DANIEL BEATTIE
Professional Music Brief 2
pORTFOLIO
As part of the Professional Music Brief 2 module, I have developed my skills in song-writing by working to creative briefs.
Brief 1 - Write a song from the point of view of a vase of flowers
My class was divided into song-writing pairs to collaborate. The point of the first exercise was to take creative stimulus by generating meaning from seemingly random concepts, which could be words, images, videos or ideas.
I worked alongside another student, Steven Allan, to write a song from the point of view of a vase of flowers. Although we were unsuccessful in writing a complete song, we did write an initial demo with some lyrics which could be expanded upon.
I had the idea that conceptually, the vase could represent the cycle of life and death. Flowers are planted as seeds which over time bloom into flowers before eventually withering and dying. I saw a parallel between this and the life cycle of human beings and I thought this would be quite a poignant concept to base the lyrical content of the song on.
To create the instrumental for the song, we used some recordings Steven had made of his ambient guitar playing. I essentially remixed his playing into a new chord progression and added other elements such as keyboard parts to pad out the instrumentation in the song.
This was the original recording of Steven's:
I liked the style and tone of Steven's guitar playing but I wanted to add more variety to the structure and timbre for our song, so I added new elements and experimented with different chords and arrangements until eventually the track sounded like this:
I added a topline melody over the track on a keyboard instrument. This would likely be the vocal melody if we were to record a vocal for this song.
Brief 2 - Connectivity
For this brief, I was put in a group with two other students, Arron Taylor and David Grimason. Our task was to collaborate and write a song based on the concept of connectivity. The workshop focused on narrative collage as impotus for creative work. To achieve the narrative collage we combined the concept of connectivity with our interpretations of an excerpt from a film. The film clip, "Aquatic", showed the interior and crew of a ship at sea.
We interpreted connectivity as the idea of two human beings being connected, especially over a long distance. Combined with the visual stimulus of the ship, we developed the idea of our lyrical content being based around a voyage or journey across a long distance based on the strength of a relationship, a human connection. Initially we had tried to weave more maritime references into our lyrics more but we didn't like the direction and thought that the references were too obvious and restrictive.
To start the actual writing process for the song, we independently trialled out some melodic ideas and motifs, recording them into a DAW (Ableton Live 10) and sequencing our ideas together to see which ideas worked together and which didn't. By doing this we were able to quite quickly sketch out a melodic and rhythmic structure for the song.
After we had the general structure of the song in place, we switched our focus back to the lyrical content and discussed how the narrative of the song would progress between the song sections. Our discussion led to the astrological concept of Saturn's return. This is when the planet Saturn returns to the position it was in at the time of someone's birth. It is supposed to signify a transformative period in someone's life. Saturns return is referenced in the second verse as well as in the chorus refrain "Tonight We Watch the Universe". For our song narrative, we thought Saturn's return was symbolic of the journey, either physical or emotional of human relationships.
I chose to develop this song for my final portfolio submission as in my opinion, it was the most successful day of the workshop for me and I liked the style and direction of the song so I was keen to continue working on it.
Here is the finished song after I had recorded, produced, mixed and mastered it after the initial workshop session:
Lyrics:
Verse 1:
There’s beauty in wilderness
In the scale and the depth
And the distance that binds
As countless stars align
Chorus:
At night we watch the universe
And dive amongst its seas
And I want to know you more each day
Just leave from here and come with me
Verse 2:
Fragments from breaking ice
Are dispersed in the river run
As we stand upon the water’s edge
To watch for Saturn’s return
Bridge:
Come With Me x4
Chorus x2:
At night we watch the universe
And dive amongst its seas
And I want to know you more each day
Just leave from here and come with me
Brief 3 - The Truth
The Truth workshop involved connecting with a truth or a narrative presented as truth through song-writing. I found it very challenging as this was the only workshop I did on my own. Also, as I'm not a singer myself, I didn't have the skill or confidence to attempt to sing the lyrics I had written. Despite that I managed to write a full instrumental track and lyrics which I could expand on and hopefully collaborate with a singer to bring my lyrics to life.
The song I wrote was a confessional song about my experience of feeling trapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is something I had been personally experiencing for a long time prior to the workshop so It made sense to me to draw from that emotion to write an authentic song and present a truthful narrative. The lyric "Lost in the storm" was meant to be symbolic of feeling lost during the pandemic as the effects interrupted most aspects of my life in some way or another.
I wrote the instrumental track for the song in a 1980s inspired post-punk/new wave style. It features some sparse and moody guitar and synthesizer parts that I wrote and played, as well as a drum-machine style rhythm track, typical of the style. There is a melody played on a keyboard instrument which would be the vocal melody if vocals had been recorded for the song.
This is how the instrumental for the song sounded after the workshop was completed:
Despite not having a completed song with vocals, I benefited from this workshop as it encouraged me to be more introspective and in touch with my own thoughts, emotions and experiences in my song-writing practise.
Lyrics:
Verse 1
Moving through separate lanes
Watch the light bleed over the surface
Step back and think again
Struggling to find a purpose
Chorus
Lost in the storm
No way through
Lost in the storm
No way through
Losing grip of you
Lost in the storm
No way through
Lost in the storm
No way through
Losing grip of you
Verse 2
Hesitate to show your hand
Time to make your move
Stepping out’s never easy
You’re locked in a shadow
Bridge
Looking for something to change
Come back another day
Look for a different way
To let the cycle break
Chorus
Lost in the storm
No way through
Lost in the storm
No way through
Losing grip of you
Lost in the storm
No way through
Lost in the storm
No way through
Losing grip of you
