Luke, Jonas and I have spent the past few days working on The Big Track from the 2015 Tangent release. Nobody has heard any of this one yet, and to be honest its not likely to be a preview for a bit. Its a song that has excited us all - and its been a lot of fun to play with. After a few tracks on the album which are some of the most opulently Proggy things weve done in a while, weve taken a detour. Or rather a-whole-nother-trip. This song is based on the idea of a traveller going from coast to coast in the USA and the things they witness on that journey. The only caveat is that the traveller never goes to America.. they just have this journey in their mind from the films and TV shows that they have watched. So its a journey in which the traveller can be completely and utterly wrong about how and where things are. Its ALL prejudice, based on impressions gained from the screen. But of course, these impressions are the ones we have formed, based on the images that the film-makers of that country have given us. The US is certainly one of the most frequently portrayed nations on the Earth and consequently most of the population of planet Earth have an image of it - gained through film. Our song wends its way across America seeing the cities, people and the landscapes from the disaster movies, cop movies, road movies and comedy fims we all know and love and asks Did We Get It Right? Along the way references to the movies and movie stars themselves are frequently made, from The Godfather thru Easy Rider Thelma And Louise, Die Hard, North By Northwest, Star Trek, Breaking Bad and, to coin a 70s advertising cliché.. many many more. We may even have some kind of competition to find all the movies we reference... (MORE than 20) Musically our style has had to be more American for this one piece, and Luke has been studying the guitar work of Steely Dan, Isaac Hayes, (among others) hell, theres even some bits where he sounds like Ry Cooder. For me, Ive been looking at Lalo Schifrin, Chick Corea, Parliament and Zappa for inspiration. And sometimes the whole thing has an air of incidental music from some US TV show with muted trumpets, tinging triangles, horns a plenty, bottleneck slide and even a harmonica. Our finalé - our arrival in San Francisco, features the band sounding funky as HELL. Jonas, Morgan and Luke sounding like some modern Chic Organisation section. For us its been a journey of great learning. Its gonna be a while before anyone hears it - not wishing to whisk my life away, but I cant wait to let this one out of the bag.. So.. come Springtime, well be asking you.. Did We Get It Right? The Celluloid Road A Spark In the Aether - caught by The Tangent. Coming 2015 Best to all...
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:59:20 +0000
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