'Projects' - Individual Song Breakdowns ____________________________________________________________ "Project 15" (97 BPM)        As mentioned in the description of the respective drum tracking video, this was gonna go on the Periphery debut; Jake Bowen was actually working on putting together additional parts. I decided to retain the original tentative title for the EP as a hark back to a time when I didn't have to title anything, hah! This one is incredibly technical. It begins with a drum set fill-in that's comprised of syncopated quintuplets. Its purpose is to prepare the listeners' ears for the main riff which is also comprised entirely of syncopated quintuplets. I came up with the rhythm for the main riff while at my side job. I'm always on autopilot and my mind tends to wander, so I usually try to sit down for about five minutes and notate either a neat rhythm or something for the drum set; be it a groove, fill-in, etc. Following this section is a riff that is very much built upon an odd time double bass groove that I wrote a few years ago. Then, there's some metric modulation and it's back to the main riff. Then, there's some more metric modulation--albeit brief--atop the main riff; I superimposed a six feel on top of the quintuplets. Following that, it's back to the verse riff with a different feel and then a transition riff into the bridge. The bridge is in 19-16--with a quarter note feel superimposed on top, of course--and it is also based upon a pattern that I came up with years ago (although this one is much older than the verse groove). Following the bridge is the verse riff again, but with a 'shrink and grow' concept applied (see Mike Portnoy's "Liquid Drum Theater" DVD!). Another transition riff sees us back at the main riff for one last time. The ending is a gigantic metric modulation with an eight feel superimposed on top. ____________________________________________________________ "Safari" (136 BPM)        Originally "Project 16". This begins with a big quintuplet unision--which is sprinkled sporadically throughout the piece--into a strangely ethnic-sounding septuplet riff that reminds me of being led on a fun safari (thus the name) and then into another septuplet riff with a much simpler melody (again, came up with the rhythm whilst at work). I revisit this section two more times throughout the tune. After the septuplet riffs there is a brief vamp with a drum fill to launch us into the first verse. The verses are comprised of a polymeter with some melody variations in 21-8. After keeping a quarter note pulse on the hi-hat cymbal, the drum set changes to a half note pulse on the chinese cymbal whilst accenting in the appropriate melodic places and also accenting the beginning of each riff (the downbeat of the 21-8). Then it's back to the simpler septuplet riff and into a riff that was built upon what was originally going to be a big breakdown in 18-4. However, I added a snare drum on what's essentially the backbeat, a more consistent pulse and some ghost notes and it became what you hear. After this we have the ethnic-sounding septuplet riff with a drum set variation the second time through into the vamp/drum set fill and into the second verse. This time the verse was kind of randomly chopped up. The second time through the drum set latches onto the downbeat of the 21-8 but the riff isn't quite as long. Following the second verse is the simpler septuplet riff into the riff in 18-4. Closing the song is a brutal breakdown in 10-4. ____________________________________________________________ "Vice" (125 BPM)        Originally "Project 7". This starts with what I previously referred to as the 'Meshuggah-meets-Miami-Vice riff' (thus the name), as I supplemented the guitar line with a synth in the MIDI demo and it sounded kinda 80s-y. It then leads into a neat progression built upon syncopated quintuplets; I encouraged Adam to drop a synth here instead, supplementing my original melodic line (I got a synth in there anyway!). This is followed by some groovy riffs with double bass; I tried to build this part so that it transitions nicely into the fast double bass. Following that section is a short bar of only guitar to foreshadow 'the big breakdown' (cue sub drop--no, for real). This section was inspired by a very similar section in the Misha Mansoor/Jake Bowen tune "The Good Phone", and it's actually comprised of two bars of 7-4 even though it certainly doesn't sound like it, heh. The breakdown section is followed with the quintuplet progression (however, it's entirely reversed), proceeded by the 'Mesh/Miami V' riff. ____________________________________________________________ "Ellis Alley" (108 BPM)        Originally "Project 2". Ellis Alley is a little road I take in Selbyville to bypass a traffic light to more expediently arrive at the post office. The PO is my 'artery' to my fans to get merchandise to them. There's a quasi-linear groove in the B sections of this song that's going to be a thematic structure within all of my