New week, new blog: Song naming

Naming songs is a BITCH.

There seems to be no predominant trends in naming songs in the music industry either. Actually, that's not entirely true - most radio friendly songs have titles that are under 5 words. You'll have to forgive me my generalization, I don't normally listen to radio friendly music.

RADIO FRIENDLY TITLES

So on one hand, we have that school of thought - short and sweet. Usually a line from the song that conveys in a general sense what the song is about, prepping the listener for the experience. A valid method of song naming.

THE 'NOVELIZATION' APPROACH

On the other hand, we have hardcore/metalcore/whatever you like bands with song titles like: No need for introductions, I've read about you on the back of toilet doors (Bring Me The Horizon). Ten+ word song titles, also expressing the meaning of what the song is about. It adds an artsy air to the naming process which can sometimes come across as pretentious - fortunately, BMTH have avoided such a misunderstanding by being awesome and ruling schools. Also a valid method of song naming, but one that should be used with caution.

THE 'LETS NAME THE SONG OH LOOK A DEER' METHOD

And then there are bands who choose song names that have little or nothing to do with the song itself. It's a trend I've noticed most prevalently in Indie Music, but not being a connoisseur of such music I can't really give an example. This is a trend I have a hard time giving credence to - to me it represents an offhanded view of the listener, for whose benefit the song is named. That might just be my feelings about it though; you could argue that it's meant instead to show a playful attitude towards the music industry/songwriting/etc or to juxtapose deep meaningful lyrics with sillyness or many other possible explanations. Thus, I'll overcome my feelings about it, and also rate it a valid method of song naming, although one that should be used with even greater caution than the novelization approach.

So that brings me to my conundrum. d'Archangel has always had a hard time naming tunes - now that it isn't just me writing the lyrics, I feel like I have less say in what the song title should be. We have this sweet new tune that we've been writing the past couple of weeks, and have dubbed it "the ballad" as a working title. Other working titles have been extravagant, silly, and not fit for polite conversation (normally detailing what people can do with objects or the type of activities people enjoy). Another new tune we're working on has earned the moniker of "the drug song". And here is the joy of it.

Once something has a name in my head, it gets REALLY hard for me to think of another one. Working titles are necessary for group songwriting. I accept this. It's just hard for to think of our new tune as anything other than "the ballad" now.

Sometimes, the working title ends up becoming the actual song title. "Situations" is an example of that, and you'll be able to listen to it on our upcoming CD, The Atrophy of Entropy.

SHAMELESS PLUG

Goodnight, and may the mosh find you all well.

\m/,

Brian

It's been a while...

SO

It's been almost a year since I bothered to update my blog. In the meantime, my band has changed considerably, and with it my life - melodramatic, yes, but it's true.

The first thing is - Dom, my brother of metal and to this day one of my best friends, is no longer with the band. He's doing the school thing, which is going well for him and, naturally, he's kicking it in the dick with his awesome.

While I thought that the loss of the other founding member of d'Archangel would screw over everything, it turned out well for us. James, our new frontman, has taken a professional approach to screaming his lungs out, and his stage presence is mosh-inspiring. For someone who has never frontman'd a band before, he certainly came out swinging - and is only getting better. I'm pumped that him and I are coordinating on song lyrics now; thus far it's added depth and variety previously lacking in our wordage. He's got a killer range from the most guttural growl to the most soul shattering scream.

I guess this is a good opportunity to talk about the rest of the band.

Filling Dom's other post of lead guitarist is Robbie Pow, the guitarist/back-up vocalist of Persist, one of southwestern Ontario's most serious hard rock bands (seriously, check them out). Rob, although not much older than I am, comes from a very 80's school of metal - give him a mixtape of Rat, Judas Priest, Def Leppard, and Iron Maiden and you've made a happy man. He's got the gift of shred when it comes to solos but my favorite contribution he makes to d'Archangel's songs are the crazy chords he comes up with. I've also been impressed with how modern his riffage is becoming - although still with that 80's hair metal twist, which I'm not ashamed to admit is awesome.

On bass, we have Chuck M, who I'd met previously whilst playing guitar in a musical, which unfortunately didn't showcase the funkmaster's true skill as well as it could. When we rocked out at a house party at my place and he began laying down grooves fat enough to be in the same weight class as yo' mamma, I knew I wanted him to play in our band. Surprisingly, Chuck's roots in funk did not prevent him from having a love of metal, and thus he joined the ranks of d'Archangel. His basslines, while remaining metal, are funktastic and really fill up and give groove to our songs.

On drums we have Matt A, who shares my love of modern metalcore - although admittedly he knows a much larger variety of music than I do. To this day I've never been able to surprise him with a band. Matt and I met when his kick-ass, high energy Indie band Belleau Woods (at that time Drastic Fantastic) played the open mic I used to host, and I could tell from his drum beats that here was a fellow lover of the metal. After a few jam sessions he agreed to help me kickstart d'Archangel and was the one who suggested that we bring Rob in. His tight double kick and creative fills give our songs a crazy, driving energy that I normally wouldn't have considered when writing them originally, but that makes them a hundred times better.

We'd been jamming for about 2 or 3 months before James joined, but if you only count practice time after he joined then it's been about 9 months that the band has been working together, and we've come a long way. We currently have a setlist of 5 original tunes, with 2 or 3 more on the drawing board, and have played 4 or 5 shows with a couple more on the calendar, having had the opportunity to rock out with some pretty big local names like Courage My Love, Downfall, and Die Atlantic. During that time we also managed to hit the studio and record a 4 song demo with our good friend Brian Alexanian co-producing it in Zanestudios.

The above mentioned CD should be out soon and we're pumped for it.

So that is a pretty good breakdown of what's been going on for the past year. It's been a crazy one for everyone, and while there are hardships to such a geographically challenged band (Rob hails from Toronto and Matt from Mississauga when he isn't at UW), it's also been inspiring. Seeing some of the reaction we've gotten at shows from both the crowd and the other bands, not to mention our producer's excitement over the songs we're writing, and just being able to watch us come together as a band and as friends - it's made everything real. Being a professional musician used to be something far off that was murky and hard to commit to - but now it's right up in my face. I like the songs we've written but they only serve to get me excited about the songs we're going to write - I know we haven't even come close to peaking yet.

It feels like The Dream is within reach for the first time in my life, and with these awesome musicians contributing to it I've never been more hopeful.

I think I've bored everyone for long enough with my words - I'll try to keep this up more regularly now that I've remembered I have a blog.

\m/,

Brian

PS: samples of our upcoming CD: www.myspace.com/darchangelmusic! CLICK THAT IMMEDIATELY