track 3 from the album 'nish' by mike hiratzka
This song was initially a bunch of loop experiments layered over top of each other. I bought a bunch of pedals to try and emulate sounds from Ed O'Brien from Radiohead's pedalboard, there are some excellent tech resources on That Pedal Show on YouTube for those interested in going down a similar rabbit hole. I probably don't use them the way that Ed does, but it is fun to have elements of the sounds I love from their records interwoven in mine. I started with some guitar loops, twisting them and editing into some cool 8 bar bits, then layering them with loops of the Minilogue and Analog Rytm. I never use the drum machine the way it was intended; it is more of an analog sound source that I play live and then layer each bit of the loop individually, such as kick, snare, hat, and percussion. Then I process each element, build a loop and treat it as a single stereo source. The vocal idea came from a discussion I was having about dreams, and I Googled dream states and waking dreams and discovered hypnagogia. I read some of Salvador Dali's 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship and culled words and little phrases from it, and excerpted words from Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein after a hypnagogic dream. I put them in what I felt like was a cool poetic structure, then a friend who lives in France translated the words to French. Once it was recorded I had to completely reorganize the phrases so that the French version had a cool musical structure. I'm not sure if it makes sense anymore but it sounds good!
words and music by mike hiratzka
voice | kss | translation by lisa briquet
produced, engineered and mixed by mike hiratzka
recorded at fu studio, miami beach, fl
mastered by john davis at metropolis mastering, london
published by fu man sanchez music (BMI)
©2021 nish recordings
'nish' album: https://links.mikehiratzka.com/nish
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Things I used to make this song:
Sequential Prophet 6 desktop:
https://www.sequential.com/product/prophet-6-desktop/
Korg Minilogue:
https://www.korg.com/us/products/synthesizers/minilogue/
Moog Subsequent 37:
https://www.moogmusic.com/products/subsequent-37
Elektron Analog Rytm MKII:
https://www.elektron.se/products/analog-rytm-mkii/
Korg Kaoss Pad:
https://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/kaoss_pad_kp3_plus/
Line6 DL4:
https://line6.com/stompbox-modelers/