Birth of an Action Camp Song
(Pt. 3)
Writing lyrics for us usually starts with settling on a few general themes/subjects to talk about and deciding how we want the song to feel to the listener. Then we start looking into related stories and art to see what it sparks in us. Current theme ideas for “PJ Mode” are:
hunting/stalking
howling
a house/person possessed
depression as a kind of possession
After some preliminary reading and listening some notes that may prove helpful later:
On possession:
no cure but one can form a relationship with the spirit
is a response to being deprived by society
can be a beautiful but tiring experience
is a feeling of blackness or feeling of electricity
can be from restless spirits
is a way of rebelling against authority
offers access to hidden knowledge or foreign languages
can have a demon as a “familiar”/”dark passenger”
What can help after collecting some of the more striking tid bits is to do some stream of consciousness line writing as a way to chew on and analyze the info that’s just be gathered. A taste of what is to come, in it’s most raw form:
find where the knots meet
lift me up/lift me up
you sing me your dark language
and pull me in too deep
can’t tell which way is up in dark water
NEXT POST: Refining lyrics and finding a melody
“Reading Corner”: Trains and Pennsylvania
We have just returned from our Winter mini-tour in Ohio, armed with a growing amount of new material. I am eager to return to the “Reading Corner” and for this installment I wanted to share with you the story behind one of our newest songs whose current working title is “Trainwreck.” I will talk about Donora, PA, as previously promised, in the next installment.
Birth of an Action Camp Song (Pt. 2)
This is the first revision of this song, working title “PJ Mode”. We’ve decided to drive on the main riff so we dropped the B section and replaced it with a single note fill over the A section. We’ve also added a C section that acts as a Bridge to break up the single riff later in the song (at 2:25 and 3:15), and the drums have been moved around a bit to queue changes in dynamics.
We’ve also added a scratch melody with a string synth, it helps Maura to write lyrics with a few variations of a melody. Usually we’ll do 5 or 6 possible lines and she picks through until she finds what she likes.
Additional inspiration for this song has started to come from the Bruce Springsteen song “State Trooper” which in itself was also influenced by Suicide’s “Frankie Teardrop”.
NEXT POST: Lyrics
Birth of an Action Camp Song (Pt. 1)
We’ve been relatively quiet during the writing and recording of this record so we thought we’d show a bit into how our process works. Being an electronic-ish band the line between writing, recording, and mixing is a little blurred since we more or less do it all together.
In the following weeks we’ll be breaking down this new song from the initial riff and inspiration all the way to the final mix for our album.
This song started as a synth riff during rehearsing for a Depeche Mode Halloween set we did this year. We have also been listening a lot to PJ Harvey, DFA1979, and Suicide and wanted to write something combining the elements we like: minimal arrangement, growling vocals, and short repetitive riffs driving the whole song.
This first version is Bengt’s initial demo using the Gforce Oddity through Guitar Rig as the main synth and Maschine for drums. The synth is also reinforced with our Microkorg. The main arrangement and recording software is Ableton Live.
- Maura + Bengt (Action Camp)
NEXT POST: Formatting, More Riffs, and Vocal Melody
“Reading Corner”: Centralia, PA
Welcome again to the Action Camp “Reading Corner,” a glimpse into the bizarre stories and research that goes into creating our songs. For today’s installment we will focus on Centralia, PA.
