17 Feb 2014

Music Updates: Schwarz + Losers' Blues

Hey, people!

While I'm still working on my next outfit post (all I can tell you right now is that there's gonna be around 70 pics in it LMAO), I decided to show you some of the other things I do. You know that music is the thing that really keeps me busy, so here is the news:


First of all, I finally recorded my acoustic cover of Tokio Hotel's Schwarz about a week ago. I had been wanting to cover that song for quite a long while, so I feel really satisfied I've finally done it. 

I have a very special feeling for Schwarz. It's probably one of the darkest songs TH ever made, and there's so much of them in it it almost hurts. I worked really hard trying to preserve the atmosphere and meaning of the original track - I hope I've achieved it!

Of course, I had to deal with the usual complications... like the fact that it's almost impossible to find half-decent Tokio Hotel guitar tabs out there for any songs aside from the singles. Everytime I try to play some rare TH material, I have to figure out the tuning (which is never the easiest job) and then sort of re-write the songs based on what I hear on the record. I don't really care if it coincides with what they actually play as long as it sounds good to me LOL For Schwarz, I mixed the guitar strumming with the bass riffs; it's a very bass-heavy song, so you just can't leave those out.

The hardest part, however, was the vocal performance. I really had to put my German to work in order to make it sound like real German... which is not the easiest thing, since I'm not a native German speaker (or a German speaker at all LMAO). Singing a song like Shwarz is harder than you might imagine, because everything in it is so subtle... It's not so much about singing a melody (Schwarz is definitely not the most melodic song LOL) as it is about saying - really saying - the words. And damn, that's hard LOL 

Anyway, the important thing is I'm really satisfied with the result, and I'll hope you'll be as well :)

Everything was recorded live, so that's basically me singing and playing guitar in front of a microphone ^^



Continuing with the trail of music news, I've just uploaded the third track from my album demo to my band's ReverbNation page. As you might have already guessed from this post's title, it's called Losers' Blues. The lyrics are a little bitter because they are based on some really unpleasant stuff that happened with some people from my past (mostly former bandmates), but the music is sort of funny, so one thing makes up for the other, I guess LOL 

As you might have guessed, it's a bluesy type of song, even though it has very little to do with blues standards. I just had this cool riff (which, by the way, was one of the very first guitar riffs I ever wrote - quite a long time ago already LOL) and basically built everything else around it. Simple as that.

As usual, I played all the instruments on the record, programmed the MIDI drums and recorded and mixed everything at home on my Cubase AI 5. That might give you an idea of why it takes SO FUCKING LONG to put these mixes out LOL

But, hey, it's not that bad for a demo, is it? ;)



Well, that's it. I hope you've enjoyed my little songs and all the work I've put into them :)

If you want, you can find more cool acoustic covers and original songs on Dissent's SoundCloud and ReverbNation pages respectively.

And, now that I've said this, I'll go back to working on my next outfit post, rehearsing my next cover and mixing my next album track. I guess I'll be every bit as busy as always ,)

See you!