So I Had This Dream: Rise of the Multicam

I am pleased to report that it bangs

With the voices of my forefathers imparting generic profundity in my ears, it’s finally time to close the circle, fulfil my destiny, and take my 12-part Some Things Are Like Other Things Live Video series that we sort of forgot about for a while to its inevitable blockbuster¹ conclusion.

Interior of a studio. An acoustic guitar gathers dust in the corner.
VO: I had an appointment… with many electric guitars

Act 1: So much at stake

If you need a recap, and really who could blame you after the amount of time this has taken, we are today talking about the collection of live recordings based around my album Some Things Are Like Other Things.

Each song on that album was to have a corresponding live video version, because live music so often adds an important new dimension to studio albums. All but one have already been shared with you. I’ll helpfully list them below. You won’t click them, or maybe you’ll click one. And that’s ok. The important thing is you could, because they’re right there and they’re actually really good. But you’re busy, honestly I get it. But still, here they are:

So I Had This Dream
Hands (feat. John Parker and Patsy Reid)
Other Ideas (feat. John Parker and Patsy Reid)
Asking For A Friend
Keep Me Around (feat. John Parker)
Captured (feat. John Parker and Patsy Reid)
Childish Thoughts
Trace It Back
The Everything Goes Back To Normal Button
Some Things are Like Other Things (feat. Roxanne de Bastion and Zoe Konez)
Knots
No Drama (feat. John Parker)

Some of them were handled with great professionalism by experienced engineers, others were thrown together on the fly by me, a man of passion and integrity but limited audio engineering skills.

We are finishing the series, of course, with an example of the latter. It’s the first track on the album, and the last to drink up and go home. The barman, in search of some way to escalate things, has gone from placing chairs upside down on the empty tables around us to placing chairs upside down on the table we’re sitting at. He says something, but we’re not listening.

Close up on So I Had This Dream.
VO: It was never the right time, until suddenly… it was.

Act 2: A frankly excessive number of harmonies

Feeling flush with renewed enthusiasm and focus this year, I realised what must be done. With the weight of history on my shoulders, and also it was my guitar strap, my journey began with a guitar / vocal take. It was quite decent².

So to the fun part, layering up many many tracks of me singing, and playing many many guitars, and hitting with a stick whatever I happened to trip over next. My shaker was a small pot of black sesame seeds, hinting at possible skill with a tofu ramen. My kick drum was a mic wrapped inside a towel. Truly we are a bunch of kooky misfits with the odds stacked against us. But we have heart, and each other. That shot at the title may well be beyond us. Except maybe, just maybe…

Each part was recorded as a continuous live take. My rule of No Sneaky Editing for this series seemed at times needlessly restrictive and annoying. But then I realised, what am I if not a system of needlessly restrictive and annoying rules? A bit late in the day to start questioning that.

At this point towards the end of Act 2 we can imagine something happening that threatened the whole endeavour, our dreams surely shattered. Except in reality they weren’t, nothing bad happened, it had all gone very well.

VO: This is all going very well

Act 3: Destiny fulfilled

A week of recording and mixing was followed by a week of learning to use the video software Davinci Resolve, which was, again to the disappointment of screenwriting rulebooks everywhere, actually quite easy. Soon the moment of glory was upon us. I took the shot and… against the odds which by this point were almost entirely in our favour, it was done.

I had climbed the mountain, won our freedom, dreamed the impossible dream.

And so can you. Watch the video below, or on YouTube here.

Listen to the audio below, or download the mp3 here.

Epilogue: The whole album is now available for free on Bandcamp

Listening back to these was actually a proper delight.

In my experience the lo-fi demo / scruffy out-take often captures the heart more than a polished studio version. I certainly don't think these recordings represent the songs any less than the studio versions do. In some cases I even prefer them.

What to charge for it? Tempting as it would be to walk you through an abyss of upsell ladders, I didn’t become famously loss-making with that kind of business nous. Most of these haven’t seen a mix engineer, plus I’ve already posted them all for free.

So it’s very much an indie / pay-what-you-want / have them for free / no refunds sort of situation. That does mean you have to get on with downloading it though, fair’s fair.

All videos are also in a YouTube playlist here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4Z0AIn26cVAsafDmGO87vQctd9wLty6Y

Credits

Huge thanks to those who took part in this series:

John Parker on double bass
Patsy Reid on fiddle
Northern Cowboy Films
Lauren Housley
The Harrison / Harrison Folk in London
Decentraland / Festival District
Roxanne de Bastion
Zoe Konez

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Live dates

Saturday 22nd February - BREStheatre, Brielle, NL. Tickets here.

Not lots right now. More to announce soon hopefully.

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Paid Subscribers

So much of what I do is only possible thanks to my paid subscribers. This week I made a little video blog for them with some updates, a gig idea I’m thinking about, and an acoustic version of Room In The Middle.

That’s it for now. Drop a comment below if you fancy it, and I’ll see you next time.

love jake

1. Either the failed video store or the big Hollywood event movie, you decide.

2. If you’re wondering which one that is in the video, it’s the one with poor lighting and the guy who isn’t wearing any headphones.