JOHN HERMAN: "Thanks Voltaire" is another song initially inspired by a photograph. As you will learn by reading, the song is also about friendships.

CHALLENGE #1: Ask for someone you care about to give you a photograph of their choosing. Create a one minute track at 110 BPM that uses a guitar capturing the essence of the photograph.

MARK S: I asked a friend I met online at the Ron & Fez message boards for a photo....

From me:
> Send me a photograph of your choosing.
> Mark

From friend:
> photo of anything in the world?

From me:
> Anything for any reason. You can explain or not.

I was sent the attached photo.

I opened it excitedly to see what I had to ponder. I opened it and left it open on my desktop all week. I would glance at it, stare at it, flip past it. Pause and think about how I'm going to "capture" the "essence" of it all...

I procrastinated as much as possible. Everyday, at least a couple of times, I would say to myself -- "need to record the track today." Inevitably something shiny would distract me.

Finally, time to record. Hook up, tune up, noodle. Noodle some more. Alternate tuning. Slide? No slide. Record. And again. And again. Repeat. Finally settle on general idea of the bit. Record it again and again. Re-read intro email -- "3. Free yourself from self judgment. Don't second guess your first attempt at completing the challenge. Perfectionism may keep you from completing the challenge on time. Let's face it. This is going to be an odd album. It is also going to be amazing." Good ideas, all of them.

Finalize track. Export as WAV and off it goes.

I like the feel of the track, but it is perhaps a bit sloppier than I'm happy with. And I'm not convinced it meets the BPM requirement. Kind of regret hitting "send" on the email submitting it. And, oh yes, I believe it was at least 20 minutes late...

CHALLENGE #2: Record three tracks that -at least- double the length of the song attached. Capture what it means to feel hesitation and regret. You are limited to non-vocal tracks.

SANDRO SCHIENA AND GIUSEPPE LA MELA: These notes express regret about the end of a relationship. They capture the exact moment when you realise you're girlfriend is leaving you alone. alone with your love, your hopes and dreams. the atmposhere is full of floating thoughts about "the end": sometimes in the end the love you take is NOT equal to the love you make.

CHALLENGE #3: Record a very subtle vocal track for the attached song. There are two distinct sections of the song, so you must decide whether you voice goes in the first part or the second part. You must express the feeling of being alone with your love, your hopes and dreams --but you cannot use any known words.

SEAN HURLEY:
I have been Sigma-fied!

The prodigal Sigma has returned without my even knowing that I helped to bring it into the world. Let me quickly explain - My friend Mark is also in the band. His first week task was to request a photograph from a friend and then to write a piece of guitar music evoking said photograph. He tapped me for the image – I sent him a supersaturated picture of an old shacky roof. His guitar track was then sent to someone for enhancement for Week 2 and now, for Week 3 (if I may call it that), I find it on my doorstep.

My assignment was to: “Record a very subtle vocal track. You must express the feeling of being alone with your love, your hopes and dreams --but you cannot use any known words.”
This last part seemed the best. I am a specific fan of unknownity. That’s where I like to go, when I go. Most of my songs are written with unknown words and then, later, when it’s for some reason necessary, I turn the unknown words into words. This is a flip job and it’s reductive. The songs are always lessened with the new clear meaning. Something like “Shwee mudd Beel moy chee” in unknown-word language will become “She may find me here…” From open ended, to quite certain.

Anyway – I liked the unknown word angle. Then the “subtle” part also implied, to me anyway, a small job. I won’t have to work hard on this one, I thought. This one is subtle! That means it’s…… eeeeaasy.

After listening to Sigma and singing along to it, I found that I had nothing. Just some bad humming. I was following a certain line in the guitar melody, but I didn’t like simply following along. I went outside and took a photograph of a bug and then oversaturated it like the roof shot. It’s what I do when I can’t sing…oversaturate images. Why shouldn’t I? It was very hard to get a clear “big” picture of the ladybug. I always look at the spots on ladybugs and wonder: “Is this a very rare ladybug?” As though I might sell it to a bug person for some nice money. I used to occasionally rummage through my coins in the same way, expecting to somehow recognize a very valuable sheckle. Of course, I know zero about bugs or coins. Yet, I hunt for the secret fortune!

Anyway – I had a tough time. Not with “subtlety” or with wordlessness. I just couldn’t figure out exactly what to do. I felt with my last submission that I actually lessened the song and I didn’t want to do that again.

Time passed.

I mostly just played the song on my stereo and sang along with it, hoping some counterpoint melody might show up. None did. I finally just went up to my little music studio and just did whatever I could. I once again feel like I have not added to the song. It is no more pinned down than it was before.

Sigma out.

CHALLENGE #4: Record vocals for the attached song. Your vocals can begin no sooner than 1 minute and 25 seconds into the song. You must sound subtle and angelic. Your inspiration is: bugs and coins.

THUY VY NGUYEN:
Listening to this one, it’s closer to what I would think a vocal track would be, but I get to be inspired by bugs and coins. Heh, heh… luckily, I have a funny habit of giving people sound effects when they move at the day job. This one will probably be a lot easier than the last since I don’t have to do much except make melodic vocal noise like a bug! FUN! FUN! Bzzzzzzz…. Okily dokily… Listen… I want to record now, but I’m “missing” some information about bugs and coins. They are words used to define, but what do they really mean to me?

Diversion: I’m at my friend’s home, I needed a break from website building and music. I like to call him “Voltaire”… We often find ourselves discussing existentialism and the relation of ourselves to this world and our evolutions based on age and decisions. I mention to him that I get to pretend to be a bug and reference coins on my secret project. He sits and thinks for a moment. He speaks: “Well, those words have different meanings… They can be understood in different ways. For example, a bug is a creature of the earth or as a verb, something driving you crazy. Coin is physically money, or defining a term… It’s relative to how that word relates to you…”. I speak, “I never thought of it that way, like a catch-22, like a double-edged sword… Words have definite power in expression depending on how they are used… Thanks Voltaire. I think you just gave me the missing aesthetic to what I am doing. Changing my thinking of what something means was the missing piece of information.” The subject is dropped and we return to our normal discussion of life.

Here I am, a couple days later… The missing information revealed through someone else. So, here goes the double-speak…

Syllablism is what the term for “hip-hop” lyricism… Derived from the works of Homer… When working with a piece and creating a new language, the syllables of the language are considered and created… This is what this piece is… a modern extension of Homer’s style of storytelling…

Of course, there’s no words… made up ones that are sounds. Well, I don’t know if this is what you expect, but this is how it came out. Sorry no photos, or links, I’m busy as hell with the holidays so this is the best I could do…

Honestly, I don’t like songs without a percussion section… I made my own… Ummm, what happened to the “rock’n’roll” girl… I guess it’s evolution… If I burn out, I guess I’ll burn out on my own terms… Oops… the track starts at 1:24:310… I started in a little early… Anyhow, I’m sure it’ll be fine! Enjoy