DEADMAN [Official Music Video] 

For our assignment, we chose to do a content driven marketing campaign, in which we created a music video for one of our original songs. It took us roughly 2 months to fully complete this as we had to write and record the song, and then film and edit the video. We posted a behind the scenes on our tumblers as well as a promo video on the band’s social media accounts. However, we didn’t manage to get the final mix in time due to the student recording it having other commitments, so we’ve chosen to keep the video unlisted for now while we wait to get the final mix/master and then we’ll post the video publicly WITH the proper song. Otherwise, I feel like no one will watch the second video with the proper audio as they have already watched the first video. We collaborated with TV students when filming and editing the music video, which was a nice change of pace and broadened our ideas as well. Overall, I’m incredibly happy with how it turned out and feel like it will definitely benefit us in future.

My other 'Make a thing' task. Me and Shannon chose to do a podcast regarding scandals/controversies within the music industry. We chose to talk about the ordeal to do with Kanye West and his fixation on Hitler; and the conspiracy theories behind Kurt Cobain's death. We felt this would be a fun task to do as it's different to anything we'd done before, but we still kept it relevant to music.

Behind the scenes of making our music video for our new single for Music Making in the Creator Economy.

POM NPC Green Screen Test 

Green Screen Test

For my Creator Content task, I chose to do a TikTok that introduced the new members of CherrySmoke. I started off with the idea of ‘meet the band’ type of thing so I knew I needed to get footage of each band member individually and also group footage, but wanted to develop it a bit further. I went with the idea of the Brooklyn 99 theme, where each member has a freeze frame and captions introducing who they are and their instrument. When rehearsing, I got plenty of footage of Alex, Jack and Maxim that was usable and asked Alex to get some footage of me and Shannon. Once I had the footage that I needed, I used Premier Pro to edit it. 

CherrySmoke Logo/Font

Initially, when thinking about our logo, we wanted to create something that would scream the name of the band without having to read the name. We knew we wanted cursive writing off the back of Shannon writing ‘CherrySmoke’ in cursive on a whiteboard in one of the rehearsal rooms at uni. Once we had a place to start, we looked online at some inspiration. We needed a logo to put on a gig poster back in December 2022 so Shannon created a mock-up of a temporary logo (image 1), off the back of online inspiration and our collective ideas. After the gig, we had time to properly focus on how we wanted it to look. We definitely wanted to keep the cursive writing and the mouth within the imagery, so Zara (a band friend) created a rough sketch of an idea (image 2). This was more of what we had in mind, though we played around with where the writing was (we tried it on the lips but it wasn’t as easy to read so settled on above the lips). Finally, Tyler got in contact with a graphic designer, Lennox, at the uni and sent him our previous sketches for him to create something for us. When we got the first image back from Lennox we were happy with everything bar where the writing was (it was slightly off centre to start with) and the colour of the smoke (it was initially red). So we had him change the writing to be central and the colour of the smoke to grey (image 3) and we were happy. 

CherrySmoke colour palette

When deciding what colour palette we wanted for CherrySmoke, we initally took ideas from the name (Cherry red) and have now incorporated this into what we wear on stage and our background colour for photoshoots. We also wanted to bring in some gold from Tyler’s Les Paul he uses for the band as well. We went with the standard black and white as well to create a simple but effective colour scheme. 

Melodic contour task:

https://soundcloud.com/user-399411784/time?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

I based the melody of the vocals off of the above photo in order to create the track.

Performance and songs analysis

‘South Side’ was the first song that we wrote, which gave us a base line for the aesthetic of how we wanted the songs to sound. We took influences from artists such as Ben Howard and Bon Iver to use as references for our songs. Our instrumentation was minimal within both songs, but we felt that this helped create the overall aesthetic. George started off with a voice note that he sent me with the guitar riff and the lyrics, ‘Lord singing from the outside, spinning round you’re going south side’. We both wrote our own respective verses within the song and put them together when rehearsing. Finding the harmony for the pre chorus was easy enough, so it just left us with writing a chorus. The chorus was written later in the process of writing both songs, with George coming up with the guitar and me writing the lyrics. We struggled a bit to find chords that fit right with the riff for the verses, but we managed to find ones that fit. There’s a variation of techniques used when playing the guitar, including fingerstyle playing and strumming chords.

When writing ‘In my Arms’, the lyrics came around relatively quickly. We chose the topic of feeling at peace with yourself to focus on when writing them, giving us something to stick to. We decided to add in keys within the song to add more dimension when it came to our performance. Coming up with the piano part came about quickly as I just followed along with the chords we had already on the guitar. Adding in the one Gmaj chord within the chorus meant that it changed the dynamics, rather than just playing individual notes. Vocally, we both have our own parts but come together to sing within the chorus and bridge, but could’ve added in more vocals towards the end of the bridge or shortened the guitar to keep the audiences attention.

The performance as a whole went very well, I thought. Regarding things such as stage presence, I felt I was more comfortable this time round and more confident, especially as it was my first time playing an instrument while performing. The dynamics within the performance worked really well. The piano and acoustic guitar complimented each other really nicely in In my Arms. I had the lyrics written down on paper as a precaution in case of any slip ups, but only needed to quickly look down once or twice in order to refresh my memory, but it still would’ve been better to have learnt the lyrics as a whole. In the transitions between the two songs, we could’ve interacted with the audience more or faded the songs into each other for a smoother transition. Also, the lighting was quite harsh, so it would’ve been good to have some control over that.

In my Arms & South Side Assessment performance.

ANALYSIS OF ‘LOSING GAME’. 

