The exile, the musical

The Exile is a musical in 2 acts, with book by Edward Swardt and music and lyrics by Eric Swardt. The story starts on freedom day celebrations, ten years after the first democratic election in South Africa, when Tyler, a young man who grew up without a father, learns from his mother that his father went into exile and dedicated his life to the liberation of the country. When Tyler observes how his mother's is friend misbehaves, Tyler decides to search for his father and bring him back.

The exile can be performed by 8 actors. The lead roles are

• Tyler, a young man looking for his father
• Melissa, Tyler's friend
• Pamela, Tyler's mother
• Hugo, Tyler's father who went into exile

The supporting roles are

• Anthony, Pamela's friend
• Cathy, Hugo's friend
• Neil, Hugo's friend
• Manual, Hugo's friend

The cast of The exile can further be extended to include extra roles for a young Hugo and a young Pamela. The actors can double roles to perform in the chorus line, or a seperate chorus can include anything from 4 to 10 characters. All roles are for adult actors.

The exile includes a variety of musical styles, with some rock, blues and Broadway influences, as well as love songs. You can listen to the songs recorded for the concept album.

The music can ideally be performed by a 6 piece band with drums, bass, 2 guitars, piano and keyboards, but depending on the available budget, the keyboard parts can be performed by a larger orchestra, including up to 24+ String (Violins, Violas, Celi), 3 winds (Oboe, flute, clarinets) and 4 brass (Trumpets, trombones)

 

Long long time

Track: Long long time

Album: Out takes from the Exile concept album recordings

Remember the exile? Off course you remember the exile! This is a blog started about the exile. The exile is a musical and this blog is about everything musical and theatre.

The recordings of the concept album for the exile had about 16 tracks. Why do I say about. Last count, it was exactly sixteen! Anyway, those sixteen tracks was representative of the songs of the musical, but it was not everything. There are a few other songs as well - some of them were recorded, but did not make it unto the final issued album.

I am glad to present to you one more of those tracks which was recorded, but not included on the release.

Long long time.

After Hugo has been intruduced to his son, which he did not even knew he had until now, he sits down and fills his son, Tyler in on what was going on since he left South Africa and went into exile. At the end of the track he sits down and try to explain to himself why he never returned to his home country, even after he reached the goal of democracy in his homeland.

To listen to the whole album from track one to the end, go to the link at the top of this page or just click on this link.

There was nothing wrong with original vocal recording and to let the work goes to waste would do injustice. The song did not make it because there was something wrong with the songwriting part of it. The verse vs. chorus just did not work. For this remix, I try to solve part of the problems, firstly by not having a chorus. The song form is thus a AABA form pure. I've thrown in a bridge with a brass instrumental not just for variety. The purpose of that interlude is to give the stage actors a moment to do what they do, i.e. Hugo turns away from Tyler, to whom he was addressing the first part. He looks around to the other room where Cathy is talking to Melissa and then starts to sing the last verse, half to himself, but also so that Tyler can hear him.

I wanted to rewrite the song completely with new words - and still rederves the right to do so, but this week a bright idea hit me. Well, I had a day off from work to start with and decided to use the day productively. I decided to give the track a bit more epic sounding orchestration.

Let me know if you like it!

 

We don't know what the future will hold, but we'll give it a chance

Track: Give it a chance

Album: The Exile, the musical - out-takes

Here is a bonus track for the fans. It's an out-take from the Exile concept album recordings. It is the second to last song from the musical, called, Give it a chance.

Click the link above to give it a listen on Soundcloud.

I gave it a bit of a remix and re-orchestration. Hope you like it.

Vocals recorded by Studio Pros.

 

Talk about democracy - more story boarding

We talked about the concept album. Now we are looking at the concept design.

Since at least hundred years ago, it is fairly common for writers to make simple simple pencil drawings to illustrate ideas or stage designs and stage backdrops for each scene. It is up to the directors to take these drawings further and create those wonderful stage sets we see in musicals. As technology moved on, new ways has emerged to make it even easier for writers to bring their ideas across.

One of the very recent developments is the "animated drawings", which has taken youtube by storm, especially with educational videos. The video here by Minute Earth is an excelent example of how this technique can be used very effectively for science education.

This technology can also be used with great effect in theater. Here is my second video using this idea to illustrate a scene for the musical, The exile.

Talk about democracy, act 1, scene 2.

In this scene, Tyler returns home after an unsuccessful search for a job. At home, he is met by people celebrating freedom day. Tony, who enjoys the free beer on offer, challenges Tyler and complains in general about the lack of progress since the first democratic elections.

If you enjoy these videos, please subscirbe to my channel, like it or share it on youtube, twitter, or facebook.

The concept album - selection of songs

Some people asked me "Why did you not put all the songs on the concept album, and how did you choose which ones to put on?"

Fair question.

My advice to anybody thinking about doing a concept album is to aim for recording all the songs from the musical for the concept album, and if I had to do it again, I will most likely do exactly that.

So, why did I not record all the songs for The exile concept album?

The most important reason to keep in mind is the cost. It cost money to record a song. There are a total of 27 songs in The exile. I included only 16 songs on the concept album. To do all 27 songs would have more than doubled the cost.

