Sunday June 11, 2006

Jungular

There are several mantras going through my head for the writing of this album:

1. It don't gotta be pretty

2. Quantity not quality

3. Write a Tom Waits album

Christine really likes the new song. She doesn't think it needs a chorus or a bridge. She likes it just as it is. Who would have thought. We had a lovely a morning together - my breakfast was bananas on toast. I took a cup of tea to Chris in bed while she read about Kevin and Britney's baby's fractured skull. Then she got up and got her guitar out. She worked out some beautiful instrumental stuff for 'Island'. Just like that David fulla who plays for Gillian Welch.

Hang on a sec...just gotta watch 'Dancing With The Stars'!

x

Aaah, Rodney voted off at last. I was disappointed that Candy's comment to him about his shirt went without a reply.

Candy:   Never mind, Rodney, at least with a shirt like that, you can get into any Gay Mardi Gras in the country.

Rodney:   (silence)

Candy:   (laughter)

Rodney:   It's all for St John's.

It is amazing, though, how one person saying they like what you do can make a difference. Especially Christine, because I've always been a bit intimidated by Christine in musical terms. She's so accomplished and she can play any friggin instrument she lays her hands on. She's composed for orchestras. She's been doing it for so much longer than me.

She likes my song. Yay. Though she did make me eliminate the 'D' chord I was pushing for between verses. She got a look on her face like the one I get on my face whenever I read the word 'soul' in a poem.

The good thing about 'Island' is that I can imagine it coming alive in different ways when it's sung in different contexts, at different gigs. So much about living in Aotearoa / NZ  is about islands. Performing it at the upcoming Ngai Tahu gig, for example, could transform it from a sad love song to a song about land - about the South Island. When I think about singing it there, the line 'like light through an empty pane' makes me think of holding pounamu up to the light.

While we were practising, Chris and I realised that the most difficult thing in playing 'Island' is keeping it slow. The urge to speed up is always there. But the real quality of this song only emerges when it's played real slow. I finally realised why Gillian Welch sings that song of hers so slowly: that one 'I Dream a Highway'.

Quote of the day, from Gillian herself:  ' To me...the spirit of the performance transcends the notes themselves. I don't like to see musicians reading charts in the studio. It's better if everyone is playing, listening...even guessing. That's when good things happen.'



Day 3 Care Package:

It seems like this drawing/collage is a fragment from Sian's 'Jungle' works. There's lots of greens and silhouetted shapes that could be a horse's head or a corrugated iron roof or a close-up segment of a bridle. I take some cool photos of it - my slideshow is looking pretty flash on my laptop, now.  This fragment of jungle goes up on the glass screen door, beside the others treasures, with the trees and sunshine behind them.


 

x

I decided not to go swimming in the middle of the day, because I got some chords and lyrics fairly quickly. I reached that 'moment' quite fast again, and I didn't want to disrupt it all. I had lunch and made myself a plunger of coffee...mmmmm...coffee.

Anyway, the song is called 'He niho to te moni' - 'Money has teeth'. It's got a simple, kinda reggae rhythm, and for the lyrics, I plundered 'Nga Pepeha a Nga Tupuna'. The result is a song using really rich Maori language - proverbs warning against careless use of words. There are hundreds of sayings in Maori on this and related topics: gossip, careless talk, casual talk uttered while at rest, those whose words are unsupported by action. Interesting.

I'm enjoying singing this song - it's full of rhyme and kinda off-rhymes - and the cadence of the language is a lot of fun. I made the mistake, however, of composing it using barre chords - my hand is aching. My fingertips are tender - even typing hurts.

I rang Sian and told her things were going well, and thanked her again. She was glad to hear from me - she's had a pretty hard week dealing with arts administrators. She's happy, she said, that something she's involved in is proving successful and enjoyable.

So! Two songs to recordable stage. That's good going.

Tomorrow I won't be up at the bach - there's an extreme weather warning for this area, so I've decided not to drive. Instead, I'll load up all my photos to this blog. I'll get Chris to give me a tutorial on her PC audio software, so I can record the two songs I've written. Then I'll spend the day writing the zillions of briefs that have just arrived for the upcoming Ngai Tahu exhibition at Te Papa.

Tuesday will be my next day up there, fresh and fruity. Day 4's Care Package shall be revealed then. I'll still blog tomorrow, though. So do stop by.

x

H