This is a culminating experience, titled, Breaking Down the Break Up! (BDTBU). BDTBU is a five song EP by the author, Tommy Mills. The songs on this EP span a wide range of genres such as rock, electronic, funk, orchestral, ragtime, and pop. The goal of the project is to explore different approaches towards making marketable pop music. This project challenged the author to modernize his composition and production techniques. Upon graduation, the songs on BDTBU will be released on Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Music. Key Words: EP, popular music, modern production, composition, sound design.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1182/thumbnail.jp

Mills, Thomas D.

English

Berklee Research Media and Information Exchange (REMIX)

Berklee College of Music         BREAKING DOWN THE BREAK UP    Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Master of  Music in Music Production, Technology, and Innovation    Supervisor: Pablo Munguia       by Thomas D.  Mills        Valencia Campus, Spain July 2019   ii Table of Contents   Abstract                              iii  1. Introduction                1  2. Sources of Inspiration                    2  3. Description of Project        4   4. Areas of Innovation        5   5. Skills Acquired          6   6. Challenges           9  7. Future Ramifications        9  8. Conclusion           10  9. Bibliography         11                    iii Abstract  This is a culminating experience, titled, Breaking Down the Break Up! (BDTBU).   BDTBU is a five song EP by the author, Tommy Mills.  The songs on this EP span a wide range of genres such as rock, electronic, funk, orchestral, ragtime, and pop.  The goal of the project is to explore different approaches towards making marketable pop music.  This project challenged the author to modernize his composition and production techniques.  Upon graduation, the songs on BDTBU will be released on Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Music.  Key Words: EP, popular music, modern production, composition, sound design.                   1 1. Introduction  The primary objective of BDTBU is to explore the process of creating modern popular music.  To achieve the primary objective, several sub-objectives had to be satisfied.  These sub-objectives are listed below. Sub-objective One: Learn how operate industry-standard recording software and plugins.   Through classes such as Hybrid Recording, Ableton for Live Performance, and Sound Design, the author improved his knowledge of modern recording techniques and software.  At Berklee Valencia, students receive instructions from industry leaders on how to effectively use music technology such as Pro Tools, Ableton, Serum, Massive, Melodyne, Max, etc. Sub-objective Two: Learn how to create melodies, lyrics, and arrangements that conform to certain norms of modern popular music.  While at Berklee, the author listened extensively to popular modern artists such as Bruno Mars, Daft Punk, Adele, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, etc.  These artists have helped inform the author’s approach to pop music.  The author hopes to emulate the positive and attention-grabbing qualities of these musicians while holding his own unique preferences as a composer, producer, and songwriter.  Some distinguishing characteristics of the author’s songs include humorous lyrics filled with word play and double-entendres, complex chord progressions, and hummable melodies.  In order to conform to the norms of modern pop music, the author modernized his word choice, and reduced his use of certain chords, such as the dominant seventh chord.  Sub-objective Three: Explore the vast possibilities of modern popular music.  In order to showcase the vast possibilities of modern pop music, the songs on BDTBU vary substantially in terms of their tempo, mood, instrumentation, musical influences, and lyrical content.   2 2. Sources of Inspiration   The songs on BDTBU draw inspiration from many other songs.  This section of the paper discusses BDTBU’s sources of inspiration.   Track one of the EP, “Hysteria,” takes inspiration from the song “Sky Fall1.”  Like in “Skyfall,” “Hysteria” begins with strings played Fortissimo to capture the listeners’ attention.  Continuing in “Skyfall’s” example, “Hysteria’s” strings fade out after the intro and the verse begins with just piano, bass, and vocals played softly.  This sequence of a loud fully orchestrated intro followed by a soft first verse is quite eerie and perfect for a highly intense song.  The quick changes in instrumentation and dynamics create uncertainty and tension.  Additionally, the minimal instrumentation of the first verse leaves room for the song to grow in dynamics and instrumentation until the song hits its climax.   Track four, “Washing Animals,” takes inspiration from songs such as “At the Zoo2” and “Hey Bulldog3.”  In the song “At the Zoo,” Paul Simon sings about all the crazy things that zoo animals do, however each verse ends with the phrase “and the zoo keeper is very fond of rum.” This line is quite unexpected and comical.  By inserting the zoo keeper into the song, Paul Simon is playfully comparing the zoo keeper with the zoo animals.  “Washing Animals” makes a similar joke by ending two of the verses with the following lines “your mom and dad should wash their hands but sometimes they forget” and “the cliental washes well but somehow they still smell.”                                                        