The next thing that I had to consider is that you can fit a maximum of 70 minutes of music on a CD. More realistically, it is wise to plan around 60 minutes of music. A whole musical usually takes about 90 to 120 minutes of music. To do them all would require a double CD. Once again, that about doubles the cost of printing the CDs.

Once I have decided to do only a partial recording, the next decision I had to make was - which songs to include or exclude from the concept album.

I listed all the songs, and then first decided which songs MUST be included. i had to choose which songs are the best songs. This is very subjective to choose the best songs. Everybody has their own favourites.

Next, I decided which songs I should leave out. This decision was based purely on cost. (After all, if a song had to be left out because I thought it was not good enough, I better had to rewrite the song to improve it!). The cost factor was related to the number of singers on a song. Each vocalist charged a session fee for a song. Does not matter if that vocalist do only a single line on the whole song, and some songs needed lots of singers, each doing only a single verse or single line. Those were the songs I left out. Those "company numbers", where a whole chorus of singers do a sing-along can get very expensive. Unfortunately, as musicals go, these company numbers are sometimes also the most important ones.

I know there would have been better ways to do this. Next time (if there is a next time) I can probably get more songs out of a singer withinin a single session with a bit of better planning.

Finally, I tried to select songs which, when listening through the album, would tell at least a complete story. I did not wanted to leave out any songs which would cause the story as a whole to be confusing.

 

Mixing the album - planning the mix

I am surprised how few mix engineering handbooks and websites talk about planning the mix of an album in a wholistic way. Every book will tell you how to plan the mix for each individual song, but he overall planning of the album is often left for the beginner to figure out himself.

When I took on the task of mixing the concept album for The exile, I made a few mistakes, which caused me to start all over again, wasting many days in the process. In the interest of sanity, I therefore post this article of advice, hoping that at least one beginner will benefit.

During the mixing process of each track, you will add lots of effects and make many edits. As you tackle each track, you may get all exited and try many innovative ideas. After 20 days, you will proudly end up with 20 tracks, each sounding like top 20 hits. You may burn them all unto a CD, call over family and friends, pop the CD into your stereo and proudly press play. As you get to the third or fourth track you suddenly realize that the album sucks. Every track sounded great on its own, but as a whole, it is horrible. One track sounds like you are on the moon. The next sounds like it was recorded in a huge stadium and the next sounds like your bathroom. In horror and shame, you realize that you mixed 20 tracks, but never mixed an album.

This is especially important when mixing a musical, where you want all the tracks to sound like one cohesive whole in the end. Simply put, you want it to sound like all songs were recorded in the same place, and at the same time.

It is therefore important that you plan your album mix before you start. Here are some ideas of things you have to decide upon.

Reverbs:

Reverbs define the "space" of the final mix. With a musical album you want it to sound like all tracks were recorded in the same space. Decide on a reverb preset for the main vocals, backing vocals and for each group of instruments. Whatever you decide upon, stick to those presets for the whole album. Typically,you may decide to use a medium hall preset at about -20% mix for lead vocals and a large hall preset at about -15% mix for the chorus. Acoustic guitars may typically be relative dry, with a plate reverb, while the drums may need 2 or 3 different presets. Strings and brass may need a large hall convolution reverb. Play around with different options, and then use these presets on all the tracks.

Another common problem is the drums. Today's software systems allow us to get very creative, but getting too creative once again does not help to make the whole album sound like a single unit. You will have to decide what drum kit preset to use and, if you use a program like Jamstix, what drummer and drum style to use. You can use a little bit of creativity with the drums, but you do not want the one track to sound like a heavy metal track and the next like a country song.

Another aspect you should considder is the strings or orchestral libraries you wish to use. Not all libraries sound the same. If you ise EWQL on one track and Garritan on the next, the final songs will sound different and the liatener will notice.

Plan these few things before you start. It will save you many hours later on, but do not over think things. A little artistic creativity is OK, but then it must be because you chose to be creative, not because you were to lazy to pan.

 

More on saving money on the concept album on a budget

I started off by scaring you with the astronomical baseline budget for the concept album. Then I had to scare you even more telling you about having to do some things yourself. It is a fact that you can save an amazing amount of money if you can do more things yourself. Unfortunately, not everybody has all the skills to do everything. Today I want to talk about another possibility.

With computer technology developing at an blinding pace, computers can now do many of the tasks previously done by expensive humans. I want to tell you a bit about those amazing programs out there. I have no affiliation with any of the companies I will mention, and get no kickbacks on any sales. I am just a normal user of these programs and wish to share my ideas with whoever wish to take note.

To replace that expensive guitar player, there is a nifty little program available, called, RealBand. It comes bundled with a program called Band in a Box.

If you are looking for just strumming guitars, this is perfect. On the fly, however you get much, much more. RealBand is capable of doing acoustic guitars, fingerpicking guitars, electric guitars, drums, bass, piano, and a whole stack of solo instruments, like saxophones. And it does all of this in hundreds of different styles.

The program comes in many flavors, but if you are planning to use it to record an album, you may want to go for the 'Audiophile' version. This version contains recordings in CD quality. The cheaper versions comes with the instruments recorded in windows compressed format. For many purposes this is just fine and most people would not know the difference. My preference is however the CD quality recordings that comes with the audiophile version.

