You See What You Want To See - Ambient/Indie Fusion

richardyot

I've wanted to try and use ambient textures in an actual song with vocals for a couple of years, but I couldn't quite figure out how to. Anyway this is an attempt, with a track that started as an instrumental (Fireflies and Rainy Skies, which I posted a couple of weeks back).

The vocal structure is linear, there is no verse or chorus, just 3 sections that come one after another with no repetition in the vocal melody. It's probably tricky to make a hooky song without any repetition, but the 6/8 piano motif is recurring and ties the song together.

McD

I love the way you set me up for a time signature and then changed it as you entered a new section. The original 6/8 came across as 3/4 then the vocal was a strict 4/4 and the piano slipped out of the mix. All this rhythmic attention prevents me from putting this into the ambient section of my collection. I put next to that awesome Nick Drake album.

jwmmakerofmusic

One of these days Richard we need to collaborate. Of course I produce EDM and HipHop, but I've also produced many other genres including Synthwave and such, and am open to trying out other genres as well.

I absolutely love your voice and songwriting. How do you usually collaborate? Do you write the music and record the vocals? Do you produce stems too?

richardyot

@McD said:
I love the way you set me up for a time signature and then changed it as you entered a new section. The original 6/8 came across as 3/4 then the vocal was a strict 4/4 and the piano slipped out of the mix. All this rhythmic attention prevents me from putting this into the ambient section of my collection. I put next to that awesome Nick Drake album.

Thanks! There are indeed some time-signature antics in this one, switching between the 6/8 piano motif and the rest of the track in 4/4, and even mixing the two up at times (the drums play in 4/4 behind the 6/8 piano).

richardyot

@jwmmakerofmusic said:
One of these days Richard we need to collaborate. Of course I produce EDM and HipHop, but I've also produced many other genres including Synthwave and such, and am open to trying out other genres as well.

I absolutely love your voice and songwriting. How do you usually collaborate? Do you write the music and record the vocals? Do you produce stems too?

I haven't done that many collabs, but for those I've done with @JanKun I supplied him with a vocal and a chord progression and he then built the music around the vocal (altering the chords as he saw fit).

This is one we did recently, and he created some really great music around the vocal I supplied. My original was just a very basic voice and guitar demo:

JanKun

It sounds great, Richard. Lots of beautiful intertwined textures. Glad to hear your play some acoustic as well. I would have preferred the acoustic tracked through your Shure sm7 instead of the piezzo, but that's just a matter of personal taste and maybe the piezzo sound blends better with the other instruments. Great track as usual!

richardyot

@JanKun said:
It sounds great, Richard. Lots of beautiful intertwined textures. Glad to hear your play some acoustic as well. I would have preferred the acoustic tracked through your Shure sm7 instead of the piezzo, but that's just a matter of personal taste and maybe the piezzo sound blends better with the other instruments. Great track as usual!

Thanks! With the guitar tracking, it's just so much easier with the piezo, I don't have to wait for the house to be quiet, or set up the microphone, and I'm happy with the sound I get from using an acoustic guitar IR. I actually just recorded the guitars as a rough placeholder and was planning to redo them, but in the end the demo recording sounded OK to me so I ended up using it

Svetlovska

Wistful, dusty, loving the brushed drums… a Leonard Cohen/Chris Isaak circa ‘Wicked Game’ kind of vibe to this.

dendy

The vocal structure is linear, there is no verse or chorus, just 3 sections that come one after another with no repetition in the vocal melody. It's probably tricky to make a hooky song without any repetition, but the 6/8 piano motif is recurring and ties the song together.

i actually like when song has not classic structure with verse/chorus and just flows and evolves from place A to place B. It feels more like it is telling some story.

Like this one, good job.

If i am allowed :-)) to express some tiny criticism - this is something i see across most of your songs - i am misimg s little bit more of low end. Oversl sound is nice in middle and high spectrum but lacking a bit proper low end (bass and sub-bass) when comoared to middle/high spectrum.

Of course if that’s your creative intention or part of this genre then totally ignore me :-) Just wanted to mention this…

In general it’s nice song. Like real SONG not just “track” like my music lol, so respect 🫡

richardyot

@Svetlovska said:
Wistful, dusty, loving the brushed drums… a Leonard Cohen/Chris Isaak circa ‘Wicked Game’ kind of vibe to this.

Thanks for listening, much appreciated ❤

@dendy said:
If i am allowed :-)) to express some tiny criticism - this is something i see across most of your songs - i am misimg s little bit more of low end. Oversl sound is nice in middle and high spectrum but lacking a bit proper low end (bass and sub-bass) when comoared to middle/high spectrum.

All criticism is welcome, it's always good to know what other people are hearing. I'll definitely have another listen with the low-end in mind. Thanks for taking the time to comment 👍

GeoTony

I think this is my favourite of all of your songs that I’ve listened to… excellent 🙏

richardyot

@GeoTony said:
I think this is my favourite of all of your songs that I’ve listened to… excellent 🙏

Thanks for listening, it's always appreciated.