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Far Away
Inspiration & History
This is a song that I consider incomplete, as I never got it to really work out just right. I also never really finished lyrics for it, and it just never recorded the way I wanted it to sound. It's a song that I come up with at the time when my best friends (Vin & Connie) were apart. He was in the Army at boot camp, and then was tossed around the world like miltary often is. Connie was left alone and going absolutely berserk by herself without him. I did my best to try and comfort her, but phone calls and e-mails only go so far. I felt really bad for her, and the state of mind I know she was in is what inspired this song.
I was going for a cross between King's X and Yes with the sound of this one. The main part of the song was to have the, well, let's call it "hopefulness" of Yes. The clean guitar part was to sound like King's X, and in that respect I think it worked fairly well. The bass was to be an all out Chris Squire-fest, and in that respect I think it worked out maybe even a little better. The other idea was to have the guitar be along the lines of King's X's "Goldilox" with clean guitar on top of heavy guitar during the main parts. However, no matter how I tried, I could not get the sounds to blend the way I envisioned them to. What you hear here was as close as I got. I was never happy with it, and looking back, that frustration may play a part as to why I never pursued it completely and finished it. At some point I may post the original lyrical ideas here as well, but I have to see if I can find them first =^)
To this day I still really like this song, and I must say that just like Reinvention, I am very proud of my bass work on this one. Chris Squire is one of my main bass inspirations, and I think that this may be the best Chris Squire homage, impression, wanna-be bass line, (or whatever you choose to call it) that I've done. Overall, in my head I'd like to think this how it would sound if Chris Squire came into the studio to jam with King's X. Or something.....
Technical Info
I originally recorded this on 08-30-99. However, the original clean guitar tracks were recorded with my Intellifex direct. After letting the song sit for a bit, I decided that I was severely unhappy with the quality of the clean guitar, and I went and re-recorded it with my "standard" clean guitar setup; the Korg A4 Bass direct. This never changed the fact that the distorted guitar just wasn't right, but it did make the song much more palatable. Enough so that I was comfortable to include it amongst my efforts, even if it was incomplete. The version with the improved clean tone that can be heard on my demos was recorded on 12/09/99 (the other tracks remained unchanged).
Clean Rhythm Guitar:
Ibanez UV777BK through Korg A4 Bass direct
Heavy Rhythm Guitar:
Ibanez UV777BK through Mesa/Boogie Mark III with Korg A4 Bass in effects loop through EVM Black Shadow 1x12 cabinet at practice volume close miked with AKG D65S.
Bass:
Rickenbacker 4001 through Mesa/Boogie Mark III direct.
Drums:
Yamaha RY-10
Recording:
Recorded and mixed onto Yamaha MT120S 4-track. Mixed to Sony MDS-JE320 for final mix. Transferred to PC and mixed and finalized with GoldWave.
-={E-Mail Jake}=-
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