"Take a walk within the walls of my mind and watch my thoughts ravage the spaces between the walls"
- David Sawang
- David Sawang
Song Exploder7/2/2018 Perspective Production:For the first project of this trimester, we were required to create a song using the production techniques of a producer whose ‘song had been exploded’ on Song Exploder (some of you might not get the joke). Anyhow, Song Exploder is a podcast that goes through the various techniques a specific producer undergoes to create multiple songs while maintaining his/her signature style. Song Exploder is vital for upcoming artists or producers since it gives you a direct window through which you can lean in and absorb multiple information about your favourite producer and the reason they do what they do. I decided to explore the production technique of Erick Arc Elliot of Flatbush Zombies. Luckily for me, Erick's production skills weren’t difficult to follow but it then dawned upon me, although his production techniques weren’t complicated, his feel in the instrumental makes it difficult to mimic. It’s something I can’t pinpoint exactly but when it came to creating the song, I felt that I needed to create a new song from scratch because any other song would not do it justice. Apart from the Song Exploder podcast I found on Erick, I managed to find external information regarding his production techniques via videos on youtube. Creating The Song To create the song, I first needed to go through Erick's step by step process: Sampling: After watching various videos of Erick, I noticed his extensive use of Samples. For example in the song 'Don't Do Drugs Kids' he sampled Deshominisation (II) by Alain Goraguer from 1973. Similarly in Flatbush Zombie's other song 'Drama', Erick sampled 'And I Panicked' by the dramatics from 1974 and for 'Chuch', Erick sampled 'Is It Love, Must Be Love' by Loretta Lynn from 1979. I figured since all these songs that I took as an example were sampled from the 1970's, I decided to hover around that timeline and chose to sample 'Mellow Mood For Maidenhair' by Mort Garson from 1976. To compliment the sample, I decided to chuck in a solid bass line since the sample itself doesn’t have a heavy bass in it, I thought it would give the whole structure to the song and make it less choppy with regards to the amount of warping I’ve done. Beat Construction: With regards to the beat, I had trouble with the sound and pattern of the beat. In one of the sessions, Dave (my lecturer) did mention that the drums didn't sound quite right. I ended up spending the whole day setting up a proper drum rack and creating different loop patterns for the drums. I also had to create the beat live (since I didn't have access to a Maschine MK3) but it still sounded great. Vocals: Since it wasn’t very specific with what Erick uses for the vocals, I decided to chuck a U87 to capture the voice of the artist whom I felt best suited the song. I wanted the song to be simple and clear, more like a story telling rap rather than lean on the hype shit to capture that rawness which Flatbush Zombies are famous for radiating. I noticed in some of Flatbush Zombies' songs, there were breaks in between to make the viewer engaged with what the rapper was saying and not get bored of him rapping on and on. Final Product: During my time editing the song, I had a bit of feedback from my lecturers who mentioned that the song felt a bit too repetitive. When I reviewed some of Erick's songs I realised that he allows the listeners to rest their ears by either throwing in a hook chorus to create that sense of diversity, or allowing the instruments to take over with no vocals in that particular moment whatsoever. I decided to just do that, I made sure that I gave a space between the song to allow time for people to listen to that awesome music transpose and pick up with the story once again when the rapper continued to rap. It then gave room as well, by giving the drums breaks in between to avoid making it appear as though it is a constant loop playing again and again.
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