The Deathbird: my solo project

octatonic

Edit: As I say below- I should probably have put all the songs in one thread rather than expect people to go to multiple threads to look at them. I am consolidating them here.

@Roland- would you mind merging the threads I've put in this subforum in the last few days?

This project is a solo album- I've had a number of songs kicking around in my unfinished music folder for the last few years, some of them are a lot older than that.
I’m calling the project The Deathbird - It’s a literary device that functions as an observer of aftermath. It represents the point after collapse, loss or failure, when events have already played out and what remains can be seen clearly. A deathbird doesn’t cause anything. It arrives once outcomes are unavoidable, marking transition rather than climax.

The deathbird removes heroism from the frame. There’s no rescue implied and no redemption arc. Meaning isn’t restored, it’s selected. What remains matters because it survives scrutiny, not because it’s saved. As a device, it’s useful for work that deals with quiet endings and unresolved states, where significance comes from endurance rather than victory.

The idea came up during a counselling session and it stuck. It felt like an accurate motif for the work I’m making now, and for where I am in my life more generally. I’d owned the domain for a while. This is simply the point at which I decided to use it.

The songs:

Middle Erased:

This started with a sample of a Led Zeppelin drum loop (When the Levee Breaks, I think) and I fleshed it out from there into something that is sort of hypnotic. It doesn't have a key change and is largely over a pedal tone. This is intentional as I wanted it to sound relentless with no resolution, which fitted the lyrics.

https://jamesrichmond.com/audio/demos/Middle Erased.mp3

Sporky

I like that a lot. 

MrTee

Well that’s just fantastic!

octatonic

Thanks chaps. 

monquixote

Great work 

Reminds me of Tool in a good way.

octatonic

I should probably have kept it all to one thread.
I think I will rename this thread and just put everything in one place, and talk a bit about the songs individually and the project itself.

This one started as a Pumpkins style riff but I dragged it away from that,.
I've got a couple of versions of this song but this chorus is the one I am mostly happy with. 
I plan on redoing the verse lyrics a bit- they are sort of placeholdery.

It is called No Place To Go.

https://jamesrichmond.com/audio/demos/NoPlaceToGo_v1.mp3

monquixote

octatonic said:

I should probably have kept it all to one thread.
I think I will rename this thread and just put everything in one place, and talk a bit about the songs individually and the project itself.

This one started as a Pumpkins style riff but I dragged it away from that,.
I've got a couple of versions of this song but this chorus is the one I am mostly happy with. 
I plan on redoing the verse lyrics a bit- they are sort of placeholdery.

It is called No Place To Go.

https://jamesrichmond.com/audio/demos/NoPlaceToGo_v1.mp3

Are you playing all the instruments yourself and singing?

I knew you were handy on the drums and guitar, but I wasn't aware you were a singer as well.

octatonic

monquixote said:

octatonic said:

I should probably have kept it all to one thread.
I think I will rename this thread and just put everything in one place, and talk a bit about the songs individually and the project itself.

This one started as a Pumpkins style riff but I dragged it away from that,.
I've got a couple of versions of this song but this chorus is the one I am mostly happy with. 
I plan on redoing the verse lyrics a bit- they are sort of placeholdery.

It is called No Place To Go.

https://jamesrichmond.com/audio/demos/NoPlaceToGo_v1.mp3

Are you playing all the instruments yourself and singing?

I knew you were handy on the drums and guitar, but I wasn't aware you were a singer as well.

Yes I am playing everything and singing.

I've been doing Chris Liepe vocal courses- they are great.
I did a year and a bit of classical technique but it was too limiting- they don't acknowledge the Baritenor register. 
I'm not a low baritone so classical technique wants to keep me boxed in, where I want to be able to go higher than the classification within classical allows.
In classical Baritones only ever go into falsetto/head voice when doing 'comic' voices in opera.
That isn't going to work for me so I ditched it for a modern method,

I'm not entirely happy with the vocals that I have done so far, I am still figuring out my voice and what I do well.
It takes me a lot of takes and the screaming shreds my voice, so I am figuring out how to do it safely too.

octatonic

Here is a bit of a different one.
I set myself the challenge to write a more 'commercially-oriented' rock song.