If you are a first time buyer, the audiophile version would cost you $669, but it is totally worth it. This program will be able to replace many of your session musicians, which over an album of 20 songs, would save you far in excess of $30,000 compared to the cost of session musicians.

The program is not completely a save-all for everything and might be limited if compared to what you can do yourself, but it does give you so many possibilities and options that you will almost certainly be able to find a use for it.

RealBand comes with a reasonable good drum track as well, but for the purpose of recording a concept album, I used some alternatives. The drum track is pretty good, but the main problem with RealBand is that it gives you a simple stereo file for the drums. For a serious recording in CD quality however, you can not do much with a stereo file. Very soon you will find your drums either overbearing the vocals, or disappearing somewhere into the mix. Professional studios will almost always record drums on a number of separate tracks, i.e. kick drum on one track, snare on another, hi hats on a third, toms on one or more extra tracks and cymbals on a separate track. This way, you have much more freedom with how you mix the sound of the final song. The other problem with the RealBand drum tracks is that you are stuck with their drum kit. Even though it is a fairly good drum kit they use, not all music wants to have a standard small rock kit playing. Sometimes you need that monster snare sound, or the power kick of Nickelback. We will talk a lot more about producng drum tracks in another article.

Lastly, I just want to end this post with congratulations to Protea Stage Productions for filling the house last night with their excellent production of the farce, Botoms up.

 

More on budgeting - The DIY concept - Doing a concept album under a budget

Did my last post about budgeting for a concept album give you a scare? Well, good for you. That was the idea.

The good news is that you can do it much cheaper. There are many ways that you can save cost by doing some things yourself. The bad news is that some of these things you can do may compromise on quality if you do not know what you are doing. However, if you are vigilant you may get away with a very reasonable quality product.

For example, we have seen how a session musician may want to charge you a two session price for strumming a guitar on a single song. If that sounds excessive, that is exactly what it is. That is what the going rate is. That is what unions do. Unions are there to ensure unemployment for their members. Keeping prices unaffordable for the small entrepreneur like you and me. If you can play a reasonable guitar, you can strum that guitar yourself. It may however not sound as good as the session musician, recorded by a professional engineer. You may not have the same quality gear or the same skills - and this is where the vigilant part comes in.

Start thinking like a business man here. We have 20 songs, each track will cost you 2 sessions for a musician, plus one hour studio cost; i.e. a total of $400 per song. Multiply this with 20 songs to give you $8000, just for strumming guitars on your 20 songs!

What can you do with $8000? For one, you can buy a reasonably good quality guitar for less than $500, but if you really go for the top of the range, splash out around $1000 and you are assured to have a sound as good as that professional. You also will need a very good microphone. For about $100 you can get a cheap mic, but, I would recommend that you go for the $500 range to get the best quality. You will also need a reasonably good set of headphones, which would cost around $200. Let's assume you already have a good computer with a good recording program. All you would need is a quiet place where you can record you guitar and you are set to go. For about $2000 and lots (yes lots) of time, you can have your guitars recorded and save yourself $6000!

The only variable we have now is your own skills. Look at it this way. If I'd pay you $6000 cash to practice, how much would you be prepared to sit down and practice? 5 days? 10 day? I'd think more. So all that is left for you is to sit down and practice. There are thousands of internet sites giving advice on how to practice. Remember, we are just talking about strumming your guitar here. We have not even looked at the fingerpicking and guitar solos yet. Adding the possibility to do the finger picking parts, electric guitar parts, and the guitar solos, you may be able to save yourself a whopping $20,000 to $30,000, just by doing all the guitar parts yourself. That is not bad hey!

Remember, this is a concept album recording. You do not need to have Eric Clapton playing the guitars.

Off course, you will have to also learn a few other things in addition to playing the guitar. That studio owner and recording engineer was not sitting around doing nothing. You will have to learn how to best record a guitar. Trust me, you don't simply switch on a microphone and start recording. Google is you best friend here and you may want to spend many (yes, many) hours reading books and trying different ways. You will have to be prepared to re-record a song many times until you have the best take. Does 10 times recording the same song scare you? Wake up then, cause you might have to do it 20 times for each song.

Going this route has many other advantages. You are not limited to only one strumming part per song anymore. You may choose to record your guitars in stereo by recording different parts for left and right. You may even get creative by overdubbing certain parts and add fills and thrills. All for free. A song like Hotel California has at least 10 guitar parts double tracked.

This gives you an idea on how to save costs - lots of it - when doing a concept album. The same idea may apply to all your other instruments. Ever wanted to start playing the drums? What about piano? Bass guitar? Violin, cello, saxophone, trumpet, etc. We can get really creative......but......

Fact is, not everybody is able to play musical instruments, especially not that many different ones. Even if you were able to learn to play all those instruments, it may take you many years to become reasonably skilled in all of them.

Next time we will look at other ways of doing it. Help is out there. We just have to find it. You do not really have to play the drums and trumpets yourself, and still get away without it costing you anything.

 

Budgets for a concept album

Since we started to chat about the concept of a concept album, we touched on a few ideas. We talked about what a concept album is, and why we want to record a concept album. I also talked about the broad process of making such concept album.

Tonight I want to talk about how we start to plan the concept album. Let's assume for now we have written our play and we have written the songs. So now we have between 20 and 30 songs, totalling about 2 to 2 and a half hours of music. Now we must decide which song we will include on the concept album.

