King of Transylmania
I wish I could say the few days past my initial month-end target of July resulted in perfection, but... well, I'm going to avoid talking about what I don't like about how it turned out (ugh) and focus on what I do like about it. I think I managed to strike a good balance between funny, sincere and sweet (though part of me wonders whether I spread myself then and achieved none of them), producing a lighthearted tone while remaining sensitive to the topic. I'm also pretty happy with the drums; it's probably the most complex arrangement I've done to date, and I think they added some liveliness to an otherwise simple 3-chord (technically 4) pop/alt rock song.
One approach I did try with this song was recording several full end-to-end takes of the vocals, ignoring any screw-ups and continuing on to the finish. Afterwards I pieced together the best phrases from each one. This seemed to give a much better result than trying to capture one verse/chorus at a time.
I also found out just how much the mic picks up in my non-soundproofed studio; though you'll never hear it once all the other instruments are piled on top of it, when I listened to the vocal tracks in isolation I discovered muted cries of one of our cats on the other side of the door. I refuse to list him in the track personnel.
Where this song comes from musically I'm not quite sure. I feel like it probably draws on some of the music I used to hear way back in high school, bands like Barenaked Ladies, The Odds, and Crash Test Dummies, combined with some of my more recent discoveries like Jonathan Coulton, They Might Be Giants, and Elvis Costello. My apologies to these artists for associating their good names with this monstrosity. Despite it being a style I enjoy, it's not one that I've ever really explored in my playing, and I think it shows.
Well... back to the drawing board.
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