The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #256: Musical Interlude – Laying the Backing Track for “The Last Dance”

Episode #256: Musical Interlude - Laying the Backing Track for "The Last Dance"

Episode #256: Musical Interlude – Laying the Backing Track for “The Last Dance”

On this week’s show, I’m starting the formal recording process to a song I started a number of months ago, “The Last Dance,” last discussed on episodes 223, 224, and 225.

I got stuck for awhile since the original way I’d conceptualized the song was much slower.  It took awhile for it to evolve in my mind and to work out how to play certain parts and sing some sections within my vocal range more comfortably.

The song starts out without no accompanying beat, and although I knew I wanted to fold one in later in the song, the original tempo felt too slow, and I wasn’t sure how to make it work.  I eventually stumbled on the right speed (120 beats/min), which in may ways felt right, as it fit the 80s new wave songs that I’ve always liked.  (E.g. “If You Leave” by OMD from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack is also 120 bpm.)   The original, stripped down, slower version I had originally envisioned may still work but probably not with my vocals or this arrangement.  This speed probably also fits better with the other songs on the upcoming album this one will be on.

In the next few weeks, watch for the final iteration of this song once I record the vocals and a few other layers for the chorus and outro.  Once that’s done, I think it’d be fun to add a pixelart visual for it since there are no pictures of this part of The Thirteenth Hour, and it’d be a fun illustration, with lots of fantastical creatures (faeries, elves, griffins, unicorns, a backflipping chimp, and many other dancing animals) besides our protagonists, Logan and Aurora, awkwardly trying to navigate the beginnings of young love, with all its stops and starts, trials and tribulations, and bittersweet awkward moments familiar to anyone who’s been there and/or watched a teen movie.

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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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