The overall aesthetic I was going for with this track was soft, pop acoustic. This can be seen from my reference track, ‘Break my Heart Again’ by FINNEAS. I liked the soft yet powerfulness within the song and wanted to recreate that within my track. I wanted the recording to portray the emotions I felt when writing the song, which I did by capturing raw and live sounding recordings. When actually recording the tracks, I used studio 2 in order to have access to a piano. Thus, meaning I used ProTools as the DAW to record the tracks. As I used condenser microphones, I had to use phantom power in order to pick up a decent sound. Before properly recording, I ensured that the levels of all microphones were correct and weren’t overpowering each other. When starting to record, it took a few tries to get the figure 8 AKG in the right place in order to gather the sound I wanted from both my voice and the piano.

I chose the AKG C414 as a room mic in order to capture an atmospheric sound within the recording. I wanted it to add a fuller sound to the track when completed. When we’ve used it within lectures before as a room mic, we managed to gain a soft sound that sits in the background of the recording. When using it in my track, I had the mic set to cardioid to ensure it captured an overall sound rather than a set area within the live room. Thus, allowing me to move around if I wanted too. The C414 also has a wide frequency response, so works well in picking up both higher and lower frequencies. However, it also has a flat frequency response, meaning that it allows for a rawer recording. Giving it a similar feeling to a live performance.

The use of the AKG C414 on the figure 8 setting meant that I could sing and play piano at the same time when recording, giving the recording a more authentic ‘live’ feel. I tried to make sure that the levels of both the piano and vocals were relatively the same, so it took a few tries in order to gain the correct position. In regards to the recording, the use of the figure 8 gave the overall track a ambient softer sound, but picked up my vocals how I wanted at the same time. When playing around with this technique in the studio in lectures before, I was happy with the sound given and felt that it fit in well with the aesthetic I was going for.

I chose to use the Neumann KM 184s within the piano so I could gain a bigger and clearer sound of the piano. If I hadn’t used these microphones, I would’ve been relying on the room mic and the figure 8 mic in order to pick up the piano, but when listening to it back in the studio, it sounded too far back in the recording. The 184s have a transparent sound, so are ideal for recording acoustic instruments such as piano and acoustic guitar. The fact that the mics are cardioid meant that there was a wider range of sound that could be picked up. The angle of the mics meant that they were positioned as a A-B spaced pair. Thus, leaving room for a good stereo sound from the piano.

When it came to recording the harmonies on the track, I thought that the use of the AKG C414 would be appropriate as it had already been used when recording my main vocals. Only this time I had the mic on cardioid in order to capture my whole voice. The setup was just me and mic in the live room, making the harmonies ambient. They sit deeper into the recording, with the different pitches coming through. The fact that the C414 has a very wide frequency range meant that I could easily record harmonies without worrying about some of the lower or higher ones getting lost in the overall track due to lack of sound. When testing out microphones within the studio in lectures, I found that the AKG C414 and Neumann U87 were best suited for my voice and style of singing.

Moving on to mixing, I bounced out the tracks separately in order to input them into Logic. I chose to mix in Logic as I know it better and feel I can produce better work when using it. I added FXs such as reverb in order to create the ambient, soft acoustic pop aesthetic I wanted. I used quite a soft reverb as I didn’t want it to overpower my vocals and still wanted that ‘live’ feel to the recording. I used a reverb that would emulate vocals within a small space. I ensured that the levels were right when it came to the harmonies and my vocals alongside the piano. I mixed the track using headphones and through speakers to make sure the levels were correct through either output.

Overall, I was very happy with how the recording turned out. I felt that the wanted aesthetic was achieved and that the recordings were clear and how I wanted them to sound.

Recording harmonies for assessment piece

Set up for assessment recording

Chorus-less songs task

Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen & All Along the Watchtower – Bob Dylan

What are the common traits of each of these song forms?

The verses within these song forms tend to be quite repetitive, along with the use of instrumentation to add more dynamics to the song in order to vary the layout of the track.  

Consider how chorus-less songs manage without the focus and energy of a chorus.

They may use other techniques such as a solo on an instrument. For example, in Bohemian Rhapsody, Brian May performs a guitar solo. In All Along the Watchtower, the use of the harmonica takes some attention away from the fact that there’s no chorus.  

Why do these songs choose to have no chorus?

Bohemian Rhapsody is already nearly 6 mins without a chorus so they may have chosen to not include one due to the length of the song. All Along the Watchtower however, Bob Dylan may have chosen to leave out a chorus because it might have clashed with the use of the harmonica throughout the song and taken away some of the attention from that.  

Can avoiding a chorus have advantages?

Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the most well-known songs there is, mostly because of its unusual structure. It goes to show that changing the structure of a song can have a positive impact on the popularity of the track as its different and fans are automatically drawn to something that’s different to the norm of what the artist releases already.  

What are the disadvantages?

All Along the Watchtower is only 2:31 mins as it only contains 3 verses. Some people may argue this is too short and that he could’ve added more. Not having a chorus could also mean that people lose out on the hook of the song.  

Does the song work for you or would you prefer a chorus?

I believe that both songs work well as they are and can’t really find a place in either song where a chorus would fit.  

Are there any other song forms with no choruses?

Song forms such as AABA or ABAB can include a breakdown with verses instead of a chorus.  

Can you find examples of chorus-less songs in the music you listen to?

Decimal – Novo Amor has the structure of AABB.  

Which of these song writing techniques might you take forward into your songwriting?

Trying to write a song without a chorus will be challenging, however, I feel like it’s a good way to change your style of writing and expand on your ideas.