1 Adkins, Adele and Epworth, Paul.  “Skyfall”.  Track 1, Skyfall, Columbia, 2012, iTunes. 2 Simon, Paul.  “At The Zoo”.  Track 12, Bookend, Columbia.  1968, iTunes. 3Lennon, John and McCartney, Paul.  “Hey Bulldog”.  Track 4, Yellow Submarine, Apple, 1968 , iTunes.   3 The song “Hey Bulldog” ends with John Lennon and Paul McCartney making goofy dog sounds, saying random quotes, and laughing hysterically.  This ending was improvised and the joy John and Paul were experiencing while recording is infectious.  Like “Hey Bulldog,” in “Washing Animals,” the vocalists and instrumentalists ad-libbed jokes and animal noises to intentionally make each other laugh.  These laughs and silly noises were kept in the final mix of “Washing Animals,” to give the song a feeling a spontaneity and joy. Track five, “Leave That Girl Behind” takes inspiration from the album “Random Access Memories” by Daft Punk.  Many songs in this album song such as “Get Lucky”4 and “Lose Yourself to Dance5” fuse 1970’s funk and disco with modern pop and electronic dance music.  The author applies syncopation to his bassline and a couple of the guitar riffs, to give “Leave That Girl Behind” a rhythm section inspired by the disco groves found on “Random Access Memories.”  Next, using the Serum plugin, the author designs futuristic pad synths and melodic synths to create a soundscape inspired by the EDM sounds of Daft Punk.   The author further attempts to emulate Daft Punk by adding vocal counter melodies to the verses.  Vocal counter melodies are found in many of the songs on “Random Access Memories.”  For example, “Lose Your Self to Dance” has a counter melody that goes “Come on, Come On, Come On, Come on, Come on.”                                                         4 Bangalter, Thomas-Rodgers, Nile and Williams, Pharrell.  “Get Lucky”, Track 8, Random Access Memories Columbia, 2013.  Itunes 5 Bangalter, Thomas-Rodgers, Nile and Williams, Pharrell.  “Lose Yourself to Dance”, Track 6, Random Access Memories, Columbia, 2013.  Itunes   4 6 Figure1: Counter Melody is a second melody, which is played at the same time as the main melody.  As you can see from the example above, the rhythm and motion of the pitches in the lead and counter melody are different from one another.   (Image from: https://www.lauraintravia.com/blog/introducing-the-counter-melody)   3. Description of Project  As stated in the introduction, BDTBU is an EP consisting of five pop songs.  The EP was titled Breaking Down the Break Up because three out of the five songs on the EP directly or indirectly relate to break ups.   Track one, “Hysteria,” is an intense account of young woman’s descent into madness.  Hysteria showcases the author’s ability to write serious songs and large orchestral arrangements.  A young film maker, Alex Foster, has expressed interest in using this song in his short film “Meat: Your Dinner.” Track two “Done Fooling Around,” is a pop ballad about a girl who stands up to her significant other who has been unfaithful.  The author wrote this song in honor of his friend, who was going through a tough time in her relationship.   The song aims to inspire people to treat their significant others with respect and communicate honestly.                                                         6 Lennon, John and McCartney, Paul.  “Help!”.  Track 1, Help!, Parlophone.  1965, iTunes.   5 Track three “Make Up Your Mind,” is similar in terms of lyrical content to “Done Fooling Around,” however this time the protagonist is male, not female.  “Make Up Your Mind” shows a young man’s frustration as he struggles to figure out the nature of his relationship with a girl who keeps things very ambiguous.   Track four, “Washing Animals” is a humorous song promoting good hygiene.  Stating that “If you think washing your face is hard, you better be thanking your lucky stars, that you’re not washing an animal in the zoo.” The song’s target audience is children and parents of young children. Track five is titled “Leave That Girl Behind.” The song is an account of a girl who sees her crush dancing with another girl at a party.  The protagonist finally builds the courage to confess her affection and confronts her crush, telling him to “Leave that [other] girl behind.”  This song showcases the author’s aptitude for composing and producing dance music, intended for night clubs and bars. 4. Areas of Innovation  BDTBU has many innovative elements.  Listed below are some elements of innovation.  Element One: Innovative Lyrical Content.  Every song on this EP is an original composition with original lyrics.  The author grew up listening to artists such as The Beach Boys, Kinks, and Todd Rundgren.  These artists’ lyrics are often modest, self-deprecating, and contain heavy use of word play.  Today’s lyrics tend to be more self-promoting, exaggerated, and used more imagery. BDTBU fuses both old and current lyrical styles to create a new, unique lyrical style.   Element Two: creative soundscapes.  Track four, “Washing Animals” has a very interesting soundscape.  The author states, “I wanted the songs to feel like a live   6 performance sung by a crooner at a bar in the 1960’s.  I also wanted to make animal noises for most of animals mentioned in the song.  I believe that soundscape is quite disorienting and comical.” To achieve this soundscape, several tracks of people laughing and talking were layered over each other, this creates the illusion of a fake audience.  These tracks were found on Soundfly.  