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Smiley Smile Stuff => The Beach Boys Media => Topic started by: Scaroline No on December 20, 2016, 10:07:18 AM



Title: A Beach Boys/Brian Wilson inspired music/art project
Post by: Scaroline No on December 20, 2016, 10:07:18 AM
I wasn’t really sure where to put this, because it’s kind of a multi-faceted thing… I was thinking of putting this in the Smiley Smilers Who Make Music thread but I wasn’t sure if that was the right place.

Do you guys wanna hear a song I made? It’s BB/BW inspired (probably more BW than BB). I’m not a musician though, haha. I’ve never written a song before, but I needed one for the video soundtrack, so I thought I’d give it a go. I do have a ridiculously basic music foundation (4 years of piano/vocal lessons for in my teenage years, circa 1 million years ago, and I very, very casually play the ukulele).

Having said all that, I’m pretty proud of how it turned out  :-D And you all seem like a bunch who might appreciate what I was trying to do...

Now comes the full disclosure/multi-faceted part: the link below is to a promo video for a book that I made (also BB/BW inspired, actually!) I wanted to share the song, but it comes with the video, which promotes the book.

I dunno, I just thought you guys might enjoy it! I’ll stop kicking the floor now. Here it is... Patio Furniture, by the Puddlesurfers (that’s me! That’s my one-woman band! LOL). I hope you like it.

https://youtu.be/5gbHAnW2UvY


Title: Re: A Beach Boys/Brian Wilson inspired music/art project
Post by: JK on December 20, 2016, 12:07:24 PM
Why oh why aren't The Puddlesurfers better known? Nice song there, S. Great atmosphere...

I hope the book sells by the boatload.  :=) 


Title: Re: A Beach Boys/Brian Wilson inspired music/art project
Post by: Scaroline No on December 20, 2016, 03:35:08 PM
Thanks for giving it a spin, and also for the kind words! I had a lot of fun with it. Who knows, maybe The Puddlesurfers will get back in "the studio" again soon :) Much appreciated!


Title: Re: A Beach Boys/Brian Wilson inspired music/art project
Post by: RangeRoverA1 on August 23, 2017, 05:47:36 AM
Well the traffic is fast now & the 1st thing I decided to see/ hear is this video. Meant to do it since you posted it but slow youtube etc. got in the way. Anyhoo, good song, it begins Christmasey, gotta say your voice is not very different from what I imagined it to sound like, having seen what you look like (adorable). :D I didn't know/ rmbr? you write books. Cool for smb. with the basic music foundation as you say. Thanks to share.


Title: Re: A Beach Boys/Brian Wilson inspired music/art project
Post by: Scaroline No on August 23, 2017, 06:19:15 AM
Well the traffic is fast now & the 1st thing I decided to see/ hear is this video. Meant to do it since you posted it but slow youtube etc. got in the way. Anyhoo, good song, it begins Christmasey, gotta say your voice is not very different from what I imagined it to sound like, having seen what you look like (adorable). :D I didn't know/ rmbr? you write books. Cool for smb. with the basic music foundation as you say. Thanks to share.

Awww, that's very kind of you to say :-D  Thank you, you just made my morning!

It was Christmastime when I made this and I bought sleighbells specifically for it, LOL.


Title: Re: A Beach Boys/Brian Wilson inspired music/art project
Post by: RangeRoverA1 on August 28, 2017, 08:26:46 AM
You're welcome. Do you write as in additional money or is it what you do to live, main occupation? What was easier/ fun - to create the vid, write song or create the story about that Canadian girl? & why Lifesicle is said ['lifsikel]?


Title: Re: A Beach Boys/Brian Wilson inspired music/art project
Post by: Scaroline No on August 29, 2017, 12:12:44 PM
You're welcome. Do you write as in additional money or is it what you do to live, main occupation? What was easier/ fun - to create the vid, write song or create the story about that Canadian girl? & why Lifesicle is said ['lifsikel]?
I write for personal enjoyment mainly. Self-publishing is expensive so I pay for the cost of a limited run of books just so that I can say I did it. Mostly family and friends buy a few and then I give the rest away as gifts :) There is no way I will recover the cost of the printing but that's okay.

I do a different kind of writing for a living (job title: Instructional Designer which is a fancy name for someone who writes e-learning courses).

As far as the Lifesicle project, all parts of it were equally fun! When I get an idea for a story it usually wakes me up in the night and I have to write the whole thing at once or I'll lose it. Then I spend lots of time editing it which is somewhat less fun, but necessary. The art in the book was a lot of fun this time. I'm more of a cartoonist/comic book style artist but I wanted to try abstract art, so that was a neat experience. I made the art style a part of the story.

The book was always the main project, and the song/video were something that came after. I came up with the idea of creating the video as a way to promote it (it was supposed to go viral! It didn't, LOL). So obviously I needed a song, and rather than buying stock music or something, I decided to do it myself. The song took about a month to do. I was waiting for the book to come back from the printer and needed to keep busy with something anyway. I really had a blast with it! As I said, I'm not really a musician but it was kind of proving to myself that I could do it, even if it was just a trifle of a thing.

The video was of course putting the song to a stop-motion animation, and I used very basic tools for that (I'm sure it shows). But I used the tools I had at my disposal. Which was kind of in the spirit of the story, DIY, self-publishing, all of that.

As far as the story being about a Canadian girl, well... they say write what you know. I based the 2 girl characters on my 7 year-old-niece and her cousin who are the same age and live down the street from each other.

It's pronouced Life-sickle, like Popsicle. I wanted to give it a fun, kind of abstract title to go with the art and story. And it sort of alludes to Life Cycle, which is also an element of the story.

By the way, thank you for these questions and taking an interest. It's fun to talk about :)