Day 9
song: Karlita
artist: Crossroads Collective/Jazz Mafia
written by Adam Theis, Trance Thompson and Tym Brown
produced by Adam Theis and Joe Bagale
recorded at Jazz Mafia Compound
mixed by Joe Bagale
personnel:
Trance Thompson: lead vocals/vocal arrangement
Tym Brown: lead vocals
Sarah Schweppe: background vocals
Matt Wong: piano
Adam Theis: trumpet, trombone, sousaphone, percussion
Drums: Joe Bagale
This tune began about 3 years ago when I was asked to produce some horn tracks for an artist from New Orleans. I did my best to rep the Bay as a horn player and do really cool stuff in a Nola style; I was happy with what I came up with. A year later the song came out and they only ended up using one small phrase from all the material that I had written and recorded. This is an unfortunate situation that's happened to me on more than one occasion but this is the first time that I turned it into something that I'm really happy about!
I took all the files that I had recorded, took away the music so that just my horns were left with a click track and a bpm (beats per minute=tempo). So, I set forth on creating a new groove, harmonic structure, melodies, song form, arrangement and then started producing it.
Yes, it's kinda weird, what's the difference between what I'm explaining and just writing a song from scratch? Well, usually horns are one of the LAST things to be put on a song in production, like the icing on the cake. So, it was really a trip starting out with JUST the horns and working backwards; It led to new ideas that I've never thought of.
Once I found a street beat drum rhythm I liked, I programmed a demo part for that. Next i created a pre-chorus and a chorus. For the chorus I sang non-sensical syllables and sounds in a melody with no words and ran my voice through all sorts of gritty effects to a point where I actually enjoyed hearing my own singing voice for the first time ever I think!
After recording more additional horn parts on the new sections of the song and arranging it all, i sent it to my main man Trance Thompson. After a little while I received a great demo back and we decided to play the song live at our New Years gig and try it out, which also helped shape the arrangement more.
Trance recorded the finished vocals last week, we recorded the drums and percussion yesterday morning and the song was mixed an hour ago. The creation of this song is a solid reminder to me to always keep the options open, especially when things don't seem to be working out the way you had planned! Maybe it will just lead to something WAY BETTER.
