Happy People song by song track 1: Happy People

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Happy People is the title track to my fifth album. It’s the opening track so it has a job to do. It needs to set the scene in terms of musical tone and introduce us to the sound world we’re going to spend the best part of an hour listening to and introduce us to the story.

Happy People is loosely a concept album. It doesn’t have named characters or any voice acting or things like that, but there is a narrative arc and it starts here. The verses are the inner monologue of the protagonist. He has realised that the world in which he lives is not the utopia the powers that be claim it is. The government insists everyone should be happy, docile and obedient, but he no longer wants to obey.

Prisons float in your eyes
Lies on your tongue
Let the public decide
On drips to make them grin
Don’t you want to be happy for a while?
Pull another tooth out
Fixing up your smile

It’s a place where the people are metaphorically and literally drugged up and unable to see the world as it is. They only care about the superficial and the empty. Think Brave New World or Stand on Zanzibar.

The choruses on the other hand are the government instructions on how to be an obedient happy person:

Happy people don’t pull faces
Happy people smile and wave
They ask after your family
They never say a thing that hurts

In the middle section our protagonist has finally escaped. He pays for a new identity, ‘the man I paid stitches me a face,’ and he is free.

Composition

Happy People was written in one sitting for February Album Writing Month (FAWM) in about 2012. I’ve been participating in FAWM for about nine years, whih means that every February I try (and invariably fail) to compose 14 new songs, or 14.5 if it’s a leap-year.

My method for this song and the second on the album Name on a File was to set up a click track at an essentially random tempo, plug in a guitar and start improvising. Whatever turned up, warts and all, had to be the song. This is why both tracks have choruses of slightly different lengths – I could have changed that later but I liked the variety.

I then added layers on top of that guitar, including very hastily written lyrics, until I had finished songs. Both of the opening tracks were written in an hour, at least in first draft demo format.

Here’s the original demo for Happy People:


Redrafting and Recording

When it came time to start work on the album I dusted off the demo and sent it over to Jordan Brown for his thoughts. Here are the bullet points he came back with for improving the song:

  • Verse – might be too low
  • Chorus – guitars sound too much like Megadeth. I mean the riffing has something ’92 thrash to them. Not that it’s a bad thing but it is a bit limiting texture wise
  • Maybe the guitar interlude between ch1 and vs2 brings the song to anti-climatic apex. I would use the same phrase but in a very understated way. That would make the second opening more powerful.
  • IMHO the half spoken section after the instrumental interlude is too low – we’re talking a good minor third.
  • During the extended outro I would double the length of the buildup (the section with the toms) layering voices as if it was a canon. Probably samples from TV shows too. I would then lose the chorus where the guitars back down because it spoils the crescendo which climaxes with the guitar melody.
  • Not a huge fan of the vocal adlibs it the coda. The second part of the melody could be stronger (the descending contour spoils the big anthemic ending nature of it)

This was really useful feedback – some of which I ignored – that lead to some pretty significant changes. For a start, the verse are now a minor third higher and the chorus guitars are a lot less metal. The outro and final chorus have changed pretty much as Jordan suggested. I didn’t go with his idea of changing the key in the middle section though, as I liked what we had originally.

This also marked the first time since uni I’ve had someone make technical suggestions to improve my songs. I liked it. It’s funny, I often think of myself as having quite an ego, but I’m not sure if that’s true. Before I have the feedback I assume I won’t like it, than the feedback turns up and I realise it’s useful stuff.

When it came to recording, this was done first at Amersham Music Studios for the drums, and then at Jordan’s place over a a humid summer where we couldn’t get the guitars to stay in tune. It also involved me singing the lead vocal when very ill. I’m surprised it sounds as good as it did. My memories of singing it are rather hazy and for some reason involve visions of David Elephant (my evil record label boss) stroking a cat and laughing maniacally.

Again.

So that’s Happy People, the first song from my latest album. Next up, Name in a File.

Happy People, Song by Song:

Part 1: Happy People
Part 2: Name in a File
Part 3: Satellites
Part 4: Flow my tears, the policeman said
Part 5: Even then we’re Scared
Part 6: Fire Flower Heart
Part 7: Tracking Signals
Part 8: Set Light To The Sky
Part 9: All Of The Dark

Happy People is out now

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My brand new album Happy People is out today!

I’m really proud of this one. It’s more rocky, more serious and far less steampunk and it sounds amazing.

You can find it at this link.

Don’t take my word for it. The first reviews have said:

“I get the feeling that all Tom’s previous works were a flexing of musical muscles, practising for the real thing. This album is the real thing.” – Prog Radar

“This feels like the quirky Tom Slatter that I have come to know and fear.” Progressive Music Planet

“Tom has probably made the best album that I have personally heard from him. It’s consistent, melodic, psychedelic, and well written. This could very well be the album that really breaks Tom into the vast, lucrative world of progressive rock. ” – Prog Mind

The first reviews of Happy People are in…

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… and they’re good ‘uns.

