Artwork by Lela Smith
Holy Ghost
Years from now, Holy Ghost will probably still be one of my favorites. An early, and very raw, version of this song was called ‘Sharks’ and traveled from hard drive to hard drive for about five years. I always loved the beat, and that crunchy bass line, but I didn’t know where to go with it.
The original tracks were in ProTools. I ported them to Ardour. The drums are a mishmash of submixed found triphop loops. Aside from a little bit of EQ and compression, they remain pretty much the same as they have been all along. The sound for the synth bass line is an old Soundfont called “BassJam.” I have had it for years. I don’t know where it came from but I love it. It is the same sound I used on the original demo, but I rerecorded it for the final cut. The original track was sloppy. I then doubled the synth with a real bass guitar.
Finally I added the fun stuff. The guitar, electric piano, and other instruments were tracked live. The guitar solo in the middle of the song is me, but in reverse. I think it ads a sort of Middle-Eastern vibe to that part of the tune. The robot voice was created by an open source application called eSpeak. I originally wrote lyrics for the tune but eventually ditched them. I saved this one line for the robot to speak, because I like it.
This was the first tune with a video. It is trippy. The images are all time-lapse videos of Lela’s drawings created in ProCreate on her iPad pro. Check Lela out on Instagram @50stressballs
For more like this, check out the Deep Indie Chill playlist.