Before I go on, let me say that there is no rule here. The best I can do is give you an idea of what my thought process was when I did the concept album for The exile.

Ideally, we would want to record all the songs, but let's think about it for a moment. At this stage, you greatest considderation is the cost. If money is no problem, I'd say go for it and record every song. Unfortunately, in my case, money was not free flowing and I had to set myself a budget.

When you set your budget, start by listing all the songs. For each song, record the number of instruments needed. Split this by the number of instruments you can do yourself and the number of instruments for which you will have to hire session musicians. If you are lucky, you will get enough friends together who will do it for you for free. In my case, I did not get enough friends together, mainly because I do not have friends. Count each vocalists line as an instrument. If a vocalist is needed for only 2 seconds, you will still have to count him or her as one instrument. This is where the big chorus songs can become expensive. If you need a chorus with 16 voices, count each one separate, i.e. 16 instruments. Even if you plan to get one person to record 2 or 3 lines in harmony, it would still take 2 or 3 separate recordings, therefore you must count them as separate tracks. Some session musicians would charge you full price for the first line and then half price for each extra line, but more about that much later.

Depending on the complexity of your music, time needed to record a song may differ significantly, but let's work on more or less averages. Most song would need two (2) sessions per instrument, i.e. a session for the musician to get to know your song, and one session to record the instrument. Union negotiated rules differ per country, but usually provide for 3 hours per session. Current rates are about $150 per session, or R1,500 in South Africa.

Just a brief note here. Most union rules limit a song to 5 minutes maximum. You do not get discounted rates for less than 5 minutes, but there is a very complicated formula for calculating costs for each minute in excess of 5 minutes. For now, let's keep all our songs below 5 minutes.

A few simple calculations may now give you a rough baseline budget; for each song you must have the number of tracks to be recorded (T), and the cost per session (C). Here is the formula:

The total budget for a track = T x C x 2

Let's take an example: I have a song that needs an acoustic guitar strumming, doubled by an acoustic guitar finger picking, an electric guitar playing rhythm, a solo electric guitar, a bass guitar and drums. For vocals I need one male and one female singer. Each singer needs to harmonize for the chorus. This all gives me 6 instruments plus 4 vocals, i.e. total 10 tracks. The budget for this song is therefore 10 x $150 x 2 = $3,000.

Calculate the cost for each song in this way and add up all the costs. Let's for simplicity assume all songs need the same number of tracks and we have 20 songs in total. A very quick calculation gives us the total cost of musicians for the recording at $60,000. Add to this your studio time of about 6 hours per song at $100 per hour and the producer at about $300 per song. The studio time usually includes one recording engineer, but specialists like drum recording engineers are usually extra. This gives us an extra $18,000. To this you will have to add the cost of a mixing engineer, a mastering engineer and then the cost of making the CDs. In all the cost for your album will probably exceed $100,000 by now.

Good news?

For most of us, this sum would frighten us and we would give this up as a bad idea.

But....

Do not not give up this easy.

Next I will show you how we can bring this cost down to about one tenth of that cost by being clever.

 

What is a concept album?

Let's kick off our discussion about the making of a concept album with a short discussion about what a concept album is.

Well, actually, it is not that difficult to figure out what it is from the name. It however get a bit confusing when you start to look at all the many options, so let's look at all those funny names given to these albums.

If you'd google any musical's name, with the word 'recording', you may find a wide variety of albums. Musicals tend to be recorded and re-recorded many times. It is not so simple as other musical works for which usually only one or two versions exist. Try it out. Go into your local shop and ask for the recording of Phantom of the opera. You are likely to just get a blank stare from your shop attendant, but let's assume for this argument that your shop attendant knows a lot about musicals and musical recordings. If she does, she might reply with "Right away sir. Which album would you like?".

Unless you know a little bit about recordings of musicals and specifically the musical you might be interested in, your shop attendant will at this point be met with a blank stare. Upon such situation, your shop attendant is most likely to hand you the latest available recording, which just might happen to be the 25 year anniversary concert album. Failing that, she would likely give you the original London cast recording.

For most musicals, the most popular and best known recording would be the original cast recording. That is usually either a Broadway or a London cast recording, but might be anywhere else in the worlds as well. This all depends on where the world primiere for your musical was held. The important word to look out for here is 'original'. The album is usually assgned the status of 'original cast recording' and a year, indicating that this is the recording of the cast of singers and actors who initially did the Broadway or London primiere show. Most often, this is the album that may contain the version of the recording of the songs that made it to the hit parade.

But not always.

Sometimes the song that you have heard on the radio comes from any of the other possible recordings. Sometimes you might be looking for the 'studio cast recording'. These are albums often recorded after the premiere is over and the composers never bothered with the original cast recording. Often the popularity of the show exceeded expectations and the composers decided that an album might be a good idea to make extra money, so they got a bunch of session musicians together to record the songs. But not always.

Often the studio cast recordings are done before the premiere and is done with the purpose of creating interest in the show. This is where the concept album often comes in. Jesus Christ Superstar is a great example of this. ALW recorded the songs from the musical with well known musicians to spread the word. The concept album would very often be followed by an original cast album, but not always. The songs on the concept album might often not be exactly the same as the songs in the cast albums. That is the whole idea of a concept album. It gives the composer the chance to check things out and change it to his liking.

