Hey all,
Just want to let you guys know about our first self recorded and produced original song which is now available for free download via this link --
http://www.heavyjack.com/johncusackthefear.mp3. I think the best way to describe the song is by quoting the Bass player's blog about how we recorded the song and the inspiration behind it, which I will post below.
Enjoy the song and the read everyone!!!
Original Report: John Cusack (The Fear)
Date: 08 – 03 – 2011
Title: John Cusack (The Fear) Summary:
Heavy Jack releases new free original song.
The Event:
It was bright afternoon midweek as I passed by the Safeway on the way home from work. A beautiful blue sky looming large over the half-full parking lot, sun beating the pavement and striking up heat shimmers in the distance the trees and houses unfocused in the background.
I noticed someone walking up to the bench with a vinyl copy of
Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten. He had the look of a man on a mission that faded into a look of triumphant regret after the effort taken to snap
Ten and break the record in half. I arrived in good timing precisely at the moment of the snap.
“Didn’t like the record, eh?” I asked in passing, he looked up, high on the adrenaline pumping out of his heartache.
“It was my favorite record… from my fiancé – she tore my heart out man, so I broke her record.”
“That’s a bummer, sorry to hear that.”I said as I stood watching while he walked away leaving
her record, broken in a plastic bag on the Safeway bench.
“I’m gonna figure this out, you ever see that movie
High Fidelity?” he called back. He paused but didn’t give me time to answer as he put his thumb to his chest and proclaimed, “I’m living it!” as he jubilantly jumped up and headed off into the distant summer haze with a heel click.
I walked home.
The Recording:
John Cusack (The Fear) represents almost five years of work. It was the first thing we recorded in
GarageBand. Ben was practicing through his Fender G-Dec and began to improvise rhythm guitar to a drum loop I had setup in GarageBand. Using the
iMac computer mic I recorded the guitar part and laid down a synth bass line afterwards. A few months later we put a clap track to the drum loop and some Fear & Loathing samples into it. Almost none of this remains except for pieces of the original guitar rhythm, a single
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas sample and some of the clap track – although almost everything got cut up and
effected from what it originally sounded like.
When we expanded our recording setup to include a
Line6 TonePort KB37 travel studio – a majority of work was done on The Fear. Initially the song came in a little over a minute and consisted of a single guitar rhythm as well as a few samples, noises and such. I took to the process of lengthening and changing the song into the arrangement it is now.
[The Fear]…represents a unique departure for Heavy Jack as it doesn’t feature traditional drums – rather a drum line composed from multiple loops and self-samples (claps, distortion noises, etc.). The guitar work was shared duty between Ben and me, and there is a host of synths, midi-instruments, sounds, and vocal effects.
The lyrics came after I related the anecdote of the broken Pearl Jam record to Ben & Jon while showing them the song in a further progressed state. The two of them began singing to the song and wrote the lyrics quickly, however we were unable to get a good vocal take at the time and the project faded into obscurity again.
Recently we upgraded our studio and I took the time to import The Fear into
Logic 9 and get it finished. John Cusack (The Fear) represents the fullest extent of my learning curve to date with engineering and showcases Heavy Jack in an element outside their operating norm – focusing the strengths of a band willing to explore the curiosities of all music and instrumentation.
