The End of the Line

Thanks for following along with this crazy project of mine. You can download this entire collection of songs for free over at Bandcamp. Follow the rest of my music projects including my podcast and blog over at jakehaws.com.

Song #50: Ethan

This is it! The last song! It's been a lot of hard work but I've had a lot of fun putting these songs together. I hope you've enjoyed listening.

For this last one, I decided to finished a song I'd been kicking around the last year or so. I had the guitar part, the melody, and a few lines figured out but the rest of the words just weren't coming together. I took some inspiration from my 1 year old son, Ethan. These last few weeks, I've had to play mr. mom because my wife started a job. It's been nice to spend more time with my two kids but it seems like they are growing up so quickly. I already wrote a song for Zoe ("Baby Girl" with Adding Machines) so this is Ethan's song and my way of letting him know I always want to be a part of his life.

Song #49: Autumn Leaves

This song is for all the parents who lost children in the Newtown Connecticut elementary school shooting. When I heard about it on the news, I was in shock and horror. How could anybody do anything like that? I went home, hugged my children and hoped nothing like that would ever happen to them.

I started writing the piano part for this when I was a missionary in New Canaan, Connecticut (about 35 miles from Newtown). Connecticut is gorgeous in the fall so I was able to come up the title "Autumn Leaves" along with a few other lines. The song took on a new meaning after the shooting. I finished the words and recorded it tonight. The lyrics talk about the seasons passing and a parent never really able to get through the grief of losing a child. They question God and if there is any justice in the world. Then, the departed child visits the parent in a dream, comforting them and letting them know they in a better place, that the love they share continues and they will be reunited. I hope this song will bring comfort to a few people.

Song #48: Get Out

This is a rootsy folk rock song in the vein of Wilco. I've been a fan of there's for years and one of my favorite tunes there's is "Via Chicago". My song is probably a little more straight forward than's "Via Chicago" but I still think of it as an influence.
The song is about an abusive relationship where the wife has had enough and kicks her husband out. When he later comes back for revenge, she pulls out a shot gun and nearly blows his head off. I played all the instruments, which include an acoustic guitar, 2 electric rhythm guitar tracks (plus another electric guitar for the solo), bass, vocal, and drums (recorded with 2 mics). Hope you like it.
 

Song #47: I Try

This is a song I wrote back around Junior High. I was going for the sound of the Beatles "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away." It's about learning to care about people.
 

Song #46: You Don't Mind

I wrote this in a practice room during my last year in the music program at BYU (2008). I was in a Cold War Kids phase at the time so I tried to write something that sounded like "We Used to Vacation," including the tempo slow down parts. It also has some influence from the Sara Bareilles tune "Love Song."
The song is about a conversation between a world traveler (extreme extrovert) and a hermit (extreme introvert). Basically, the the traveler is trying to help the hermit work out the courage to come out of their shell and see the world. Sort of a metaphor I guess but try not to think too long about it too hard.

 This was a beast to record. As with the rest of these 50 songs, I played all the instruments. The tempo changes meant I couldn't really use a click track so I ended up recording the piano part first, then trying to add everything else on top of it. I took several takes of each part (along with some editing) to get the timing close enough to use. I'm proud of the guitar solo. I think it's pretty rocking.

Song #45: What Am I To Do With You

This is the 4th song I ever wrote (back when I was 15). It's super cheesy and I'm embarrassed by it but I thought I would get it out there anyway, zits and all. The sound copies Jack Johnson.

Song #44: The Way I Feel

This is a fun upbeat song that sat unfinished for a while. I think it sort of has a Beatles/Elliott Smith vibe  with a garage rock twist. It's a bit sloppy with the drums but I think I like it that way.
 

Song #43: Come Back and Stay

This is an oldie. One of my first. I'm not really sure who is sounds like. Maybe 90s post-alternative? Or that song from the Wedding Singer when Adam Sandler goes off about his ex-girlfriend? Recording the last few lines, I broke a guitar string but I decided to keep it in. That's how rock and roll I am.
 

Song #42: Bright Side

I wrote this one around my freshman of college. Originally, I it was written on an acoustic guitar and I had something more along the lines of early Coldplay. When it came to record this, I started trying different things with the piano and drum machine and ended up with something closer to electronica/dub-step along the lines of Thom Yorke's "The Eraser" or James Blake.


The instruments for the recording are a keyboard part (with delay and reverb added), two vocal tracks, a keyboard synth (with phaser added), 5 Ebow guitar tracks put together to make up the chords (with distortion, reverb, and delay added), and an electric guitar part for the solo section. I think it turned out way cool! I love this one!

Song #41: Sunny Rain

This is an oldie I had written back when I was about 15. I was going for something like the Jimi Hendrix version of "All Along the Watchtower." I had since written it off as a throw away song. When I was going through my notebook deciding what to record, I played it played it more along the lines of Cat Power's version of "Satisfaction" and liked it better.