Often you will get a demo album recording in the place of the concept album. Often the quality of a demo recording would not be as good as a concept album recording, but again, this is not always so. With recording technology more affordable and in the hands of the average man, quality of demo recordings are pretty good nowdays. The difference between demo albums and concept albums have become blurred and these names are now used interchangebly. Demo albums are usually not available commercially.

We've already talked about the original cast recordings, but there can be any number of cast recordings. If a musical is very popular, you may find that every producer anywhere in the world may want to make a recording of his cast. These albums would usually be indicated with some town and a year.

When a movie is made of the musical, you may find a soundtrack album. In many cases these albums would have the movie actors singing the songs, but not always. It use to be common practise to have session musicians sing the songs and the movie actors just lip sync in the movie.

Another popular option is the concert album recordings. These are when a number of great performing singers perform the songs in a live show. You would most often hear the crowd clapping in the background and between songs. Many Stephen Sondheim shows have very good concert albums available.

There are many other options as well. The songs from.. albums are very popular. These albums often mix a number of musicals from the same composer. You may even find a greatest hits album or often a popular singer sings albums. Barbara Steisand made a number of great recordings singing her favourite songs from her favourite musicals. Often these recordings make it to the hit parades and are more popular than the cast recordings.

Then there are many more variations for fun and commercial gain. There are dream cast recordings, symphonic recordings, highlights from albums, film score albums, karaoke albums, and the list goes on and on.

From this short discussion, you might get some idea of all the variations on the theme available. Have a look at some of the links provided above just to get a feelng. The thirty two pages with 373 recordings of Les Mis on Amazon would seem a bit extreme, but at least, I hope I helped a little bit to help you make some sense of it.

 

Making of a concept (or demo) album

Following from the previous post about why the concept of concept album is a good idea, I want to relate some of my experiences in the process of making the concept album. Making a concept album or a demo album, or even a commercial release album all basically go through the same process.

I have this terrible feeling of deja vu about this post, so if in another dimension of life you find another post by me that looks very much like this one, please blame it on apple and blogsy software that contains bugs beyond my own comprehension.

Let's start this series of posts about making the concept album by giving it some structure. I will do this by breaking the process down to a number of smaller processes:

1. Songwriting: First there have to be a song. Without a song to record, there will be only noise. Nothing wrong with the concept of an album with noise only, but that will be regarded as outside my genre for the moment. I have touched on this part in previous posts, and as we go along, I will dedicate some more posts on this subject.
2. Recording: When we have a song, we want to get it into a way that others can listen to it. This is the process of making noise in some harmonious manner. The recording process usually includes recording of some instruments and some vocals. There might be any number of instruments and it may or may not actually involve humans plying them. More about all this in future posts.
3. Mixing: Usually, the recording process involves recording every instrument and every human voice separately. In fact, with modern computer technology being available so cheaply, it would be silly to try and record everything in one single go. Once you have a recording of somebody singing, and another recording of somebody playing a guitar, you must put these two recordings together. This is called mixing. Mixing usually involves putting many recordings together in a way that it sounds good and do not become just one huge noise. This is done by adding effects like equalization, reverb, delay, etc. Finally, the song will be "mastered", which simply means that it is turned into a format (CD, mp3, etc.) which can be used in the next stage.
4. Manufacturing: Not all recordings ends up on CD. I will nevertheless touch on the process of creating a CD or other physical product at some stage.
5. Marketing and business: I will add the business part all under one heading. We can call this the "record company" part of the process. Most concept albums are not made for the purpose of making lots of money. You goal may be to use it as a tool to sell your show, or it might simply to be for your own pleasure.

In future posts, we will talk more about all these tasks and processes, and I will give you some insights into how I went about it for The exile,

 

The concept album concept

Ken Davenport made a post on his blog about bringing back the concept of the concept album.

Thanks Ken. He gives Andrew Lloyd Webber as examples of using this concept. i am sure there must be many more. If you know of others, please mention it in the comments below.

I was not even aware that he concept of a concept album needed any bringing back! My ignorance aside, this is a brilliant idea and one of the most basic tools to the disposal of the writer / composer of musicals.

I have gone the concept album route for The exile. I have not done it with the hope of making lots of money from it, but rather as part of the development process. To add to Ken's post, let me list the reasons why you may want to do a concept album.

• Firstly and most importantly, it serves as a basic tool to help you sell your musical to an interested producer. Without the concept album recording, the best you can do to sell your musical is to lie, beg or plea to producers to believe in a script, with empty promises that the music will be brilliant. Maybe you can bring your own piano and sing some of the songs. Unless you are Bon Jovi, you are more likely to bore or scare the producer. People are much more likely to take you serious if you have a professionally recorded CD. You may even leave a CD with interested people, and yes, it will give your ego a huge boost if somebody phone or contact you afterwards to tell you which song is his or her favourite! Which brings us to the next point.
• It gives you a chance to get feedback from people. Very valuable feedback. This is free feedback you can use to invest back into your show. I have received lots of feedback from people on my concept album. Most people told they just loved "that blues song". I had some requests from people interested in licencing and recording "that love song". Others told me how that song about democracy had them in stitches. Knowing what the crowd favourite is, gives you a heads up on what you can use to sell your show to the next producer you talk to.
• The concept album is just that, i.e. a concept album. It is a development tool. It gives you a chance to try things out and change these things. I had some people making suggestions on how to improve the show. The most common idea is to add another big company sing-a-long somewhere in the middle. My show opens with a company number and close with a reprise of something on the same theme. People would love to have a break in the story somewhere in the middle as well, similar to Les Mis did with Master of the house. During the recording process I could pick up when a song just does not work. This gives me the chance to re-write that song.
• It serves as a milestone. It gives you something to hold and treasure. It gives the feeling that you have achieved something major. Your show have moved on from just paper to something concrete.

