Happy Ghosts Song Stories
The story of “DOUBT”
(Published September 17th, 2023)
“Doubt” is track five from the 2012 Happy Ghosts album “Reverence for Life”. This album is a concept album, based around 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Albert Schweitzer, and his philosophy for humankind called, “Reverence for Life”.
In (very!) short, his philosophy was built upon the principle of a “reverence for life” and the religious and ethical imperatives of helping others.
I will write a story about that in due time, but suffice to say, when you decide to build an album around a particular concept, then you need to make sure you respect that and the boundaries that will impart.
There were no such challenges initially, in the construction of the music for the track “Doubt” – that track began as a musical piece, started with my brother Jono Muecke.
What was going to be band practice (the band Rise), was abandoned due to sickness. I had brought my mobile recording system with me, so Jono and I decided to do some recording to see what we could come up with – all based around the idea of improvising and seeing what falls out. Always a liberating way to approach recording, but also the most complex and potentially disastrous approach!
I got a simple click track and beats-per-minute up and going, and then got the bass and guitar ready for recording. Then pressed the recording button.
Very quickly we produced a range of musical patterns amongst a whole lot of other stuff of varying degrees of suitability….and then lots of noisy unusable stuff!
We didn’t record for too much longer that night, but I walked away knowing that there was something very interesting there, that with some effort, could be made into something potentially very cool.
It wasn’t until many months later (and on the journey that was to be the “Reverence for Life” album) that I remembered that there was a song waiting to happen from that session – and embark on it, I did.
The initial sounds that we got out of that original recording to make the main verse and chorus, I am still infinitely impressed with – it is a heavy, yet atmospheric feel, hefty on harmonics and entirely unique. It was a great template to work with. I think that we were in a creative space that night!
I think that came from being prepared for band practise and the necessary rigidity that brings with it, then being given the freedom to forget that rigour and instead focus on improvisation and being able to do whatever comes to mind.
I ended up needing to write a few more parts for the song, which I was able to do using the bass (and then building up with more keyboard parts).
As is almost always the case with my songwriting, I get to the point where I have a music-only song with all the bits and pieces essentially catered for (e.g., 2 x chorus here, 4 x verse, extended bridge here etc.), but with no vocals yet in existence! Effectively, an instrumental track, with the ‘start to end’ flow complete. That was the case here – ready for a story.
Some may ask whether approaching songwriting this way can be somewhat limiting – being to all intents, locked into a particular structure that the lyrics and vocal melody will have to follow. The beauty of this approach is that the song structure can then be amended to suit – it is very easy to reduce or increase a part of the song to meet an important lyrical intent. Also, once I have the structure working and a vocal melody recorded, that is when you can apply a few more colours (either musically or vocally) to get the song to a point where it is considered ‘complete’. Some of the colours can end up being significant aspects to the song as, for example, the colour may be that embellishment which really assists the song to move from the verse to the chorus (and that the listener may really identify with).
Lyric and vocal wise, this one was quite a journey.
I liked the way that the word (or feeling) “Doubt” played into the Schweitzer philosophy – or perhaps more succinctly, that there is no-doubt in the philosophy at all…and that is where the idea came from to base this song around the fact that we are often severely impacted by doubt in elements of our lives – in ourselves and even with others (don’t let me in!). So, the song is really a rallying call to overcome doubt, get into it, get on with it and make good things happen in the world!
I wrote the chorus first (“……the doubt in my mind”) and knew straight away that it would need Carrie to sing it. Additionally, I built a second chorus which felt that it should also be Carrie (“…why do we fail, just when we are needed”). I was able to get Carrie to sing that on one of her journeys to visit family back in Adelaide.
In terms of the lead up to the chorus, I could hear a spoken word transitioning into Carrie, and I ended up speaking the part myself (“you let me in”) and putting it under heavy distortion to make it not sound like me, but in fact, even make it sound a little bit dark and dangerous (don’t listen to the negative voices inside your head!).
This track was another where I got confused about which voice sample to use to build up the verses – I had two samples and built two versions of the song. I ended up asking Ash to give his opinion on which one to use – it is interesting with voice samples, as it may seem as though you can just find something and put it into your music, and it will “just work”.
That is very much not the case – it is not only about the words that are spoken (and their power / eloquence / relevance), but also about how they sound (their delivery, intonation etc etc). The sample that was rejected, was one where although the words were powerful, there was a lilt in their delivery which removed that power when placed in the song – which meant they were not the one to use!
Now, after getting the song to a particular level of completeness, I did feel that I wanted to provide a short intro piece and outro piece to embellish it a bit further – that was done by creating a simple keyboard driven pattern, accompanied by minimalist percussion.
