February Album Writing Month - FAWM.ORG

Scott Lake (@scottlake)

progress: 6

joined: January 31 2007
location: Colorado, USA
website: www.rockstarnot.rekkerd.org
influences: This year my influences are a bunch of Noisetrade artists I downloaded that most people have never heard of. I have a playlist on my .mp3 player of all their cool ideas I want to co-opt for my songs.

Bio

2012 - This is my 6th FAWM. 2nd year in a row where the last week of February will be eaten by being out of town. I may have to do lyrics only or take my USB mic and sing on other people's stuff.

So, potential collaborators needing some guest vox, harmonies, etc. lemme know.

Song titles and ideas to flesh out:

Dust Devil Decimation
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Counting on my Fingers (learning ASL)
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various Steven Wright one-liner jokes, for example: I tried daydreaming today, but my mind kept wandering. Title: The Daydreaming Sonambulist
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Obsessive Compulsion (after watching a classic episode of Monk)
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Mercy
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Blameless (working title)
Front Range commanded to wear dress whites

Chorus:

We are blameless, blameless in His eyes.
It's the Grand Mystery, we become His prize.
We are blameless, blameless for all our wrongs.
They are now past history. and over us He sings His Song.

We are blameless. We are blameless,

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Swimming in Lake Vostok
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House on a hill (working title)

Verse:
We made a mistake, to put hope in a house upon a hill
Wasn't our intention, we didn't do it for a thrill.
"Buy, don't rent if you can, it's the American way"
Two kids, a dog, a car and a mortgage each month to pay.

Well the two turned into four and I'll say our lives are blessed.
I just wish the dream was true and we would have avoided all this mess.
We paid our bills on time, it wasn't us guilty of default.
But when all houses are foreclosing, selling opens wounds and pours in salt.

Chorus:
Don't put all of your hopes and dreams in a house upon a hill
Speaking from experience, it will eat you from inside right up to and until,
The straw arrives that sends the camel falling to it's knees
And Wall Street bankers stroll away scot free, blithely ignorant of their disease.

Verse 2
Could have rented for two hundred less per month, hindsight wisdom speaks to me.
Put those hundreds in the bank, at least I'd have some interest compounded quarterly.

We even paid our principal ahead, swimming against the financial tide.
As it turns out, that's about all that we got back, that we got anything is a weak upside.

Chorus again

Verse 3
In ten years the value of the home dropped twenty two percent,
That doesn't include the 30 large we spent on home improvements.
To include that in the sum of the loss, an injurious insult.
Again to rent would have been wiser with a positive result.

Bridge:
So is there now a happy ending, a blissful denouement?
A lesson learned perhaps, thoughts to dwell upon.

Chorus again

2012 Songs

1	God Almighty - Scott Lake (with stevenwesleyguiles)	22 comments // 3 months ago
2	Another Sunny Day	22 comments // 3 months ago
3	Gather Two or Three	8 comments // 3 months ago
4	Please, Please, Please	13 comments // 3 months ago
5	Ter RIFF ic	12 comments // 3 months ago
6	House Upon A Hill	2 comments // 3 months ago

Soundboard

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solarrainuk 2 months ago

Hey Scott. Well I'm finished with 'Cut', I improved and extended/polished it a fair amount and gave it away for free on my Soundcloud page, so I wont be changing it again. Of course, you're welcome to play around with it though if you want to!
hartvan 2 months ago

Scott that would be great to play with you! Let me know the next time you're around!
mattblick 2 months ago

Excellent! Email on it's way!
mattblick 2 months ago

Hey that's cool about using the tickets to write - do you fancy writing a mini guest post about the song or songs for Beatles Songwriting Academy?
downburst 2 months ago

Thanks, that would have been cool, but dragondreams is already on it. I assume it isn't *so* attractive that you wan tot do your own version too. I appreciate the offer.
meadows 2 months ago

Scott, you made my day! I finally found the reason for the panorama problem.
It was an issue with the signal processing of my mastering section, and it ruined my mixes for the last couple of weeks (even worse that I did not notice). I fixed it, and I'm very happy now!
Thank you so much. I will update my demos when I finished my last song.

Jens.
meadows 2 months ago

Hi Scott, thank you for your comment regarding the stereo panorama of my songs. Yes, I noticed it on some tracks too now. Sometimes it's intended (e.g. my last instrumental), but in most of the cases it seems to be a mistake. I don't know why yet, but I'll figured it out.
Maybe my monitors are not adjusted well, or something went wrong during the mastering.

