"Outlines" & how it was made.

"outlines" is the 17th song in the yearbook series... track #2 on the "march" ep. when i write songs and prep them for recording, it is most common for me to have a fairly clear picture in mind of the overall shape of the song - the general instrumentation, where each of the sections should land (arrangement), etc. however, with "outlines," I approached the whole process without any clue of what the final picture might look like.

much like the song "wires," "outlines" opens with a melody created within my iPhone, and that's exactly where this song began in the writing process as well. I let that melody loop over and over and just began adding layer after layer of ideas... I started with electric guitar, and discovered a bunch of chords and ideas I liked, which was very helpful in finding the shape of the song.

a day or so adding and subtracting layers, I finally unearthed the overall "outline" (get it?) and heart of the song, which of course led to even more new layers and ideas. then my pal Dan and I explored some ideas on our keyboards and found some nice textures that filled in the cracks. Dan, added bass and did a superb job adding thickness to the song.

it was so much fun hunting for a mix of electronic sounds that played well with more organic "band" ish sounds (ie. drums, pianos, bells, etc) - for a song very much about origins (more on that later) - i liked the idea of natural sounds underneath modern and more electric sounds.

once all of the pieces were laid in place, I invited my good pal, jason toth to play drums. (jason appears all over my "storyboards" album and is a fantastic musician. fact.) his performance definitely gives this song its pulse.. the last minute or two of snare runs is pretty impressively fast - he didn't even pass out while doing takes. a total pro. we had a lot of fun recording him for this, and watching him sweat. ha.

the lyrics came next, as they often do... but in this song's case, I had no vocal melodies in mind just yet. usually, in the lyric-writing process, I will play around with vocal melodies while the song's shape is coming into view. but "outlines" was nearly finished musically before I payed around with any vocal ideas and lyrics.

the lyrics, and the overall concept came together fairly quickly on this one.

I wanted to write a song from Adam's perspective (of the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden story) - this theme might be most evident in the lyric:

"garden of eden, lower your branches for another year." 

so I imagined what Adam's thoughts might have been in the aftermath of eating the apple. pleading, reasoning, hoping for and finding something more. the title "outlines" refers to this origin story, as the outline of who we are today. (hence the more organic sounds, mixed with more modern, electric sounds.)

thanks for reading!

much love, ryan

listen:

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/45645417" params="auto_play=false&show_artwork=true&color=000000" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

lyrics:

OUTLINES

hidden in plain sight, the world is an outline of shapes i used to know.

like pulling ribbon, all of a sudden the curtains draw back slow.

though i’ve been distracted, i am caught up in static no more.

garden of eden, lower your branches for another year.

i’m dust, unsettled until they reappear.

though my hands are prone to trial and error, i’m crossing my fingers for something to hold.

i can’t help but hope for brighter, here in the shadows of letting go.

God, may these good intentions be the outline of so much more.

when i breathe, from now on, i’ll mean it more than ever i did before.

"Pacific" & how it was made.

"pacific" is the 16th "yearbook" song, track 1 of the "march" ep.

i wrote this piece of music about a month or two before yearbook began... around that time, i saw a film called "the secret of kells" - an irish animated film, which was nominated for an oscar in 2010 for "best animation." i absolutely loved it. it's beautiful, haunting and inspiring. so, immediately after seeing it, i scoured the internet to find anything i could about who made this film and when and where can i see more. i found that it was directed by a gentleman by the name of tomm moore, who created "cartoon saloon" in ireland, a fantastic animation studio. i stumbled upon a "conceptual" trailer for tomm's next film, "song of the sea" and i was awe-struck. it was some of the most beautiful animation i have ever seen...

being someone filled with hopes of scoring films one day, i thought it might be a lot of fun to try my hand at writing music for this conceptual trailer. it already had lovely music in the trailer online (as heard in the trailer above), so there was no intention of "replacing" anything - it was just such a beautiful trailer that i felt inspired to write something to it, and i thought why not try my hand at "scoring" it for my own amusement.