So ultimately, a rather complex song has been created through quite a long process, outside of the square!
The Story of “GOTTA DO IT“
(Published August 24, 2023)
GOTTA DO IT is track two off the Happy Ghosts October 2008 release “Silver Lining” and was also the lead single from the album.
It is also the first HAPPY GHOSTS song that included both Ashley and Carrie. Although in different years, Ashley and Carrie went to the same school and knew of each other – although not socially connected, they were aware of each other’s artistic pursuits.
In our years of doing music together, there wasn’t a point where Ashley, Carrie and I were recording physically together. With Carrie living interstate, it was about taking whatever opportunities arose to catch up and record with her. The creation of this track very much took its journey through that path.
The song started from a very simple base – the foundation percussion line that runs through it, is a preset from a keyboard that I had borrowed and was using at the time. I recorded the sound for the intent to make a loop out of it which I could use to help guide its development.
At that particular point in time, my thoughts were that the loop would be replaced with something more sophisticated at a later date.
The thing that changed that, was the bass keyboard, which was the first piece recorded. The notes seemed to blend in well with the preset loop and it gave the song some real drive and structure – and from that point, it was always going to be hard change it.
It is interesting when you have a keyboard with limitations – to make things work, you have to try and find ways to make the sounds better or more interesting. An important part of this song is the floating keyboard which is done by mirroring the recorded part with a reversed version of itself. It really helped to mark the structure of the song.
I knew that Carrie was going to be coming to Adelaide and would be having a dinner with us, so I tried to get the fundamentals of this song complete in preparation for her. That was specifically about writing the lyrics and the general melody to how it could be sung, and the music relatively complete in terms of its arrangement.
That was where I came upon the idea of trying a motivational chant like approach to the lyrics – as a bit of a rallying call. One Another Gotta Do it For!
I gave Carrie a general idea of what I was thinking, and she then took it to another level. I recorded her vocal three or four times, then got her to improvise over the top on another track. Most of what we recorded is in the final version.
Once Carrie’s vocals had been worked through, Ashley and I got together and added our vocals to Carrie’s. This was just to build up the end, but way back in the mix.
Ash then took that version and worked through a serious of voice samples to see what fit best. To begin with, there were voice samples with a focus on relationships and others with a focus on broader humanity – we weren’t sure whether to stay on one or the other but ended up with a bit of both.
I included GOTTA DO IT in my 2021 compilation release “A Collection” and put a video together using footage capturing The March on Washington in 1963. The images are profound, so that was done with deep reverence.
The song definitely has a low-fi overall vibe but it sort of feels like part of its charm – there was a lot of fun and spontaneity putting it together.
At the time of writing this, GOTTA DO IT has the most listens on streaming sites of all Happy Ghosts tracks.
The story of “LAMENT”
(Published August 12th, 2023)
The song “Lament” is track ten from the 2008 Happy Ghosts album “Secret Code of Beauty”, released in November 2007.
This was the second time that I worked with vocalist Carrie Barr, the first was for the song “Four Emotions” which was on the Something Beautiful EP (that was released in June 2005).
Sometimes songs or at least ideas for songs can come from an accident or somewhere completely unexpected. Over the years there has been several occasions where I am searching for a melody to accompany a song that I have already built up, only to happen upon something different that you get excited about and realise that it has to be its own song. When this does happen, it is mostly when I am recording keyboards.
And so it was, with the birth of “Lament”. Once I discovered the general feel of the song, I created a new session in my recording set up and started to record the foundation piece.
Another thing I did with this track (as happens each time a track like this just appears) was to record it immediately whilst fresh – so this means that I don’t spend time trying to find the beats per minutes so that I can have a click or rhythm accompaniment (the idea being, that takes time, and in doing that, you can forget the organic flow of what you have discovered).
This is a bit of a no-no, as it means that you are leaving the timing up to your ‘internal’ precision rather than doing so by following a click – this can reveal itself to be very problematic when doing overdubs. If the core recording moves in and out of time, then you might struggle to stay in time as you build the song up with extra layers of instrumentation (and start cursing yourself for not recording it to a click track!).
But, to me, it is worth it, as you are capturing a recording of a track when it is still fresh and evolving. If you speak to many bands, they will describe this as a wonderful thing in certain instances – often a song can be over-rehearsed when you go into a studio and by the time it is recorded, some of that original essence and flair that was there at the start is missing in the final version of the song. As listeners, we fans will never pick that up, but bands and songwriters will be well aware of this and often disappointed by this phenomenon.
Now back to Carrie!
