"Terror In Tiny Town"
(Right-click or ctrl-click to download the song, or just click the link to play it.)
Length: 3:34
Track count: 14 tracks
Instrumentation: Stylophone (re-issue), Korg Monotron, Live's 606 drum machine, voice, Fender Strat
I mutated some existing sounds - a Rex file from Reason, a drum part from an old song which I slowed down 30 BPM to the song's tempo (which is 89) and a snippet from a song I wrote years ago for my brother's website - and although you can't hear them distinctly in the final song, they did inform the feel.
I went back and recorded a snappy drum beat using a very neat sounding electronic drumkit, a 606 emulation instrument in Live. I began with just kick and snare, but as I did variations on it I added instruments with each few bars. There aren't many in this drum machine, but I love the ones that are there. I also had a field recording of Townsend and I pouring Pepsi down the sink after a cola taste-test, and you'll hear that, mildly beat-sliced, along with the drums in the intro.
Once I'd gotten the clean drum part and laid in and mixed a ton of messy, fuzzy sounds, I went in and did a lot of "stutter edits" - cutting out sections of the sound to make a stuttering rhythm - by hand. I drew in pitch swoops to some parts, and some parts have a granular delay that automates pitch swoops on its own.
To keep with the "tiny" theme, I recorded a rhythm vocal and then transposed most it up an octave. I love that Helium sound! If I could have a tank of helium in my studio for such occasions, I surely would.
Once I recorded the Monotron and Stylophone parts, I transposed them down an octave and doubled them to give them some heft.
Then it was a matter of going in and laying down some super-distorted guitar, playing my Strat through Live's built-in guitar effects, which I'm still getting the hang of.
It's a dirty, sloppy, silly mess, but I like it that way. So here we go!
Thanks for listening - Enjoy!
Contact Heather: