General Music Chat

hi everyone,

Just to let you know our entire debut album 'Wine To Water' can be downloaded for free at www.fakegods.bandcamp.com Two of the songs can be heard on Bandmix. We would love to get your thoughts so feel free to drop us a mail at www.fakegods.com All constructive criticism is welcome.

Good luck to everyone with their endeavours.

Alex
Fake Gods

Very sparse. I enjoyed it immensely however. Love the clear intelligible lintelligent lyrics. I put on another thread (yesterday?) I was hopeful that more young people are getting back into music that is redeeming. This is a further example that songwriting is returning to the world. If you like blues at all check out the fisherman bob profile page songs, there's three covers and three originals. I hope your doing free album downloads results in a profitable strategy for you...

Thanks fishermanbob, those are very kind words. In this day and age where you can order Dylan's back catalogue from Amazon marketplace for next to nothing, it didn't makes sense to try to sell this record, especially as the songs are essentially demo quality (albeit pretty good demo quality). Glad you like the lyrics, it is a real learning curve for us. Next time around we plan to work with a producer, to take the stress out of the recording process and hopefully produce a clearer and more interesting sound.

I'm writing this from work so will come back on later at home and listen to your material.

A wee question for everyone. In terms of promoting material, which other websites/blogs are proving effective? This is our first real foray into the world of marketing and we plan to do a wider promotion on our first album proper.

I listened to both songs. I thought they were "okay". They didn't hook me though; I wouldn't load the album on my iPod based on those two songs. And that's kind of a shame, because I like this sort of music (sparse, acoustic based).


Now, every opinion has a frame of reference, so here's why I reacted to the songs as merely "okay". Obviously, I'm nobody, so I wouldn't take anything I say to seriously.



First, Bob is right - it was a joy to hear *clear* vocals. I liked that, and your singing voice is above average (but as Simon Cowell would say, "You're playing it safe").

I'm a fan of acoustic guitar music, whether it is vocal or instrumental. So that combination works for me (and I thought the production you did on the acoustic guitar was great - very very good; it comes across as really clear without being too bright; you mixed it really well).

The sparseness of the production (no drums, no bass, no keyboards) works for me as well. I like that sort of thing. The Xylophone in "The 28" was a surprise and seemed a bit out of place, but again, it mostly works.



What didn't work for me was two things:

First, the tone and playing of the electric guitar lead on Shattered (2:13 mark & later at about 3:15). This is a minor complaint; a personal taste; but it sounded flat and uninspiring to me; like you walked into a guitar shop and grabbed the absolutely junkiest, low-quality guitar you could find and then didn't care when you were playing the lead. And that said, I still thought the lead was too short; it seemed abruptly cut-off when it ended both times. I was like, "That's it? Really?". So I would like to have heard more instrumentality there, more melody; a bit longer instrumental sections (maybe double the measures involved) and more *inspired* playing. The song is somber and it should ache with emotion, but it doesn't.



The bigger issue I had was just that the songs didn't seem to go anywhere or progress in any way and they didn't really dig in emotionally; there was no emotional hook; they seemed flat and even from start to finish.

Now, to get where I'm coming from on that comment: I contrast your stuff against what I consider music of a similar vein, like what Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova did in the film "Once". Listen to a couple songs from that film:

"When Your Mind's Made Up": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k_Pe_iNYO4

"Falling Slowly": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzQ9VrnNQLQ&feature=related



I'm not saying every song a person writes has to be as powerful as "When Your Mind's Made Up", because that's not the point. The power of that song isn't the point. It's the emotional quality that counts. And that emotional quality can be somber, or anger, or joy, or whatever you're trying to reach for as a song writer. But the point is that a really good song reaches for some emotional touchstone and grabs hold of that and conveys that to the listener.

When you listen to "When Your Mind's Made Up", the song progresses. Even though it's a short song, it goes somewhere. It starts out very simple, changes it up a bit, changes again, rises to a crescendo, and eventually falls back to the simple beginning that started it. It's got a definite ebb and flow and that helps to convey the emotional content.