Although I was aware that I had recorded a very simple track with simple movements and simple instrumentation, I really liked the ambience of it, and it immediately made me think of Carrie and how great it would be if she would be happy to sing something operatic over the top of it.
So, how did I get to meet Carrie in the first instance? Well, I would like to say that it was at an after-Grammy’s party or post Oscar’s shindig, but it is more interesting than that! Carrie went to school with my wife, and they have been friends since those times. Carrie, who has lived a really successful and diverse career in music, has lived in Melbourne whilst still having her family roots here in Adelaide. She is an Opera singer, a large Theater performer (Cats, Les Misérables etc.) as well as music teacher and more! When Carrie comes back for trips “home”, we will often have her over to our place for a lunch or dinner. On many occasions as we are finishing dessert, I will say to Carrie, “hey, I have this thing, which you might like, do you think that you would like to have a go with it?”.
And this is how Lament came into being. I said to Carrie that I had this very simple piece that I think would sound really good if “you sang opera” over the top. I gave her a very quick listen to it, and she said, “OK”.
Now, this was an experience which will live large in memory.
Opera singers have spent years of their life focusing on their craft, and but one element of that (let alone all the incredible vocal technicalities they have to perfect) is the extraordinary volume that they can produce without the need for electrification (microphones etc.).
When I got the microphone set up and was ready to test Carries readiness for recording, that first run through revealed two things:
- The house was literally vibrating to the power of Carrie’s vocals.
- The recording channel that I had setup to capture the vocals was completely overblown (also known as “in the red”) which is trying to tell the operator (i.e. me!) that you are providing way too much input which it can’t possibly capture (in essence when this happens and you listen back to what you have recorded, it all sounds distorted)
As a result, I had to lower the recording levels almost to their lowest settings, and also place the microphone at some distance away from Carrie. We did that and were able to get a really good recorded rendition, but what was hilarious is that the house still reverberated with each note that Carrie sang, and the volume in the recording room was remarkable!
At the time, our oldest son who as about 4 at the time, was fast asleep in the neighbouring room – much to our surprise, he slept the whole way through!
The things that I really love about this recording are:
- How passionate and emotive Carrie’s singing is. This was, to all intents and purposes, improvisation on her behalf – after once listen to the track she was ready to go. For opera aficionados, you may recognise a phrase or two, but Carrie otherwise just let it all tumble out and it was an amazing experience to be there to see that unfold!
- Although I thought I was pretty good at recording tracking (i.e., getting the right and best level of the voice or instrument that you are recording), this session went further than I had been before, and I felt that I learnt a lot about recording techniques – just hearing Carries vocals at a good balance and sitting clearly within the mix on the final version of the song makes me feel proud!
Carrie and I have done some amazing work together since this time, but I have to say that the hairs on the back of my neck often stand up when I listen to “Lament”. I hope that you enjoy it too!
The story of “YOUNG”
(Published July 29th, 2023)
The song “Young” comes from the Happy Ghosts album “Secret Code of Beauty”, released in November 2007.
It follows the blueprint set for Happy Ghosts tracks by using archival spoken word but this one came with a slight difference.
As a real youngster, our family moved from Australia to live in the United States for three years. Back at the time, the best way of sharing news with those back home was via sending tapes. Effectively, this was about using the portable tape recorder – my parents would ask us questions about what we had been doing, and we would try to answer them.
My grandparents held onto these tapes and they were passed onto my parents. By this stage, tapes were becoming a relic of a bygone era, and fortunately I had access to a facility which meant that I was able to digitise them, so that they would not be lost for good.
Apart from the enjoyment of reliving some of those times whilst doing the digitising (as well as being able to give them to my parents to listen to on modern devices), the other thing that became very apparent, was how American our accents became over time!
To all intents and purposes, I had put these recordings out of my mind….until one day realising that they could possibly be used to front a Happy Ghosts song.
And thus, an objective had been set!
As with how I do my song construction, “Young” started with the music first, and this one was written on the bass guitar. Although I usually build some sort of simple rhythm to use underneath for timekeeping, the bass guitar, which is my key instrument, is also the one that I most often use to construct the initial flow of a song (verse, chorus, bridge etc.).
Once I got it to a point where it had a musical journey recorded for the song, I explored some of the recordings from our time in the US.
Ultimately what you hear are the voices of my two eldest brothers, at the ages of 9 and 11, after a day out on one of our many, many adventures throughout those years . I sounded like a chipmunk, so I am absolutely not included, and I believe I only included one or two words from my other brother aged 8.
