For this week’s episode, I’m sharing live recordings from a concert I played last year at ABGs in Provo, Utah with my Beatles cover duo, The Fab Folk. All together, it was a really long set. We played 50 songs (including the album “Revolver” in it’s entirety) and we had several guest performers join us. For purposes of this podcast, I picked my favorite 8 songs from the night. I’m joined as always by Matt Weidauer on vocals, guitar, mandolin and cajon. You will also hear a few guests on “Hey Jude”: Eric Robertson on keyboard, John-Ross Boyce on vocals, and Kathleen Freewin on tamborine and vocals.
If you are you interested in hearing studio recordings and keeping up with our latest from The Fab Folk, head over to thefabfolk.com. Currently, we are scheduled to play at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi on April 22nd and 28th, as well as returning to ABGs in Provo on June 9th. Also, the Freedom Festival in Provo July 1st, Fiesta Days in Spanish Fork July 24th and the American Fork Outdoor Concert Series August 7th. We have even more shows in the works so check back periodically at thefabfolk.com for the latest details.
This week’s song is called “Scarlet Letter,” which was released by my band Declaration on our 2006 album, Panic Button.
This was originally written during my senior year of high school for a class project. We were reading the book, “The Scarlet Letter,” and tasked with doing something creative to depict certain aspects of the story. Most people made posters or collages but I decided to write a song and perform it for the class. This is one of the few times I’ve actually sat down and started writing a song with a topic in mind beforehand.
To give you a little background about the story, it takes place in Puritan times. The main character, Hester Prynne, whose husband was presumed lost at sea, has committed adultery and forced to wear a scarlet colored “A” on her chest so that everyone in the town would know what she had done. As it turns out, the person she committed adultery with was the town’s priest, Arthur Dimmesdale, who is put in a position where he feels forced to condemn her publicly but secretly is racked with the guilt and torment of what he had done and of knowing what a hypocrite he actually is. Eventually, he confesses his sin to the town and opens his shirt to reveal scars from the letter “A” he carved on his own chest, signifying that while Hester openly carries the burden of sin, his was carried in secret until now.
So, the lyrics are written from the priest’s perspective and speak of his torment as well as the need he felt to come clean and live a repentant, virtuous life.
The mood and tone I was going for was something along the lines of Radiohead’s song, Exit Music (For A Film) from their album OK Computer.
So, fast forward about a year. I had just finished my first year at BYU and was about the leave on a mission. I had a friend who was studying sound recording and needed someone to record for his project. I came in BYU’s studio and laid down piano, vocals, drums and bass. Here’s what the first demo version sounds like.
During my mission, it would occasionally come up that I was a songwriter and people would want to hear one of my songs. This was usually the song I would play to them if they had a piano in their house. Plus, it also has a spiritual component to it so it made sense to play it as a missionary, I think.
After I returned home from my mission, I reformed my band, Declaration and we set out to record an album. Originally, we tried to recreate the version of the song I recorded I few years before. It felt a little vanilla so we decided to experiment with some different sounds.
The first of those was a wurlitzer electric piano. One of my friends was storing it in my studio so we gave it a try. We ran it through a guitar amp for the recording. It has a really cool, smooth sound quite different from a regular piano and we felt like it really added something interesting to the song so we went with it.
After the wurlitzer was recorded, we laid down the drums. I think we got a really good tone with the recording. We added a small room reverb effect and a light delay or echo effect to help it sound a little fuller and give it additional texture.
There are three electric guitar tracks on this song. The first is played clean, lightly strumming the chords with a thin, washy tone. The next guitar plucks the chords in an arpeggiated pattern with a light delay effect. The third guitar has a stronger delay effect and heavy reverb. We were going for a spacey, cosmic sound here. The notes are played in a tremelo strumming style much like on Radiohead’s song.
Halfway through the song, the drums cut out for the third verse. I thought the song could use a shift in texture at this point so we added a church organ. When the drums come back in for the chorus, we wanted a big, epic moment so I recorded three tracks of ohs and ahs, layered with a lot of reverb to give the impression of a choir singing in a cathedral.
I think all these elements came together nicely to make for an interesting production. Here’s the final version of the song. I hope you like it.