(note: to hear "pacific" paired with the trailer, hit the mute button on the concept trailer, press play on both videos above)

so i sat down at my piano, with the trailer running on loop through my ipad. a day or so later, "pacific" was the result. i was really pleased with how it turned out, so (again, totally something i've never done) i wrote to tomm moore via twitter and asked if i could send him this little piece of music i wrote, inspired by "song of the sea." to my surprise, he replied and welcomed me sending it over. he responded incredibly kindly and it just about made me year to hear it.

"song of the sea" has yet to be released, and i believe (having had the pleasure of keeping in touch with mr. moore over the last couple years) it appears to still be in the production phase. i cannot be more excited to see this film though.. seriously, how gorgeous is that trailer?! although my music has nothing officially to do with it, i have watched this concept trailer probably a thousand times and i just think it's going to be a masterpiece.

so when i wrote this (right before "yearbook" began) i knew that i wanted to include this piece of music on one of the yearbok eps... but i held onto it until the right month came along.

"march" felt perfect for "pacific" for a few reasons:

• something about the spring coming into view, makes me dream of the ocean. 
• my family and i have had the incredible privilege of visiting hawaii many, many times and it always seems to be around this time. so i've enjoyed the pacific ocean in march many times throughout my life.
• i got married in hawaii and the wedding was in march! so "pacific" was a perfect fit for the "march" ep.

originally this song was the exact length of the concept trailer - about a minute long. but when putting it together for the ep, i wanted to extend it. which created a unique problem -

most songs on yearbook, i recorded my piano a certain way that i like. i leave the mics set up and when i record my piano, i have the assurance of knowing it will sound like it did before, exactly as i like it. for "pacific" however, i recorded it a bit differently... i recorded the main piano with a small recorder, but i couldn't remember where the recorded was sitting when i originally recorded this piece of music. so in order to keep the performance of the original recording (which i very much intended to do) i had to figure out a way to add the new extension without it sounding like i started recording a totally different piano sound. so after several tests and trial and errors to figure out how i got the piano sound i originally recorded - i finally found a match, and continued on with the extended arrangement.

because the pianos were recorded with a small hand-held recorder, there were all sorts of background noises (a few coughs in the other room and tv chatter) - again, i had to decide whether or not to keep my original performance, or start over... but being the stubborn person that i am, i went with keeping the original at any cost!

i sent the piano track to my pal, jason ward at chicago mastering (the very same amazing team who mastered every yearbook ep! if you're ever looking for mastering work, use them! amazing.) and asked if he had any magic abilities to clean up the background noises and hums and coughs and whatever... and he did an insanely good job. sent it back and it sounded perfect. so my stubbornness paid off.

a long, long while ago my brother and sister-in-law bought me a violin as a gift. i adore it and play it often, however it is by far the most challenging musical instrument i have ever touched. and it sounds that way too when i practice. on this song (and many more throughout yearbook actually) i wanted to give it a shot and record some violin parts the best i can. usually i will write the arrangement and have skilled string players play it. but for this song and most others that i actually played the strings on, i just do lots of takes of misc. i'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - it has character. wonky character maybe, but character nonetheless.

added a bunch of other subtle layers throughout and really had fun putting this one together. it's the second instrumental song in the yearbook series, so it was nice to give my voice a break and dive into a film-scoring type of mindset here.

thanks for reading!

much love, ryan

"Learning Curve" & how it was made.

"learning curve" is the 15th "yearbook" song, the final track of the "february" ep.

for many, many years I have admired songs that are made up (musically) of only one "part." just always fascinated by artists that are able to write just as moving a song as any, without the need to write more parts than one. it's obviously rather easy to write a song with one "part" ... and more often than not, that kind of song would sound lazy or uninspired. but the trick is to write a song without the need for other parts, where listeners are pulled into the song, the vocal melody, the lyric, the story without ever realizing that the music was just a simple, repeating backdrop. so having always been interested in the craft of writing such a song - this challenge, this idea inspired "learning curve."

as a matter of fact, I've waited and hoped to explore writing a song in this way for many years, but until the chords for this song appeared, I never felt like I quite had the right foundation to build such a song. so when i wrote this simple chord structure, and played around with different vocal melody ideas, I was so excited to realize that the mood of the song hung very intently on where my vocal melody went - it could change the whole shape of the song, which lead me to this humble attempt at writing a simple, "one part" song.

