The titles of these tunes tell you exactly what they're about. I did everything you hear, with the help of two amazing young ladies; Kelsey Crismon and Kenzie Palmer.
The lyrics for most of the early songs weren't too much trouble to put together. However, later tracks like "Know the Planets" had me scrambling to Google to grab facts that I could turn into lyrics. As I mentioned elsewhere, I didn't receive much direction on lyrical content, and absolutely none on music.
So, I just wrote pop songs.
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This next set of tunes reflects the period after all the kinks were worked out of our "song factory." The songs started getting more elaborate, with upwards of 30-40 vocal tracks. A lot of the vocal arrangements were improvised. Kelsey Crismon would be in the studio on a mic and I'd be in the control room on a mic and we'd just make things up until something struck us as cool.
The first track ("Get Up and Get Moving") was specifically written for a television show my company (NNDS) produced.
The most over-the-top track was "You Don't Need Words." (Track 4). I believe we managed close to 50 backing tracks! Track 2 features former artistic director Gavan Pamer on lead vocals. I added a nod to Haydn's "Surprise Symphony" just for kicks. There is a jarring change in the middle of the song. After I'd already finished the track, I got an email saying they wanted to include something about Theremins! I managed to solve that problem and quoted the theme song for Doctor Who!
My personal favorite is "Nature's Music."
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As with most endeavors, things ended just as we were getting good at it. The arrangements continued to get more complicated (maybe too complicated for grade-schoolers, but no one told me to "tone it down!"
I ran poor Gavan through his paces on "A Ballad of John Henry." It's probably one of the strangest tunes I've ever written. But it grows on you. For "Appalachia," I got nothing more than the title and that I should write something about it. Except for guitars and bass, all the instruments are virtual.
I tried my hand at big band horn arrangement with "Smile" and "Jazz Is." Did my first rap vocal on the "Hip Hop Song" and played virtual pedal steel guitar on "Tejano."
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