Image by https://ih1.redbubble.net

This is the second part to the post of “when the darkness comes”. This post will detail the production side of things. Whereas the first post detailed the inspiration.(https://steemit.com/life/@stickchumpion/when-the-darkness-comes-the-inspiration-for-the-song-i-wrote-and-my-experience-of-dealing-with-bad-times)

The song began its journey in the world as a piano session one dark ( I had turned all the lights off) Sunday evening. It was about a month after my dad’s passing and I was in the state of mind of not wanting to get wasted or go out but just let this darkness wash over me. So I sat at the piano and this is what came out.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9tO2U-M8jiNY2w1UzBGSmNOQWM

Image by http://ksassets.timeincuk.net
I recorded it and meant to do something with it but as you can imagine I had other more pressing things to deal with.

Fast forward to about a year later and I do a post where I record myself playing drums for @carlgnash CHECK to collaborate on and before I knew it everybody else jumped on.

Here are some of those posts

The beginning

https://steemit.com/music/@stickchumpion/give-me-a-beat-free-drum-beat-for-steemit-musicians

Guitar added by @cargnash

https://steemit.com/music/@carlgnash/fingerpicking-improv-over-stickchumpion-s-drum-beat

Introducing @buckydurddle on violin

https://steemit.com/music/@buckydurddle/give-me-a-beat-jammin-with-stickchumpion-and-carlgnash

From then on it got pretty crazy in an awesome way , if you intrigued go to my page to see more. More importantly this kicked open the door for resurrecting this song and give it the production it needed. I had always imagined strings when I did this. Given that i had befriended @buckydurddle .I decided I could now give this track the production it deserved and so the first post to call to collab on this track was posted.

https://steemit.com/music/@stickchumpion/help-with-making-the-song-when-the-darkness-comes-i-need-you-steemit-community-show-me-what-you-got

With this my collab champion @buckydurddle laid down some violin for me to work with. Being the consummate professional he even played the mistakes hehehe. Note to self make sure it is perfect when sending to this legend.

When I got this recording I decided to add some epic reverb drums , my inspiration being the Walker Brothers, Phil Spector and Jesus and Mary chain.

Image by http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com

I then added this to the violin track and got rid of the rest of the backing track. This was the result.

https://soundcloud.com/stix-champion/when-the-darkness-comes-violin-and-drums

I mentioned in the previous post that at the time I was going through a breakup and moving out so again this project sat on ice for a few weeks. In the meantime with the new music channel on dischord I met a fellow musician from Iran @davidfar. We bonded over a meat puppets song and he agreed to help me with the finer points of production with this song. What was also great is that we were completely honest with each other and told each other what we thought worked and didn’t work. This is really important in creating . It is a sensitive subject as this is your song , your thoughts your baby but try put it on hold and listen to what the person critiquing the song is saying. I added some guitar and piano to the track and he gave the drum tracks a loving touch and really pulled it out of the mix and made it pop.

https://static.guim.co.uk

It was at this point I finally got a cattle prod of energy to finish this damn thing I then added some vocals and some synth choir. With the vocals I did a harmony where I did the 5th note of the root note (excuse my novice explanation of harmonising). I noticed that the track had lost a bit of the original violin track so I asked the legend @buckdurdle to do another violin track but following the harmony notes. He again recorded and executed my request with ease and efficiency. I then gave it a final listen and did some panning to bring out the other tracks.

Now I present it to you.

The song

The lyrics

When the darkness comes I will be ready

When the storm rolls in I will be steady

(this repeats a few times then)

When that dark wave picks me up I’ll be ready

Ride it all the way down

Till it turns around

When the darkness comes I will be ready

When the storm rolls in I will be steady