This is what I did:

https://jamesrichmond.com/audio/demos/WorseWay_v2.mp3

octatonic

Here is probably the last track I am writing for the album.
It is proggier than anything else- It's called 'My Original Design'.
I'm happier with this vocal than anything else I've done so far.

https://jamesrichmond.com/audio/demos/TheDeathbird/My_Original_Design_4_.mp3

stickyfiddle

monquixote said:

Great work 

Reminds me of Tool in a good way.

My mind went to NIN. Either is good! 

I’ll have a listen to the rest in the morning 

octatonic

stickyfiddle said:

monquixote said:

Great work 

Reminds me of Tool in a good way.

My mind went to NIN. Either is good! 

I’ll have a listen to the rest in the morning 

Thank you mate- I appreciate you taking the time.

Chuffola

Just had a quick listen to all the tracks. Really very good - and the vocals are excellent. I think you are too hard on yourself - your voice sounds superb.

Definitely getting a NIN and Tool vibe with a bit of heavier Porcupine Tree thrown in. If I heard this in a record store I'd definitely be asking who it was. 

octatonic

Chuffola said:

Just had a quick listen to all the tracks. Really very good - and the vocals are excellent. I think you are too hard on yourself - your voice sounds superb.

Definitely getting a NIN and Tool vibe with a bit of heavier Porcupine Tree thrown in. If I heard this in a record store I'd definitely be asking who it was. 

Thank you mate.

Those three bands plus Queens of the Stone Age and Clutch are my main influences I think.
Alice in Chains a bit too.
Especially Porcupine Tree, the Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet albums- they are in my DNA.
So I am really pleased you hear some of them in what I am trying to do.

digitalkettle

Been following your recent threads: this is great stuff!

digitalkettle

octatonic said:

Chuffola said:

Just had a quick listen to all the tracks. Really very good - and the vocals are excellent. I think you are too hard on yourself - your voice sounds superb.

Definitely getting a NIN and Tool vibe with a bit of heavier Porcupine Tree thrown in. If I heard this in a record store I'd definitely be asking who it was. 

Thank you mate.

Those three bands plus Queens of the Stone Age and Clutch are my main influences I think.
Alice in Chains a bit too.
Especially Porcupine Tree, the Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet albums- they are in my DNA.
So I am really pleased you hear some of them in what I am trying to do.

Thought I heard some Clutch in there: mainly in the structures/riffs...production is far sharper though!

Certainly, the vocals bring Maynard's melodic approach to mind.

I feel slightly bad saying "it sounds like this/that" but it is its own thing...and humans make comparisons (and they're good comparisons).

Would love to hear how about you get such sharp riffage and how you process your vocals, etc, etc.

octatonic

digitalkettle said:

octatonic said:

Chuffola said:

Just had a quick listen to all the tracks. Really very good - and the vocals are excellent. I think you are too hard on yourself - your voice sounds superb.

Definitely getting a NIN and Tool vibe with a bit of heavier Porcupine Tree thrown in. If I heard this in a record store I'd definitely be asking who it was. 

Thank you mate.

Those three bands plus Queens of the Stone Age and Clutch are my main influences I think.
Alice in Chains a bit too.
Especially Porcupine Tree, the Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet albums- they are in my DNA.
So I am really pleased you hear some of them in what I am trying to do.

Thought I heard some Clutch in there: mainly in the structures/riffs...production is far sharper though!

Certainly, the vocals bring Maynard's melodic approach to mind.

I feel slightly bad saying "it sounds like this/that" but it is its own thing...and humans make comparisons (and they're good comparisons).

Would love to hear how about you get such sharp riffage and how you process your vocals, etc, etc.

Cheers.

The riff thing is mostly down to the riffs themselves. It’s slightly odd but I spend far more time trying to improve my soloing, with pretty modest returns, whereas riffs just seem to arrive fully formed. I’ve come to accept that I’m basically a riff writer with a serviceable, not spectacular, lead vocabulary. That’s fine. It’s the part I actually care about.