Recording a concept album is not cheap. It is much cheaper than in the 70's when ALW did Superstar, but it still requires some investment. In the next few months I will touch on the behind-the-scene process of producing a concept album. So, untill then. Leave some comments below about what you want me to talk about, and tell me which song did you enjoy the most from my concept album recording. You just might be able to say some day that you gave some significant input into the next hit on Broadway;)

 

I am free

Today we want to look at the final song of this musical. This is the song that brings everything to a close. This is what this whole play is about. This is what the Odyssey is about. Just like Telemachus has set himself free from the suitors who ransacked his home by bringing his father back, Tyler has set his home free from Anthony, the suitor, by doing the same. Hugo is now free by returning home, free from the spell of Cathy - just like Ulysses who was set free from Calypso's spell. Even Anthony is now free to so what he wants. He can now go out and drink every night, play pool, and pass out wherever he wants.

 

In the background of this tale is also the story of a whole nation that was set free. We have seen how the country was struggling under an apartheid regime, and how the things have changed.

Nothing is however perfect as in the forever-after-land fairy tales. Democracy has its problems. Hugo and Pamela still have a long way to go before life can really be normal again.

Track: I am Free

 

HUGO

(1A)

I AM STANDING HERE AS A FREE MAN

TO TELL YOU MY TALE

I REMEMBER THOSE WHO HELPED

TO SET ME FREE

 

TYLER

(2A)

I AM STANDING HERE AS A FREE MAN

ON THIS JOYFUL DAY

MY HOUSE IS NOW FREE

ON THIS GLORIOUS DAY

 

HUGO

(3B)

I AM FREE. FREE TO GO

I AM FREE TO LIVE AGAIN

HERE I STAND AS A MAN LIBERATED

SO I'LL REMAIN, HAPPY AND FREE

 

PAMELA

(4D)

THIS IS THE STORY OF MY HERO

WHO TRAVELED SO FAR AND WIDE

I ALLOWED HIM TO ESCAPED THAT NIGHT

NOW HE IS BACK AGAIN

 

CATHY

(5D)

MANY CITIES DID YOU VISIT

MANY PEOPLE DID YOU KNOW

AND MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SUFFERED

SO YOU'D BE FREE AGAIN

 

ENSEMBLE (WOMEN)

(6B)

HE IS FREE. FREE TO GO

HE IS FREE TO LIVE AGAIN

HERE HE STAND AS A MAN LIBERATED

SO HE'LL REMAIN, HAPPY AND FREE

 

ANTHONY

(7B)

I AM FREE. FREE TO GO

I AM FREE FROM THIS DREADED PLACE

HERE I STAND WITH NO SHACKLES TO RESTRAIN ME

SO I'LL REMAIN, HAPPY AND FREE

 

ENSEMBLE

(8B)

WE ARE FREE. FREE TO GO

WE ARE FREE AND LIVE AS ONE

NOW WE STAND AS A NATION UNITED

SO WE'LL REMAIN, UNITED AND FREE

 

The challenge

We are now nearing the final scene of our story. Anthony has been living with Pamela for some time now. He does not have a job. He drinks a lot, stay out late night with his friends playing pool, and just pass out in awkward places.

Pamela had no alternative. She allowed Anthony to take advantage of her just because she did not want to end up all alone. Now things have changed a bit. Hugo appeared on the scene. Now Pamela has a choice.

In the previous song, Hugo told Anthony that he is not welcome anymore. Anthony however told Hugo to get lost, as it is not his choice who should stay with Pam. She is the only one who can make that choice.

In this scene, Pam steps up. She is however not telling Anthony outright to take his bag and walk. She is giving Anthony a last chance by telling him that she will marry him if he gets a job and start to behave.

Track: The challenge

 

PAMELA

(1A)

LISTEN TO ME ANTHONY

YOU ARE ABUSING THE HOSPITALITY

MY SON HAS ALLOWED YOU TO MAKE

A NUISANCE ONLY FOR MY OWN SAKE

 

(2B)

YOU SAY THAT YOU WANT TO MARRY ME

LET ME THEN GIVE YOU THIS OPPORTUNITY

I WILL ACCEPT YOUR OFFER TODAY

IF YOU WILL DO WHAT I SAY

 

(3C)

STOP DRINKING WITH YOUR FRIENDS ALL THE TIME

FIND A JOB TO EARN YOUR DIME

START ACTING LIKE A MAN OF MINE

AND START TO PROVIDE FOR MY NEEDS

 

(4A)