The instrumentation is pretty sparse: just a voice and an electric guitar.

Song #40: Speak My Mind

Another oldie from around the sophomore year of high school. I had the piano line in the place of the chorus with the intention of eventually writing something there but I decided I like the idea of having an "instrumental" chorus. At the time I wrote it, I was going for something along the lines of Radiohead's "Karma Police."



When it came time to record it (about 15 years later) my thoughts for production were more in the line of Menomena's "E. Is Stable"

To record the drums, I did each part of the drum separately for a few bars each(kick, snare hit, snare roll, closed hi-hat, open hi-hat, ride cymbal, crash cymbal and floor tom). I then looped and layered the tracks, adding delay until I got a sound I liked. The sound sort of reminds me of a drum corp. I also have three tracks of guitar with an ebow played at octaves so that it sounds like a synthesizer. Finally, I put distortion on the vocals, added acoustic guitar, and bass. I think it's one of my better efforts. What are your thoughts?

Song #39: Talk About Love

This one is a little ditty I wrote my sophomore year of high school. It's in the vein of 90s acoustic pop/rock, namely Hootie and the Blowfish. Not my best song but still an ok tune that I felt was worth documenting.

Song #38: The Optimist

This one is inspired by the beatlesque rootsy-guitar sound of Elliott Smith's album, Figure 8, and in particular the songs "Stupidity Tries" and "Pretty Mary K."


The arrangement is fairly straight forward: one vocal, one acoustic guitar, two electric guitar, bass and drums. I don't usually have very many guitar solos in my songs but this one seemed appropriate.

Song #37: Hanging By A Thread

This is a oldie that sat half written for a several years. All I had were the first two lines. I finally got around to finishing it by adding a few more lines, a bridge and an ending. The arrangement is a cross between something Coldplay would do and Death Cab For Cutie's "Transatlanticism." 


This arrangement includes acoustic guitar, several electric tracks done direct with no amp (including 2 tracks where I did "volume swells"), drums, bass, and several vocal tracks sung at different octaves and occasionally staggered. It gets pretty epic at the end. What do you think?

Song #36: Lounging Around

This week's tune is in the style of bossa nova! It's inspired from probably one of the most famous bossa nova tunes, as well as a jazz band standard (and elevator music), "The Girl From Ipanema" by Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz. 



I used the my small keyboard to get a bossa nova drum machine beat and added maracas, a jembe, and a guiro to round out the percussion. I found a cheezy organ sound on the keyboard, which helps with the elevator music atmosphere. Towards the end of the song, I layered on harmonies (at one point, there are 10 vocal tracks). I'm happy with the result. It's the first song I've done like this.

Song #35: Red Dress

This week's tune is inspired by the Black Heart Procession's "It's A Crime I Never Told You About The Diamonds In Your Eyes."


I attempted the same waltzy piano feel and swing. The drums were recorded in my basement with two mics. It's not the greatest tone but I think it works for the song. There are actually two piano parts: one that's a little lower playing mostly the chords and another playing more a lead part and little higher. I think it helps fill it out. Lyrically, the song is about getting tied up with deceptive women. Enjoy.

Song #34: Reminders

I wrote this song very late at night several years back. In order to keep from waking my roommates, I had to play and sing very softly, which dictated the direction of the song. The inspiration was Nirvana's "Something In The Way."



The instruments are an acoustic guitar, voice, and one electric guitar with an ebow. It felt like it dragged a little so I programmed a kick drum into the song, which totally changes the feel of it. It think it makes the song come across a little more like TaughtMe (acoustic guitar with a driving kick drum).

Song #33: Not Aloud

The sound of this one is inspired from the bands Low (particularly the song "Over the Ocean") and Red House Painters. I would definitely call it minimalist approach (or "slow-core," as it is often cited). The elements of this sound that I emulated: soft clean electric guitar strums, use of brushes and ride cymbal on the drums, whispery vocals with a second voice an octave higher, and a hypnotic repetitive beat and bass line.   



This is one of the slowest and longest songs I've done. With the drummer in my band leaving his set at my house recently, I had access to a drum set for the first time in a while. When I had my studio at Muse, I would usually use 7-10 mics to record a drum set. Since now I'm only using an MBox Mini, I can only record two tracks at a time so it was a bit of challenge to get a good sound with just an a mic overhead and one on the kick but I think it works for this song. I used the Ebow on the guitar to add more texture, which is becoming my trademark sound these days. It ended up being 8 different Ebow tracks! I also added a minimal piano line. Hopefully it's not too long. Thoughts?

Song #32: Based On A True Story

This song is influenced by the Radiohead album, "The Bends" and in particular, the songs "High and Dry" and "Bulletproof... I Wish I Was." My goal was to create the same type of atmosphere with the acoustic guitar strumming and a soft pick electric guitar part. I added a "flange" effect to the guitar to give is a washy sound.