The Smiley Smile Message Board

Here's a song I wrote on my balcony on a sunny afternoon last September, hence the lyrics. It's taken us forever to get around to record it, but now it's finally mixed and playable on our Reverb Nation account.

We're suckers for late 60s sunshine pop & baroque pop so naturally we went for an, ahem, harpsichord-laden approach. After the guitar-solo there's a brief section where the song turns into a waltz!  ;D 

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_13667510?utm_campaign=opengraph&utm_content=song&utm_medium=link&utm_source=facebook

As always any feedback, good or bad, is more than welcome.  :)

Kwan_dk / Surf School Dropouts

This is the best thing I've heard from you. It sounds like a Turtles song. More people need to write songs that sound like the Turtles.

Is this a final mix?

Thanks man - much appreciated. As a massive Turtles / Flo & Eddie fan that's some praise!  :)

Yeah, it's supposed to be the final mix after much tweaking. We record in our rehearsal space with a fairly modest setup so there's a certain limit to how much we can do mixing-wise due to how the parts were recorded. Do you ask because you have any suggestions?

I do have a couple suggestions, if that's OK. If not, I'll bugger off!

I'd say mix some of the music elements wider and mix the double tracked vocal to the center. One of my pet peeves is a double tracked lead vocal that is split up in each channel - that's just me, though.
Also, maybe something to make the snare drum become a little more "crunchy". A little more pop.

Other than that, though, perfect! I love the waltz breakdown. Make a whole pop album like this and it could be the best of 2013!

Well, those certainly are good suggestions. We've been debating whether to have the doubletracked lead centered but some of us think the lead voice then comes across as too robotic. I guess it's a matter of personal taste and the current mix has been a compromise we all could agree on. I'll tell you - four guys debating on when it's a final mix can go on forever.  :)

Good point on the snare drum.

Again; thank you for the kind words.

Me and my girl are diggin this! Very cool song dude. Keep it up!

Thanks seltaeb. Glad you like it. The weather in Denmark is horribly cloudy & rainy as of typing this so the message of the song seems very to the point. No sunshine in sight here, sadly!  :(

Nice tune. You might consider dropping the BG's on the first verse but keep them on the first sub chorus. After the 3/4 section, I almost want to hear the whole first line (run outside and catch the sunshine), naked, with no backing and on the next line sing non word, longer note, ooohs, whoas or whatever, with the BG vocals and track underneath.

If I were trying to find out more about the song, I would probably ask, 'who sings that song, "Catch The Sunshine?"

Thanks for the suggestions, SBonilla.  :)

To these ears the 'ah-ahh' backing vocals during the verse make for a nice hook so they'll stay there. I guess it's a matter of personal taste - the same goes for the ending which I prefer the way it is. We originally planned to only feature the lead vocal during the break like you suggest but in the end we decided the 'ba-ba-bas' were a pretty cool touch even though they're only there for a few seconds.

You got a good point concerning the title! The thing is, we have another song underway which also feature the word 'sunshine' in the lyric & proposed title and seeing that each chorus here ends with 'We'll Follow the Sun' we just went with that.

Hey, is this the one for which I heard the backing track?  It must be, given the lyrics.  If I recall correctly, you wrote this one, right?  I don't understand how you right such great stuff without playing an instrument.  I like this one a lot.

When is the album going to be released?

Love it!! It's got a great Zombies vibe with a twist of surf!

Thank you for the kind words mypetsounds & rab2591.


Yes, that's the one. The process basically is that I just go around and hum a few ideas until I have a melody I'm satisfied with. I write a full set of lyrics for it and then I sing the song (meaning, the lead vocal / the melody) to one of the other Surf School Dropouts. He figures out which chords go with the melody and arranges a backing track with some input from me - in this case specifically going for a sunshine pop sound and featuring some distinctive harpsichord throughout.

I really can't give enough credit to my friend & Co-Dropout Andreas who's an expert in 'translating' such ideas into fully realized productions. He's basically our Brian Wilson!  ;D He helped me out the same way on this other song of ours:

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_11519849

As for the album, we plan to have it out via Bandcamp in a matter of weeks. I'll post about it here when it's online.  :)