Sic.

brazillians-4_18_08-dunedin

There’s a theory that creativity is simply allowing unconscious impulses unedited flow. My favorite quote along these lines comes from a Jamaican reggae musician (whose name I can’t recall)- “Jah writes ‘em, I just sing em”.  I believe in this- from experience. When you let it, something does indeed swoop in and guide your hand. Then you do with it what you will…

“Brazillians” (sic) was the second thing I recorded with my new format (Garageband), a few months ago in Dunedin. The scene: Jakob, my flat mate, had gone off to Mt Cook on a weekend-long field trip. I don’t mind recording instruments with someone else around, but I don’t like singing- the space I’m in is just too whacky and intimate. With the place to myself, I recorded the first tune, which had been a-kickin’ and a-mullin’ in my head for a couple of years (“Iditerod”- I’ll post it soon), then, as the night wore on and I had a few beers, “Brazillians” was born.

The original idea was to wed a guitar riff that I had (that I thought sounded kind of Brazilian) with a lyric about a Brazilian ghost- my landlord Rafael, who was out of the country; I’d never met him but his presence was everywhere; the smell of fried meat, the smell of his baby, the funky décor, etc. I wanted to add one of those hushed bossa-nova vocals over the top of this, but never got around to it- by the time I got as far as what you’ll hear, it was 2 am, and I was kinda starting to like it the way it was.

The guitar was recorded with my H4 on my itsy-bitsy 1-watt battery powered Fender Mini-Twin. It was the first time I’d used a mic’d amp and I immediately preferred it to the simulated amp sounds available in Garageband. Most of the time on this admittedly throw-away tune was spent trying to make my Danelectro guitar sound like a bass- fussing with bass filters, blah blah. Funny thing is, when I got a real bass and revisited this tune, I preferred the original lo-fi pseudo bass, so that’s what you hear.

The drums are from the “loop library” or whatever, in Garageband. More on how lame this beat-farm is later, but this one wasn’t too bad, and the preset small room reverb setting really made it come alive. The same reverb is on the other instruments, and I think glues them together to sound fairly plausibly live-in-a-room-at-the-same-time.

The vocal… Jah wrote it; I just opened my mouth and wagged my tongue.