Behind the Music: Randy Goes Slowcore

I have submitted my cover song of Paul Simon’s Kodachrome to Coverville for the Coverville Idol 1973 competition. It got a lot of attention – but not in a good way. I wanted to take a moment to define my reasons for submitting the song and vision I had for it.

The History

I have a long history of music in my family and I grew up around music. I picked up the piano in order to play percussion in elementary school. After two years of piano lessons (with a gracious teacher who put up with my Hyperactive, low attention personality at that time) I finally started playing drums in junior high/middle school. I played drums all the way through high school and continued in college playing in various groups. At around 12 I asked my dad to teach me how to play the guitar. He was in various high school bands and then later on lead music at various churches and youth groups as I grew up. I bought myself a chord book with paper route money and literally memorized every single chord and voicing in the chord book to help myself learn the guitar. I have a tendency to be a better rhythm guitar player than a soloist and I’ve never been able to play metal. At 14 they needed a bass player at church so I bought myself the cheapest bass I could find that was new and met with the approval of my friend and mentor Mike Schuler and learned the basics of playing the bass guitar.

In high school I was in two bands, the first as a bass player and the second as a drummer. I wouldn’t say that either of those bands was brilliant or amazing, but I also learned from those experiences. In college I played by myself or with a friend in various coffee houses. I also happened to take voice lessons somewhere in there. Yes, I took voice lessons.

Getting married during college I gave my drum set away to the pastor’s son who was learning. I had to trim down my ambitions because I lived in an apartment with my new bride. I got a job at the beginning of college at a Christian bookstore. I eventually became the music department manager there. There I was exposed to a wider array of music than I would have intentionally exposed myself to. I had to be able to help customers find music that I would not have listened to on my own, the Gaithers come to mind. If you don’t know who they are then you should Google for information on the Gaithers. I had to know the non-Christian artists to be able to help them (or their parents or grandparents) find artists that we carried that would meet their musical tastes. Believe me that I know there are a wide variety of styles, genres and nuances when it comes to music. I know it from formal musical training, I know it from having to help people find music that they like, and I know it from my own personal preferences.

One of the bands that we sold at the bookstore was Starflyer 59. Starflyer 59 is Jason Martin’s band. Jason Martin and his brother Ronnie are both very unique musicians who both have very different approaches to their sound. Starflyer 59 actually has some of the slowest music I’ve ever listened to. If you’ve ever listened to the Moonlight Sonata on the piano you will have some concept for the subtlety of music dynamic, including the power of slow tempos. Listen to Starflyer 59’s earlier works and you will find some of the slowest, saddest modern rock music you’ve ever heard.

Starflyer 59 also happens to have played my all-time favorite cover: they covered Steve Taylor’s Sin for a Season on the “I Predict a Clone” album. It is one of the most brilliant interpretations of a song ever in my opinion. You probably won’t find it on Coverville. That’s OK. If you can find it, buy it – it also has Sixpence None the Richer on it.
The Vision

When I prepared for coming up with a song choice and arrangement for this competition I actually started with Crocodile Rock at the request of my friend Robin. I couldn’t come up with anything that I liked no matter which instrument or effect I turned to. The song was a performance piece to me and it required all of the original elements to keep its value. So I looked at many other songs I had to choose from. I’m a huge Paul Simon fan and could listen to Graceland (and other albums) for days. When I looked at the Kodachrome song I picked that one for various reasons, including familiarity. I sat down with a chord chart, and evaluated the lyrics. What possible ways could this song be interpreted given the restrictions of 1) The chords are pre-defined 2) The melody should be respected and 3) The lyrics are known. What did the lyrics present?

I noted that the lyrics actually talked about the harshness of life and how as we reflect on life we’ll find that our romantic memories of things can often be different from the actual events as they took place. Having had a stupid junior year in High School my wife and I actually did correspondence classes for our senior year to finish up school faster and take on full time jobs. Talking about ‘crap I learned in high school’ seemed actually fitting. Being that my wife was one of two girlfriends I had in high school, and I only once barely kissed the other girlfriend the second verse held little actual personal value to me.

Getting back to interpretations of the song… I interpreted the song as having the potential for a slow, sadder feel because the lyrics could also be viewed from that perspective. Its not that it was the best way, or the only way, but that it was possible. So I explored that route. I really liked it. It was so different from what I had heard before and it was a rather weak homage to Starflyer 59, and Paul Simon.

My Perception of Coverville

I sent Brian an email after the show was released and I’d had the chance to hear the judges thoughts. Had I known the judges’ expectations a little better I would have most definitely submitted a different arrangement. This was a learning experience for sure. Nora’s comment about the heaviness of the song was exactly what I had intended to get across. It varies from the original arrangement from Paul Simon [and clearly the arrangement of the other Kodachrome submission which took the more bright elements of the original and added a more modern electronic feel], but that was the point! Dan Klass mentioned that the song was a long 3:40. You’ll note that I intentionally left off the ‘Mama don’t take my Kodachrome’ outtro that Paul Simon had in the song. That was because I didn’t want to submit a slow, sad six minute long song. It just wasn’t needed.
On Coverville I have heard very different arrangements of different songs. I have personal favorites that include the Toxic cover by Nickel Creek (that Coverville is my all-time favorite episode) and I really love it every time he plays Hurt by Johnny Cash.

One of the things I love about cover songs is the chance to hear peoples interpretations, artistic creativity, and sometimes their flubs. Is this recording of Kodachrome the best? No. Is it the worst? Possibly. Is it deserving of some of the negative feedback? Most certainly. Music is subjective, my time in recording the song was limited due to the fact that I’ve got a more-than-full-time job, a wife, and two young daughters. I don’t have time to sit and tweak for hours on end. However, I didn’t feel that the submission was of utter low quality and I felt that it met the requirement of the competition spot on.

It was a learning experience and the next competition, whether it be based on a year, a genre, an artist, a certain hit rank, or limitations to the types of submissions will more than likely have another submission from me, but instead of it being slowcore, it’ll be some other style. Something that I feel fits the requirements of the competition and still expresses my unique artistic style. Is it something you’ll want to listen to? I hope so.

Bonus

Through the magic of Garage band here’s a faster version of the song:  Kodachrome at 114BPM

Out of Tune

I submitted a cover song to a podcast cover song competition last month.  Actually, it was recorded last year, but submitted last month.  I got routed.  Spanked.  Demolished.  But such is the way of music, subjectivity and the fact that I can’t hold pitch very well compared to better trained singers.  However, this was a learning experience and if there is a next time I’ll take what I learned from this and attempt a better submission.  What are those things I learned you ask?

  1. Re-record your vocals until they’re as close to spotless as possible.  I’m certain this cost me.
  2. Work out your arrangement and refine it.  I have tried to communicate this to others but somehow didn’t apply it to myself (can you believe I’ve produced a band before?)
  3. When you play your recording for someone and their first reaction is to laugh… it might be best to figure out how to get a smile instead

I appreciate that Dan Klass, one of the judges, was the Paula Abduul of the group 🙂  He at least liked the beginning few seconds of the song 🙂

Denver Weather Gets Residents and Newscasters Angry

I just happened upon this link:[contains naughty language that accurately reports what the innacurate weathermen/women feel] Weather forecasters get the flack for what’s not their fault.  They report it, and viewers have a cow.  Too bad we can’t grind the cows into hamburgers or something more useful 🙂  I’m not thrilled about more snow on a shovelling, traveling level, but for goodness sake, its not their fault that we’re getting the weather.

I used to do music at a church with a weatherman and he said that once he got his first angry phonecall he made sure his number got unlisted.

Welcome Coverville Listeners

It turns out I’ve made it into the Coverville Idol 1973 contest. Thanks for checking out this site! Hopefully I’ll be able to add more songs as time permits. Feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you thought. You can check out Coverville.com for various great cover related podcasts.

Spank!  Looks like I got kicked to the curb this time around, hopefully next time I’ll be able to deliver the idea in a more appealing way.  I was going for a Starflyer 59 sound, which for 99% of the world will be foreign.  Starflyer 59 is definitely slow-core and I don’t know that I copied what makes them such a great sound to me.  Oh, well.  It was fun to participate.

Hockey!

I went to a hockey game tonight thanks to the kindness and generosity of our friends the Rollisons. Jessica and I joined Bill & Jamie and we had a blast! The game of hockey is one I’m totally unfamiliar with. My brother played roller hockey when I was in High School, but I never really learned it then either. Sorry Ed, I was so amazed by the sweet inline moves that I forgot to pay attention to the rules. Here’s what I learned:

  1. There are three periods per hockey game unless overtime kicks in
  2. Those periods have nothing to do with a woman’s cycle
  3. There are blue lines on the rink floor that just confused me, but at times in the game people should or should not be on one side of the lines
  4. Hockey goalies are some of the most amazing athletes because they have the intestinal fortitude of Hercules
  5. Power Plays do not have to involve Congress or one of the three branches of the United States Government

There were a series of threats or epithets that I have to share

  • Kill him! – yelled at one hockey player in an attempt to motivate him to cause the game to get interesting
  • Homo! – yelled at one hockey player to let him know how the fan really felt
  • The ref(eree)s are stupid, they’re wearing tight pants

At one point in time I yelled out, “Get off of him!” to a player who was just sitting there holding another player down on the rink. A fan in front of me turned and said, “Come on man, its Valentines.”

Hockey is fast paced and the only sport with more continuous action is motorized vehicle racing of the Formula One/NASCAR/Super-Cross variety. It was good fun and even Jessica enjoyed it, which is saying a lot!

The Avalanche beat the Ducks 2 to 0 and the best part of the post-game discussion was guessing how people actually pronounced the names of the player. I’m just not French enough. A Quick Hockey Clip from the game