Sonically, a lot of it comes from using less gain than people expect. You end up hearing the front edge of the note and then it’s all in the right hand. On the single-note riffs I often use an octaver, usually an Ibanez OT10. It has that slightly feral fuzz top end that nothing else quite does. After that it’s mostly just EQ and compression. Guitar EQ tends to be SSL E-series hardware or the UAD Helios. Compression is usually an LA-3A on the channel and an API 527 on the guitar bus.

Most of these tracks are real amps. High gain is CAA PT50, Suhr PT15IR and a Marshall Jubilee. Edge-of-breakup is Matchless Lightning, Nighthawk and Laurel Canyon. Cleans are Louis Electric Roadrunner and Columbia. I sometimes double with the Axe-FX III if I want a different texture. I don’t track with delay or reverb, all of that is added later from outboard. Guitars themselves are unremarkable, but I nearly always double a humbucker part with a Tele with a P90. I try to get the doubles bang on by hand, but if I need help I’ll occasionally nudge things with Waves Sync VX. It is meant for vocals but I find it works great on guitar parts.

Bass mostly follows the guitar lines and is always tracked as two channels, one clean and one dirty. I automate the balance depending on how naked the bass part is- in a couple of placed the bass introduces a new section so you will hear the dirt a lot more, then it drops back when the rest of the band comes in. (Well, band.. I mean, it is just me).

Vocals are fairly straight down the line: Flea 47 into a BAE 1073, then 1176 into LA-2A. I mult after the 1073 so I have a compressed and an uncompressed track. Beyond that it’s just EQ and sometimes a bit more compression. Reverb is Eventide H9000 and LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven.

I have a master bus chain that hasn't changed for a long time- it is Overstayer MAS -> SSL Bus+ -> SSL Fusion -> MAAG EQ4m -> IGS Rubber Bands (stereo pultec).

octatonic

I thought of something else.

I do a bit of harmony processing on some of the vocals- Tiefighter is one of those.
I tracked it twice, once through an octave down, and once just as I described above.
I could have done the octave down on the single take but I find it is better to have the slight timing differences from the two different takes as it fills the vocal out a lot.
Another vocal harmony processing thing is the Eventide H949 setting 'Backup Singers'.
I use that on everything.
It takes a mono vocal, makes it stereo and introduces a variation over time- the pitch will change 5 cents +/-. 

Here is a screen shot of it- see where 'random' is selected about 2/3rds of the way down the screenshot- that means the pitch of each side will vary over time. It just fills a backup or lead double out. 


I also really like the UAD A-Type exciter on a BV bus- set to 'Excite'.

monquixote

octatonic said:

Chuffola said:

Just had a quick listen to all the tracks. Really very good - and the vocals are excellent. I think you are too hard on yourself - your voice sounds superb.

Definitely getting a NIN and Tool vibe with a bit of heavier Porcupine Tree thrown in. If I heard this in a record store I'd definitely be asking who it was. 

Thank you mate.

Those three bands plus Queens of the Stone Age and Clutch are my main influences I think.
Alice in Chains a bit too.
Especially Porcupine Tree, the Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet albums- they are in my DNA.
So I am really pleased you hear some of them in what I am trying to do.

I def hear a mixture of all of those in your music.

octatonic

So much for 'I'm done writing'.

This is a reworking of 'No Place To Go'.
I had an alternate set of lyrics for it and I think it is a better melody and lyric.

This is the acoustic(ish) version. There is an electric one but it has bits missing.
I'm doing my octave harmony thing on this (although it is actually a 4th below) I think it makes it sound spookier.

https://jamesrichmond.com/audio/demos/TheDeathbird/Apart_Acoustic_v1_.mp3

Jfingers

I feel a bit silly for even commenting on your songs to be honest but for what it's worth I think they all sound top notch.

Not necessarily the type of music I usually listen to but they all sound like ready to release material to me. I'm in awe of your knowledge of the recording process, your voice is enviably good and it's all just 'tight as a gnat's twadge' as an old friend of mine was fond of saying.

As I have different frames of reference to some, I was put in mind of Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, a touch of Cake, and a dash of Screaming Trees.

I think I commented on some of your other work and it still applies the the acoustic(ish) versions are more up my street but top marks mate, that's some really good stuff.