Apr 30, 2009

Sayonara (A Haiku)

Here's another song collaboration between my ex-friend Javier Contreras and I. The lyrics and melody were written by my friend, and I did the production and the arrangement.  This is a simple song following the rules of a Haiku; a 5-7-5 syllable poem.  The cool thing about this song is that the music also follows the rules of the Haiku in measures.  For the most part the music is all electronic.  The main guitar part was played for one measure then sampled and repeated throughout the rest of the song.  There are three main vocal tracks, two playing at the same time, each with different EQ settings, one concentrating on the mid frequencies, and one on the high frequencies.  The third vocal track was put though an auto-tuner set to auto tune everything to one note.  This made the track sound computerized.  Then with automation, I set the auto tune note to different notes at different parts of the song to create a melody while mantaining the computerized sound.  The background vocals were reversed.

The main idea was to have fun with the song, experiment with it, and keep it simple.  Speaking about experimentation and fun, the clashing sound at the end of the song came by sampling an electric drill while engaging the locking mechanism, then it was pitched down by about 200%.  There are more things in there that I won't go into, after all, I don't want to give my producing secrets away.  Just kidding about that last part.  Why is this song called Sayonara?  Well, the idea was that the Hauku originated in Japan, so sayonara was the first thing that popped into my mind.  Well, it's 2:10 am and I need to go to sleep.  Hope you enjoy the song.  I really enjoyed working on it. 

Here are the lyrics:

Sayonara
© 2009 Javier Contreras/Jesse Acosta
The sun came today
Before and after the rain
To dry up my face

2 comments:

Javier Cntreras said...

Jesse, You must have been tired when you posted this. You forgot about our friend Hotaka. we wrote this for him. His father had just passed away, he was depressed and he was on his way to japan to see his mom. We were saying goodbye but hoped this song would remind him that his sadness will fade and his tears would fade. Anyway I know Hotaka watches this page from time to time, we miss you bro and hope your doing well back at home.

Jesse said...

I'm sorry, I was so tired, and focused on the production of the song, that I forgot to mention the story behind the song. Hotaka, this one's for you. Arigato.

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