tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101221252011-05-04T21:51:22.722-07:00Notes on the making of the Alternative Rock song Shooting for the MoonBriannoreply@blogger.comBlogger31100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10122125.post-1123785656069765282005-08-11T11:38:00.000-07:002006-04-10T20:45:14.210-07:00<a href="http://music.download.com/dreamingintechnicolor/3615-8606_32-100091276.html?tag=MDL_song_details#song100791125" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.dreamingintechnicolor.com/Music/ShootingForTheMoon212x212.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Dreaming_in_Technicolor-Shooting_for_the_Moon.mp3 is available for free download from <br /><a href="http://music.download.com/dreamingintechnicolor/3615-8606_32-100091276.html?tag=MDL_song_details#song100791125" target="_blank">http://music.download.com/dreamingintechnicolor</a> (4.45MB, 3:14)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/10122125-112378565606976528?l=dreamingintechnicolorshooting4themoon.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Briannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10122125.post-1117684643113275612005-06-01T20:34:00.000-07:002005-06-01T22:37:47.716-07:00<a href="http://www.dreamingintechnicolor.com/Music/DreamingInTechnicolor-ShootingForTheMoon1.mp3">ShootingForTheMoon1.mp3(3.0MB, 3:14)</a><br />Listening to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme the other day made it beautifully apparent that you don't need to have vocals as the central focus for a song; sometimes a few well placed phrases are all that are required to unlock the meaning of the song. Unfortunately, no way to get sax playing of THAT quality on this track (I <em>wish!!</em>) but the concept still holds. The breakthrough I've been searching for turned out to be as simple as 'less is more' - keep the bridge instrumental and add some soaring voice lines to keep it interesting.<br /><br />A few ideas formed the basis for the final verse - the idea that <a href=http://www.thymos.com/tat/emergenc.html>life thrives at the edge of chaos</a>, the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1991/24996/24998.html">Lorenz effect</a> (a.k.a. the butterfly effect) where tiny perturbations in a chaotic system can result in huge changes to the system, and the idea that this makes it possible for individual actions to have an <a href="http://www.benbest.com/philo/freewill.html">influence on the outcome</a><br /> <br />Here are the lyrics I ended up going with:<br /><em><br /><br />Here we are <br />in a world full of beauty and danger<br />under skies that are burning with stars<br />but it seems somehow nothing is stronger<br />than this burning desire of ours<br /><br />Every day spins the world into glorious sunrise<br />Filled with promise of what's yet to come<br />and the night under glimmering starlight<br />Filled with dreams that outdistance the dawn<br /><br />And we're shooting for the moon<br />Always shooting for the moon...<br /><br />[Solos]<br /><br />No one knows where we're going.<br />No one knows what the future has waiting.<br />We all live on the edge of chaos<br />where the wings of a butterfly<br />could be the seeds of a hurricane's force<br /><br />Shooting for the moon<br />Shooting for the moon<br />Always shooting for the moon<br />In this world full of beauty and danger<br />Shooting for the moon<br />In the night under glorious starlight<br />Shooting for the moon<br /></em><br /><br />Still a lot of work to do on the drums and production, but I'm very happy with the bones of the song as it stands. Certainly took long enough to get to this point!!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/10122125-111768464311327561?l=dreamingintechnicolorshooting4themoon.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Briannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10122125.post-1105588171814862072005-01-12T19:38:00.000-08:002005-06-03T08:40:14.626-07:00(Note: all text, lyrics and music included in or linked to by this page are Copyright © 2004-2005 Brian Cruickshank unless noted otherwise, and are provided for personal non-commercial use only)<br /><br />Shooting for the Moon is one of those songs that is just taking YEARS to get off the ground. I can clearly remember when it started to take shape - it was near the beginning of July in 1998(!) after seeing Symphony of Fire (fireworks set to music) - the fireworks were reflecting off of the water in front of the CN Tower and Ontario Place cinesphere. Absolutely beautiful clear evening, the stars were shining, my brilliant, beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, means-everything-to-me