Lyrics: It’s too hard to let myself go And so I’m so far away from what I was
Never awake, I would rather choke I spoke to get rid of life as a lie
I’ll tell you a story While I feel the pain The guilt is deceiving I speak before it’s too late
Admit my sin, I hope you’ll forgive my crime, And push is aside and stand beside my new way of life
I’ll tell you a story While I feel the pain The guilt is deceiving I speak before it’s too late
I’m taking a journey I know I’m too blame The guilt is deceiving I speak before it’s too late
Today I have a special guest: Oscar Olaya. He’s a rapper from New York City who now lives in Utah. We discuss his own journey of making music and play some tracks from his new EP. We even jam together on a song.
Download his album on iTunes or stream it on Spotify.
Here’s his video for “I’m OK” (you can see me in the background).
Here’s the song Oscar and I jammed on in this episode:
Pitchfork.com does a feature on their website called “5-10-15-20” where an artist talks about what they were listening to and influenced by during different ages in their life starting with age 5, than age 10 and so on. I thought it would be fun to do it myself.
Age 5 – Miami Vice Theme Song My parents used to have a cassette tape to the soundtrack of Miami Vice, the TV show. It was very 80s – synthesizers, heavy reverb on the drums, epic guitar solos, etc. Very cheesy. It sounded like video game music, which is probably why I liked it.
Age 10 – Beethoven: “Ode to Joy”
I was really into classical music at this point. The first CD I bought was Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which I was mostly interested because of the big “Ode to Joy” section (which I had heard in cartoons and advertisements). I used to pretend I was Beethoven conducting a big orchestra. By now, I had taken a few years of piano lessons and started playing violin in the school orchestra.
Age 15 – Radiohead: “Karma Police”
By this time, I had been into alternative rock music for a few years. Around 12, I watched the “Beatles Anthology” special on TV, which started my Beatles obsession (which continues to this day). I bought a cheap guitar for the sole purpose of learning Beatles songs. Later, I got into Oasis (because they sounded like the Beatles) and being from the Seattle area, I couldn’t help being influenced by the aftermath of grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden). At age 14, I started writing my first songs on piano and guitar and started my first band. By age 15, I was into Radiohead, especially the album “OK Computer.” It was rock music but it was smart and artsy. It was new and fresh but also had a hint of Pink Floyd and the Beatles. I loved the song “Karma Police.” Later in high school, I was introduced to emo and indie rock music (Sunny Day Real Estate, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Pedro the Lion, and Death Cab For Cutie), which had a huge influence on the type of music my band wrote and played.
Age 20 – Debussy: “Clair De Lune”
When I was 20, I was in the middle of serving for 2 years as a missionary in New York City. We weren’t allowed to listen to rock music so I got re-acquainted with lots of classical music, particularly Debussy (I love “Clair De Lune”), Chopin, Schubert and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. On our days off, I still played piano and wrote my songs. Occasionally, we’d have dinner with a member of the congregation that had a guitar so I got jam.
Age 25 – Fleet Foxes: “White Winter Hymnal” After my mission, I continued playing music influenced by the indie rock bands I was into during high school, as well as discovering some new artists: Arcade Fire, Memomena, The Decemberists and Vampire Weekend. By age 25, my band mates from Declaration had graduated college and moved away so we called it quits. I was looking for some new sounds and came across the Fleet Foxes’ “White Winter Hymnal,” which reminded me of my parents CSNY record. I loved harmonies and simplicity. It was upbeat without feeling fake. I was also digging deeper into Wilco, particularly their album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”. Inspired by these sounds and wanting to do something interesting with all the acoustic songs I had kicking around, Adding Machines was born.
Age 30 – The Dodos: “Black Night”
A few years ago, I turned 30. I’ve been a heavy Spotify user the last couple years and find myself listening to a greater variety than I ever have. I pay more attention to new releases coming out and also dig through entire catalogs of classic artists. Some of my recent favorites are Elvis Costello, Beach House, The Dodos, Father John Misty, Kishi Bashi, and Ben Sollee. In many ways, I’m rediscovering what I want to do musically and the possibilities are exciting.
With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, I thought it was a good time to share some Irish style music I’ve recorded.
