In this podcast I talk about the process of creating Minnowsupport Lullaby from its inception to video production.
Minnowsupport Lullaby: https://steemit.com/minnowsupportproject/@silentscreamer/yi7zsm7r
Peace, Abundance, Liberty network: https://discordapp.com/channels/319885228464406528/341298478498185226
Podcast transcript:
What's important for a good pop song? A nice tune, relatable lyrics, familiar situations and, most importantly, a room for interpretation. Even when you sing about very specific things, don't say this out right. I know very well from my linguistic background that our thinking is extremely metaphorical. We name unknown things after the things they remind us of. Take lionfish for example. What about hammerhead shark? Swordfish?
Inside our brain, images and actions rhyme with each other like lines in a poem. And then the voice takes these images from the dream realm where only the consciousness exists into the real world where everything receives a physical form, which is that of a sound.
And I am extremely happy to have found that voice.
Marica Vil, also known as SilentScreamer on Steemit.com, is not only a professional violinist but also a gifted singer many celebrities would envy. When she suggested we should do a project together, in my mind I already had a concept of a song the community members could relate to. The idea was to write a cute song about the Peace, Abundance, Liberty network's Minnowsupport bot, created in aid to new users with small upvote ratings.
The basis for the chorus was right there on the surface: "Minnowsupport is sleeping, no upvotes right now!" says the automated message when you try asking for a free vote during the bot's recovery hours. The semi-chorus was created literally during one of my skiing sessions. The rest didn't take long either and when I presented the draft version of the song to Marica, she really liked it, so we carried on. I kept shaping the audio while her job was to record the vocals. We pitched the initial project a tone down which made the end result quite a bit better.
As for the lyrics, they remained the same pretty much from the start. In the first verse, we are introduced to the main character of the song - the Minnowsupport bot. This device used by PAL themselves is called personification. Metaphorically speaking, the bot is tired and it's a simple detail anyone can relate to.
The bot as a program or script has no gender as a rule, but personification requires it to be either male or female. Traditionally, women have been associated with kindness, gentleness, cuteness and selflessness, so assuming the bot is a she helps us convey the message.
The seaside atmosphere is maintained through the use of the nouns closely associated with the subject: fish, ocean, waves, sirens, seas, whales, coral reefs. In the second verse, which is an allegory to how successful Steemians can and should delegate part of their powers to the support program to help it operate, I even wanted to turn the fixed phrase "give her a hand" into "give her a fin" but decided not to risk it. They're called fixed phrases for a reason.
Finally, to build up to the climax, and I believe every song should have one, even if it's called a lullaby, we change the lyrics of the chorus, making the listener pay extra attention to that part of the song which is also calmer with fewer instruments involved and lower intensity of the sound and then we go forte with a harp glissando and cymbal roll, while right hand piano is now playing the leitmotif in octaves. The reprise brings back familiar lyrics which feels rewarding since the listener already knows them and anticipates them to return one way or another. Most of us prefer just the right amount of new with a whole lot of familiar.
This is why in terms of instrumentation I heavily rely on piano in this track. You can't find an instrument more universally applicable than piano. Classical instruments just like classical clothing never go out of fashion.
Aside from piano, I use the Sytrus synth with its Default preset which is similar in tone to piano but mainly because its arpeggio sounds a bit more like bubbles in the water. The electronic percussion preset reminds me of Sonar and dolphin clicking sounds so I had no doubts about including it. Legato strings help to glue the piece together. We add plenty of reverberation to all channels because of how underwater sound waves reflect off the surface and bottom of the sea creating the characteristic aftersound. While all these sometimes not so obvious decisions help shaping up the atmosphere on the audio side of things, the video couldn't do without some tricks either.
When we imagine open water, we see sunlight spots from the wavy surface jumping all over the place on the objects nearby. This lighting effect is called caustics. It aids in making the scene more natural and adds depth to it.
Two layers of caustics are used in the final video, one for the drum set and the microphone and one for the rest of the scene.
These days, lyrics videos and typography videos are extremely popular. Big artists upload them to their official channels and sometimes they feel like actual music videos. There is something captivating about how the written form of the word goes in sync with its audial form, very much like video montage but for text instead. In this video I use simple fly-in/fly-out animations with upwards direction. Coupled with bubble particles and a wavy filter effect it seems effective in further enhancing the marine experience.
But all of that would not have been worth it without Marica's amazing performance. She gave this project her voice and her soul. When I first heard her singing in one of her DTube videos, I knew it was what I needed but the final result exceeded my expectations. As I said earlier, I don't often meet new people in the music world, but when I do, these people are simply irreplaceable.
That about wraps up my "Making of Minnowsupport Lullaby" video. If you haven't yet heard our song, the link will be in the description below, and if you have, please, feel free to ask questions and share your thoughts now that you know a little more about the creation process and ideas behind it.
I'm Vladimir Kuznetsov. Thanks so much for watching and see you later on Steemit!
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