New song - Here Beside You

[sambrowne]

This is a new Black River Drive song, recorded at Roundhead just prior to the Seven Worlds people moving in and taking over.

Here's the link:

http://www.box.net/shared/nbrk12iko6

Roundhead is an amazing studio and I would recommend it for anyone wanting the best of the best. The room itself is peerless, amazing sound and really nice vibe with lots of natural light pouring in. We used the drum kit used for "Why does love do this to me?" for this song which was quite amusing for my band, all of whom including me have played that song maybe 400 times+.

I forget what we used for what parts but it's mainly my good old Vox AC30 turned up to "kill" for just about everything, coupled with my les paul as well as Neil Finn's black Gretsch semi-hollow body, which prompted me to get my own one (a lovely old Yamaha), I loved it so much.

Martin (Hot Grits) and Ryan (Custom Audio) helped out with the amps and guitars. The 65 Amps London was just amazing, with its chiming AC15 style tone on one channel and raucous (but smoothly raucous) Marshall rock in the other. We A/B'd it with my 60s Ac30 and the 65 was certainly true to its name, delivering tone that was easily the equal of the Vox, but with far more versatility and ease of tonal options. Really a fantastic amp and a great alternative to spending big bucks on real vintage gear. I will certainly be keen to use one again next time we're in the studio.

BVs were courtesy of Sean Cunningham from Atlas.

The song is currently unmastered.

Comments and criticisms are welcome. I hope to release this song to radio sometime soon, once we have a video to accompany it. Hopefully I will get funding in the next round but failing that I'll just fund it myself.

[sambrowne]

Oh and course my trusty and much loved Taylor 710 for the acoustic again. Great guitar.

[Bg]

Very nice

[Basket Case]

Sounds awesome Sam- great work!

[thehenderson]

I think you achieve exactly what you're going for, in a sort of Opshop/Atlas kind of vein, so congrats!

From my personal point of view, the arrangement and vocal delivery just doesn't do it for me. I feel I've heard it all before, and didn't like it then either. The filmic strings, the soft acoustic guitar intro, I dunno, it just doesn't sound super exciting to my ears. But I know lots of people do seem to be into that kind of arrangement so that's cool, I understand where you're coming from

I also don't really like the vocal delivery. You've put on a strong american accent and you're kind of over emphasising everything in a cheesey way. Ahh I don't mean that to come out harsh, I think it fits the context, but I'm just saying it's not my sort of thing

I quite like the melody in parts though, particularly the little 'beside you' bit at the end of the chorus lines. That's real catchy I think.

anyway, I didn't mean to come across as mean or anything, I thought it was alright considering it's not really my thing. It's great to see you regularly recording and releasing, good on you!

[ash]

Ooooh, lush moments of Greschtastic goodness in there. Nice.

[sambrowne]

Mark, no probs mate, no offence taken, I understand exactly where you're coming from. Rather than drawing on the kiwi versions, I am probably more influenced by the bands that influenced those bands though Op shop comparisons do seem to pop up fairly regularly, not a bad thing in my book (though I'm not half the singer he is).

We are actually looking at redoing the vocals but not for the reasons you mentioned. I try to avoid overdoing the accent thing as much as possible, but I would argue that rather than a US accent, that's a standard "singing" accent, i.e. anybody except people going out of their way to sound kiwi is going to sound a bit american (or british) as that is the sound of rock'n'roll. You know?

As for over-enunciating, you're right - that is something I'll probably pull back on when we re-record the vocals. There is a danger of not enunciating clearly enough and your words being unclear but that is not really a risk for me I think. I really try to a large extent to have my own sound with my voice, as it's really the one place you can truly sculpt a sound that is your own.

Each to their own mate, your comments are valid and interesting. I appreciate you taking the time to critique it.

Thanks to everyone for their comments so far.

[The Scarecrow]

Hey Sam,

As always, a very professional sounding effort from you. One thing I always rember about our time together in a band is that you have and still maintain a very good voice for the mass market radio i.e. I can see this getting airplay on a bunch of media. It reminds me of the sort of song you'd hear during a penultimate moment in a Dawsons Creek kinda teen drama, but that's not a bad thing at all.

I hear touches of Op Shop, but I'm more reminded of bands like Lifehouse, maybe even a little Dashboard Confessional, earlier Switchfoot, but the music harks almost to a Verve type of sound. Like Mark, it's not 100% my kinda thing. Definitely something I would of been into a few years ago though, but having said that, I've played it about 3 times and it's growing on me.

Highlight is definitely the solo. Eerie, lifting and haunting. Top work mate, very polished, even if it's not mastered, I couldn't tell.

Reuben.

[sambrowne]

the sort of song you'd hear during a penultimate moment in a Dawsons Creek kinda teen drama

Ouch! But I know you mean it in a nice way! Thanks for checking it out Reuben. The solo is running through a wah, BB preamp plus, octave pedal (adding one octave down) and a POG (not sure where in the chain but I think after everything else). POGs are quite marvellous.

[sambrowne]

For those who are interested, there is a Facebook group for Black River Drive. I'll be keeping it up to date with gigs, new recordings and other stuff like that.

[The Scarecrow]

the sort of song you'd hear during a penultimate moment in a Dawsons Creek kinda teen drama

Ouch! But I know you mean it in a nice way! Thanks for checking it out Reuben. The solo is running through a wah, BB preamp plus, octave pedal (adding one octave down) and a POG (not sure where in the chain but I think after everything else). POGs are quite marvellous.

Yeah, it's definitely got a "Western mass market" vibe to it, but as I've said, that's not a bad thing at all. 10x more likely to get funding, I've found.

[thehenderson]

I DON'T WANNA WAIT

[The Scarecrow]

I DON'T WANNA WAIT

doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo.

[thehenderson]

(for my liiiife to be over)

I actually have the soundtrack, brought it back out the other night. Oh man I miss Pacey

[The Scarecrow]

(for my liiiife to be over)

I actually have the soundtrack, brought it back out the other night. Oh man I miss Pacey

I'll never forgive him for cutting Dawson's lunch and stealing Joey all those years ago. Pick your friends wisely in Capeside.