Notes:
Most of my songs are demo recordings; that is, I have not spent a great deal of time refining them, the material and especially the recordings.
This song is in the earliest stage, where experience, instinct and inspiration meet and something comes from nothing, or at least from a combination of creativity and external influence. I don't know when the song will be finished, but for now it consists of some first take ideas on bass, drum machine, and vocals, and will undoubtedly evolve and expand as I find the time and energy cultivate it. At some point I'll want to replace some if not all of the tracks with ones where I'm actually concentrating on performance instead of just the idea. I haven't been singing at all and don't particularly like the vocal style on my scratch idea track (not in tune either & I do -not- ever plan on using "auto-tune"; yuck!), so the vocals and the rest too, will be re-recorded. A style that's more relaxed but still with some dramatic edge would be something to strive for... I'll probably change the lyrics too; just have to try things, though parts of the melody and harmonies may survive the process. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share this stage of songwriting and then compare it to the end result. Let's see where it takes us...
In terms of arrangement, the song may end up something like: Drums (live & samples), electric bass, bass lead, electric rhythm guitar, lead guitar, sampling keyboard (with voicings like marimba & unison orchestral strings), vocals will be added & harmonies and so on... So many songs have lots of synth voices on them these days, but I don't have any good synth keyboards or software, and find that playing stringed instruments can be a helluva lot more expressive. If I'm brave, I may even try to add some fiddle playing. :-o
Parched Earth Project:
No More Shadows is a pretty vague lyric, but I'll tell you about what I had in mind when I wrote it. Right now I'm working on more than a dozen songs in an attempt to weave together this theme: What humans need to survive for the long term, for as long as our own sun is working, is to live in harmony with the sun's direct energy rather than rely on latent fossil energy or other non-sustainable resources. If we don't learn to do this eventually, human civilization will wither and possibly the earth as we know it too.
No More Shadows involves an imaginary world where hoards of starving people subsist in crumbling carcass cities, in the steamy heat of earth's shifted climate. It is a world in which the ultimate survivors are the one's with a hidden gene for living off of sunlight alone. They stand in the desolate salt planes where the oceans once were but have since evaporated or at the rotting desert cores of major continents. The Standers as I think of them, are still, contemplative, and invite others to join. But it's a dangerous route, for those who do not possess the adaptive gene, they will perish even more rapidly than the ones who stay behind to live out the rest of their miserable lives in the ruins of civilization. It should also be noted that Standers are connected from mind to mind, through some energetic dimension not yet understood. They have developed a collective consciousness that grows in physical power and abstract understanding or modeling of the world around them. They are on their way to becoming truly mature beings that will change and protect their world for as long as the sun still has life to give.
Cast No Shadow
re-write: September 5, 2007
on the ground, in the middle of the sands of never ending time
standing tall in the sunlight, reveling in nature that was once denied
no, no more shadows, no more destruction, no more compromise
no life in shadow, no more consumption, that was our demise
what you see is no illusion, what we are cannot be seen with open eyes
do what you want, there's no tomorrow, or come this way, get ready to
change your life
stand, make no shadow, no more corruption, no more selfish lies
these branches are hollow, inside us an ocean, now we're so alive
in the sun, on the surface, of a world that's sailing through a fiery sky
we are free, dance the wind, should you embrace, you will want of nothing
yeah, cast no shadow, cast no shadow, no more shadow, no more shadow,
cast no shadow
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Copyright 2007 Schuyler Hupp All Rights Reserved