Your songs are like a flat-line from start to finish; they start one place, go on for the duration of the song, and then end and nothing really happens in between the first and last notes. There's nothing going on musically to really change the ebb-and-flow and put the emotional content on display. The lyrics might be great, but if the ebb-and-flow of the music doesn't make them stand out, then there is almost no point to even putting lyrics in there.

I mean, "Shattered" - I literally couldn't differentiate between the verse and chorus because it (the singing) sounded exactly the same. There was no more emphasis on the chorus than there was on the verse; the vocal style didn't change, the emotional drive didn't change. It was the same.

And I couldn't differentiate between the choruses without the small instrumental sections to break them up, because it just sounds even across the board. And I'm listening to the lyrics and thinking, "There's pain here, in these words, but the singing and the music and the playing aren't conveying it."

So, there you go. Critique from Mr. Nobody.

Colorsfade,

Firstly, many thanks for that detailed critique. It means more to us than you know that you took the time and effort to offer us a detailed appraisal of our tracks. There are two of us in this band so I forwarded your critique to my bandmate who replied thus:

"Just given this a quick read, I'll go back through it later on. But on first read...I totally agree with him. This is an excellent critique, please let him know I've said that! Seriously, he's correct on most points. Certainly re the guitar on Shattered, he's nailed how bad it is, and I know that".

Now I have to say that I largely concur as well. These songs are our primitive offerings and we're very much learning on the job. I particularly appreciate the reference you make to the songs lacking ebb and flow, and through your feedback and others, we will consciously ensure that future songs are more sonically interesting and diverse, and convey the relevant emotions.

That said (and here come the excuses), the recording process for these demos was extremely laborious due to our technical inexperience and, in hindsight, this contributed towards the flat, sterile feel of the tracks (i.e. through too many fragmented takes). In a live setting they sound much more vibrant. Another issue was that we began the process by laying down similar rhythm guitar parts for each song, which rendered them monotonous over the course of the record. We won't make that mistake again.

We are fond of the core of the songs and are keen to work them up in a more interesting way for inclusion on our first proper album.

Once again, many thanks for the very helpful feedback.

I listened to both songs.

Colors, your critique nailed it. Very well thought out and well stated. Kudos.

Chris

That said (and here come the excuses), the recording process for these demos was extremely laborious due to our technical inexperience and, in hindsight, this contributed towards the flat, sterile feel of the tracks (i.e. through too many fragmented takes). In a live setting they sound much more vibrant. Another issue was that we began the process by laying down similar rhythm guitar parts for each song, which rendered them monotonous over the course of the record. We won't make that mistake again.

I *totally* understand and that makes sense.

I've got a brother-in-law who has a home studio and he has done the same thing on both his albums: lots of fragmented takes and then through the editing process stuff gets spliced together. And the only way that splicing works is if everything is even from take to take, so that you can actually glue stuff together. And of course, the downside to that is that you lose the live performance feel of the piece, and you lose the ability to dynamically change things.

A lot of times, the recording process can be as beneficial to the final outcome of a song as the writing process is, because you can try things out and experiment with feel and arrangement.

You guys have cut your teeth and have a much better idea of what to do next time around. I know it's a pain in the ass to do a 4-minute take over and over, but it can also lead to capturing that vibrant, live feeling really well.

Good luck gentleman! And thanks for the words on the critique. But remember, I'm nobody

Unlike folks here I totally understand where you are coming from. Breaking America as regards music will be the biggest single thing anyone can achieve, and I really mean that too.

It's not that America or the World is better. It's just that it is very different here. The UK Forum was set up but to be honest this is mostly an American joint.

I listened to your stuff the other day. Very nice indeed. Full of Celtic mystery.

Good luck folks.

Thanks for the kind words Chippy. I imagine breaking America would indeed be extremely difficult, very few bands from the UK manage to penetrate the US market. We'll settle for breaking out of our own back yard!

To colorsfade: indeed we have lost the live performance element on manyof those demos. We feel that playing live is where we excel so we'll be hoping to get closer to that next time around.