I ASK THIS OF YOU ANTHONY

I ASK YOU TO DO THIS IF YOU DO CARE FOR ME

I ASK YOU TO OBEY

AND I ONLY ASK YOU TO CHANGE YOUR WAYS

 

(5C)

STOP DRINKING WITH YOUR FRIENDS ALL THE TIME

STAY AT HOME AND TALK TO ME

NO MORE PLAYING POOL EVERY NIGHT

OR PASSING OUT IN THE LAVATORY

 

(6A)

FIND A JOB TO EARN A WAGE

RENT A HOUSE AND GIVE ME SOME PLACE

BUY ME WHAT I NEED

ONLY THEN CAN YOU MARY ME

(7C)

STOP DRINKING WITH YOUR FRIENDS ALL THE TIME

STAY AT HOME AND TALK TO ME

NO MORE PLAYING POOL EVERY NIGHT

OR PASSING OUT IN THE LAVATORY

 

(8A)

FIND A JOB TO EARN A WAGE

RENT A HOUSE AND GIVE ME SOME PLACE

BUY ME WHAT I NEED

ONLY THEN CAN YOU MARY ME

 

A feast to my eyes

Act 2. Scene1:

 

We have closed act 1 at the pivotal point in our story. Tyler went all the way to London to find his father. Even though Hugo dreams about his home country, he could not immediately agree to return with Tyler. However, after learning the truth, he recalls the promises he made. The next morning, he decided to return home.

That was where act one ended. In act two, we will follow him home and find out what happens.

Scene one opens where Hugo is wakes up the first morning in South Africa. As he walks around outside, he is surprised with how much has changed over the years.

Track: A feast to my eyes

(Click title to listen)

HUGO

(1A)

I WOKE UP ONCE MORE UPON MY LAND

I HAVE BEEN AWAY FAR TOO LONG

THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE I BELONG

THE MOST WONDERFUL SIGHTS ARE A FEAST TO MY EYES

 

(2A)

I REACH MY ARMS TO THE HEAVENS UP ABOVE

I GAZE UPON THE WIDE OPEN PLAINS

THE MOUNTAINS THAT REACH TO THE SKY

THESE MOST WONDERFUL SIGHTS ARE A FEAST TO MY EYES

 

ENSEMBLE

(3B)

WHAT IS THIS PLACE WHERE HE LANDED HIS FEET

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE THAT ARE WALKING DOWN THE STREET

THE PLACE HE LEFT BEHIND

LOOKED SO MUCH DIFFERENT AT THE TIME

WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE WALKING SIDE BY SIDE

 

HUGO

(4A)

I LEFT THIS PLACE IN A HASTE

BULLETS FLYING AT MY HEAD

NOW I HEAR THE SOUND OF CHILDREN PLAYING ROUND

THESE ARE THE MOST WONDERFUL SOUNDS TO MY EARS

 

ENSEMBLE

(5B)

I CAN SMELL THE CLEAN AIR ON THE BREEZE

AT NIGHT I CAN SEE THE STARS IN THE SKY

IN THE MORNING I CAN SEE ALL THE BIRDS IN THE TREES

THESE MOST WONDERFUL SIGHTS ARE A FEAST TO MY EYES

 

Finding Nemo to sing

Now that we kickstarted our project to record the rest of The exile somgs and got it back on track, we have to face the problems. The biggest problem in this project will be to find enough vocalists to sing our songs.

For The exile, the concept album recording, I chose specific vocalists based on some restrictions, e.g. I hade to make sure that I have one vocalist per character and that vocalist had to sing all the tracks where that character was required. I also choose the timber and the sound of each voice carefully to it the written vocal ranges and to ensure that the characters for Tyler and Melissa sound younger than the other characters.

For the rest of this project, I will not restrict myself in the same ways. The only requirements are that the vocalist must preferably be a a specific gender and the vocalist can do the required voice range. I will not try to match voices to characters. This approach may sound strange for a musical, but the idea is not to end up with a cast recording, but rather something that will sound like a compilation or concert recording.

There are not many sources for finding vocalists. First possible source is friends. That means I must have friends, or at least ones that can sing. Failing that, I can try to make friends. That is a long and hard process, and assumed that I frequent the places to find them and the ability to befriend them. Failing those avenues, I can hire local musicians. For the concept album recording, that was also not so easy. It is a slow process and they charge standard union session fees. Each vocalist wants to be paid a session fee for rehearsing and recording the song. Recording of chorus lines or backup vocals require the same, multiplied by at least 3 musicians. I will also have to be present at all sessions, requiring me to take leave from work. All that then need to happen in a studio that cranks up studio time. All and all, it works out to about R10,000 per song (about $1,00), plus my own time and cost of leave (yes, we buy our leave).

For the concept album recording I opted for Studio Pros. Each vocalist now charged $150, and that includes a lead vocal and one backing vocal track. That has brought the costs down to about $300, or R3,000 per song. Studio Pros includes all studio time and everything was mixed in my home studio. That is still pretty expensive going at about R30,000, or $3,000 fot the whole project, but for a final album that can be sold, that is a possibility we may wish to keep in mind. Another advantage of this route is the time saving. Turnaround times for Studio Pros are usually a few days. Even a large project like the concept album recording was finished within three weeks. And best of all, it needs very little time from my side to revord the vocals after I upload the files.

