Keep Walking
Though there is very little guitar in the end tune (above), it really started out as a loud guitar jam over a loop of E minor-D- C- D. I put the bass line together very quickly over the 'Amen Break' drum loop, as I was just hanging out for a guitar blast. I recorded it live and put it on my music FB page. I left it at that until a few months later when I re-found the bass line looking for other stuff.
I set myself the goal to write a tune over a simple bass line, as I have a natural tenancy to overthink writing.
I actually enjoyed the parameters I put on myself and it led itself into a more electronic based tune. After I had written the electronics and the piano (and removed the 'Amen Break' and replaced it with a a different public domain beat), it become a different beast.
Finally, I could 'hear' a bass guitar playing the melody (probably from my 80's influences such as Joy Division, early The Cure and the song Blue Monday). I tried a number of different sounds, until I settled on a - highly compressed - and equalized bass line. Behind it, I also have a doubled it up in octaves to lift it our a bit more, though the octave line is a lot softer.
Compressor and Equalizer
Same Bass Guitar I've been playing since the 1980's. Still booming.
Here are some of the background instruments (choir, onboard FX, organ Vstis)
This video shows the progression (in short) of how the tune came together.
It rarely ends the way I start it, which is part of why I like making music. There are always a lot of unknown influences and paths that make the end tune.
Here is the 'making of' Keep Walking:
Here is the direct link to the making of video: https://youtu.be/D5DeqGT5YYY
Here is the link to my somewhat 'official' page, which I don't take too seriously, though you do get the end products of my work: https://www.youtube.com/c/TimOestmann/videos
Also
If you are interested:
I rarely collaborate (nowadays) but worked with UR Udoy on a tune he wrote in 2021: https://youtu.be/8psjaUPv5O
