Category: the eleventh hour
songs are the footprints of a gigantic hound!!!
Sherlock didn’t disappoint. One thing in life that is always difficult to do is to surpass previous achievements. This is true in the worlds of TV, film, art, the list goes on. Was John Cleese nervous when he was (co) writing the 2nd series of Fawlty Towers? I would expect that he was. Perhaps that’s an unfair example as I would guess that John Cleese felt he could do no wrong at that point in the 1970s… but, for a normal person, the difficulty of living up to past glories can be a burden. It drags some down, notably some of my heroes such as Tony Hancock. But for others it can fire them up, fuelling something special. John Lennon managed it with Imagine. Kubrik rarely faltered.
In the rock world it can be difficult to forge fresh metal when you have been involved in previous tin can alleys. I’m one of those musicians who finds the challenge to topple previous works a driving force behind my art. I like to write a great song… because I know the next song will have to be even better. Okay, sometimes little rays of sunlight glisten in the creative haze and cause problems with the ever upward steps towards “the perfect song”. In that respect I feel that Escape Plan was a gem that could have been very hard to equal, let alone surpass. But Bill and myself, as The Eleventh Hour, have tried our best! The result is a song called Pitfall. It is a very different beast to Escape Plan, and is certainly a contender for first single. Please give it a listen and see what you think. The plan of action for The Eleventh Hour – the mission statement if you will – is to produce the best music we can. That may seem like a simple, pointless statement… but if you really try to adhere to such a grandiose boast it can be a drain of the senses! The quest for the ultimate song can eat at you from the inside, can fill your mind and consume your day. We are not your everyday common or garden people us songwriters. We are the supreme beings. Remember that, especially if you ever meet me at the bar! A songwriter expects to be bought a drink! And a packet of dry roasted peanuts – and then my friends… and then… we may share with you our world. 😉
Oh, and roll on episode 3 of Sherlock. Damn fine TV! 🙂
If you see SID, tell him
So I power up the studio. My little studio is like the control room from Forbidden Planet. A variety of old switches – clanked into position – the hum of PoWeR. …and you sit there looking blankly at the equipment. Where is the next song going to come from? Then the spark. That magnificent spark of inspiration:
“It takes just one little spark to set me off… and just one small dose of you is more than enough.”
The sounds of my youth always provide me with some context to place a song. Now, I’m gonna go back into the deep, dark wilderness of time with some of these references, so those of you the ‘jealousy-inducing’ side of 20 will read this as a proper history lesson.
Video games have always been of a source of great inspiration to the more indie-centric musician. Ha ha… I’m not talking Bon Jovi or Simple Minds here! If I hark back to my ‘golden era’ of gaming I’m talking Atari 2600, C64, BBC, Electron, Spectrum, Amiga, SNES, Megadrive. Computers and consoles that had internal sound chips and produced what would be described today as ‘bleeps and blips’ music. The composers of the day had a really limited pallet to work with, but they produced classic music. Take the time to youtube Forbidden Forest on the C64. Classic chip music. And check out the date! Ha ha. Listen to recent rap and hip-hop, Timbaland for example. This style of (SID chip) music is timeless.
So I decide I’m gonna make the next song a nostalgic blast from the past. And if it’s a blast from the past… why not wrap a few old skool BLAST sound effects into a rhythm. There… simple, the bed of the song. The song quickly takes shape. When I get an idea between my teeth I gnash at it until it’s in tatters!!!
Computer games were often conceived and programmed by one solitary person. He’d be responsible for everything, including the music. Eventually you had composers who would work specifically on the music. The most famous of the 80s era was arguably Rob Hubbard. Although knowing his name probably seems a little geeky, so many modern producers are using the methods he perfected – mentioning his name lifts you a rung above the average muso. Smarter than the average bear in fact!
The youth of today (has to be said in a sneering “old man’s” voice) know nothing of chip music. Ever since the mid 90s and the introduction of the Playstation, consoles have been able to stream ‘real’ music from the CD. I remember playing the original Wipeout and marvelling at hearing The Chemical Brothers and Orbital while I raced. It really did seem revolutionary. In hindsight, perhaps a little part of me died. Ha ha. Anyway, perhaps what goes around comes around. Nintendo have always been on board the ‘chip-wagon’ and the DS is certainly doing its best to keep chip music in the public’s ears!
