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July 12, 2010 - Week 3
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"Take It All"
Overview
Lyrics
Overview
Engineering
We bring you this track amidst great excitement. The four of us are in the process of moving into our new Los Angeles home. It will be the first time in the band's history that we've lived in the same place, and we are thrilled to see what comes of it. Expect tons of regular blog posts with everything from videos of us writing and recording to random thoughts and discoveries. We anticipate productivity and fun on an unheard-of scale. Stay tuned. In the meantime, please quench your thirst with "Take It All." We had a fun time with this one. You know the drill: listen, download, rock, share.By SeanWe all consume. We like it. We like taking things out of the earth. We like putting things in our bodies. We like buying things. We like breaking things. We like to identify ourselves by the things we own. We eat, metabolize, make waste...then repeat. There's nothing unnatural about our consumption. We come by it honestly. Should we demonize that which makes us human? Forgive us....we know full well what we do...Take It All by The Theory of Funkativity Verse: It?s a skid row, a charity ball A reason, to keep it raw The sons and daughters Know they can't go on Love and leave silicon friends Counting sheep and counting heads They're living large and running In the red All the faithful witnesses Joking with accomplices Kick back while gulping down their Bowl of meds Forgetful kings, and lonely queens Hooked up to grand machines They'll take and take more than they'll Ever need Chorus: Get it all, get it all Full contact Get it all, get it all Last hit Get it all, get it all Get blasted Get it all, gotta get with it Verse: Full veins, and all the loose ends Can't remember to pay the rent Suddenly it's starting to make Perfect sense Soldiers of some ancient war Marriage counselors galore Stay sane by always counting Up the score Noise from the loudspeaker Stations of the planet earth Survival of the fit and Champions of the worst Love over the telephones A hive of sterile drones Severed ties chain letters carved in Solid stone Chorus: Get it all, get it all Full contact Get it all, get it all Last hit Get it all, get it all Get blasted Get it all, gotta get with it Take it all, take it all Full contact Take it all, take it all Last hit Get it all, get it all Get blasted Get it all, gotta get with it Verse: Get indecisiveness Get mixed experiments Get a peek at what is coming At you next Get a short-lived horror show Get a shot at lost control Get your turn you're not afraid But you're not whole Chorus: Get it all, get it all Full contact Get it all, get it all Last hit Get it all, get it all Get blasted Get it all, gotta get with it Take it all, take it all Full contact Take it all, take it all Last hit Get it all, get it all Get blasted Get it all, gotta get with it Get it all, get it all Full contact Get it all, get it all Last hit Get it all, get it all Get blasted Get it all, gotta get with it Take it all, take it all Full contact Take it all, take it all Last hit Get it all, get it all Get blasted Get it all, gotta get with itBy MichaelI usually know within the first few seconds of sitting down if I'll be able to write something good and, if so, what kind of song it will be. However, the night I wrote "Take It All," I surprised myself a little bit. I was frustrated from the very start. Nothing I played sounded right, but I stuck with it, forcing out little bits here and there. On nights like that I typically end up with nothing more than a handful of half-finished ideas. I get in that mindset and nothing sounds satisfying. I fall into a pattern of scrapping each new riff... usually for good reason. However, this time I found myself with a guitar riff that wasn't half bad. I pictured it as sort of an introductory solo, so I recorded it and tried adding other instruments on top of it. Even with that revelation I still wasn't in a great mood. Everything I put down had a restless edge to it, and that frustration became the instrumental theme. In the end I ditched that original solo, but the part it inspired became the chorus. As far as I can remember it's the only time I successfully translated an irritable mood into a worthwhile song. Next came the verse where the bass takes center stage. A prominent bass line means happy times for Kyle, and happy times for Kyle means happy times for all. The bass is active throughout, but half way through each verse things get especially interesting. The bass repeatedly slides up on the lower strings into a punchy melody in the high strings. The slides occur in the same place each time but the upper melody moves to align with the underlying chords. I love the contrast between high and low, smooth and punchy.By MichaelThe driving force behind the chorus is the walking bass and guitar line. I wanted those two voices to combine and create a meaty low/low-mid range. To thicken up the part I had originally recorded two guitar layers: one with a Blues Driver for crunchy distortion and another an octave lower with my original Digitech Whammy. The whammy sounds great in a live setting but it's tough to translate the bigness to the recording. Despite my best efforts I ended up with a muddy, mid-heavy tone. The other guitar track was too thin on its own so I did a little bit of post-production work. I try to avoid adding effects in the mix beyond compressors and EQs, but this part needed work. I settled on the Waves Soundshifter. It's one of the cleanest digital pitch shifters I've ever used, which made it a good fit for the wet/dry mix I was after. After running the track through the Soundshifter it needed some heavy EQ work. The downward pitch shift resulted in some boomy lows... what a shocker. If we were the White Stripes I would leave it as-is and have a massive guitar tone with no bass guitar to worry about. But we're not (thanks Kyle. Douchebag.). I gave the track my usual high-pass then added some bonus low-shelf cutting. I lined the final product up with the original dry track and lowered the wet track's volume enoughg to make it an accent rather than a feature. The lead guitar during the bridge got the exact same treatment to add some thunder. Boom, instant octave doubling.
