Why, hello there! Hope you're well. It's that time again. Time for yet another round of "Song Stories", where I give some juicy details on each song SDP has released over the years. In this blog entry, I shall cover the songs from the 2009 release, "7-Sided Parallel", and the B-sides and outtakes that are associated with it. Let's begin!
#1 - MONEY-GO-ROUND
The title for this one dates as far back as 2001. When Forbes and I revived the Swede project after being put aside during high school, I had a flood of ideas for new material. This song was among the monsoon that occurred. For years I would have an idea for the song's sound, but wouldn't actually start working on it until 2006. A short instrumental teaser, which can be found as a hidden bonus track on the album's instrumental equivalent, "Heptagonal Parallel", was the first draft. A former co-worker of Forbes got to hear this somehow (maybe Forbes' MP3 player?), and expressed how much he loved the sound and really wanted us to finish it. Very encouraging! However, due to technical issues (very common in that era) I wasn't able to work on any music for a number of months that year. I bought a new computer, got back into it, and yeah. Groovy. It was probably around 2008 though when I decided to start on vocal tracks for the album. This song got its voices in early 2009, just in time for the single to be released on my birthday (April 4th), nearly a whole 2 months before the actual album. The guitars are all me, by the way. Also, the song's sound is heavily inspired by Depeche Mode's "Barrel of a Gun".
#2 - PURIFIED
If I remember correctly, the instrumental version of this track came about around 2008-ish. The lyrics, in case you don't know, are about baptism. Something I hadn't actually experienced at the time, but would eventually in 2011. The opening line was inspired by Depeche Mode (yet again) and their B-side track, "Dangerous".
#3 - SOMEBODY OUT THERE
Sounds very spacey and sci-fi. That was the intention. With a title like this, you'd think it was about aliens. Not necessarily... It was written from the perspective of somebody who has a strong belief of a higher power, but not entirely sure. At least not until the second chorus. The Chinese-style instrumental break after the second chorus was a little random thing I included because it sounded good. Still does. Love the bassy fade-in at the end of it.
#4 - THE DREAM
One of the earliest completed tracks from the album. Created around 2005, it was released on various websites to try and promote the Kingrow name and gain a bit of a following. The response was minor, but at least it had one. Its title was given as it makes me picture a dream sequence every time. The title was also a few years old at this point.
#5 - PARALLEL WORLDS
The title of this song is as old as "Money-Go-Round" (2001). It was finally made sometime between 2007 & '09. The original version was actually the one on the single - the 'Radio Mix'. I decided to slow it down a little for the album. The lyrics can be seen by both the perspective of a human relationship or a human/spiritual one. Basically, it's about one of those points in life where you can physically share a room with someone, but feel like you're in different time zones.
#6 - LINT
I have no memory of how the title came about. It's just something random with no meaning. This was the longest track I had put together at the time (around 2005 or 06). Despite being 12-minutes long, it didn't take much time to put together at all. A great instrumental interlude for an album such as this.
#7 - 7 SISTERS
This is classic Kingrow nonsense lyric writing at its finest. We have no idea what we were talking about. Gathering words together to make it sound good, perhaps? Let's go with that. The instrumental was inspired (yet again) by Depeche Mode with their track, "Sister of Night".
#8 - THE DEAFENING SILENCE
I've always felt this one (at least the instrumental) would sound great in a nightclub. Maybe that club scene in "The Matrix" where Neo meets Trinity for the first time? Try watching it with this song dubbed over it and see what I mean. The original instrumental had a weird ending, which used a digital creation of my own, rather than something I picked out of an archive. However, the album version uses a false ending with a nod towards Depeche Mode's ending of "Enjoy the Silence", of all things.
#9 - WINTER HEART
The first instrumental track I ever made without a drum beat. After putting the rain and ambient sounds together over a cool bassline, I felt it didn't really need much. This is the perfect example of how I'd write soundtracks for, say, a movie or something...
