New Honey Hunters - Boomtown

[Armistice]

I was listening to a song in the car and I thought "I really like that beat, I should steal it..." so I did. Can't remember what the song was now. Added some Caribbean percussion to give it a jauntiness completely at odds with the lyrics.

A song about everyone's favourite serial killer, that lovable rogue, Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. The Unabomber. He died in June, so he was on the news and thus became the topic of a song. I have to write them about something...

One of the interesting things I struggled with in this song was in attempting what you'd think was a relatively straight forward "third above" harmony in the chorus. I simply couldn't do it. Can do it in practice, no problems at all, soon as I tried to record it I just couldn't get it right - there must be some key things going on in there which make it more difficult than I expected. So I did something else instead.

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Mix 1


DELETED

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Amendment as per post below...

Mix 2


DELETED

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Further minor tweaks as per below...

Mix 3

DELETED

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Lyrics

Young boy, Chi boy, early life in Evergreen
Way smart, so smart, what do you want to be?
Briefcase, head case, Harvard destiny
Way smart, so smart, what do you want to be?

The clock is tick, tick, ticking, to run you down
Before you can decide on your next boom town
The clock is tick, tick, ticking, to crack the code
Your brother turns you in before you can explode again

Strange man, odd man, in the neighbourhood
Turn the world back, if you only could
Airline, land mine, surname of Wood
Turn the world back, if you only could

The clock is tick, tick, ticking, to run you down
Before you can decide on your next boom town
The clock is tick, tick, ticking, to crack the code
Your brother turns you in before you can explode again

What was going on in your head, twisted mister, Mister Ted?
What was going on deep inside? Never doubting, always sure, so clear eyed

Brain man, sane man, see you at the trial
Christlike? Childlike is more your style
Unmourned, unborn, was it all worthwhile?
Christlike? Childlike is more your style

The clock is tick, tick, ticking, to run you down
Before you can decide on your next boom town
The clock is tick, tick, ticking, to crack the code
Your brother turns you in before you can explode again
The clock is tick, tick, ticking
The clock is tick, tick, ticking
The clock is tick, tick, ticking
To run you down

[Lt. Bob]

I like it ..... I especially like all the little guitar flourishes and the swells .... very nice!

[JD01]

Good song, Armi. I like the subject matter.
Really like the vocal, good lyrics... although I thought you'd get the phrase Freedom Club in there somewhere.

Think the bass and kick are a bit quiet, like it needs something driving to hold it together.
Can't quite put my finger on how to phrase it, but its like its not really holding together as a cohesive mix. When I listened to it in the car this morning I could pick out the vocal, but I couldn't get a sense of what the music was really doing at all, I could hear the guitars but I wasn't really getting sense of harmony out of them. I'm getting it better now, but its on headphones in a quiet room.

Do you know what I mean? When sometimes you listen to stuff, particularly in the car, and you can't really hear what parts of the music are doing at all?
The guitars sound good, and I like the parts, it probably just needs a more driving bass/kick.

[Bubba]

I agree with what James is saying about the drums and bass needing to drive the song. My advice would be to thin out the bottom end of the toms and kick somewhat, then turn up the bass guitar a fair bit. I would then try tweaking the midrange of the bass guitar up a bit, in a wide hump from maybe 400 to 1kHz, to make it more of a melody instrument rather than just rumbling and indistinct in the background. You have your guitars and vocals nicely sorted, as usual.

We all have our preferences for guitar sounds. I like my clean guitars a little more lively-sounding. These guitars are really a bit dull, compressed and lacking in, well, life- to my ear at least. You're going to say "I have no compression on them', but the flattened, unexciting character of them is, I suspect, how the profile was designed to sound by its creator. Do you still own an amp? If so, would you consider re-recording one of the tracks with a mic and amplifier, just to indulge me?

Of course, just telling me to fuck off is always an option.

[Bubba]

Oh, good song, by the way.

[vomitHatSteve]

Guitars and vocals sound good. I like the warmth you're getting out of your voice these days.

Something about the percussion right at the beginning felt off to me on a first listen... I don't know tho, I think I'll need another pass or two to get it.

[Armistice]

Mix 2 up in the OP.

I like it ..... I especially like all the little guitar flourishes and the swells .... very nice!

Thanks Lt!

Good song, Armi. I like the subject matter.
Really like the vocal, good lyrics... although I thought you'd get the phrase Freedom Club in there somewhere.

Think the bass and kick are a bit quiet, like it needs something driving to hold it together.
Can't quite put my finger on how to phrase it, but its like its not really holding together as a cohesive mix. When I listened to it in the car this morning I could pick out the vocal, but I couldn't get a sense of what the music was really doing at all, I could hear the guitars but I wasn't really getting sense of harmony out of them. I'm getting it better now, but its on headphones in a quiet room.

