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Popskull

by Gut the Goldfish

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about

\\writing/recording process\\

I wrote the first lyrics for this track in summer of '19. I decided it had been too long since I had written any music, so I started a new note on my phone to have a place to store the random ideas that pop into my head from time to time. I didn't start writing/recording the music until February of '20. I didn't know what I wanted the song to sound like initially, but I knew I wanted a short, fun, catchy pop-punk song with some heavy riffage. The first short demo I made was a version of the "chorus" (not sure if it's a chorus if there's only a single instance in the song) that I ended up not being happy with. I started from scratch with a few melodies that I had hummed and "doot dooted" into the voice memos on my phone. I made a really basic midi drum track on Logic and started arranging guitars. Once I had the basic skeleton and a few muscles (rough drums and guitar), I would play it on repeat so I could figure out the exact way I wanted the vocals to sound. I spent way too long recording and arranging vocals, but it was a lot of fun. Before I started the whole recording process I had started learning how to do false-chord screams from various YouTube lessons (thanks Mary Z), so when it came time to lay down vocals I felt pretty good about the way they sounded. I constantly went back and re-recorded vocal parts throughout the rest of the process. I like singing but my voice bothers me sometimes, so I had to get each line down in a way that I could listen to it on repeat without growing to hate it. After vocals were mostly done, I tracked bass and a few more guitar parts, then started adding midi synths and other effects. I had a blast with this and was constantly watching YouTube videos about Logic and everything you can do with it. I treated this song as a learning process, so it took me until about August (7-ish months total) to completely write and record this 2:20 track. Not that I was working on it for hours and hours every day, more like an hour or two a few nights a week, but still, it was a big chunk of time. I also ended up replacing my initial stock midi drums with midi sounds from the P4 pack from Getgood Drums. I programmed the drums hit by hit, which was very tedious, but the sounds from that pack are incredible and exactly what I wanted to amp up the heaviness and punch of the song. When all of this was done, I did some mixing for a demo version to give to my buddy Barry. He had a good idea of what I was going for with the track, so I sent him all of the stems and he mixed it all from the ground up for the final version. His normal musical bag is EDM as the artist Bury the Dead, but he killed the production on this song. Dude is amazing. Hopefully my next song won't take me over a year from inception to release (it won't) but I wouldn't trade the process for anything.


//artwork//

I created this artwork on the Procreate app for iPad. Visual art is my main hobby and kind of a side gig from my day job, so I was just as excited to create suitable artwork for my own song as I was to record the song itself. There's really no crazy meaning behind it. Song lyrics are in the background, color palette swatch in the corner for aesthetics, "PARENTAL ADVISORY" sticker in the other corner for balance, VHS fonts chopped up, and a Lanky dude with a wombat skull for a head wearing a hipster beanie and carrying a cigarette and a bottle of whiskey. Popskull whiskey, which came from the book "Child of God" by Cormac McCarthy. I had never heard that term before I read the book and wrote it down as soon as I read it. It's kind of a graphic term for bad booze but it also sounds happy at the same time. Better than "Rotgut", although that might be a future song title...


\\behind the lyrics\\

I'm creating some fun visual pieces to explain all of the lyrics line by line that I'll post to my instagram (they might already be posted at this point, @gutthegoldfish), because there are a few themes running through the lyrics of this very short song. If I had to summarize, the song is about family, missing people you care about and the other feelings that go along with that, using substances to deal with those feelings, effects of those substances on your mind, and of course, BLEGH!

lyrics

//lyrics//

I’m feeling down today (oh yeah!)
and I’ll take this pain to sober up
gonna stay alone tonight
nowhere to go to get outta this slump

when it’s better I’ll come back to you
(back to you, right to the light in your room)
confinement’s fine with me but I
I’d rather see all of you

the best part of these last few weeks was you showing us your teeth
my teeth ache from the nicotine
I’d rather stay up all night than grind them while I’m sleeping

and finally start dreaming again

my mind’s eroding
and my memory melts away
I draw pictures of heads exploding
to feel fine when I run out of
nice things to say

I fucked up bad today (no!)
I’ll think about it while I lie here on the ground
try to speak but I can’t make sound
aspirating truth and blood and choking on the teeth that came out

(my mind's eroding and my memory melts away)

baby come and save me
sinuses are collapsing
my heart is too heavy
so I’ll ask you one last thing
won’t you stay strong
every day that I’ll been gone
and you’ll be all alone with these songs

(c'mon!)

I’ll be gone

(blegh!)

{animated lyric video on YouTube!} - https://youtu.be/v_9TnCe2vK8

credits

released November 7, 2020
\\credits\\

Vocals, instruments and programming by Trevor Clark

Written and recorded by Trevor Clark

Produced by Barry Creel of Bury the Dead
soundcloud.com/burythedead

Artwork by Trevor Clark

license

all rights reserved

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about

Gut the Goldfish Las Vegas, Nevada

Music to rollerblade and eat rollerdogs to. Gut the Goldfish is a one-man music project from a guy named Trevor, who is me, because I'm writing this. Right? I'll be making singles as often as possible, and they'll probably mostly be of the easycore variety, but who knows? I sure don't, so I'm just going to do whatever seems fun at the time. Enjoy the jams! ... more

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