BONUS TRACKS
#1 - VISA-GO-RECTANGULAR
The title was just me trying to be funny by changing "Money-Go-Round". It's basically a guitar outtake from that song anyway. It wasn't an outtake that I felt should be ignored though, so I made it a hidden track at the end of "Winter Heart", appearing (in your face) after a 2-minute silence.
#2 - RETROVIRUS
Remember when Billy Joel released "We Didn't Start the Fire" and you were greeted with a song throwing random references to past events and pop culture? We basically did that in this song over an 80's throwback instrumental with a rockin' ending. A number of people have expressed their approval of this song. It was originally a B-side for "Purified", but ended up being used as a promo track for the "Hidden Treasures" compilation album. Like "The False Prophet", this song would also gain a slideshow music video, which is also unavailable. The song's ending was actually the demo version.
#3 / #4 - MONEY-GO-ROUND (CHIPMUNK DANCE MIX) / (WHISPER BASS MIX)
After releasing the standard 2-track version of the single, I decided to make a 'maxi single' with 2 extra remixes. The first being the 'Chipmunk' version. This was actually a happy accident. All I wanted to do was remove the guitar tracks, increase the tempo, add a dance beat, and that was it. However, in the process of speeding it up, the pitch went up with it, hence the higher vocal track. Deciding it sounded good anyway, I chose not to fix the problem. As for the 'Whisper bass' version, this was my attempt at making the song sound even darker. I think it worked! Removing my vocal track helped towards this as well.
#5 - COME TO ME
A B-side from "Purified", its original instrumental version has a slower tempo, which led to it running for over 8 minutes. This was too long for the song I wanted it to be. So when it came to adding vocals, I sped it up a little. Nothing wrong with it being 5 minutes instead.
#6 - TRAPPED
The B-side from "Parallel Worlds". It starts off with a beat very similar to the A-side's 'radio mix', which worked rather well with it.
#7 - SAVED MY LIFE TODAY
The first song to feature my very own keyboard skills. In this track, I used an old CasioTone MT-36, which was digitally altered after recording. The keyboard has been in the family since I was in my early school years. Very 80's sound, and now you know why.
NEXT EPISODE - "KINGROW ONLINE AGAIN".
#1 - MONEY-GO-ROUND
The title for this one dates as far back as 2001. When Forbes and I revived the Swede project after being put aside during high school, I had a flood of ideas for new material. This song was among the monsoon that occurred. For years I would have an idea for the song's sound, but wouldn't actually start working on it until 2006. A short instrumental teaser, which can be found as a hidden bonus track on the album's instrumental equivalent, "Heptagonal Parallel", was the first draft. A former co-worker of Forbes got to hear this somehow (maybe Forbes' MP3 player?), and expressed how much he loved the sound and really wanted us to finish it. Very encouraging! However, due to technical issues (very common in that era) I wasn't able to work on any music for a number of months that year. I bought a new computer, got back into it, and yeah. Groovy. It was probably around 2008 though when I decided to start on vocal tracks for the album. This song got its voices in early 2009, just in time for the single to be released on my birthday (April 4th), nearly a whole 2 months before the actual album. The guitars are all me, by the way. Also, the song's sound is heavily inspired by Depeche Mode's "Barrel of a Gun".
#2 - PURIFIED
If I remember correctly, the instrumental version of this track came about around 2008-ish. The lyrics, in case you don't know, are about baptism. Something I hadn't actually experienced at the time, but would eventually in 2011. The opening line was inspired by Depeche Mode (yet again) and their B-side track, "Dangerous".
#3 - SOMEBODY OUT THERE
Sounds very spacey and sci-fi. That was the intention. With a title like this, you'd think it was about aliens. Not necessarily... It was written from the perspective of somebody who has a strong belief of a higher power, but not entirely sure. At least not until the second chorus. The Chinese-style instrumental break after the second chorus was a little random thing I included because it sounded good. Still does. Love the bassy fade-in at the end of it.