this song was originally written on the ukulele... then it changed keys a few times and moved onto the acoustic guitar... then even more key changes later, it found its home on the electric guitar. fun side note: I recorded all of the electric guitar on this song (and most other yearbook songs actually) on my very first ever guitar amp- a "crate" 1×10" combo amp that my parents gave it to me as a christmas gift, when I was 14, along with my very first guitar - an "epi" (the introduction brand of epiphone, which is the introduction brand of gibson) black "strat". anyway, that amp has actually become one of my very favorite amps ever this past year or so... who knew! so it makes me very happy to have that piece of nostalgia woven into these songs. it's got this built-in reverb that I sure do love.

my best pal dan recorded piano throughout - we worked hard at making the piano arrangement give definition between the verses and choruses. it was fun using the full range of the piano to make this happen - high octave lulluby type of sounds, with very low, heavy chords in the choruses. we added bits and pieces of mellotron and other synths to give even more texture to the choruses.

for the vocal, i took the microphone out of the "sound-proofed" vocal booth i built, and set it up into an open non-sound-proofed room. i wanted a short slap-back-ish type of room reverb.. and i was very happy with how it turned out. a bit different vocal tone than most sleeping at last songs so far.

for the vocal once I decided that this was going to be my "one part" song, I knew that this needed to tell a story. I also knew that the words needed to be very visual...

at the time of writing this song, my wife and I had begun house hunting a bit. so words like "hard-wood floors" and "white picket fence" were being used quite a bit, and that felt like a very appropriate element and vocabulary to weave into this story. so i went with it.

i wanted to tell the story in the form of waking up from a dream. a dream about living a life of simple and true ideals that, unlike most ideals, do not require a perfect world in order to be achieved. a life that is strong enough to find happiness in uncertain and imperfect conditions.

along with the stress of house hunting, life transitions, sorting out finances and adult things like that, i wrote this song as a bit of a reminder to me of those pure and true ideals, and how important they are to chase after. so this song is me, standing at the threshold of many complicated life decisions, drawing a sketch, an outline of sorts, of how i hope everything might turn out. even in it's short life as a song..this "dream" of mine is meaning more and more to me throughout the new chapters that 2012 has been bringing my way.

the last line of the song:

"and when my good dream came to an end,
i woke up more than ready to bend."

... i wanted some sort of happy ending to this story - since the song is a retelling of a dream about ideals and strength, i felt it would be sad to leave it there as only a dream... so i added this last line, which to me means that the dream was a lesson that will lead to living out those ideals in real life. my definition of the word "bend" in this line is to have faith, to be strong and balanced enough to live happily in a world that cares very little for our comfort.

thanks for reading!

love, ryan

lyrics:

LEARNING CURVE

i had a good dream-
we built a home.
it was far from perfect,
but we made it our own.

we lived a good life,
we gave and we borrowed.
it was far from perfect,
but we made it our own.

when everything around us changed, we felt okay.
no learning curve could ever bend us too far out of shape.

when we took one step forward, and five steps behind,
we were still more than able to walk a straight line.

we had a white picket fence in the front yard,
where our grass was plenty green.
every window in our house
welcomed in the sun’s company.

we had hardwood floors and unlocked doors,
our glass was plenty full.
though our bills were only barely met,
our hearts were plenty whole.

when everything around us changed, we felt okay.
no learning curve could ever bend us too far out of shape.
when darkness was the price of light, we weren’t afraid.
for the time we’ve spent was more than worth
any interest that we’ve paid.

we lived a good life, a good life,
when my eyes were closed.
though the question marks were all the same
and the burdens never left,
we gambled everything we loved,
as though there was some kind of safety net.

when everything around us changed, we felt okay.
no learning curve could ever bend us too far out of shape.
when darkness was the price of light, we weren’t afraid.
for the time we’ve spent was more than worth
any interest that we’ve paid.

and when my good dream
came to an end,
i woke up more than ready to bend.

