Walk Unafraid
Up | 1998
Listen Original Listen Final Mix

Vocal Discoveries

I’m picking up on more of Michael’s vocal tics. In the pre-chorus, he anchors his voice on a lower D. He naturally resolves on that note after each word on the D chord. I’m not sure if it’s something he’s doing purposely as much as it’s the way his voice naturally rests at the end of shorter phrases.

It’s very difficult to pull off. I got something close by jumping down to the D on some of those parts, but there’s something in Michael’s transitions that comes off so clean. After a couple months of singing, I’m remembering all the proper ways to support breath. Keeping up with some of these long phrases is a chore. Especially with the uncommon meter Michael uses.

It’s getting a bit more comfortable hearing my own voice on these tracks. My goal for each lead vocal is to get a take that I can stand to hear with no EQ or effects. That way I have a good starting point going into mixing.

E-Bow Replacements

I was able to get a decent e-bow sound on my NS violin. It’s an electric played with a bow, so seemed natural enough. Putting some heavy distrotion on it made it virtually unrecognizable as a violin. For fun, I added a more traditional fiddle part on the third verse. You can her a snippet of it at the end with the high repeated piano notes.

Final Tracks (28)

Vocals (12)

  • Main vocal composited
  • Main vocal doubled (3)
  • Background Vocals Verse 2 (4)
  • Background Vocals Verse 3 (4)

Guitar (5)

  • Picked full song performance on two tracks
  • Fingerstyle full song performance on two tracks higher in mix
  • “Rocks Smash!” power chords track on third verse

Electric Violin (3)

  • e-bow Part Intro
  • e-bow Part through song
  • Fiddler Joe pops in at end of third verse

Synthesizer (3)

  • Accordeon Backing w/ebow
  • End Syth Lead
  • Strings on last bridge

Other Instruments (5)

  • Piano Lead Line
  • Piano soft repeated note third verse
  • Piano Chords
  • Bass
  • Robot Drummer

Faithful Cover?

Similar, but there’s almost no way to get a perfect “Up” recreation in a week. The song itself is so straightforward in terms of sequencing and chord structure. Nothing but the synths and effects used to distinguish it. It feels like a blank page of a song this way. I could do anything with it, as long as what I do is somewhat interesting.

Peter used an ebow thoughout his part. I don’t have one of those, but I gots the next best thing: an electric violin. I put it through a bunch of guitar amp modelers and effects to get something that could take on that role.

Learnings

  • Forcing constraints on myself like having to use the electric violin makes for some good opportunities
  • Doesn’t take much to get a decent sounding echo effect

Next Up

Hope