I Talk To Myself

March 5, 2010 1:06 AM

This song started off as a 30 second pitch for a cell phone commercial.

Lyrically, it's heavy and somewhat awkward with phone references. I fleshed it out into a full song and there emerged a slightly darker side to the lyrics which didn't exist in the pitch clip. I'm still not convinced it would be something I would release. At least not as-is, anyway.

I do kind of like it for its bashy drums and sing-along gang-vocals at the end, though. I think they were looking for something along the lines of Born Ruffians or more indie...so...I was a bit off the mark...

posted by Jon-A-Thon (6 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Why hasn't this song received any comments is something I'll never understand. This place can be unexplainable sometimes.

Amazing production, Jon-A-Thon. How did you record this?
posted by micayetoca at 2:02 PM on March 10, 2010


Oh, and forgot to say, I hadn't seen you posting here before, so welcome!
posted by micayetoca at 2:03 PM on March 10, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I agree with micayetoca, this song is great. The production is great. It sounds synthy and organic, like a real live electronic band. I don't know how else to describe. Please give us insights into your process, Jon-A-Thon!

BTW, the coda on this song is fantastic.

If I could hazard a guess about the psychology of MeFiMusic listeners, the beginning of this song has the dreaded "telephone vocal" which, while eminently appropriate in the context of the song, is still somewhat generic upon first listen. Perhaps some people were quickly put off by the first 20 seconds of this song, or paid too much attention to the self-depricating description by the author / composer.

I mean the sound literally explodes at 20 seconds in, but maybe some of our busier listeners just don't get that far? Personally, I've been trying to leave the RSS feed on in the background to avoid these types of disasters, and that's exactly why I had a chance to listen to this song.

P.S. I've now listened to this track about six times while I was writing this response, and I still love it! One more time thru, I think...
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 11:40 PM on March 10, 2010


I like the way that the "telephone voice" opens up into the clear version in the chorus.

Ah, those la la la vocals are super great. So happy.

The whole thing sounds great. Neo-bubblegum pop is always alright with me. Thumbs up.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 4:25 AM on March 11, 2010


If I could hazard a guess about the psychology of MeFiMusic listeners, the beginning of this song has the dreaded "telephone vocal" which, while eminently appropriate in the context of the song, is still somewhat generic upon first listen. Perhaps some people were quickly put off by the first 20 seconds of this song, or paid too much attention to the self-depricating description by the author / composer.

I agree. It almost happened to me, I was going to stop it, but then I got to the other part and realized I liked it.
posted by micayetoca at 7:56 AM on March 11, 2010


Thanks, you guys! I'm not too worried about lack of comments...there's lots of great stuff coming through here and it's easy to miss stuff unless you're trawling the RSS feed (like I do toom, actually). Also, my stuff isn't exactly focused right now, say like cortex or Flapjax...I don't have a lot of time to work on the challenges or the RPM thingy...I'm pecking away with one hand, the other holding my 3-day-old daughter :)

Yeah, the telephone vocal was totally a point of contention with the music super. The problem being, that it implies shitty voice quality...which isn't a hot selling point for cell phone carriers (whether or not it's true...haha). So I did a version for him that had a natural non-phone-voice verse but I still liked this version better for some inexplicable reason. Probably because, as you say, it allows a big wide opening-up in the chorus. On the other hand, I think it's the only song I've *ever* used that effect on. So there's a bit of novelty for me in that too.

I'm not sure what I can tell you about the process...or at least anything that you might want to hear. But I'm happy to share if there's anything in particular you're curious about.
posted by Jon-A-Thon at 8:40 AM on March 17, 2010


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