against the grain.

Finally getting a handle on Logic's Arpeggiator (which is apparently not nearly as intuitive as Ableton's and some other DAWs – and although I haven't used Live, I must say Logic's is sort of a pain in the arse) but from some forum posts it looks like its output can in fact be recorded to a separate MIDI track albeit only with a bit of a workaround in the Environment (rather than being forced to bounce tracks down in realtime instead of offline). Anyways, the Arp is incredible and listening to some demos online makes one realize how often this tool is used (the first thing that came to mind was the synth intro to Muse's Bliss).

So the next song I am trying to assemble (of course before actually finishing any of the others that I have started) is actually the first song I wrote for this project long before I knew it was going to be a cohesive thing something it seems like maybe three years ago. It was sort of my response to Suede's Trash and/or Chemistry Between Us (or perhaps both) and trying to capture some essence or other that I could not seem to grasp. I sort of cannot believe I have held onto this song and this idea for this long.

there in a space somewhere in time

the light that held the scene

i knew the end you saw the cost

holding on to what soon would be lost but for now

i held your gaze you held my hand

and we knew we stood against the grain

silently stand slowly we fade

held to face the strain that would tear us away

why can't we stay?

it seemed to stretch to end the day

cast off to find a way

i had in mind this look in your eyes

when we lay stretched towards the sun

distilled through the blinds frozen in time

left to chance left to be everything now lost so it seemed

hold out your hand turn back the time

to when we fell against the grain

silently stand slowly we fade

eclipsed by Fate that forced the strain to fade away

the farther we come the harder we fall

only to fade away

why couldn't I say?

I will no doubt rework the lyrics but that is what I had scrawled in a notebook pieced together over a few years. Three-fourths of the way through the song it stops abruptly, then arpeggios – first on the guitar (distorted and sustained), then the bass joining it and finally the thundering piano before the drums re-enter at twice the tempo the vocals rising above everything to repeat the chorus and it crashes and crashes and crashes through to an enormous ending, fading out the same way it faded in – an arpeggiated piano line sustained then fades away ...