#4 - THE DREAM
One of the earliest completed tracks from the album. Created around 2005, it was released on various websites to try and promote the Kingrow name and gain a bit of a following. The response was minor, but at least it had one. Its title was given as it makes me picture a dream sequence every time. The title was also a few years old at this point.
#5 - PARALLEL WORLDS
The title of this song is as old as "Money-Go-Round" (2001). It was finally made sometime between 2007 & '09. The original version was actually the one on the single - the 'Radio Mix'. I decided to slow it down a little for the album. The lyrics can be seen by both the perspective of a human relationship or a human/spiritual one. Basically, it's about one of those points in life where you can physically share a room with someone, but feel like you're in different time zones.
#6 - LINT
I have no memory of how the title came about. It's just something random with no meaning. This was the longest track I had put together at the time (around 2005 or 06). Despite being 12-minutes long, it didn't take much time to put together at all. A great instrumental interlude for an album such as this.
#7 - 7 SISTERS
This is classic Kingrow nonsense lyric writing at its finest. We have no idea what we were talking about. Gathering words together to make it sound good, perhaps? Let's go with that. The instrumental was inspired (yet again) by Depeche Mode with their track, "Sister of Night".
#8 - THE DEAFENING SILENCE
I've always felt this one (at least the instrumental) would sound great in a nightclub. Maybe that club scene in "The Matrix" where Neo meets Trinity for the first time? Try watching it with this song dubbed over it and see what I mean. The original instrumental had a weird ending, which used a digital creation of my own, rather than something I picked out of an archive. However, the album version uses a false ending with a nod towards Depeche Mode's ending of "Enjoy the Silence", of all things.
#9 - WINTER HEART
The first instrumental track I ever made without a drum beat. After putting the rain and ambient sounds together over a cool bassline, I felt it didn't really need much. This is the perfect example of how I'd write soundtracks for, say, a movie or something...
BONUS TRACKS
#1 - VISA-GO-RECTANGULAR
The title was just me trying to be funny by changing "Money-Go-Round". It's basically a guitar outtake from that song anyway. It wasn't an outtake that I felt should be ignored though, so I made it a hidden track at the end of "Winter Heart", appearing (in your face) after a 2-minute silence.
#2 - RETROVIRUS
Remember when Billy Joel released "We Didn't Start the Fire" and you were greeted with a song throwing random references to past events and pop culture? We basically did that in this song over an 80's throwback instrumental with a rockin' ending. A number of people have expressed their approval of this song. It was originally a B-side for "Purified", but ended up being used as a promo track for the "Hidden Treasures" compilation album. Like "The False Prophet", this song would also gain a slideshow music video, which is also unavailable. The song's ending was actually the demo version.
#3 / #4 - MONEY-GO-ROUND (CHIPMUNK DANCE MIX) / (WHISPER BASS MIX)
After releasing the standard 2-track version of the single, I decided to make a 'maxi single' with 2 extra remixes. The first being the 'Chipmunk' version. This was actually a happy accident. All I wanted to do was remove the guitar tracks, increase the tempo, add a dance beat, and that was it. However, in the process of speeding it up, the pitch went up with it, hence the higher vocal track. Deciding it sounded good anyway, I chose not to fix the problem. As for the 'Whisper bass' version, this was my attempt at making the song sound even darker. I think it worked! Removing my vocal track helped towards this as well.
#5 - COME TO ME
A B-side from "Purified", its original instrumental version has a slower tempo, which led to it running for over 8 minutes. This was too long for the song I wanted it to be. So when it came to adding vocals, I sped it up a little. Nothing wrong with it being 5 minutes instead.
#6 - TRAPPED
The B-side from "Parallel Worlds". It starts off with a beat very similar to the A-side's 'radio mix', which worked rather well with it.
#7 - SAVED MY LIFE TODAY
The first song to feature my very own keyboard skills. In this track, I used an old CasioTone MT-36, which was digitally altered after recording. The keyboard has been in the family since I was in my early school years. Very 80's sound, and now you know why.
NEXT EPISODE - "KINGROW ONLINE AGAIN".