“Affair Use” takes me on a journey to find and understand what true happiness means to me.
“Silver Lining” sets the tone to start off that journey, revealing some of the life challenges, as well as personal flaws, that inspired the rejuvenated need to discover what truly makes me happy.
The main loop is from a Bauhaus song called “Swing The Heartache”, which is fitting in a couple ways, but primarily I was attracted to the noisy sound of it, and I like that things in the song aren’t perfectly on beat…it’s a bit of wonderful chaos, similar to what I’m trying to create. The song itself is great, and has all these amazing isolated parts, from the music to the vocals. Fun fact: I originally thought about looping and recording this to Sly Stone’s “Trip To My Heart”, a song that I absolutely love, but opted out since it’s been prominently used before.
This is really the only song that (somewhat) followed what my original production plan was for the album. I initially planned to make the album using prominent loops the way I do, but then accent them with classic drum machine sounds, such as the 808, 909, Linn Drum, DMX, Drumulator, Alesis HR-16, and so on. But, when experimenting with that, it didn’t sound quite how I envisioned it, so I abandoned that idea.
The truth is, that is a reflection of how my brain works. When I’m in a creative mood, my brain is not good at learning new things, and I haven’t done production since 1995. So, while I do have the ISLA S2400 and a Novation Launchkey, both which can program drums, I got them both recently and I haven’t really learned how to use them…BECAUSE I’ve been in creative mode, which is ultimately a good thing.
That in mind, I chose to focus on where my energy was, and put the primary focus on the writing, album concept, vocal recording, etc… However, while trying to understand MIDI and hooking up the Launchkey to Ableton, I did lay some additional 808 bass hits to this.
The last line is a reference to MC Shan’s “Juice Crew Law”, from the “Born To Be Wild” (‘88) album, which is a favorite of mine. When I came up with the last line of “Silver Lining”, and landed on using the word “refinement”, my brain pretty much immediately remembered that Shan used that word on “Juice Crew Law”, when he says, “Now that I have the power, I’m making refinement…” (which is used as the song’s scratch hook), and so to make that connection, I just quoted his follow up line to end the song,“Revealing the snakes is my next assignment”. I should note, that may not be an exact quote, but that’s what I’ve always thought he said, and thought it was a great line.
LYRICS:
This is affair use
I’ve felt my fair share of abuse
Now I’m finally prepared for recognizing the clues
Revising the rules
Which prize will I choose?
Relighting my fuse
Hmph, and I’d be Surprised if I lose
The silver lining that my analyzing finally exposed
The deepest crevices of where heaven is
And I suppose, even the devil knows
I guess I’m just slow to dispose
Of all the clutter people mutter, taking space in mind
I take too much time verifying if it’s benign
Plus I…try to be kind, understanding, and patient
I guess I need new relations for the space that is vacant
On the trip from my heart to my soul, it’s an emotional toll road
But I’m never paid what I’m owed
So I paved a new road, made for strictly saving the soul
My bags are packed, I’m just waiting for the signal to GO!
Sometimes a simple hello is all takes to connect
I’m tuned to seeing past the features that the eyes can detect
And might I direct…attention,
To the seeds that grow to apprehension
Shared trauma, melodrama from a bad decision
Sometimes we’re stuck in a system of our own designing
A mental prison blocks our sun, keeps us from shining
The silver lining, assuming that you find it
Is a lesson learned could help you turn a failure to refinement
…and revealing the snakes is my next assignment