A little back, I was asked to write some music for a video game. The maker of the game described the different scenes to me and I tried to match the mood the best I could to each of those scenes (without seeing any visuals). The project ended up not happening but at least I got some experience writing music in a different style. In each of these three pieces, I play an instrument called a melodica, which is sort of like an accordion and harmonica mashed together.
In the Pub
This music is intended for when one of the characters enters a pub where there is dancing and partying happening. I recorded this is my bathroom because I liked the particular echo sound it had. I started with the “drone-like” sound of the melodica, in an attempt to imitate bagpipes. The melodica also plays the melody and harmony. The majority of the percussion consists of myself hitting a suitcase in various ways with drum sticks and EQing the mix so that I had a spectrum of high, mid and low frequencies. I also recorded about 20 tracks of myself doing handclaps in order to get the crowd sound I was looking for. Lastly, I recorded a couple of low key violin parts (I haven’t played in several years, so I kept it simple).
Missing My Bride
This music goes along with a scene in the game where one of character’s house burns down. The mood is sorrowful and is timed in a sad 6/8 waltz. I came up with the melody on the melodica, accompanied by a acoustic guitar played in a classical style. The tamborine part is inspired by gypsy folk music and intended sound a bit like a person dragging chains (to symbolize the emotional chains they carry).
Marching Into Battle
As the title implies, this music going along with a battle scene. As with the one of the other pieces, I used a melodica drone to imitate the sound of bagpipes. I recorded a doubled mandolin part for the melody. I also used my trusty suitcase for percussion: one track to imitate a snare drum sound, another heavy reverbed track to give a big, boomy kick drum (or war drum) sound.
Today’s episode is a song from my “50 songs in 50 weeks” series called “What Can I Say”. I recorded it in 2012 but it was actually written around 1999 while I was in high school. The lyrics are about expectations and wondering whether you measure up what other people want out of you.
It was influenced by the Sixpence None The Richer song “Kiss Me.” I probably would have been made fun of by my friends back then if I ever admitted that so it was kind of a guilty pleasure at the time.
I started the recording with acoustic and electric guitars with a similar strumming pattern to “Kiss Me” and to fill it out it bit more, I added some organ.
From there, I needed something to drive the beat but I knew I wasn’t going to have drums so I ended up playing shaker and three different tracks of jembe, which is sort of like a bongo drum. I think it gives it a bit of a tribal feel.
It still seemed like it needed something so I felt like the piano would be a nice addition. I played lower notes on my left hand in place of a bass guitar. My right hand played something a little higher up with octaves. It’s a line that compliments the melody of the song.
I saved room for a guitar solo. I used an ebow, which got a fair amount of use in 90s rock. Basically an ebow is a little device that vibrates the strings without touching them. It gives a sort of sustained humming sound similar to a violin bow. They don’t use an ebow in Kiss Me but even so, I think the solo ended up sounding fairly similar.
Lyrics: When I was told I was one of those, no way, no way If I only know then I’d tried to meet you some way And I will grow and be so afraid, afraid When nothing I can do saves me from myself
I fall away, only today What can I say I tried to be someone you only read about I tried to be someone that you would want
Though I was told I don’t wanna know my fate, my fate If I only know I would try to meet you some day And I would grow and be so afraid, afraid When nothing I can do saves me from myself
I tried to be strong but I only moved on from you So tell me I’m wrong and I’ll try to move on from you
I fall away, only today What can I say I tried to be someone you only read about I tried to be someone that you would want, you would want
I tried to be strong but I only moved on from you So tell me I’m wrong and I’ll try to move on from you
I fall away, only today What can I say I tried to be someone you only read about I tried to be someone that you would want, you would want
This week on the show, I’m excited to have as my first guest, a very good friend of mine, Archie Crisanto. We recently got together and challenged ourselves to write and record a song out of thin air. The topic we drew to base the song on was “having someone mistake you for someone else.” In the audio, you’ll hear our conversation in writing the song (with the boring parts edited out) followed by the finished, produced song at the end.
For the recording, I laid down vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, and percussion. Archie sang, played lead guitar, and piano. We settled on the title “That’s The Truth.”
