I had a good talk tonight with my frind Kyle in Arizona, and our conversation inspired me to unearth and present this little chestnut, which was only my second attempt at anything like music production. It's less a "song" than a sound collage of varying music moods around a theme. Anyway, Kyle is the owner of a Volkswagen Vanagon, and "Vanagon" is the title of this track.
The real-life Vanagon is the direct decendent of the original Volkwagen van or "bus." In fact, for the first few years, the Vanagon body was built over the original air-cooled bus chassis - which made for some really sluggish traveling. But soon the chassis was improved, the cooling system went liquid, the headlights turned square, and the Vanagon was in its prime. The Vanagon eventually gave way to the (far less cool) EuroVan, but Vanagons are still seen all over the place, especially in sunny, rust-free California.
For several years, I was the proud owner of a 1978 Volkswagen bus with a Westfalia camper pop-up top. It was too early to be a Vanagon, but it was the singular experience of driving and owning one of these awesome vehicles that kinda guided this little sonic experiment. I've always wanted a nice camper Vanagon, but I've only wanted one with syncro, and a Vanagon syncro in good condition is still pretty expensive these days.
So this was back in 98, I had my bus, and I just started tinkering around with Acid, SoundForge, Rebirth, and other software music tools. I'd completed one test track, and as a second go around I wanted to try something that was like a mini VW bus roadtrip - with all the lip-biting apprehension, fun, and inevitable exaltation that are in the very welding of the old V-dubs. I'd wanted to set up shifts in mood, a sense that the song was taking odd left turns on a long, slightly repetitive trip, sorta like "Good Vibrations" but more like "Funkytown" (without sounding like either of those songs).
I played and looped some acoustic guitar and some brainless keyboard work (the dee-doot-doot-dee-doot-doot opening is an example of this virtuosity), but no vocal. There is a sampled 'guest' vocal - and I'd be hard pressed to find anyone that can't pinpoint the source. The counting vocal felt appropriate. I always seemed to do a lot of counting in my bus - miles, rpms, gas dollars. You'll know what I mean when ya listen.
I never did anything with this particular track because there's some pretty egregious sampling in it. It was always meant to be an exercise, not a "song," and I fished around for material I could find to get something like the sound I was looking for. In the end, I learned a lot about tweaking sound and layering seemingly disparate elements to do something really evocative, and moreover that sounds can be processed to oblivion - the Mancini-esque "harmonica" at the end is actually some sampled electric guitar feed back processed and pitch shifted through my PC.
After this I finally felt comfortable enough to cobble together a song, which I'll post another time. But for now - at least until I get a cease and desist order - buckle up and enjoy "Vanagon."
Fahren nur mit verrigeltem dach!
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