Next, when comping and editing Washing Animals some mistakes were purposely left in, this creates the illusion of a live performance.  Then animal noises were recorded by the author and friends.  Finally, the sound effects were mixed, panned, and EQed to maximize their effectiveness.  “Washing Animals,” implements new recording techniques to effectively recreate a unique and old-timey atmosphere.  5. Skills Acquired  The author had to acquire many skills in order to develop his CE.  Below is a list of some of these skills. Ableton and Sound Design: Ableton is a digital audio workstation (DAW).  Before Berklee, the author had never worked with Ableton.  The song “Leave That Girl Behind” was recorded entirely on Ableton.  Additionally, all the sounds effects except the vocals and guitar where created digitally on Ableton, Serum, Wavetable, and Massive.  The author plans to continue to use Ableton when working on projects that frequently use midi instruments and or require complex sound design.          7     Figure 2: Above is a picture of the bass the author designed on serum for the song Leave that Girl Behind.  Pro Tools: Pro Tools is another DAW, which the author had no experience with before Berklee.  Every song on CE used Pro Tools at some point in the recording process.  Pro Tools is great for recording and comping live instruments because it has a feature called playlist mode.    Figure 3: Listed above is a Pro Tools session.  The Track VOX1 is set to playlist mode, which allows the engineer to see all the takes he has recorded to VOX1 rather than just one take at a time.     8  Collaboration and Sibelius: While working on his CE, the author had to be persuasive and well-organized to keep track of all the musicians.  Through his experience working with musicians at Berklee, the author gained an understanding of what he should realistically expect from a collaborator.  The author also learned how to use a music notation program called Sibelius to write parts for musicians.  This will be important in the future because the author plans to write more complex arrangements for strings and brass.  Figure 4: A lead sheet is essential to some musicians.  It provides the chords and melody to the song.  Shown above is part of the lead sheet created for “Washing Animals” using Sibelius.    9 Arranging, Composing, and Lyrics: This year at Berklee the author composed about 4 songs a week.  The repeated practice of writing songs has made him a more confident composer, lyricist, and arranger.  6. Challenges   The author had to overcome several challenges in order to accomplish his CE.  Some of these challenges are listed below. Lack of Arranging Experience: Before Berklee, the author created songs mostly just for piano and voice.  However, every song on BDTBU incorporates many different instruments and vocal harmonies.  The author took several steps to improve his arranging skills. The Author 1) started using Ableton and Sibelius to create mock ups of his songs. 2) met with Chris Pohl, a film scoring student at Berklee for bi-weekly lessons on arranging.  3) used a website called tonedear.com to better develop his relative pitch.  4) listened to famous arrangements and transcribed every note. Lack of Tech Experience: Upon entering Berklee the author had very little experience producing and mixing music.  In classes such as Sound Design, Ableton for Live Performance, and Hybrid Recording the author learned how record, mix, and design sounds. 7. Future Ramifications  In order to complete BDTBU a couple steps must be taken.  1) All unmastered songs must be mastered.  So far, “Hysteria” and “Make Up Your Mind” have been mastered.  The author has identified Glow Cast Mastering service as potential company to master the remaining three songs (to be completed by July 20th).    2) A music video will be created for   10 the “Washing Animals” song (To be completed by August 15th) 3) The author will set up an Instagram account and release 3 short videos a week, to promotes his EP and artistry, through the month of September.  4) The author will release his songs on Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Music in October.  8. Conclusion  The author composed, produced, recorded, and mixed five songs varying greatly in style for his CE.  The songs are unified by a common theme, which is that they are intended to have strong sales potential with modern music consumers.  The author remarks “It was a joyous learning experience departing from my normal song-writing tendencies to explore more current styles of music.  At Berklee, I learned many tech and composition insights which have improved my abilities to successfully create modern pop music.  Thank you Berklee!”              11 Bibliography  Adkins, Adele and Epworth, Paul.  “Skyfall”.  Track 1, Skyfall, Columbia, 2012, iTunes.  Bangalter, Thomas-Rodgers, Nile and Williams, Pharrell.  “Get Lucky”, Track 8, Random Access  Memories, Columbia, 2013.  Itunes  Bangalter, Thomas-Rodgers, Nile and Williams, Pharrell.  “Lose Yourself to Dance”, Track 6,  Random Access Memories, Columbia, 2013.  Itunes  Lennon, John and McCartney, Paul.  “Help!”.  Track 1, Help!, Parlophone.  1965, iTunes. Lennon, John and McCartney, Paul.  “Hey Bulldog”.  Track 4, Yellow Submarine, Apple, 1968 ,  iTunes.  Simon, Paul.  “At The Zoo”.  Track 12, Bookend, Columbia.  1968, iTunes.      

BREAKING DOWN THE BREAK UP

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BREAKING DOWN THE BREAK UP

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