themesongs track 4

"theme song"

the track opens with a very frustrated zig drumming the ending of the song and then making a mistake and throwing his sticks angrily hahaha. see, themesongs was made differently from most albums (im guessing normal bands use metronomes hehe) because we didn't use any metronomes for the album, all the drums were recorded from zig's memory. honestly that was an amazing two sessions of recording, just watching zig pound away at the drums, with no other instruments. sometimes i'd play along on a guitar, but the early love one another studio setup did not allow for comfortable headphone placement for the drummer, so we had to make do. and then the whole idea stuck, no more metronomes, and we'd use zig's natural tempo for each song, so that if he lags a bit then the whole song would lag, and if he reaches back to his thrash metal roots and then the whole song would feel a bit faster. that and zig + joey's decision to keep the drum level lower than most albums really makes it sound different. early listening sessions with some friends would often result in a few comments along the lines of "pare ang hina ng drums.." or some variation of that. i didn't get it at first either, but then you get it, and then it's a wow thing. haha.

anyway all the drum parts were done in one take ( ASTIG NO? imagine the monster drumming zig did on patintero/habulan/larong kalye, or the triplet break in the bato outro), and theme song was a particularly difficult one for zig, resulting in the gorgeous AAAAAAAARGH growl at the start of the song. haha. mikey amistoso commented on the not so polished cut of that take, leaving an abrupt end to the growl before the song starts. he kept on saying that that moment was a work of genius, or something like that, like "other bands would have wanted to keep that a clean fade or something" but we just left it like that. haha love one another magic.

the song is full of the kind of recording techniques you google and then decide to try and then i dunno something happens. we used a pignose amplifier, the one with the latch that opens and closes the thing, and we close-miked it with one mic in front and one mic at the back of the speaker (phase inverted) and we had a room mic, and then there was this wide open sounding guitar that we got. i love the sound of the guitar parts in theme song, and the pignose amplifier was one of those important bits that just made everything work (i miss you!)

marco's roland jx3p also played a huge part in this song, adding the disco pad at the ending, the vibe at the disco outro, and the arpeggios in the main song, with that wonderful filter just opening up at the end of every phrase. i dunno why i'm rambling on about how we recorded this song, but i really feel happy when i remember how this song just fell into place. hehe.

at 0:17 into the song, i do a wrong harmony part into the right speaker, and then i laugh, and that bit just whizzed by during all the mixing, we really didn't notice that. and then listening to the mastered tracks on headphones it was all like "OMG WHAT A HAPPY ACCIDENT!" haha i love that part.

the video is also very cool, haha. it features marc inting of twin lobster, doing his best to win the hearts of music video channel viewers everywhere. vote for his band twin lobster in the nu rock awards this year! hehe.



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jugs of the itchyworms texted me the other day, congratulating us on the cool video, and thanking us for placing their "self-titled" album poster on the wall of our earnest manliligaw protagonist hehe. if you haven't gotten yourself a copy of that album, buy one now, for your own good hehe.

my mom bought a copy of themesongs! she found it at the odyssey branch in alabang town center, and as she was bringing it to the cashier, the saleslady remarks "bakit ang daming bumibili nyan, sino ba sila?" hahaha

AND AND FINALLY, THINGS ARE GETTING EXCITING FOR THE SCARY DEBUT + FANS' DAY ON THE 25TH! LOTS OF SURPRISES TO COME! (pero secret muna para ma-surprise kayo para pati hindi malaos hehehe) 


-owel