DAR - Subterfuge
24This one wound up getting a lot of new things added to it! I felt like the original was a bit too plain. To be fair though, that WAS part of my songwriting "philosophy" back then. I wanted to keep stuff real simple and wanted to focus only on guitars for Solitude Of Mind. Then RISEN would later introduce keys to the mix.
While working on this one, I realized just how much my songwriting has changed over the past decade. Like adding a bit more "spice & flavor" with more elements.
I wound up adding a new riff for the clean part before bringing in the original main riff. Then when the main riff comes in, I made a new lead to play atop of it. Really enjoyed playing the new bass line during these parts too!
The middle section also got some new "chugga-chugga" parts, and an all-new string part! Before adding it, something had felt missing. Soon, I started hearing the new string parts in my head, and so I wound up laying out the notes shortly after.
For its place in SoM's apocalyptic/dystopian story, Subterfuge's second-half is supposed to be humanity finally breaking free of deception and control. Then with this newfound freedom, they gain the power to change their fate; to Change Destiny.
I think that the new strings (and the new choir layer) really helped bring out that "hopeful shine" in the final half. I think that thematically, it fits really well. Also just overall happy to have strings back in this song, since the original idea before SoM (~2011-2013) was rather string-heavy.
Another one of my changes in songwriting was giving a song as much time as it needed. Back then, I had concerned myself with things like not wanting to go too far past 3.5 minutes of time. Back then I had thought I might be able to get plays on some online or local radio. I also aimed for hitting the chorus within the first 30 seconds as well. At some point I said "The hell with that!" and took on the mindset of letting the songs "breathe" a bit more.
In this case, I extended the intro to help set the mood. Opening with that spooky gust of wind, followed by the "heartbeat" and then it transforms into the drums. A neat and simple little trick through the use of automating a lowpass on both the drum and the reverb-send tracks.
One of my other changes in mindset was getting rid of fade-outs. This time, I wanted a proper outro.
My views on bass have changed since the early days too. As I didn't own a bass back then, I just stuck with copying what the rhythm guitar was doing; just simple root-notes. I still do that here during the chorus, but like I mentioned earlier, I gave a bit more movement during the verses.
As for the mixing side of things, I enjoyed throwing chorus on to the clean guitars! I wanted the original clean guitars to have more grit, so I opted to use my Ibanez alongside my Strat. Speaking of which, I had recorded the leads on my Strat first, but wound up re-recording them with my Ibanez. Due to the more mellow feel of the song, I needed a tone that was warmer. In fact, its thanks to having to do this that I wound up making up the new harmonized leads! I got a bit frustrated about having to re-record all the leads, so I started noodling over a certain part. Then I was like, "Oh hey, this sounds cool!" and thus much noodling was had until I was satisfied with it.
Once those bits were recorded, I just HAD to also throw in a cool whammy dive to lead into it! This also came about by accident too. I originally planned to dive with a harmonic, but wound up fat-fingering (fat-plucking?) the wrong string. Turned out that the open 3rd string just happened to be perfect! Also near the end, I got to bust out my chrome slide. At first I was a little goofy with it and used way too much vibrato. I toned that back a bit, but still kept playing the guitar as if it were one of those steel lap guitars.
Also, I had a hell of a time trying to mix this one. Some of my leads had these overpowering harmonics ringing. I wound up trying to EQ it, only to end up butchering my tone. Spent a few days messing with EQ and troubleshooting my guitar. My conclusion was that under the right conditions (tuning, play-style, etc.) these strong resonances come out. Upon realizing that it wasn't something I could fix, I had one last option: changing my technique and re-recording. Wrapped a sock around the headstock to try dampening vibrations a little, and played with a bit more palm-muting. The result was much easier to EQ and work with!
Anyways, real happy to have another track achieve what I had originally envisioned for it! I hope you all enjoy it too! After this, we've got SoM's final track, "Change Destiny"! Hope you all look forward to it. ~DAR
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