"Land or Sea" & how it was made.

"land or sea" is the 14th "yearbook" song, the middle track of the "february" ep.

this song was born on the ukulele. that very first melody that starts the song off is actually exactly where this song originated from. the entire song stemmed from that very simple ukulele melody. usually in the songwriting process, the direction and individual parts bend and change so much from the original thought that there is rarely much trace of its origins left when the song is finished. so i like that this song starts exactly as it was first written.

i recorded this my favorite ukulele - my KALA "Mango" tenor. love. it.

this song was incredibly fun to layer (musical) ideas on. some songs are very particular in what musical additions will "fit" ... some songs are a bit snobbish in that way. and other songs are very friendly and play nice with many ideas. this one played very nice with others.. so it was a lot of fun to work on, kind of like an ice cream sundae bar... you know, with all of the toppings to add... sprinkles, oreos, hot fudge, etc... it all just "works" together... and now I'm hungry.

anyway, I asked my pal aaron mortenson in nashville to play drums on this sucker and he did a lovely job. his pal and very talented engineer, chad brown did a fantastic job capturing aaron's performances. great sounds for sure. I knew I wanted a "snappier" rhythm section for this song and I'm very fond of how it turned out. the drums and percussion are always sort of morphing into something new. endless variations was the idea. really pleased with how it turned out.

when aaron and chad sent me the drum tracks over the web, we intially had some serious syncing issues. the drums sounded "off" and out of time with the song... but it wasn't extremely off, just enough to make me worried that it wasn't played well. ha. so after an awkward conversation on the phone, me asking "um... these drums are great sounding, but the performance feels... loose"... translation: "what happened?!" - after some trouble-shooting, we realized that the files had just been moved every so slightly. so they resent the drum recordings and low and behold, it was dead on and quite nice sounding.

my best pal, dan perdue did an incredible job on bass, with a bass line that entirely compliments the evolving drum beat. dan also contributed some great keyboard/synth sounds that give the recording some really nice "space" and depth - my favorite little bit is the synth horn section in the end of the song... it's subtle, but I love how it swings and has a bit of gruffness to it.

i played around with a bunch of mellotron layers (always a fan of mellotron... one of my all time favorite sounds) and a bit of electric guitar throughout.

i really enjoyed piecing the lyrics together on this one. as always, there were lines that didn't come easily, but overall i remember this one being an enjoyable song to write.

this song is very much about trust, and the fears that holds us back from trusting. it's about the challenges of faith in a life of no guarantees. that meant all sorts of things to me when i was writing this, and in the months since it was released, it has been even more applicable to my life.

the line "we've got no stakes in the ground" has particularly special meaning to me... in a sort of "eureka" moment in my life last year, i realized that after so many years of tension, hurt and struggle within certain relationships (family and otherwise) and countless life transitions, there is this point where a clean slate happens, a light at the end of the tunnel, where life takes on new shape - sometimes that is only possible when there are no more stakes in the ground. so that phrase was something of a mantra to me. it was so opposit of my intentions and sometimes it felt so terrifying, but eventually it became freeing, like some sort of undo button.

a fun fact: it's not super obvious, but in the beginning few lines I use the lyrics (and melody structure) to subtly count to 4, almost as if the lyrics are 4 steps "to make a difference" in life...

"One (as in 1) day we'll wake up and realize
To (as in 2) make any difference one must simply try
Try (as in "tri" = 3) to use words less than our hands
For (as in 4) change is a direct result of our plans?"

get it?

anyway, thank you for reading!

love, ryan

lyrics:

LAND OR SEA

one day we’ll wake up and realize-
to make any difference one must simply try.
try to use words less than our hands,
for change is a direct result of our plans.

we’ve got no stakes in the ground.
we’ve got no anchors tied down.
land or sea, there are no guarantees here, we know,
there is nothing but our fears of being free.

it feels deeper than any ocean floor,
our lungs no longer believe in any shore.

so let’s dry out our clothes and catch our breath.
our process implies our progress.

we’ve got no stakes in the ground.
we’ve got no anchors tied down.
land or sea, there are no guarantees here, God knows,
there is nothing but our fears of being free.

finally, there’s a mountain beneath us.
but up here our lungs fight against us.
land or sea, there are no guarantees here.
God knows there is nothing but our fears.