Whilst I was happy with where the song and the recorded voices were working with each other, there was something missing when it came to the rise of the chorus. For the first time in my life, I got brave enough (stupid enough?) to actually sing on one of my songs and I recorded the chorus myself – something which I had successfully side-stepped throughout my career to that point. I did have confidence with the sentimentality of it (and the words) though – it seemed like the only right thing to sing as it was an absolutely true reflection of what it was ‘when we were young’.
Like a number of other tracks at that time, I took my final version into Brett Sody at Sody Pop studios to get him to give it that extra bit more.
The track itself was received well. It gained some good airplay and was used on a number of documentary films. The most successful of those was the film titled “_” by pro surfer Johnny Abegg and visual artist Matty Yeates. Thanks guys!
I would like to thank Ash for allowing me to indulge myself in this song!
The story of “FOR THE SUN” (the first Happy Ghosts track).
(Published July 22nd, 2023)
Not long after settling in Adelaide, South Australia in the early 2000’s, I started to keep my eye on the local music magazines Rip It Up and dB for potential music opportunities.
There was a story about a local documentary maker, Ashley Starkey, who was creating a piece to capture arts initiatives in the local district. I contacted Ash and he was kind enough to include my musical work (under the project name “Andrissa”) in the documentary. Ash captured me playing bass, overlaid with really interesting and original lighting and photographic techniques (which was to become the key feature of the visual front for the Happy Ghosts, across album artwork, videos and even a Happy Ghosts movie!).
As part of the filming process, Ash and I got to know each other better, and a bit later down the track, Ash mentioned a documentary that he was starting to edit. Called “The Path to Totality”, it was about the 2002 total eclipse of the sun, with footage captured in Ceduna, central-South Australia.
After chatting, we agreed that I would try to write a song that could be used as the soundtrack for the documentary.
An interesting anecdote about that time, is that I didn’t have any recording facilities available to me. As part of a purchase of some video tools, Ash had a small audio input console with some recording freeware, so I ended up recording the whole song in his studio. Although I was able to work out how to create a session, and how to get the audio recorded, I was unable to find out how to remove the latency (i.e. you play the note, but only hear it a split second later). There are not too many things more frustrating or harder to do than to stay in time when dealing with a delay, but fortunately, I managed to get it done and kept it more or less aligned. The journey of the track was written on bass, supported by a drum loop and I then added multiple guitar and keyboard lines.
Ash really liked the instrumental track, but it made him think of the e-Bow talents of one of his friends/work associates, Matt Cahill. Matt, who had good success with his band The Violets through the 90’s, was just setting up his new band “Evoletah”. Matt contributed the main hook driving “For the Sun” forwards, using the e-Bow (a device that you place on the strings of a guitar to create a sustain-sound, not possible through the use of fingers or a pick).
Unbeknownst to Matt and I at the time, we were to combine for the Happy Ghosts track “Voices” (and the remix, “Voices Reprise”) for the 2012 album “Reverence for Life” and then later, form the duo “The Quiet Room” together.
With the song sort of kicking, Ash started to incorporate it into the documentary. I came over to visit to see how he was going. As Ash did an edit and then stopped and replayed a section of the video that incorporated some archive footage and commentary, we both stopped in our tracks when we heard the refrain “For the Sun” repeated. It sounded and felt perfect in accompaniment with the song. From there, we knew that it deserved attention, so we focused on pulling the best we could from the archive commentary to turn it, as best as possible into a narrative which accompanied the dynamic of the song.
Although we knew that others (namely, David Byrne and Brian Eno with “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”) had done this first, we felt proud that it just came into being. It wasn’t forced, nor designed to be that way, it just happened through pure osmosis.
The last thing we did, was to take all of the raw tracks which made up the song into a professional recording studio, to have it properly mixed and mastered. This was done over a few hours by Brett Sody at Sody Pop studio.
Ash and I were so happy with the result, that we agreed that we needed to keep this “thing” going. So, the Happy Ghosts were born and this use of archival-type commentary became a hallmark for our sound.
One other anecdote worthy of sharing is that at that point, the only keyboard I had was a very cheap entry level Casio ($59.95 or thereabouts, if I recall rightly!). Perhaps great for learning how to play piano, but certainly not for recording. There were one or two sounds however, that were close to possible, and these were used throughout the song. Fortunately, a few simple studio techniques were applied, and I think I can say that you would never know!
Looking back at the formation of this song, and the circumstances surrounding it, it was a reminder that if you want to be creative, you just had to get on with things – even though the desire was to be in the biggest studios, with the best instruments, you had to use what you had at hand.
Maybe these limitations and constraints are the mother of invention!
No matter what, Ash and I will always be proud of “For the Sun”.
For the Sun was track four on the Paranormal Behaviour EP that was released in February 2005.