wife and I were walking hand in hand back to our car. When this lyric surfaced:<br /><br /><em>Here we are <br />in a world full of beauty and danger<br />under skies that are burning with stars<br />but it seems somehow nothing is stronger<br />than this burning desire of ours</em><br /><br />The next morning, the next verse came:<br /><br /><em>Every day spins the world into glorious sunrise<br />Filled with promise of what's yet to come<br />and the night under glimmering starlight<br />Filled with dreams that outdistance the dawn</em><br /><br />I'd been working on some other lyrics at around this time, the only good bits of which were the lines<br /><br /><em>Thriving on Chaos,<br />Shooting for the moon</em><br /><br />It's gone through way too many revisions to count, and the only bits that I've liked enough to keep are those first steps. Musically, the song has been much more direct - one of the best sax lines I've ever done is on it. Here is the first part of it as it stands: <a href="http://www.dreamingintechnicolor.com/Music/ShootingForTheMoon_75sLoop.mp3">ShootingForTheMoon.mp3 (1:15, 375KB)</a>. It needs a lot of work, especially the drums, but it still manages to get a shiver up my spine which is a good sign. The problem is that I plateaued on this around a year ago and have been pretty much stuck since. Musically, the rest of the song is basically in place, but I know the lyrics have to live up to the potential of the song for it to be any good and it has just not happened. <br /><br />Anyways, in mid December I was on my way back home from L.A. on an overnight flight, feeling particularly <em>'soul displaced'</em> as <a href="http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/blog.asp">William Gibson</a> would say, unable to sleep, listening to Massive Attack's brilliant CD Mezzanine over and over, so I decided to try to write some lyrics for another song I've been working on (<a href="http://dreamingintechnicolour.blogspot.com/">Pattern Recognition</a>). I certainly didn't have Shooting For the Moon in mind at that point, I just wanted to write. And that's how <em>Hydroplane</em> came about:<br /><br /><em>If all you had was one day<br />how would you react<br />what would you say to the one you love<br />what would you change and what would you hold dear<br /><br />hydroplane<br />all you really have is today<br />tomorrow is much too far away<br /><br />hydroplane<br />feels so insane<br />coming apart at the seams<br />and all i have left to hold on to<br />is you and our dreams<br /><br />hydroplane<br />as the waves rush past us<br />blurring in the time lapse photography<br />until the only thing that isn't noise<br />is only just you and me<br /><br />everything you count on<br />everything you take for granted<br />everything you just put up with<br />everything you just can't stand<br />everything can slip away from you<br />and there's nothing that you can do<br />it's all gone in an instant<br /><br />hypdroplane<br />feels so insane<br />running fast as if furious action<br />was the same thing as traction<br />when all i need is you<br />to hold onto<br />to make everything real again<br /><br />you and i as time comes crashing<br />down around us<br />when i feel you close it's all ok<br /><br />as we learn<br />to hydroplane<br />hydroplane</em><br /><font size="-2"><br />Written December 17, 2004<br />Copyright © 2004-2005 Brian Cruickshank<br /></font><br /><br />It didn't fit at all with the feel that Pattern Recognition had going for it, so I put it aside. I'd written it weeks before the tsunami hit. You wouldn't know it from reading it now. The meaning of the song certainly works within that context...<br />but it feels so negative, so down that I don't know that I really want to put it to music as it stands.<br /><br />Well, tonight the idea of merging Shooting for the Moon with Hydroplane for some reason percolated up. Positive meets negative. Yin and Yang. Life and death. Not sure at all what bits and pieces will survive, or whether this bit of welding will even produce something worthwhile or not. I'd really love to finally get this song finished one day, and I'm hoping the act of writing this log will somehow help crystalize the song into being. Hoping for some kind of cold fusion to happen. Worth a try, anyways. After all, here we are...<br /><br />Brian<br /><a href="http://www.dreamingintechnicolor.com" target = "_blank">http://www.dreamingintechnicolor.com</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/10122125-110558817181486207?l=dreamingintechnicolorshooting4themoon.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Briannoreply@blogger.com0