"Emphasis" Music Video (& how it was made)

When my good friend, Bob Davidson and I talked about doing a music video together, we both went away and thought through the 36 songs of "Yearbook" and came to the same conclusion: "Emphasis" would be a good fit for a video.

Bob, the director of this video, put together a fantastic team of people to make this possible. Production was handled by Wonderkind Studios: Brian MacDonald, who did incredible job as director of photography, while Jose Rivera edited the final video with precision. It was produced by the inspired folks at Rule29.

Although we discussed several different concepts for the video, we decided on a couple key elements right off the bat - we wanted the performance portion to be filmed at Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago (Side note: all 3 of my previous records were recorded at this gorgeous studio) - the exposed brick, gorgeous wood work and amazing selection of instruments were an immediate selling point.

Another aspect Bob and I both agreed on right away, was to film this in a very close-up, intimate fashion. Macro style as much as possible throughout. For a simple song that tackles such large questions about life, we loved the idea of filming this with limited perspective. In the grand scheme of life, we are perhaps much to close to the world and all of its mystery, to fully understand it. Like standing an inch away from a Georges Seurat painting. So the macro-style filming felt right for this little song about big questions.

We thought some of the outside-of-the-studio footage would be great to tie into various specific lyrics throughout - the first idea being to film bees in their hive, correlating to the first lyric of the song. We all liked this idea enough that Bob and his incredible team arranged to visit and film at a local Bee Keeper's Farm last Fall. Filming bees is no minor task, mind you. The team suited up in full on bee-suit attire and filmed quite a bit of these incredible creature's world.

With film, you never quite know what you have, and if what you have will fit together until you begin the editing process. Shortly after filming all of the planned shots, the team put together a rough edit. The footage all looked absolutely fantastic, but Bob and I felt that the two elements of the video (performance and static shots) weren't quite fitting like the glove we had imagined. So, being the incredibly dedicated team that they are, we decided to shift gears. Bob and I bounced some new ideas off of each other to replace the bees and other static shots, when Bob told me he had a random idea - perhaps we could film a small narrative, maybe of a little kid? I loved the idea and after a bit more brainstorming back and fourth, we landed on the idea of a little boy piecing a puzzle together. And that felt like the perfect visual representation of what this song is about.

bob and i piecing the puzzle shot togetherThe absolutely adorable little boy in the video is Phineas Davidson, the director's amazing 5 year-old son! He did SUCH a fantastic job on this video... took direction like a trained pro (as long as he received mini snack breaks every 20 minutes or so, of course... :)

Oh by the way, I've had a few folks ask if the little boy is meant to be me, i a flash-back or something... the answer is: nope. Phineas is far cuter kid than I ever was. ;)

The jigsaw puzzle was ordered entirely custom from a puzzle-making company in Wisconsin - so it is the only one exactly like it in existence. Neat! The puzzle came right when I was leaving for a trip to California, so my amazing manager was left all to herself to put this puzzle together. It was 200+ pieces, which isn't all that many, BUT due to the nature of the image on it, it's essentially like having to piece together 200+ blank pieces together, because the map colors are very monochromatic. But she did a great job and finished up right in the nick of time to film.

The lovely cellist performing with me, is Melissa Bach. Melissa did such a lovely job playing cello on the recording of this song, that I had to have her be part of the video as well. She's a truly gifted musician from Chicago and I always love working with her! (She was the cellist on my "Storyboards" album as well)

melissa bachI'm very proud of how this video turned out - and cannot thank the team enough for their hard, incredible work! If you or someone you know is in need of incredible creative assistance (video and otherwise!) be sure to check out Rule29 and Wonderkind Studios!

Thanks for reading!! I hope you enjoy the video...

... and here's a great behind-the-scenes video created by Brian MacDonald!

and if you missed it a while back, here's a link to the "how it was made" blog post about writing and recording the song, "emphasis."