Tastes Like Ashes
Sep 13, 2020
nick
Re: Theme
This is a theme for Melancholia. I hadn’t thought of this movie in awhile, and I liked thinking about it over this melody. The melody just descends and descends, and as Justine says, “I smile, and I smile, and I smile.”
Looking for feedback on
Does this feel like the world is ending but it's OK because the world is evil and we don't need to grieve for it?
Discussion
trumpeteer123 September 15, 2020 4:57am
which daw did you use to do this in? did you notate it or just tweak it til you were good w it? i am always interested to know peoples processes. the pizz strings are a nice touch and good counterpoint!!
nick March 10, 2023 12:45pm
Logic! i had been fooling around with this line for years on guitar and piano, and this felt like a good application for it. pretty much played the whole thing with “musical typing”/entering in midi notes. Don’t know how to notate! also hello 3 years later.
trumpeteer123 March 11, 2023 1:48pm
oh hello 3 years later what a surprise! surprised also (in a good way) that you even remember the process at all after this wild time passing!
nick March 13, 2023 8:42am
Like it was yesterday
lydiarose September 14, 2020 11:23am
This totally sounds like it could be a movie soundtrack – I love the dramatic shifts (“loud louds” and “quiet quiets” really come through here). Very nice production, how did you make all these sounds? The opening instrument is so ethereal and the chorus-sounding middle section definitely makes me feel like its the end of the world!
Ryan September 14, 2020 9:31am
Man, I love all those warm shifts from 0:40-0:49. And the quiet outro. This is really well written. I don’t think I would’ve gotten it right on the nose, but if I had heard the track without knowing which film it was written for, Melancholia would’ve ended up on my short list. What was your process for writing this?
nick September 14, 2020 10:21am (edited)
Honestly, I was cleaning up this old melody/harmony, and I asked @@nicolemalagodipope what it sounded like, and she said Melancholia and that was that. The melody/harmony came from challenging myself to write a melody atop an endlessly chromatically descending bass line. Finding chords that the melody fit into for the loud section was a fun challenge. I haven’t written something with 9 different chords in a row in a long time.
Sam Pearce September 14, 2020 2:51am
Hey Nick, I’m really impressed by this. Texturally it feels like a classic film score, but it has its own character and doesn’t sound like an imitation of any existing film music (as I imagine might happen if I tried this kind of arrangement). And yeah, I can dig the world’s ending but it’s k narrative.
Ryan September 14, 2020 9:28am
‘Classic’ is the word.
nick September 14, 2020 10:24am
Thanks sam! If you haven’t seen it, check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty80gJfKDlE