FAWM: "The Weatherman"

The Weatherman

Liner Notes

I'm one of those nerds who keeps everything. Recordings going back years of ideas, riffs, tunes, etc, stored in a folder and catalogued in a spreadsheet. You never know when one of those ideas is gonna click.

This song is based on a minute-long phone recording I did in July 2015, where almost half of it is me telling myself what the chords are. That's the basic verse structure.

The chorus funnily enough partly uses a chord progression I used earlier this FAWM for a completely different song with a completely different tune... I think this one is better.

Now, the recording. Unfortunately when I went to record the vocals today in the half-hour or so I had left, I realised it was too high a key. So I literally pitched everything down a couple of steps - fine for the keyboards, but not so fine on the acoustic and miced-up electric guitars... just a demo! I think maybe the new key is actually a bit low and I need to just spend a bit more time warming up to the higher key. What do you reckon?

The middle 8 part is a good idea I think, but needs some finessing. I like that no one would expect a Killing Joke guitar part in a Weezer homage.

Vocal is very rough, just a demo. I deliberately eased off the processing and compression for this one, seemed to sit better in the mushier sound the re-pitching caused. The bit about hobbit holes doesn't really work, but I'll fix it.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the actual song - a keeper to record properly sometime. Though I'm pretty sure I nicked that verse melody from Weezer...

#indie #powerpop #newwave #punk #grunge #punkpop

Gear used: Guitar: Danelectro '59, Orange Crush 35RT amp into Rode NT1 condenser, Shure 57; Takamine acoustic Bass: Kontakt Prime > Guitar Rig 7 Drums: Kontakt Beau Burchell Synths/Keys: Solina, Waterfall Organ, Reaktor Monark Vocals: Shure Beta 58a mic, Scheps Omni Channel 2, H-delay

And plenty of processing plugins! Abbey Road, UAD stuff mostly.

Lyrics

The Weatherman

what the hell is going on? tried to write a happy song but nothing ever goes to plan weatherman! chaos theory, butterfly, she flaps her wings and we all die i ask again what's going on? where did we go wrong

no, we haven't a thing to be scared of over here no, we live in a bubble of bliss and we're so far away yeah, we're gonna be fine, we're not on your radar, on your maps yeah, we live in a haven and the weatherman, the weatherman the weatherman, the weatherman, the weatherman says it's fine

what the hell is going on? this was not a drinking song but every plan's a frying pan weatherman what's the story, morning glory, first to the see sun in mourning ozone layer, user pays? no, loser pays!

no, we haven't a thing to be scared of over here… we live in a bubble of bliss and we're so far away yeah, we're gonna be fine, we're not on your radar, on your maps yeah, we live in our hobbit-holes the weatherman, the weatherman, the weatherman, the weatherman, the weatherman, the weatherman, the weatherman says it's fine, yeah

Comments

@namey 9h

This is so good.

@andyt13 22h

You have got some great vibes cooking! So so good!

@plushbaby 2d

Instant Weezer warmth makes this sound great and then I get They might be giants vibes from the weatherman refrain. This sounds huge and powerful - I didn't notice that pitched down backing - I think it gives it a glue like quality and introduces chorus/phaser style effects to the sound. I love finding old audio notes on my phone and transforming them into full songs. Awesome stuff!

@danxduran 2d

Yeah it definitely glues it - but I did prefer my original crisp mix before realising I just couldn't do it that day! I don't want to rerecord it, but ah well. Thank you!

@bxphane 2d

Another song of very high quality! What can I say? Perfect vocals and a superb vocal performance? The instrumentation is really great, this song is definitely a hit!

@danxduran 2d

Thanks! But if you're gonna say 'perfect', say it to Melodyne :) 😂

@gordonanderson 2d

This is fantastic. There's a tension between hypnotic and driving here. Great melodies!

@mattwdunn 2d

Epic song. Definitely a keeper. The chorus is particularly strong. Love you getting ‘what’s the story’ into the lyric. This feels like Weezer meets the Beatles. Nice work

@disarming 2d

Awesome. I love the second verse when you bring back the what the hell is going on line! I love the whole vibe! Its like the late nineties early 2000 alt-rock that I love so much. Solid hit here! That organ-guitar solo is killer!

Nothing to be scared of over. Wish I was far away from it.

@ductapeguyMod 2d

That chorus, that chorus, that chorus is wonderful. The down pitched guitars sound pretty decent.

@rshakesp 2d

Really love the sound you've created here - the echoing vocals, the solid guitar sound, the 90s feel to the whole thing, wall of sound greatness. The breakdown bridge is really nice. The melodies are really pleasing and the weatherman repetition is fantastic!