So… now we’ve established that I only like chip music and I hate ‘real’ music in games – I’ve just got to leave this website for a second. Just got to have another play on Beatles Rock Band! Then I’ve got to have discussions with some video game producers about getting some songs on their latest titles. You see… garlic bread, nope, I mean Video Game Music – is – the – future – of – Real – Rock!!!
escape plan
Yay!!! We’ve just completed the latest The Eleventh Hour song. It is titled Escape Plan and it will hopefully give you a warm glowing feeling when you listen to it. I would liken it to sitting back in a sweltering studio in New York on a summer’s evening in 1971. Come on, roll with it… picture the scene!
You’re hitting ‘play’ on the reel to reel tape deck. A glass of JD perched on the side of the control room desk (although in NO danger of spilling onto the vintage console I hasten to add!!!). There are a few hippy chicks milling about and a couple of blokes with handlebar moustaches messing with rizla papers in the corner. Anyway, you’re not concentrating on them… you’re getting ready to listen to the summer distilled into a 3 minutes 50 seconds slice of rock.
What are you waiting for?!? Hit ‘play’!
the album track
I nearly have another song completed for my “all monsters and dust” album. This song is a bit of a departure from the norm and will be one of the oddities on the album. Shall I give the title away?… or is that tempting fate? Hmmm. Well, it’s called who invented the colour yellow? and I think it’s gonna be the ‘love it or hate it’ song on the album. I’m from the school of thought that says sometimes you’ve got to have those songs. I love JD but I hate Southern Comfort. Hey, that’s life. There’s something out there for everyone. Sgt Pepper has within you without you. I could personally do without you, but for some, that song is the key to the album. Some ‘difficult’ tracks work, some don’t.
I’m just trying to work who invented the colour yellow? into a song that you’re going to love. Perhaps you won’t love it for its catchiness, or for its ‘ipodability’, but maybe for the fact it’ll challenge you – and do it with a smile on its face. I don’t want people to hate my songs! But I don’t mind them being a bit perplexed 😉 . That is the point where a ‘collection of songs’ finally gels into an album. Rather than being a swept up heap of hits or singles, there is an uneasiness, a cleverness that elevates the mound of dirt to a position well above the sum of the individual components. Occasionally the balance is wrong. The ‘difficult’ song can shine so brightly that the rest of the album sinks into the doldrums (I’m looking at you Achilles last stand). Sometimes the ‘difficult’ song is just so boring compared to the hits that all it calls out for is the finger on the ‘next track’ button (for me, some of the grandiose tracks on the early Maiden albums missed the mark).
So… it can be good to be ‘difficult’… if you’re lucky. Fall borders on the difficult but I think I’m gonna raise the bar with who invented the colour yellow?. Fingers crossed it works!!!
I’m still in the process of recording the latest song for The Eleventh Hour project with Bill Ryan. This latest song is the opposite of what I have been discussing. This is going to be the easy song on an album that so far seems headed in the direction of the ocean of ‘challenging’. It’s gonna be a complicated journey, with islands of ‘wow, that’s a single!’ along the way. Now… who could ask for more???
the eleventh hour
Genesis.
The birth of a new musical collaboration. The Eleventh Hour is a brand new project emanating from the fusion of two artists with the same vision. Where We Go Next was the “found sound” piece I worked on with American musician Bill Ryan a couple of months ago. Well… the collaboration has continued!
We have just completed a fresh song. Mean Machines carries forward the themes and direction of the previous effort and has led Bill and myself to one conclusion… we must make this permanent. This combination of thoughts, experience and musical expression will now exist forever. Like the blocks of Stonehenge, our music will endure.
For what is essentially a side-project for a couple of already established artists we have chosen a name. The Eleventh Hour. Although we will both obviously continue with our own works, we feel that The Eleventh Hour is worth full commitment. We aim to complete an album and to be honest, with two tracks already laid down, this is coming pretty easily. We feel we are onto something – a special something – and through this Confession of the Whole School site you can sneak a little peep through the door and stay ahead of the game!
You will now observe another option on the top menu bar – The Eleventh Hour. Click on this at any time to listen to the songs, view the artwork, in fact anything we choose to add. It will hopefully provide an interesting deviation from the rest of this site which is, of course, still devoted to Confession of the Whole School material. Rest assured that new Confession songs are on the way and ALL MONSTERS AND DUST will get a release! I won’t abandon you! But I also know that you’re gonna love what Bill and I have got in store for you. This is clever music for clever people. New music for new ears!
confessionofthewholeschool.com 