Do you know what I mean? When sometimes you listen to stuff, particularly in the car, and you can't really hear what parts of the music are doing at all?
The guitars sound good, and I like the parts, it probably just needs a more driving bass/kick.

So what I did differently here was (for reasons now unclear) recorded the bass through a profile with a little distortion on it - so it's sort of dynamically flatter than what I'd normally do. The volume is where it always sits compared to other songs, but yes, it's not cutting through as much as I'd like so I've done some further EQing and turned it up about 3dB to be more prominent.

In terms of the kick - what I've done here is panned the toms wider to clear out more room for the kick in the L/R space - and turned it up just a notch - again it's sitting where I'd normally have a kick compared to other tracks. Because there's not just the kick, but congas, bongos and tom toms all down that end, I don't think it's ever going to be a "driving kick" type of song, but it is more clearerer to me now in the new mix.

These mixes all get revisited once I take them out of the studio and listen to them in various places, including the car, so I'll have a listen for what you say when I do that.

Cheers

I agree with what James is saying about the drums and bass needing to drive the song. My advice would be to thin out the bottom end of the toms and kick somewhat, then turn up the bass guitar a fair bit. I would then try tweaking the midrange of the bass guitar up a bit, in a wide hump from maybe 400 to 1kHz, to make it more of a melody instrument rather than just rumbling and indistinct in the background. You have your guitars and vocals nicely sorted, as usual.

We all have our preferences for guitar sounds. I like my clean guitars a little more lively-sounding. These guitars are really a bit dull, compressed and lacking in, well, life- to my ear at least. You're going to say "I have no compression on them', but the flattened, unexciting character of them is, I suspect, how the profile was designed to sound by its creator. Do you still own an amp? If so, would you consider re-recording one of the tracks with a mic and amplifier, just to indulge me?

Of course, just telling me to fuck off is always an option.

Fuck off...


















I'd already done a bunch of stuff as mentioned in the reply to JD before I saw you'd crawled back into your house after a hard day of yelling god knows what at those those pesky in-bred Yorkshire schoolkids, and made some comments... I hope you had an alcoholic beverage first to calm the nerves on the guitar sounds you just know you're going to have to take me to task on. Again.

I knew when I was mixing it that you'd be onto me about the compression on the guitars, based on the last song - this time it was (from memory) a particular profile (for the main ones anyway) with a definite compressor on it and what sounds like a chorus pedal as well - don't remember now. And yes, I can clearly hear it - I'm not deaf, you know - it's sort of just the sound. You can badge it "unexciting" if you like, but that's just your preference. If I ever write and record a song specifically for you*, I'll definitely get some amps out - how's that? I have two and they're staying right where they are because re-recording any guitar via an amp would involve a whole lot of fucking around I'm not that interested in doing and and I'd also have to reinstruct myself in what I was actually playing. These things, the music anyway, were recorded months ago, so that's even more work I don't feel much like doing as I want to get onto the next tune**.

I'd already done a bit of work on the low end, but as I said to JD - it's a tom tom heavy main beat and has bongas and congos on it as well - so to bring the kick much further forward would be all a bit too much, I feel. Relax about it and feel the Caribbean vibe mon...

* Unlikely, soz
** The first word of the title of the next song is today's Wordle answer and I got it in one - first time ever - because the word just happened to be top of mind so why not try it as a Wordle? It's a sign to move onto the song...

Oh, good song, by the way.

Thanks. The hits just keep on coming...

Guitars and vocals sound good. I like the warmth you're getting out of your voice these days.

Something about the percussion right at the beginning felt off to me on a first listen... I don't know tho, I think I'll need another pass or two to get it.

Thanks Steve - not sure what I'm doing to the voice... could be some fateful accident I have no control over and won't be able to reproduce next time.

[JD01]

I'm in the office on my "nice listening headphones" this morning and I think Mix 2 sounds a bit better than Mix 1.

You've got me in the mood for writing a song based on the Unabomber manifesto now.

[Armistice]

I'm in the office on my "nice listening headphones" this morning and I think Mix 2 sounds a bit better than Mix 1.

You've got me in the mood for writing a song based on the Unabomber manifesto now.

Ha... go for it.

I'm finding all sorts of interesting topics to write about lately, having mined relationships forever and run out of interesting twists..

[JD01]

I'm in the office on my "nice listening headphones" this morning and I think Mix 2 sounds a bit better than Mix 1.

You've got me in the mood for writing a song based on the Unabomber manifesto now.

Ha... go for it.

I'm finding all sorts of interesting topics to write about lately, having mined relationships forever and run out of interesting twists..

Have you done anything about a relationship that's turned murderous yet?

I've not read the whole thing, but the synopsis of it is interesting. Maybe I'll go and live in a cabin in the woods.

[vomitHatSteve]

Thanks Steve - not sure what I'm doing to the voice... could be some fateful accident I have no control over and won't be able to reproduce next time.

