Keep myself together
“It’s time to go back and meet myself”
A funky single, entirely performed by Andrea Ocello,
inspired by the famous sound of “Superstition” : the Clavinet!
I couldn’t go any further, but I couldn’t stop either…
I felt exhausted. asking myself if it was all worthed but I couldn’t imagine my life differently either.
This is what I’m supposed to do with my life….what am I doing wrong then?
I putted all of myself in overcoming all the obstacles of becaming an independent artist, finding my style, building my studio and making my first album. It took me at least 5 years to do so, and I never stopped. Not even a single day.
But, all this dedication led me to exhaustation and, even worse, to lose all the passion and enthusiasm I’ve had started with. Enjoing the journey is something that we should never lose, otherwise we’ll find ourselves in big trouble on the long run.
So…..I just stopped.
I stopped singing, stopped playing the piano, stopped listening to music….actually stopped living I would say by now.
I need to keep myself together
I need to set my soul free again
I need to get my life together
…it’s time to go back and meet myself.
Then, I found an old picture…
There was a child in it. What striked me was that resolute and vivid glance he had. So focused and so in touch with himself.
It was an old photo, and it was me. I felt almost scolded by that.
“What happened?” I thought to myself…
That child made me realize that putting aside my art and giving up to the overwhelming difficulties of my path, was nothing but suppressing something really important of my life…..myself.
That’s what I needed to go back to my studio again and work on what I’m here to make : music.
Recording Sessions
Let’s go back to the studio again, then!
Everything started playing with this great Clavinet sound I bought some weeks earlier.
I thought this beautiful instrument deserves to be used more often in today’s music, also not just by imitating all the typical funky stuffs of the seventies, but also using it as an accompaniment instrument.
So, after playing for a while, I came up with this simple four chord progression, alternating a funky riff with an arpeggiato accompainment.
Then, I started working on the rhythmic section.
The bass part is played with a Pop-like style in the intro and verse, alternating with a funky style (resembling the left hand of the clavinet part) in the chorus.
The drums instead is played as simple as possible, to make the clav and bass line stand out. Just snare, kick and hi-hat, throughout the song. Just like true funk songs used to be back in the early seventies.
After that, I wanted to add some melodic part, other than vocals.
So, I decided to go for a string section. The sound you can hear in this video, is the result of mixing two different virtual instruments and some string samples. All free stuffs. That’s how I create many of the sounds I need for my music.
And finally…..vocals!
For speaking all the emotions of this songs, I used a Blue Baby Bottle, a mic that I love for its warm character and vintage-like sound, despite being just a typical modern condenser.
No background vocals, just my voice singing over the groove.
Let's groove with it!
Like my music?
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