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C O M P O S E D B Y :
M E T S Y S / S E T / I M M
S A T E L L I T E E N T E R T A I N M E N T T E A M
T H E I N T E R N E T M U S I C M O N I T O R S
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Check out the Official Satellite Entertainment Team Home Page!
http://www.seteam.com/
Also don't forget to go to the IMM!
http://surf.to/the-imm/
I am open to all CONSTRUCTIVE critisism, ideas, suggestions, and so on...
So mail me at...
metsys@seteam.com
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG:
This song actually has a surprisingly long story. It all started when I
was the keyboardist in an alternative rock band, and we were going to be
playing the song "If You Could Only See". They handed me the chord chart,
and I started to create a piano accompaniment to go with it. The way I
played those chords (playing a fifth on the bottom with the root and/or
third on top) worked out very well the in the performance later that week.
In fact, I think that same chord progression is here in this song, and
that's were I got the initial idea. I didn't actually start working on
"Ashen Skies" until early 1999. This is when I took my second semester
in the SCVAP Composition class. They wanted me to write a song for piano,
cello, and oboe. I only had a week left to compose the song, so I spent
about two days (after slacking off) trying to get something finished.
What I finished was the piano accompaniment I borrowed from the
performance of "If You Could Only see", and added an original melody on
top of it. After repeating it a few times so the song was 2 or more
minutes long, I was then off the hook for finishing my assignment for the
class, and the performance of the song at CalArts also went very well.
That melody is what you hear from 1:00 to 1:28 in this song. That part
of the song was a direct copy of what I did for the composition class.
So far this song has a 1 year story, but it still would be a little bit
longer until I actually started writing the complete 4 minute version of
this song, "Ashen Skies".
The next semester of the Composition Class came around very quickly, and
we started to work on our compositions for the performance right away.
After 3 weeks in the class, my teacher (Roger Allen Ward) then asked me to
start working on the song, and bring in 30 seconds of song next week.
I got home with a blank mind, and tried to figure out what type of song I
would compose next. Then the thought came to mind in the voice of my
friend Laserline, "finish 'Ashen Skies' dammit!" I haven't finished a
song in the past 7 months, but I figured "hey, I have 2 minutes of that
stupid song done already, I guess I'll just finish it."
So I did. At first I didn't know if the SCVAP program would even let me
perform the same song twice, but I was then given the "O.K." and started
working 2 weeks before the performance. This is actually the most I've
ever composed a song, and all that preparation paid off.
I finished the song under CakeWalk for the following instruments: piano,
cello, oboe, synthesizer, and percussion (congas). We practiced the song
the day before so everyone knew what the song would sound like, but I
still didn't have an ending, or a decent percussion part, so that night I
spent 2 hours working that out, and then the performance came.
The performance didn't go as planed; my amplifier was too quiet, our
pianist had to play the song on the fly (he never saw the score before
until we had to play it), but at least we finally finished it. The song
was completed and performed April 25, 1999 at ROD Music Hall, CalArts.
Of course it wasn't over yet. I brought my two buddies Laserline and
Paradox to the performance, and afterward we agreed to me finishing the
song Wednesday, and have it in Impulse Tracker so I can be put on the web
page. Of course, that didn't happen, so we made the deadline Saturday (a
few days later), 12:00pm May 1, 1999... that's today! For the past week
or so, I have been taking the actual 4 minute score, and sequencing it by
hand from a 5 instrument song, to a full and completed new age piece.
What you actually hear is the same song that was performed at CalArts, but
with different instuments, and some parts added and taking out.
Well, I made the deadline. It's 7:00am and I'm writing the comments. As
you can see, this song has had a long trip, and after being butchered to
death multiple times, the song has now been completed in it's entirety.
This is the first song I have finished in the past 8 months.
I would like to thank the persons you put up with my crap, performed the
song for me, and any one else who has inspired me to finish this song.
These people are:
The performers:
Roger Allen Ward - oboe, Guenevere Measham - cello, Eric Getter -
percussion, John Roberts - piano, me - synthesizer, and Tara Speiser -
conducting.
The cheerleaders:
Laserline - for kicking my butt all the time, Paradox - for doing the
same, Roger Allen Ward - for all of his inspiration, help, teachings, and
for being an all out great guy, Ryan McKendall - a class mate of mine who
can play the piano a hundred times better than I, and everyone else who
actually likes my music and is waiting for me to finish and mail this song
as I speak... umm, write, whatever....
This song has been a lot of fun to write, and I think I've learned a lot
from making this song. Every single song I've written so far was form an
idea from the past, and you need to write everything down. It doesn't
matter how crappy you think it is. That little idea can spark huge and
complex ideas (such as "Ashen Skies"). Who would have though that little
3 chord accompaniment would become what it is now.
Well, I better hurry. Noon is coming soon, so I better go into the final
stages of this song. Be seeing ya!
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SAMPLE CREDITS:
Just about every sample is self sampled, and I'm giving you the full right
to use them, especially that beautifully done piano. As for the rest of
the samples that don't have an "*" by it (which tells you that those
samples are original), here are the songs and composers I ripped them
from.
"Aquarium" by Awesome, "Space Debris" by Captin, "Astral Dreams" by
Nightbeat, "Maelstrom" by Nemesis, "Words of No Difference" by Loonie,
"Respirator" by Zodiak, and "Rainy Since Thursday" by Jazzman.
Anything that has an "M" by it is a modified sample. The kick and snare
now have a reverb added to them, but those samples are still not mine.
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POST STATEMENTS:
SEt is still looking for some new members. As long as you don't have an
attitude problem, we will more than likely accept your for your skills.
So far we have one musician, three artists, one 3D artist, and no
programmers. We are currently looking for all positions, so pleas, if you
have a skill that can help us, please go to our web page and join on line.
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Okay, that's about it. Enjoy the song!
- Glen "Metsys" Moyes
metsys@seteam.com
metsys@bigfoot.com
ICQ: 20906082
May/1/1999
