakdown.  In fact, metal doesn’t usually incorporate breakdowns at all, and I’ve never heard a black metal breakdown. Metalcore, on the other hand, loves them.  (I tend to enjoy them, but try not to abuse them in my song writing.) While the two definitions of “breakdown” are quite different, I think what few similarities there are might present an opportunity for some interesting fusion. I envision a heavy breakdown with banjo plucking in between the chugs of electric guitar. YES.

Read this wikipedia page for a full discussion on the different types of breakdowns. “Breaks are for the drummer; breakdowns are for hands in the air.”

me (top) at a Veil of Maya show

Confused about what a typical metal[core] breakdown is? Wikipedia provides this hilarious example, but it kinda gets the idea across. Here is an example of a deathcore breakdown by Carnifex. (The title of this video just kills me…) Close your eyes and try to imagine the banjos on top of this! Beautiful, yeah? Finally, just because we’re on the topic, the first two breakdowns you hear in this video are personal favorites from Between the Buried and Me.  You can be sure I’ll use a few breakdowns, but let’s make sure that I keep them tasteful.

This is an example of abusing the breakdown…

So, back to the Taake video (the second video I posted.) It’s not necessarily your classic black metal, but it is a good example of the stark contrast between the two genres we’re working with.  Notice the ominous tones created by the dissonance, the heavy beat, and overall dark intensity. The chords are actually quite melodic in comparison to some older black metal, and the progression is more musical.  The production quality is also quite good compared to the “raw” style of some other bands. The vocals, however, are pretty much right on par with the genre. So then, where do I make the connections here? What are the common denominators with which I can work?

I don’t usually write music that is dark, and merging ominous sounds with bluegrass will most likely require a minor tonality to maintain continuity. I don’t want to be pigeonholed into minor chord progressions though, so we’ll see how flexible we can be. I’ll try to record and post something this week, and you can let me know what you think.

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