Something's Wrong (lyrics)

Something's Wrong


Something's wrong
I can feel it in the air
I can hear it in the silence
I can see it in the troubled faces

Something's wrong
I can feel it in the wind
I can see it in the angry sky
I can hear it in the rolling thunder

Something's wrong
I can see it in the eyes
I can hear it in the voices
I can feel it in the heavy tension

And I can't make it right
No matter how I try
I can't make it right
No matter how I try

No I can't make it right
No matter how I try
I can't make it right
No matter how I try

Something's wrong
I can see it in the flame
I can hear it in the crashing waves
I can feel it in the ground below me

Something's wrong
I can feel it in my soul
I can see it with my mind's eye
I can hear it in the desperation

And I can't make it right
No matter how I try
I can't make it right
No matter how I try

No I can't make it right
No matter how I try
I can't make it right
No matter how I try


©2017 Ren D, Exit World Music, all rights reserved

Handmade Guitar

Today I found some more of the early 'gear' I used in my beginning stages of recording music and sound. I want to share some photos of that equipment just to show the experimentation and creativity of those early days. There is a lot of stuff from my childhood days stored in my garage and I hope to get to them all this year. That is, provided they still exist. I have a large amount of drawings I used to do and I really long to find them.

My first guitar was one my father carved out of wood for me. It's a flat piece of wood with no sound box so it isn't really a playable guitar. It had fishing line on it as strings and I used it more for percussive effect than melodic. Also it's only eleven inches long so it was never really meant to be a 'just for fun' type of thing. Here are some photos of it:

I have many recordings that feature this little guitar. Back in those days my other 'instruments' included:

- a tiny Casio keyboard
- a 4 thick rubber band bass instrument
- a multiple rubber band electric guitar instrument
- coffee and candy cans for drums
- small jingle bells for a tambourine
- tree seed pods for maracas

Some of these things no longer exist. Others do and as I find my 'vintage gear' I will post it here. I do however still have most of the recordings I made from those days. But in connection with Father's Day today I wanted to show the first guitar I ever had, made by my father.

Something's Wrong

I've been working on recording a new song called "Something's Wrong" the last couple of weeks. It's all written out. I just have to make a few changes. I am going for a 60's garage rock sound on this song. The simplicity and lo-fi of some of those 60's recordings beat the over-production of many later recordings hands down.

This is going to be my shortest complete recording that features lyrics so far. Just under 3 minutes. There is no specific song that serves as an influence for this one. It's more of a sound thing that is the inspiration. As of right now I've got an arpeggio electric guitar track with tremolo and the electric bass track completed. Today I did a piano track just for effect and I may add another just to fill out the sound. Not quite sure yet. I am also looking to add an organ track and/or a minimoog one. Of course there will be vocal tracks--at least 2. And I will play real drums for this song.

Other than this song I have ideas for at least 3 other songs. I know musically what I want to do with them. I just have to write out the lyrics. At this point I am thinking they will all be relatively short songs at 3 minutes or less just to keep that 60's vibe going. Once I start to arrange the songs the times may change. I don't want to stray too much from that though because the longer the song the more time it takes to produce it. And if there's any chance I am to release another album this year I cannot spend a lot of time on long productions.

Ideally I think I can finish up this song in about another week or 2. There are 2 things which may not corroborate this. First, the vocals may take me a while to get right. Vocals are always a problem. Second, I'm not sure if I will record the drums as part of the sessions for this song or if I will wait until I have another song or 2 and then just record drums for all of them at the same time. I don't like keeping a song on the side that just needs one more component to it. If I could get a song done in a week or two then I wouldn't mind waiting to get drums recorded. But since I never have a certain timeline for getting a song done I could end up keeping an earlier one unreleased longer than I'd like.

Stayed tuned for updates.

Spring Update

So we're into the final third of April and I have not written any holiday or seasonal tunes! And to be honest, I don't really feel like it! I knew this would happen. I have not able to immerse myself into that genre of music as I had wanted to. But fear not--I have been working on other music. I have about four songs I am working on right now. One is lyrically complete and ready to start recording. The other three are more in the infant stages of writing. But I feel good that ideas are flowing. And at this time, I feel as though I'm going in the direction of shorter songs. The bulk of the music I love is pop & rock of the 1960's & early 1970's. If I had to sum it up into a range it would be 1964-1972. The majority of the hit songs of that era were all just about under three minutes long. So I'm probably going to keep them short and (hopefully) sweet. I'm also considering mixing all the songs in mono just to give the project that extra 60's sound. Some of my all-time favorite songs are in mono and only available in mono (as far as I know). Here are some of them:

Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds)

Gimme Some Lovin' (The Spencer Davis Group)

Can't Be Still (Booker T & The M.G.'s)

Ya Ya (Lee Dorsey)

Take a Heart (The Sorrows)

Down Home Girl (The Stones)

You Need Lovin' (The Small Faces)

Baby Don't Go (Sonny & Cher)

Barefootin' (Robert Parker)

Good Time Charlie (Bobby Bland)

I realize some of those may fall outside the specified range, but it's not an exclusive range. Anyway I'm not a huge fan of mono but it does give a recorded song more of a vintage, lo-fi feel. Plus, when comparing mono mixes to stereo ones of the thousands of songs I have in my library, the mono mixes usually sound louder and more balanced. Of course, that could have to do with mastering techniques as well. In the 60's most singles on 45 were punchy mono mixes made specifically to sound loud over the radio and on your home turntables. The Beatles released all their albums in both mono and stereo up through 1968. They involved themselves in the mono mixes and left the stereo mixing up to the studio staff.

I'm going to do this. And it's cool because I will still have access to make stereo mixes whenever the mood strikes or if need be. That's the difference between my recordings and the ones listed above. Many of those were recorded on two or three-track tape with the masters no longer available. Thus they are preserved for posterity in mono and nothing else. But it is fun to think about how they would have been mixed in stereo. I got used to a lot of The Beatles' earlier stereo output where most instruments would be panned to one side and the vocals on the other, with nothing much in the center. Those stereo recordings helped me better hear and figure out the different instrument parts so I could learn to play them. That's one of the reasons I prefer stereo overall--there is a lot more to be heard that mono mixes do not permit.

I think the four songs I'm working on will be interesting. If I can get really serious about finishing them up and doing a few more things I may actually have something to release this year.