I suspect it's largely arrangement. You're writing in a register that sounds good on your voice.

[rayc]

Mix two.
Good song, I like the bottom end. The guitars sound fine.
My one crit is that the intro up to the 0.16 point didn't engage me. The guitars straight after were engaging and sparkled.
I'd suggest adding some of the filigree part over the intro.
I'm working on a song with heavy tom use at present and it does present problems.
I was stunned when huge numbers of folk commented on social media at the man;s death - claiming he was a victim.

[WhiskeyJack]

lol. this tune does not lend itself well to serial killer vibe stuff. Maybe it's just me. Still cool idea though.

Coming in on Mix 2. I think things are pretty well rounded. My ears are likely way way to out of practice but these guitars feel very loud to me for a song that was percussion inspired. Also really missing the opportunity to have some booming drums given the subject matter. I didn't really read any of the previous nits, picks and suggestions maybe people want to hear it this way with big up front guitars. but i feel like it could be a bit less of the guits and bit more of the drums n bass. That's just me and i don't know much stuff these days it seems.

I listened a second time here and read along with the words and it is pretty clever and well written dude. thanks for sharing! Looks like you've been busy!

[Armistice]

Mix 3 up in the OP.

Mix two.
Good song, I like the bottom end. The guitars sound fine.
My one crit is that the intro up to the 0.16 point didn't engage me. The guitars straight after were engaging and sparkled.
I'd suggest adding some of the filigree part over the intro.
I'm working on a song with heavy tom use at present and it does present problems.
I was stunned when huge numbers of folk commented on social media at the man;s death - claiming he was a victim.

Thanks ray. The secondary guitar is recorded throughout - I've just muted it in the first half of each verse and the opening follows that structure. If I did as you suggest then the part where "the band" comes in would lose some impact, so I'm keeping as is. Perhaps I should think about exactly where it would fit in a CD running order.

I didn't actually know that much about the guy - he was just the Unabomber - until he died and came to my attention again and thus became a topic for a song. Upon the further investigation required to formulate a set of lyrics his essential oddness became apparent. In some ways he's not that much different from a whole bunch of super smart loner types who dot the home-grown terror landscape, particularly in the US, to this day. Victim? I don't think so. Hence the "Christlike? Childlike is more your style" repeating line in the last verse. They're all emotionally stunted children in some way, for some reason. And they all think they know best. And they all have their followers, irrespective of what they've done. Bizarre to me, but then, much of human life is.

There was a recent, quite extensive doco on the Manson family, featuring interviews with some of his "children" and to see them saying straight to camera some of the things they say is chilling. How are people that sociopathically stupid? It's beyond my comprehension. It's always instructive to talk to sociopaths - and we all know some people with that tendency - just to see how their brain works.

lol. this tune does not lend itself well to serial killer vibe stuff. Maybe it's just me. Still cool idea though.

Hello stranger! Well I'm not really chasing a serial killer vibe - bearing in mind that most people don't get an extensive dissertation on what the song is about before hearing it, if I could get a bunch of people singing along to "The clock is tick, tick, ticking..." without them understanding WTF the song is really about, then that would be just about perfect.

Coming in on Mix 2. I think things are pretty well rounded. My ears are likely way way to out of practice but these guitars feel very loud to me for a song that was percussion inspired. Also really missing the opportunity to have some booming drums given the subject matter. I didn't really read any of the previous nits, picks and suggestions maybe people want to hear it this way with big up front guitars. but i feel like it could be a bit less of the guits and bit more of the drums n bass. That's just me and i don't know much stuff these days it seems.

I listened a second time here and read along with the words and it is pretty clever and well written dude. thanks for sharing! Looks like you've been busy!

I had a listen to the guitars again. These days, with a much smaller pool of listeners/feedbackers here, I'm "benchmarking" certain things against songs which are either finalised or released and which have passed everyone's commentary in the past so I can get in the ballpark to start with, and it seems to be working - haven't previously done it with guitars. Funny thing is, when I listen to noisy guitar music, the guitars so often completely overpower everything else - drums, voices - yet here we are discussing the loudness of my clean "unexciting" to quote Bubba, guitars. So anyway, having done the exercise against both the last track and a similar track on the previous album, I decided that you were, in fact, correct, sort of. To hear them described by you as "big, upfront" given Bubbs'' critique is interesting. They're a little too loud in parts - so it wasn't just a matter of turning down all guitar tracks by x dB. I nibbled away at the bits I considered were hitting too hard via compression thresholds, EQ and very minor lowering of volume - and I'm liking the result more than the previous mix - a touch more cohesive.

The other thing is that the guitars are the point. I don't sound like anyone else particularly and it's the guitar playing that does it because I play a certain way, and so I'm never just going to have them as background for lyrics or singing. Thanks for listening.

[TheTestingYak]

good choon brav