The Real Michael Lee

So this week’s song sketch is a big one. Not in trems of length, as it’s under three minutes long, but for another reason.

It’s the last one.

(For now.)

I’ve written and recorded 20 songs in 20 weeks. That’s a LOT of songs. The idea for this project was to create enough songs for an album. I feel I’ve done that and it’s time to move on. Right now I’m feeling an odd mixture of sadness, relief, and excitement. Sadness that this constant that was in my life is over. Relief that I now will have something resembling free time and less pressure. And excitement at the prospects to come.

When I set out on this project I only planned on doing 14-16 songs. Am I nuts? (Yes, but aren’t we all nowadays?) Why did I keep going? Well, for starters I didn’t feel I had enough solid content for the album. Second, I was starting to gain some traction with views and followers. Finally, I was also hitting a stride and finding a “sound” to call my own. It started in Where Are All The Jetpacks and continued from there. I veered here and there, but that distorted/synthy/folky sound carried through. I was (and very much am) digging it and wanted to see what else I could do.

I’m glad I did.

It’s very interesting to see where I started and where I ended up with this project. I grew a LOT in my abilities in these last 20 weeks. Look at Tattoo versus this week’s It Said Something Impossibly New. The music and songwriting are quite different. Having to work on a very strict schedule forces you to adapt and grow. If you don’t you wither and perish. I honestly feel I truly flourished. I am far more confident in my abilities now than I was back in May. Are all the sketches zingers? No, not by any means. Some are questionable at best and most have issues in one form or another. But they all made it out of my head and into the world. That’s HUGE. Would I do it again and make a season 2? Possibly. The circumstances were ripe for this project, so it’s hard to say if it’ll be feasible again.

So what now? Well, the main push will be going back to sketch #1 and re-listen and analyze all the previous sketches. Doing this will determine A) which will make the cut for the album, and B) what changes need to be made. Then I’ll take those sketches and re-record them as needed into final versions for the album. I plan to officially release singles along the way with the full album at the end. Beyond that I plan to up my Youtube game and release more videos of me either performing or talking at the camera. I really like the idea of seeing beyond the mic and I think it’ll be a fun way to engage with you all. (I upgraded my setup, so these new videos should be slightly better than the previous ones.) I also created an official Instagram account, so I’ll post stuff there too.

But for the right now, I’m going to take a victory lap and enjoy my accomplishment. While I’m off doing that, check out the season finale of season one of my Song Sketchbook series and enjoy.

See you soon.

This song sketch is a cover of the song by the band fedbysound. It is also my third folk cover. That officially makes the practice of folk covers a “thing” for me.

See, the story goes a bunch of us on Twitter were discussing a virtual open mic and who was going to attend. Mark from fedbysound said he’d lurk but not perform. I jokingly threatened to do a folk cover of one of his songs if he didn’t perform. He still didn’t want to (which I understand). I don’t think anyone actually BELIEVED me when I said I’d do a folk cover (even though I’ve done it twice before). So I decided to go ahead and record one.

I picked Face The Day, which is the closing track from the album Resonate. I find it to be a beautiful and inspiring song and one that would work well in a folk setting. I didn’t want to do a straight acoustic cover of the song, as that would be boring (and frankly I can’t sing nearly as well as Mark can). So I stripped it down to a few chords and built it back up from there in a manner that fit my abilities as well as how I personally “felt” the song. The persistent “you can face the day” is an uplifting sentiment that the singer drives home to the listener. They’re saying “yeah, life sucks, but I GET it; I’ve BEEN THERE, just hang in there and keep BEING YOU”. I wanted to try to capture that sentiment aurally by having it sort of swell into the chorus. Then at the end the singer repeats it over and over like a mantra, reminding the listener they GOT THIS.

My ultimate goal was to honor the original but at the same time add my own flavor (like most covers, duh, Michael Lee). I feel I accomplished that. Admittedly this cover is probably the most I’ve ever put myself out there, as I’m not in contact with the artists of my previous cover songs. However Mark will hear the song and will likely read this. So I hope you like it, Mark. Or at least I hope you don’t hate it.

Synthetic Man is a song that seemingly came out of nowhere for me. I don’t have any recollection of HOW the idea popped into my head, but somewhere between late Saturday night/Sunday morning I came up with the first three lines of the chorus. Then lyrics-wise the rest fell into place over the next few days.

This song sketch is about a robot leaving home, so to speak, to explore the world and study humanity. It’s doing this because it’s becoming sentient and wants to be more. Whether that is a good thing or not is up to the listener to decide.

Stylistically this is my danciest number yet. It includes a fun mix of drum machine and “live” drums (it’s a loop pack, but they were played by someone live at one point) as well as a fun little synth riff that I admittedly quite enjoy. Also vocoder, because why the hell not? (Don’t answer that.)

If this song makes the cut for the album, I will definitely tweak the vocals. I like how they are on the verses, but the latter half of the chorus needs some work. I think if I make it more like the first half of the chorus it’ll work better for my voice. I’m also not 100% on the vocoder backing vocals as they’re kinda “wavy” and distract from the main vocals. I dunno. I like the idea so we’ll have to see.

For instrumentation, as mentioned I really like that synth line, so that’d stay. I’d likely clean up the bass a bit as well as tweak the overall mix.

Other than that I have to say I’m quite happy with it. Enjoy:

That is the most intentionally ugly thumbnail I’ve ever created… It certainly grabs your attention, though!

The idea for this song came from someone who frequently references things they did back in the ’90s. Many conversations would start with “You know, back in the ’90s” or “In the ’90s I…” It definitely seemed like their peak was back then, as if their point of reference for things NOW is all the way BACK THEN because they haven’t experienced anything new since.

Nostalgia can be a powerful thing. It can make millions as well as cripple a person’s emotional growth. Right now nostalgia is BIG, especially for the ’80s and ’90s. I think it’s all the millennials are “growing up” and trying to recapture their youth. The boomers did it, now it’s our turn. (Yes, I’m on the elder end of that spectrum but I’m a millennial.) BUT, nostalgia can be very dangerous. A little is ok, but get too far into the weeds and you can end up regressing as nothing new will seem worthwhile. It’s fine to keep an eye on the past, but your focus should be on the future.

Stylistically, for “’90s” I went with a doo-wop theme to invoke the nostalgia aspect of the subject. However I “updated” it with a synth and a fuzzed out bass. I also added that bit crushed guitar solo, which admittedly might be my favorite one yet.

If this song makes the cut for the album, I definitely want to adjust the backing vocals, specifically on the bridge. I’ll also tweak the EQ on the lead guitar as it sounds a bit muddy and a lot of the individual notes get lost in the mix.

What’s your favorite memory from the ’90s? Check out the song below and let me know in the comments.