Lyrics: I heard that you shot 10 men yesterday
You took a sip of whiskey and than you walked away
Yeah that was you, that was you
I think you got your story wrong you haven’t got a clue
I was praying in the church and not in the saloon
I think that you’ve been drinking, and that’s the truth
They said the killer had black hair, but maybe I don’t know
You must have been the murderer, the preacher told me so
Yeah that was you, that was you
The preacher is a liar, I was sitting in the pews
When I hear the pistol fire I was shaking in my boots
But on my honor as a thief I swear this is the truth
I raided the collection plate and then I fled the room
I may not be a perfect man but I swear I did not shoot
Why must you tell lies
I can see it in your eyes
Denying everything you can
I’m not the one you think I am
And that’s the truth
You’re bleeding from a bullet wound, blood dripping down your back
You’re story isn’t adding up so how you ‘count for that
Yeah that was you, that was you
Well I stepped out of the chapel door, I heard the voice of God
The preacher shot me in the back cuz he knew he’d been robbed
I stumbled out into the bar, I thought it was the end
And with the money I just stole, Next rounds on me my friends
I swear that that’s the truth, I begging on my knees
If you’re gonna hang me from my neck, one more shot of whiskey please.
Why must you tell lies
I can see it in your eyes
Denying everything you can
I’m not the one you think I am
And that’s the truth
Today’s episode is an guitar instrumental. I actually wrote this one way back in high school. Over th years, I’ve tried to come up with some words for it but I was never satisfied with anything and it felt like the guitar part was melodic enough that it stood on it’s own. I didn’t have a specific influence in mind this time, other than I wanted to make something that sounded classical.
Today’s episode is my cover of Weezer’s Across the Sea. In 1996, Weezer released Pinkerton, their follow-up to the successful blue album. They went for a much rawer sound this time including both the sound and performance of the music as well as lyrics that drew from Rivers Cuomo’s own heart breaks and frustrations. The album was initially panned but has since gone on over to time to become a cult classic. In Across the Sea, he writes about a fan from Japan who wrote him a letter and he wishes they could have a relationship but realizes it would never work.
In 2010, I collaborated with a friend of mine, Drew Danburry, on a video/song project called “Reliving the 90s.” Each month, we gathered together with a different band or set of musicians from the Provo area to cover a song from the 90s. I did all the recording/engineering at Muse Recording Studio and Drew filmed/produced the project with the assistance of local directors, which culminated in the release of 12 videos. My group, Adding Machines, recorded a cover of Across the Sea. As you’ll hear, our version is quite a bit different from Weezer’s. I sang, played acoustic and electric guitar and bass; My wife, Melissa played organ and sang harmonies; Dan Smock played drums, Jordan Clark played pedal steel and Drew Danburry sang harmony. Check it out:
You can watch all the videos from “Reliving the 90s” on Youtube or stream/download the audio of the songs on Bandcamp.
This week’s song is influenced by a band called The Black Heart Procession. I first heard them when I was a freshman in college and one of my roommates showed them to me. They have a pretty unique sound where they borrow from folk and blues traditions but with their own dark spaghetti-western spin on it. They incorporate church organ, put heavy reverb on the vocals and guitars and even play the saw on many of their songs. Here’s tune from their 1999 album “2.”
With that influence in mind, I tried to write a song that captured the same sort of hopeless feeling. I made the sound of the guitar pretty twangy and turned up the reverb on the vocals to get the same type of sound as The Black Heart Procession (even though I have a much softer voice). As evident with the words, it’s about a couple going through hard times. Some of the inspiration came from my personal frustrations at the time with finding a job.
Lyrics: All these years my wife has been good to me
Through the times when I failed
If you were under the present circumstances
You’d know how it felt
You’ll have to wait for me
You’ll have to wait for me
You’ll have to wait for me
You’ll have to wait for me
No excuses for the way I had treated you
What got into my head
At the time I could not find a better way
To put the demons to bed
You’ll have to wait for me
You’ll have to wait for me
You’ll have to wait for me
You’ll have to wait for me
My parents used to have a cassette tape to the soundtrack of Miami Vice, the TV show. It was very 80s – synthesizers, heavy reverb on the drums, epic guitar solos, etc. Very cheesy. It sounded like video game music, which is probably why I liked it.