Julianna McDuffie: New Music

Showing posts with label New Music. Show all posts

March 25, 2015

"Never Expected Glow"

Ooh! I almost forgot... quick update on the Busstop18 track I was working on last week.

It's finished! And it's oh, so chill.

Swedish Producer jTa (Busstop 18 on Soundcloud) approached me a few weeks ago about this - and I knew immediately that I could write something appropriate to the melody and feel. I'm often inspired by titles and moods as they come to me, and this one was already titled "Never Expected Glow" (which I found charming in it's slightly not-traditional English semantics). So, I kept it, and wrote the rest of my lyric around it.

The only thing I knew about this song was that it "was inspired by a child". OK. I can do that. I know that feeling. I have children. No problem. Wrote my lyric, recorded it, sent it off, he mixed it we critiqued it, he mixed it again...

And after he released it, he told me the story. This wasn't just about a child. This was about a little girl born with a hole in her heart. And somehow, what I'd written made sense.

But the beauty, here, is that it didn't surprise me in the slightest.

You see, my own son is a heart patient with Hypoplastic Left-Heart Syndrome. By the time he was two and half years old he'd had three open-heart surgeries. I KNOW what it's like to to worry over the hospital bed and wonder what the future will bring. I know the heartache when things look bleak, and I know the joy when all goes well.

I also how it feels to have 12 years distance between then and now. After all this time, I sometimes stop in my tracks and just look at my son in complete and utter wonder. He's an amazing kid, even when you remove the medical miracles that brought us here.

So, it was Kismet that jTa asked me to do this. And Kismet that I did.

Never Expected Glow
jTa/McDuffie

Where did you come from?
Where do we go from here?
When all is said and done
Will you still be there?

I wasn't expecting
Where this would go
I wasn't looking for
This unexpected glow

How much longer
How much farther
How many days
How many years?

Where did you come from?
Where do we go from here?
When all is said and done
Will you still be there?

March 17, 2015

This week in Juliannaland...

Couple of things happening here in the studio this week.

I've just added a new song to Soundcloud that is my entry to Moon Echo Audio's demo contest for their latest Reason Refill, "Hazewave".

I like Hazewave a LOT, actually, and this was a super fun project. Making the most of Reason's Audiomatic RE (which has always been a favorite of mine), Hazewave truly brings the LoFi and grit to a production. If you're looking for a James Bond-ish running bass line or a spectacularly tarnished shimmer of strings, Bob's your Uncle. Done.

For the contest, all music must be comprised solely of Hazewave instruments, but Producers are free to add drums - and also vocals, because I checked with Moon Echo, personally. ;)

I liked my experiment with Hazewave so much that I fully intend to round it out into a full-on song. There was a 3-minute limit for the contest, but I really want to take this a little farther. Here's my entry:

Also flowing through the mic this week, a new project with a Producer from ReasonTalk. We may be working a few things into an EP if all goes well.

And next up... this afternoon I'm singing for Sweden again, but not my usual Producer. This time, it's Soundcloud user Busstop18.

Maybe someday I'll write about how an Ohio girl got so involved with all of these Swedish Producers...

March 10, 2015

Lunesis - "Forever"

I start this journey with a friend. And it's payment of a sort for him being the kind of stand up dude that keeps a forum running when the officially sanctioned forum decides that we've come to an end. Lunesis grabbed the reigns and started a brand new forum so the old forum members could all still discuss our common interest. Over 800 people followed him over. It was pretty impressive.

I'll just be upfront, here, and confess that his voice makes me swoon. Yeah. So, there's that.

But he's much more than just a swoon-worthy voice. His productions are always straight up ear-candy; highly evolved and with crazy attention to detail in his effects. "Forever" is certainly no exception.

The synths here are ridiculously fat, almost to the point of bursting, like some honey-filled balloon. With a sweet string melody floating just above the synths, and plucking as the song develops, there's much to listen for, and each time I uncover another layer.

Lunesis has created a smooth-loping gait feeling, that neatly and sweetly propels the song. It's punctuated with some very mellow, yet wholly crisp percussive snaps (?) claps (?)--- somewhere in between a snap and a clap, which I find oddly fascinating--- and I know he's done some real tweaking here to find the perfect sounds.

"I get this feeling when I'm walking along

It takes me over and feels so strong

I dream about it every single night

Forever..."

He has the sort of voice that I would happily go swimming in, and here, he deepens the pool for me, heavily and selectively fx'ing the word "Forever" with an echo verb that pulls me fast toward drowning, until a merciful echo release brings me back to my senses, though, it's almost a pity to come back out of the water.

There's nothing overdone here, nothing forced, nothing dissonant - Just a balm for the soul in an excellently crafted piece of synth pop.

Follow Lunesis on Soundcloud