Rob over the Progressive Music Planet wrote the following:

“Name in a File” combines tunefulness with the odd slant that Tom is known for and good at. It makes for a great one-two punch to start the album out. “Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said” reminds me a little of Tim Bowness for some reason. Given that I love what Bowness has been up to, that’s a good thing. “Even Then We’re Scared” feels like the quirky Tom Slatter that I have come to know and fear

The Prog Mind had this to say:

My favorite tracks are “Happy People” for being just a great song, “Satellites” for its addictive chorus, “Fire Flower Heart” for its classy and poetic soul, and “Set Light to the Sky” for its gleefully dark premise. Other great offerings would be the electronically laced instrumental “Tracking Signals” and the sweet guitars of “All of the Dark”. Honestly, now that I think about it, that last one might be my favorite.

Tom has probably made the best album that I have personally heard from him. It’s consistent, melodic, psychedelic, and well written. This could very well be the album that really breaks Tom into the vast, lucrative world of progressive rock. I think David over at BEM should maybe keep him around for a couple more albums.

Both very postive reviews, which is great. Like all artists I am incredibly vain and want to hear only praise. Two 8/10 reviews will do nicely.

Incidentally it is interesting to note that where the reviews have mentioned what they think are influences, they’re way off. 60’s music? The Beach Boys? Nothing wrong with those things but I’ve never really listened to anything from the 60s to be honest.

Anyway, two down. Let’s hope any more that turn up are equally as flattering.

Happy People – New album available for pre-order

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My new album Happy People is available now for pre-order. you can hear the first track too.

Here’s the press release, which pleasingly is mostly my wording:

Tom Slatter, London’s self-proclaimed premiere steampunk and sci-fi based rock songwriter releases his fifth studio album, ‘Happy People’, on 17th March 2017.

The artist himself describes ‘Happy People’ as conceptual masterpiece, a collection of life changing musical moments the likes of which haven’t been heard since the heady days of rock’s greatest acts like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath or Showaddywaddy.

Yet it nearly didn’t see the light of day thanks to the “money grabbing, miserly attitude” of David Elephant, CEO of Bad Elephant Music and his internet cronies.

Work on Happy People began in late 2015, when Tom delivered his first set of demos. A vague intention to perhaps complete the final recording in early 2016 was deliberately misinterpreted by the egregious David Elephant as a commitment to a firm deadline. Unaware of this absurd expectation, self-avowed ‘genius songwriter’ Tom continued to work on demos. It was only in the summer of 2016 when Tom submitted a new set of astonishing demos and a modest request for expenses to cover recording costs for full band, flugelhorn ensemble, orchestra and ‘beer allowance’ that the record label’s demands became unreasonable.

And so, despite the imposition of a production team (Daniel Bowles and Jordan Brown) – which Tom will grudgingly admit have made the album sound fantastic – and the whipping up of a frenzied Internet bullying campaign under the banner of ‘The Tom Slatter Immoral Support Group’ on Facebook, Happy People has now been completed and will be released in March 2017, only six months late.

Tom says: “this album is my best yet. I don’t care if David Elephant is moaning about it not being prog. There are a few funny time signatures and one song is nine minutes long so Elephant can shut his stupid, Northern face”.

Says David Elephant: “yeah, it’s not bad. Jordan and Dan have done a great job making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Whether it’ll shift any units remains to be seen – but ultimately, it’s Slatter’s circus. If it sells well, I’ll allow him to buy me a curry. If it doesn’t, I will crush him. I will crush him utterly”.

‘Happy People’ is available to pre-order now from the BEM web site, available as both a CD – with design by Joe Slatter – and as a high-quality digital download.

Live, Discomfiting and Overly Whimsical

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I have just released a 10 track live ‘bootleg’ made over the last 12 months at various gigs. As well as the music it has a pdf tour diary attached with some absolutely true stories in it.

It contains an acoustic version of a song that will be on the new album. Can you guess which one?

They’re not perfect pro recordings, they’re rough and ready and a good document of what these acoustic gigs were like.

They also show what my singing voice is like live. Like every singer under the sun, I am self-conscious about my voice and I never feel I get the real thing over in studio recordings. This is me, and I think I give a fair showing. In fact some of it I think I’m actually very proud of.

It’s up for any price you want – 0 is definitely fine. If you do want to pay that would be appreciated. If it helps motivate you, I can let you know that any funds will go towards the £200 we need to hire a film studio for the music vid that will accompany the title track of the new album early next year.

We want it to look good. It would be great if we can do that.

The fact that the film studio we’re going to use is genuinely also a leading London fetish dungeon is coincidence. We need the money for art, honest.

Summer Gigs are now over!

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phoenix_2

Finally a quiet weekend after my busiest spring/summer of gigs. I’ve played to some lovely audiences all around the country and thoroughly enjoyed myself doing so.

Reviews of these gigs have described me as: ‘dark’, ‘sardonic’ and ‘overly whimsical’.

Being a little one-man-band indie musician with a day job, I don’t have the time to go looking for gigs. In fact all but one of this year’s gigs came about because someone asked me to come and play rather than me asking them.

This is still the best way to see me play a gig – just ask! All we need is a room and some people (depending on the amount of people we might need some other equipment as well. And I need to not lose money, which I haven’t done this year. Which is good).

I’ve played lovely gigs in Weymouth, Berwick, Llanfyllin, Stroud, Brighton and several in that London that they have.

Many thanks to the wonderful people who put me on and to the various people I played to who didn’t throw things at me.

There will be a little bandcamp release with some live recordings as a pay what you want thing. I’ll probably have that ready and up in a month or so.

Here’s hoping next year is even busier.