My work/play for this weekend consisted of trying to get a good live acoustic/vocals sound, so I can start recording tunes live with minimal effort and still have them sound decent. I did a version of a two-chord song called “I am alive,” which has evolved (but not beyond two chords) over several recordings over the years. I like the live acoustic/vocal sound on this one, but I’ve already forgotten how I did it. I never write down knob settings and whatnot, out of sheer laziness and stupidity. I over-dubbed a little harmony and ambient guitar, then called it a day.
I am alive.mp3
The sun drops out of sight
and I am the night
Cool air on my skin
and I am the wind
I am the wind
Nothing’s quite as it seems
and I am the dream
Floating out on the lake
and I am awake
I am awake
Holding on to the day
and I am afraid
The sun one day will die
But I am alive
I am alive
Lyrics give me a nostalgic feeling of when I discovered running in high school, which was important because it taught me that I could feel truly good all by myself out in the open after dark.
The way you sing it is reminiscent of Radiohead. I don’t know if you’re the type to be offended by that. Don’t be.
Thanks for the feedback, Shawn. And no, I’m not the type. I am easily and shamelessly influenced by whatever I happen to be listening to when I write a song. When I wrote this tune I was, in fact, digging Radiohead quite a bit (still dig them). I listened to some old song idea tapes from the mid 90’s the other day. Everything sounded like Alice In Chains/Soundgarden/Pearl Jam! What can you do…