NEW ALBUM on Bandcamp now!
This album is my entry into the 2019 RPM Challenge. Since it’s done, I thought I’d give a quick track-by-track breakdown.
“Happy Song”
This song spawned from this Instagram post. The background noise was my super bowl party (recorded with their permission) and I also got them all to yell at me. Nobody seems to turn down a chance to yell at me on my recordings… My brother did the whistling because he’s better at it than I am. The sucker punch of the metal band at the end (it is, indeed, a trappy song) works as a direct segue to…
“Swimming Patterns Against the Tide”
A good friend of mine gave me the title without hearing the song. These are some of the last lyrics written for the project, so this wound up bringing a few other tunes together. Recorded on a 7-string guitar in standard tuning.
“The Irish Goodbye”
I came up with the verse and chorus riffs in early January but didn’t get the lyrics until the middle of February. I thought I was gonna have to scrap it until I woke up one morning with “When it all comes crashing down you’ll know just where to go” in my head.
“Video Games”
I wrote these lyrics as a petulant six-year-old. I work with kids for a living, so getting into this character wasn’t too difficult. This is on the 7-string again, but in drop-A tuning this time. Also, that’s a PS4 controller at the end.
“Grounded For Life”
I had to have at least one uptempo punk tune on this record. I unabashedly love poppy songs played way too fast. The thought of starting every verse with “Everything sucks when…” made me laugh so I had to use it.
“Tap Into the Potential”
I came up with the verse riff at work. I teach private lessons for a living so I literally have to play guitar every day… and that day a student or two got to witness me go “whoa that’s cool I gotta remember that.” I rarely write songs about music, so this was a conscious decision to make an exception. For the record, “the driver song” is “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” by Primus and “the side two thing” is the Abbey Road medley. I changed the end of the last verse to “you’ll find them soon” from “stop lying please” after thinking about my line of work.
“Meteor Shower”
This one stemmed simply from a desire to have at least one acoustic song on this record. I’m a huge fan of Opeth, both heavy and acoustic, and this was definitely inspired by their quieter work. Incidentally, the hand drum on this song is a darbuka. Snow is a running theme on this record because I live near Lake Ontario and we get a bunch of it every year…
“Take the Stairs”
I’m a huge prog and metal nerd, but sometimes you just gotta sit back and groove. I wasn’t too sure about this one – admittedly, I almost cut it – but it found a home and it’s still pretty fun to play.
“Encased in Ice”
The chorus riff was the first one I ever demo’d on my iPad back on New Year’s Eve… so, naturally, these were the last lyrics to be written for the album. Another influence is worn on the sleeve – Gojira this time. Were I to do this song again, I’d hook up a second amp and essentially quad track the guitars instead of merely double tracking. It’s in Drop-D tuning, so you know we’re being serious here.
“Restless”
Every Distinct Kicking Motion album and EP has at least one instrumental on it. I love instrumentals, I love odd time signatures, and I love 8-string guitars. Put that all together and you get this! I didn’t intend on making the instrumental the longest song on the album, but I’m not complaining about it either. I tend to pace when I get restless, so I automated the panning on the beginning guitar to do exactly that.
“Luna”
Heavily inspired by two bands – one current (Astronoid) and one from the 90s (Hum). The main rhythm guitars played the same chords in different positions and there’s also a clean guitar buried in the mix. That clean guitar is a Gibson SG – my workhorse for almost all of the record – and the rest is my 8-string.
“Blanket Fort”
This one hurt to record and it was completely worth it. That same friend who gave me that song title towards the beginning of the record and I had talked occasionally about building blanket forts and I guess it stuck with me. And right on cue, a massive snowstorm hit my hometown mere days after I wrote this song. Another influence shines through here – this may be the most Porcupine Tree-esque song I’ve ever written.
So there’s my album. If you’ve listened, thank you. If you made it to this point in the blog, thank you again. This was a ton of fun to make and I’m thrilled I found the RPM Challenge. See you next year?
We’ve made it! Another year is in the books, so it’s time for yet another Christmas EP! This one was fun to make… and a bit of a workout, too. The theme this year wasn’t readily apparent when I just looked at the songs I picked, but it emerged as I was putting it together. Since two of the four songs don’t really have a whole lot going for them, the name of the game wound up being SPEED. In terms of tempos, this is quite possibly the fastest batch I’ve ever made. The click track was set at over 300 beats per minute for two of them… Enjoy!
Ed Makes Things 