Only Anything was interested in improving itself. We recognized that we could be better and we wanted to be better. In fact, one of the most satisfying things of playing music is this steady creeping forward in skill and competence.
When we released Space Capers, I was excited about Vader--I thought it was the best song that I had had a hand in writing so far. But I was disappointed when one listener told me that they liked the song, but couldn't understand any of the lyrics. That concerned me--especially since I liked the sound of the vocal track so much.
The recording on Spacecapers was very studio-y: in addition to the funky vocal track, it had several overdubs that we couldn't reproduce live. (One of them I especially love: Jon added an acoustic guitar to the verse that you can hear well in the first minute or so of the song.) After playing the song several times live, we made up for these losses with other dynamic changes. We added a pause after the main guitar riff; we brought the tempo up slightly, and in playing it often--post recording--the song started to evolve and get more "tight." And people really responded to it. I remember playing it at a Battle of the Bands at Rincon High where we brought out a large cut out of Vader during the song. The crowd went wild and we won the battle.
So, when we were working on putting together a collection of songs to appear on our cd, we wanted to include Vader, but I was remiss to release the same song again with a vocal track (as much as I loved it) that others couldn't understand. So we rerecorded the song and brought to the recording the togetherness and polish of our live performance. I have am pleased with the results which met the need of making the song more accessible. I also really love listening to the band's improved musicianship from one recording to the next.
That said, my preference is for the original recording. I love those overdubs, the Vader sound bites, and the crazy vocal effects. While the second recording is a great from a technical perspective, I think that the original displays more creativity.
What do you think?
Vader II
--Stone
Thursday, September 11, 2008
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1 comment:
Vader II (from 'Album') is a little better I think, it's a trade-off though as it has no movie sound bytes. I also appreciate the rawness of the original, I think it's great how a bunch of sensitive boys were trying to come off as hardcore. I think we were successful.
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