Thank you, Jens.
jonniegrunge 2 months ago

Hi Scott! Thanks for your comment on Run For Your Life. Believe it or not, all the vocals are live takes by me. All the vox tracks were recorded on my MXL990 condenser mic into my tascam US122, and direct into my DAW. I run each of the tracks through a few effects to warm the tone. The harmonies are slightly panned out, and have a chorus and a reverb effect to give them a wider sound. I also have GSnap doing subtle corrections. But by and large, it's me.
hartvan 3 months ago

Scott...thanks so much for the B3 on "...Morning Light..." It sounds great! And that lower harmony is exactly what's been swimming around in my head. Also...REALLY enjoying "God Almighty." Beautiful tones and textures, and I like the syncopated rhythm.
lonelyrobot 3 months ago

I think you misunderstood .. it's when someone @ mentions you in the comments of someone else's song, you don't get notified of that .. or maybe in retrospect it was because they put a fullstop after my name. I dunno, either way it's a wee bit flakey
astroboy 3 months ago

Wow. Cool man, I'm thinking of having a pickup put into my acoustic. And I need some better mics, but it's good to know that you don't have to break the bank with this gear. It gets to be an expensive hobby! Thanks for your reply...
mikedebenham 3 months ago

Thanks Scott. I might give that a try if I can't rustle up a pedal steel player.
solarrainuk 3 months ago

Yeah, I just last week released my debut EP ' Reminisce' on the label, under my State Azure name. Kaori Breathe does some nice stuff indeed!
solarrainuk 3 months ago

Cheers for the comment on 'Candles'. Did you know I already released an EP with Loodma? Not that kind of style though, and that's the problem really. I think my style is fairly well established, and it might be a mistake to start releasing dubstep tracks, unless under another moniker anyway.
hartvan 3 months ago

Thanks Scott...what's your email? I'll send you a chord chart there.
brallan 3 months ago

Michael has made a beautiful song. If I may presume to intrude, I also would like to hear some B3 on this tune. Here is what I get. You already know the simple changes on the chorus. There are 3 verses... they are a little different (by design?).
V 1: Ab Eb Ab Fm Db Ab / Db Ab (Fm) Db Bbm Eb
V 2: Ab Eb Ab Fm Db Ab Eb / Db Eb Ab Db Fm Eb7
V 3: Ab Eb Ab Fm Db Ab Eb / Db Eb Ab Db Bbm Eb

Also, I was unable to direct download the MP3.
hartvan 3 months ago

Hey Scott! Thanks for the note and the encouragement. I'd LOVE to hear some B3 on this! It's in G# in case you're wondering. Looking forward to hearing what you've got up your sleeve!
tartinezeugma 3 months ago

Yep, click tracks and I have a beautiful friendship! I'm currently writing a ditty about omphalophobia (the fear of belly buttons) and would love to hear it technified
lonelyrobot 3 months ago

hey, thanks for the nice comments! i'm at work at the moment and can't remember the chords for that first song off the top of my head, but the promenade song is drop d with a capo on 1, and that 2nd chord you mentioned is 440200 .. i mostly play in drop d because, well, i'm lazy
wille 3 months ago

@tartinezeugma is a girl with an accordion,which must be delicious pickin's for a guy like @scottlake to electrofy.
brallan 3 months ago

Scott, cool that you are a Steve Wright fan. I just made up a Wright-type joke: "I tried to establish some new stations on panera.com, but all they would play was Bread."

You can write a song about it -- or maybe not (hehe).
bangstick 3 months ago

Hey Scott! Thanks for the comments. on NODULL I sampled 3 chords from a long jam on my rhodes, and pitched it up. Would love for you to use it. I can send you the stems.
francesriley 3 months ago

Ah, no worries - the song wouldn't be what it is without your wicked organ track. I'm stoked either way!
johnrickenbach 3 months ago

Scott...thanks for the nice comments...hadn't thought of the Rango angle for On the Fence, but you know...you might be onto something there...
francesriley 3 months ago

Holy, I just clued in to the fact that we're on the FAWMpilation. That's great! When I read your message from before I was thinking you wanted it for the FAWMcast. Glad to have made it on to a disc with you!
natchdan 3 months ago

Absolutely! Give me a couple of hours and I'll get you the stems.
devin 3 months ago

Thanks for commenting on my songs Scott...I was just outside stargazing, and I thought "Rest Ye, Orion"
jnatiw 3 months ago

