The last few days have been a marathon of writing, mixing and recording my latest lunge for lyrical longevity. Yes, it’s contest time again, people! This one is the “16 Love” song contest, the winner of which will be featured in a teen romance movie about two tennis players.
I wanted to make the song something that would fit well thematically and make sense to the teens who will be watching the movie, but not something so specifically tennis-oriented that I’d never be able to use it again. (I learned my lesson with the TopGolf theme song.)
I present to you “Be Your Everything,” sung by Laura Stapert. (I decided her 16-year-old voice would be a lot more convincing than mine.) Normally, I link directly to an MP3 hear at my music blog, but this time I’m going to make you follow an external link to hear the song (and watch the trailer) because I want you to vote for the song!
Nice one! I dutifully voted. You do sincere pop songs quite well, I think. In the recording, the guitar could use a little more “rock juice” and the drums just a little more groove. (I know they were probably loops, but maybe you could adjust the “swing”?) Or maybe up the tempo just a couple notches. Not sure why, but the head-bobbing factor was low. For all I know that could be a plus for a teen pop song, so you don’t have to listen to me on that. Especially now that it’s been submitted 🙂
I actually had an adventure in winning yesterday. This video (responding to a 24-hour contest) won me 2 TMBG tickets! http://www.youtube.com/dogdelirium#p/a/u/0/YrDdOu8Y08k
Totally good news on the TMBG tickets. Do you have to travel to Omaha to redeem them?
I’ll look into the guitar sound. It was actually the first time I miked the cabinet instead of going line in. (But don’t tell me rocker friends that I said that.) Bone crushing guitars are still a work in progress. Drum programming is less progress. I’ve thought about getting a plug in like Easy Drummer to speed the process and get a better sound. Any thoughts?
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Spend a little time getting to know Ultrabeat. I struggled and resisted it for a while, then learned enough to realize that it’s very (ultra?) powerful. Using the built-in sequencer to build beats and then dragging them into your track, you can get drum beats going pretty quickly. You can swap out and/or sculpt, level, and pan each sound. Start with one of the great preset kits, tweak the sounds or load in your own sample here and there and you’ve got a unique-sounding kit before you know it.
The TMBG tix are for any show on the next tour, but I’m thinking of traveling to Omaha just for the thrill of it.