2HAC Volume 31: Desire
So many songs have been written about desire. I wanted to go in a slightly different direction and question why we want things.
The gods of randomness gave us a difficult theme for this iteration of the 2HAC: "Desire". I don't know about you, but when I hear that word, I know that the song from U2 and is going to be an earworm for the next few hours. Ugh.
What can I say about desire that is new, creative, or comes from a personal viewpoint? I thought about this question for a long time and eventually came up with the idea to link desire and consumerism. Why do we (in the US, at least) spend so much money on consumer goods? What makes us need a new car every five years and a new house every seven? We buy and buy, but does it make us happier?
For my 2HAC song, I wanted to reference the Buddhist belief that desire (or craving) causes suffering, and that clinging to things and experiences that are temporary in nature will only cause us harm. It, er, went in a dark direction...
I composed the song in Ableton Live 12.2. I wanted to start with guitar chords or arpeggios, and I completely fell down the rabbit hole that is the Expressive Chords device. I improvised about six minutes of chords with that device driving an amped guitar sound. When I listened back, I realized that the key of the song was completely ambiguous, so I added a bass instrument to try to give some harmonic structure. After that, I created a drum track with the 808 device – I'm an 80s kid, so the 808 will always be my go-to drum sound. To give some texture, I created a track with arps, and to add a sense of unsettled urgency, I automated a continuous tempo increase from 60 to 117 BPM. Still, it was missing something, so I plugged in a mic and recorded some ad-libbed vocals, claps, and finger snaps. I chopped out about 90 seconds of material to tighten it up, mixed the tracks, and ran it through Ozone for mastering, finishing up in just under two hours.
I'm quite happy with the results, given the two hour time limit. I only realized later that the vocal recording was only going to one channel in a stereo track, so it sounds like it is hard panned to the right. Ironically, I panned the track to the left based on the sound, so I at least realized that something was wrong. It would have been such an easy fix to use the Utility device to select the right channel, too. Oh well.
You can listen to the entire 2HAC 31 - Desire album on Bandcamp for free. Downloads are pay-what-you-want, with all proceeds benefiting Angel of Hope Animal Rescue.
