The Evolution of a Song

I have mentioned several times we have a new bassist and as Ange is on Maternity Leave (official sounding term for being maternally pre-occupied) Guy Dagenais, Aaron Clark and I have been working out the material from the last two Cds in a trio format.

As I listen to the tunes sometimes I am struck at how they have evolved from mental sketches to computer-based demos, to rehearsal re-arrangements to recorded tracks, and finally to performance tracks to suit the ever-changing line-up. Here's an example of what I mean.


The first part of the epic track on the new CD is a piece called Convent. That's its offical name. In rehearsing we have always referred to it as D1 (discovery part 1 ie). So here are some versions of it.

D1 computer demo. This is what I brought to the band. I played all the parts on guitar and bass and midi keyboards. I used Toontracks drum sample software and a Godin Multiac to trigger them (that is, I played the drums on my midi guitar...a lot of fun that) as well as added some odd-meter drum loops among that. There are two bass solos at the end. One we dropped out along the way and the other we totally changed. The 12/8 13/8 section (the bluesy part) got trimmed in half and ended up with sax on it (and no drum loops sfx which the demo has in abundance). Anyway here it is:

Now here is the version as it came out of Shattered Wings studio with Gary Lauzon on bass (recorded live off-the-floor). The ending is totally gone and Gary's solo is improvised. The sax section is far smaller and the "Dame Dame" part has undergone a transformation with the addition of guitar etc. This version never made it to the overdub stage so there is no Ange on it exept her tracking parts (keyboards and sax uni stuff; no solo and no vocals). It also is unmastered and has only the roughest of mixes. Here it is anyway:

Here it is again with a new bass-line (after Gary quit the band) which we gave to Claude to learn. I totally threw out the bass solo and left it as a vamp between drums and electric guitar (it's at 4:52-5:16; I like that part actually). This version is the same tracking as the other one so lacks Ange's sax solo and vocals but does have the uni sax lines at 4:37-4:50 and all her keyboard parts. I give you D1 V1 DC:

Finally here is what it sounds like on the CD with all the parts added, mixed and mastered:

This last version was a total re-record. Aaron had changed his grips, Claude was on-board, and we had rehearsed the new version which we recorded at Ange's place. I added some guitar parts later (Dame Dame part) and Ange did her keyboards and sax solo as overdubs. We recorded the vocals at my place later.

I have a bunch of these songs and I'll post them in the coming days.