Why the Song?
So I'm a weird guy who likes recording fun songs. I like the feeling of a song coming together as I figure my way through it. I then struggle to get the recording to sound like how I imagine it should, and my limitations musically and on Garage Band only exacerbate this. But, I felt a need to be creative. I don't have the courage to do a "serious" song, so I do songs that I hope are mildly amusing, and at least a great memory for the boys. Plus, it's Christmas.
Why Vampires?
This is all down to Ted (4). We were discussing Christmas song ideas over breakfast and he stated that there are no spooky Christmas songs. Granted, Christmas not usually viewed as a spooky time of year. But he had a point, surely ghosts, vampires, bats etc all celebrate Christmas. Ted was on the high of Halloween and an obsession with the Monster Mash, that fused into the inspiration for the song:
The Musical Inspiration
I appreciate it might not sound like much thought went into the music, but the nugget of the song actually comes from Johnny Cash. I was watching an excellent documentary about his concert at Folsom Prison and the live performance of Folsom Prison Blues ("I shot a man in Reno...") blew me away. I took out my guitar and clumsily followed the chords. This is broadly the chord structure used in this song (though in E flat rather than F)
The opening is from Bach's Toccata en Fugue, though the vampire link is hopefully obvious. But the merge of this into Jingle Bells (which I don't think works very well on the song) is actually a nod to Joni Mitchell who does it brilliantly in The River
The Lyrics
Ted provided most of the ideas for the lyrics, and I merely tried to stitch them together around the chords. The repetition of certain lines, is me being lazy to try and nail Ted's key lines. I love the idea of the vampire family sitting down to a Christmas lunch of blood.
The Recording
The process of recording the song saps almost any joy I have in creating the song, leaving me resenting my playing and the song itself. It is a trade-off to get something credible on tape against the timebomb of me throwing my computer out of the window and cutting my hands off so that I can never make music again. This song came closer to violence than most. I threw away the first recording as it was too quick, out of time and just quite shit. The second version took multiple takes of multiple tracks. It's probably too slow, but I couldn't be bothered to do it again.
The Solo
The guitar solo is unashamedly self-indulgent. These home recordings allow me to play lead guitar as if I have friends with me and I love it. This solo isn't technical, but boy did I make a fist of it. But for the geeky info, it's played through a Vox AC30 with a decent level of fuzz from my Boss FZ5 pedal - a present I bought myself a year ago and have not had a chance to use. The sound was inspired from a documentary I watched about Marshall amps, in particular Rick Parfitt's sound at the start of Status Quo's Caroline:
What Next?
Creatively Ted and I are a bit exhausted. But knowing his obsession with Christmas, I expect we'll start spitballing ideas as early as Boxing Day. Perhaps we'll release a Christmas album in time for Easter. Wilf is also showing signs of interest musically which will add a new dynamic.
I apologise in advance.
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