Would be cool, Scott, but it sounds like you're in a pretty good place out there by the mountains! Keep in touch, man.
timothybracken 3 months ago

Hey Scott...thanks for the comment! I'll be adding you to my watch list.
simonwaldram 3 months ago

Thank you for your kind comment
tomski 3 months ago

Looking forward to hearing your work this year
solarrainuk 3 months ago

Thanks for the comment on 'Silhouettes' Scott, and for noticing my mistake! Appreciated!
swampjaw 3 months ago

Cool -- the track with you and @francesriley is in. We're releasing a disc a day, and your tune will pop up shortly.
gerrybhoy 3 months ago

Hi Scott, thank you for the very kind comments, good to hear from you, will drop by to listen in on your work.
evinwolverton 3 months ago

Yes! Hoping to curb my perfectionism and kick out a dozen tasty embryos. Starting at midnight.
francesriley 3 months ago

Yes, absolutely - Free Air away.
psyt 3 months ago

Hey Rockstar Scott. Have fun.
solarrainuk 3 months ago

Hey Scott, welcome back and good luck. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with!
thedustcollector 3 months ago

ooo excellent! thank you . now I see on your site you do Gregorian things too. are you interested in doing some Renaissance polyphonic stuff this FAWM? Think Byrd, Taverner, Palestrina. I will repeat their names like a mantra, they are that amazing.
swampjaw 3 months ago

Hi -- I'm putting together the FAWMpilation, and have misplaced Free Air -- can you send me a link to a WAV/mp3, or attach in email? (pmadden@acm.org is fine to use)
oddbod 3 months ago

I shall await them with guitar poised in hands
chasingandromeda 3 months ago

I look forward to you bringing it up next year. It's a strange kind of bonding experience.
chasingandromeda 3 months ago

Scott, we had the same discussion last year. I am definitely in Ohio and have never lived in CO. In fact, I have only been through there once. Plan on rectifying that in a couple of summers with an RV trip out west.
chasingandromeda 3 months ago

Good to see you back again, Scott. Looking forward to your work, as always.
johnq 3 months ago

Thanks for offering to help with my piano tuning-- I was watching this the other day and I thought you might enjoy it...a guy who plays Bach's pieces for the well-tempered clavier in what he believes is Bach's well-tempered tuning. I'd only ever heard them played in equal temperament!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__tbvLNH6FI
francesriley 3 months ago

Ah, hey Scott! I loved the organ on Free Air last and would love anything you want to put anywhere on anything on mine. For sure! If I can reciprocate in any way, you let me know!
oddbod 3 months ago

Hi Scott, if you come up with some lyrics you want to throw this way, I'd be happy to have a stab at the music. Have a good one
chipwithrow 4 months ago

Thanks for posting the piano track - not that my untrained ears can tell much of a difference! But I did detect hints of "Paint It Black" by the Stones and an old Cher song ("Dark Lady," I think it was called?). That was your daughter playing? Very talented.
Looking forward to your FAWM output!
garyjugert 4 months ago

Ha ha Scott! Don't try to fix a cheap ukulele! Go buy a $100 one and give the cheap one to somebody you hate.
devinhill 4 months ago

Can't wait to hear what you'll have for us this FAWM!
mikedebenham 4 months ago

Hiya Scott. A collab sounds fun; looks like I'm going to be time-deprived this year, so it'll probably be up to my collaborators to do the heavy lifting. I should have a better idea of what's realistic once Feb rolls around. Either way, have a great FAWM.
cts 4 months ago

What's your email address?
johncrossman 4 months ago

Hey Mr.Lake, good to see you back for more gooey fawm-goodness.
michaelepic 4 months ago

Ladyhawke is pretty good...love the style!
garyjugert 4 months ago

Hey Scott! We seem to be the only Coloradans surviving FAWM year after year. If you're ever going to be in Denver, let me know. Maybe we can have coffee. (Maybe I could get down to Tejon Street Music one of these days and see their Palm Tree ukuleles too.)
dustymason 4 months ago

Dust Bunny Bedlam. Anything "dust" gets my attention. Rock the MONTH
cts 4 months ago

...and a grand hello to you. I'm certainly aiming your way for a collab this year.
stevenwesleyguiles 4 months ago

Hey Scott!! Are we STILL here doing this?

February Album Writing Month - FAWM.ORG

FAWM Fund-O-Meter!

Scott Lake (@scottlake)

Bio

2012 Songs

Soundboard