work; at least one song will contain a permutation of it on every release. Thus, said groove is an 'artery' that'll run throughout my work. YouTube is another artery, but I figured "Ellis Alley" is a much cooler song name, haha. Misha Mansoor always referred to this one in jest as my "Stengah" (Meshuggah) and actually recommended us learning it at one point in case we have technical difficulties during a gig (we never did, hah). It starts with the A section riff and some very angular-sounding drums. I encouraged Adam to put a lo-fi effect on everything so that once it drops into a proper groove it has more emphasis. The B Sections--the 'artery' groove--sound like they increase in tempo but it's just a gigantic metric modulation. After a big snare roll it's back to the A section with an added measure of 1-8, placing the chinese on the upbeat; a measure of 3-8 sees it reverting back to the downbeat. Then it's to the C section, another B section and a final A section with more exaggerated eighth-note time sig changes and a longer tail. In the MIDI demo, I had another melody layered on top of the B section but Adam suggested two different guitar solos. I think they're half-written/half-improvised, but all bitchen. ____________________________________________________________ "Zombie Tyrant" (113 BPM)        Originally "Project 1". Yep, this is the first song I ever wrote in Guitar Pro. I nicked the main rhythm in 7 that drives this song from a Snapcase tune from their 'Progression through Unlearning' record. Upon revisiting the record, I couldn't place where it was so perhaps I imagined I did - I don't know. As a result, I combined two song titles--"Zombie Prescription" and "Weak Tyrant"--into one. Of course, they played this rhythm in a much more straight-ahead fashion. I 'metric modulated' it in the A sections (3-16), then played it straight with a big half-time feel in the B sections. To bridge the B section back to the A, the drums hit the stabs (which were originally played with glockenspiel in the MIDI demo--how funny would that have been?) with fill-ins in between; the cymbal orchestration sees me traversing from the left side of my kit to my right and back. In the last half of the second A section, the 'metric modulated' rhythm is then played as 8th-note triplets, again revealing the true pulse of the tune. However, this is briefly abandoned again at the tail of the section when the drums slip into an 8-note pattern within the triplets. The C section is my attempt to channel the bridge in "Spasm" (Meshuggah), but on 'roids. After this marching-esque section with layered double kicks, the breakdown contains the same rhythm but with certain 16ths doubled. A snare/floor tom flam re-announcing the main 7 rhythm bridges C to a final reprise of A, this time with the hats/snare playing a common backbeat. This is abandoned once again for a 3-16 metric modulation which drops back into the 8th-note triplet feel, then quintuplets; the 7 rhythm is played within the quintuplets but with the china/snare playing a common backbeat. Finally, the song closes out with the 7 rhythm played wide open as regular 8ths--rather than 16ths--with huge snare flams providing a half-time feel. I had Justin blast the room mics here and he went a step further, adding reverb to the room channel. Awesome! Oh yeah, regarding the sound effects in the A and B sections: I yanked a sound effect at the last screen of a popular NES game and had Adam loop it with some filters on it (it's consistent in volume in the first A section then crescendos in the second). The weird, high-pitched stuff is Adam noodling around with an effect on his Kemper Profiling Amp--I told him to have fun with it. Finally, I suggested an 'underwater' effect for the guitar accents that fill in the gaps in the B section, and for it to be omitted once the snare hits the stabs. Adam knocked all this out of the park. ____________________________________________________________ "Greasy Mustache" (132 BPM)        Originally "Project 18". Ah, the closing tune--how you give me nightmares to this day. This peculiar title can simply be attributed to the fact that it sounds Zappa-y, hehe. To flesh this one out, I basically 'glued' it to a couple sections from another 'Project' tune (#5) that didn't make the cut. This begins after the giant breakdown in 7 when the drums solo between the stabs with guitar; said 'glue' ends when the breakdown is reprised (albeit with a different feel on the drums). There's a ton to this piece so I'm not gonna delve into it with great detail like the others--suffice it to say that my usual rhythmic tricks of the trade in metric modulation, displacement, and odd tuplets are abound, along with my penchant for strange fully-orchestrated unison lines. Side note, but I had Justin apply some super-duper reverb to my tom-toms at around 4:15/20:01 (of the tracking video) because I was inspired by the drum sound in "Outside Now" (Frank Zappa).

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