However, we first want to see if we can get away for free. There only a few places you can get people who are happy to sing for free, and most of them I have not found yet. The one place I have used before is Indaba music. I had a huge successful recording of Ghost town there. So, I will try Indaba again.

Progress is sure to be slower than what I planned for, as I will rely on volunteers only, but let's give it a chance and review our strategy as we go along.

 

I'm going home

Today I wish to interupt our discussions around the busness side of things and return to our story. Last week we left our story where Hugo's life has been thrown upside down. For all the years he believed that all his ties back to South Africa has been broken. There was no reasn for him to return. Now for the first time, he learns that he has a son back ithere. As he went to bed, he thinks about what this means. In his dreams he remembers the promises that he made. Promises that he did not keep.

The next mornng, when he wakes up, he has made up his mind. He will go back to talk to Pamela again.he buys a ticket and packs his bags.

In this song he is ready to leave. This is his goodbye song.

Track: I'm going home

Album: The Exile, concept album recordingArtist: Eric Swardt

(1a)

Tyler, my dear son

I thank you for taking me home again

Even though this is something I wanted

but I would never have been able to do

but now I'm going home after all

(2a)

Manual my old friend

so I say farewell to you one more time

so many years and so many thingshave we gone through

and so many things that we have done

but now I'm going home after all

(3b)

While you were aboard to claim the reward

I was a fool who never played the rule

now it is my turn to claim what I have earned

and go back where I belong

(4a)

Goodbye my dear

You were a true friend for all these years

Please do not cry

Have a last drink with me

Wish me joy until eternity'

cause now i'm going home to be free

(5a')

I bid you fare thee well

I wish that one day you will be happy again

and one day you will find

someone so kind who will make you happy again

Someone who deserves someone like you

------------------------------------------------------

 

Anybody remembers that epic scene from Rocky Horror picture show when Frank 'n Furter says goodbye?

 

 

 

Memories long forgotten

Today we look at a "dream sequence" song. (A name I just made up).

Hugo is confused. What he believed for so many years now suddenly seems to have been a lie. Many of his actions were motivated by this lie.

That night, when he went to bed, he did not sleep very well. With all these thoughts milling through his mind, he eventually fell asleep. His dreams took him back all the years before he left South Africa.

He dreamed about Pamela. He dreamed about the times they were together and the promises he made.

Track: Memories long forgotten

(Click title to listen)

Album: The Exile, concept album recording

Artist: Eric Swardt

Hugo

(1a)

The two of us will be together

and my love for you will be forever

There will be no more tears

and in your heart will be no more fears

I'll be by your side forever

I won't leave you, no never

Please you do not have to fear

for wherever you are, I will be near

Pamela

(2a)

Tell me again before you go away

I just wanted to hear you say

You will be back again

and tell me you will never make me cry

Some times we will have to be apart

I know that you are here in my heart

I know you will be back again

Where ever I am you will be near

Hugo

I promise you

Pamela

Promise me

Hugo

I will be back by your side

Pamela

Promise me you will be back again

Hugo

I promise you that I will never leave you alone

Pamela

Promise me

Hugo

You won't have to face this world alone

Pamela

Promise me you will be back

Let these fears that bring me tears

melt away and dissapear

Hugo

Forever through bad weather

we will always stay together

Pamela

Please remember what you said

Don't forget the promise that you made

Soon all promises made

are just memories long forgotten

Please stay by my side forever

and don't leave me, no never

I know I do not have to fear

Wherever I am, you will be near

 

A prisoner of your spell

While Tyler and his father catch up on years lost, Melissa and Cathy is talking in another room. Cathy is not somebody who gives anybody much time to explain anything. If Melissa sounds like she is getting tired of repeating herself, it is for good reason.

Melissa pleads with Cathy to let Hugo return to South Africa. Cathy does not give in that easilly, but eventually concedes that it is Hugo's choice, and if he wants to go, she will not stand in his way.

In Talk about democracy we discussed the conflict and dialogue song format. Here we have yet another example of a dialogue song. Is essence, the dialogue song is a form of a duet. This simply means 2 persons are singing in the song. Duets can come in many forms, most comonly, where one person sing one part and another person sings a different part, but not at the same time, i.e. taking turns.

Musicals have many examples of different forms of duets, e.g. where the persons sing different lines, but at the same time. That is a technique liberally employed by Schonberg in the musical Les Miserable. A third and much more common form of duet is where the two persons sing at the same time, but they sing basically the same words, but different notes. This is simply refered to as harmonizing.

 

Track: A prisoner of your spell

(Click song name to listen on soundloud)

Album: The Exile, concept album recording

Artist: Eric Swardt

 

Melissa

(1a)

You ask me why I am here today

I will tell you once and once more again

Why do you think I'd come all the way

if I had nothing of import to say

 

(2a)

I can't bear to see the suffering man

denied the freedom of his land

Freedom for which he dedicated is life

and for which he abandoned a wife

 

(3b)

You know he is suffering the cruelest pain

while you're keeping him in this living hell

He is confined by an unbreakable chain

He's a prisoner of your spell

 

Cathy

(4a)

You ought to be sorry and ashamed

It is out of jealousy that you blamed

A woman who take a fancy to another man

and live with him as she can

 

Melissa

(5c)

It is not fair

that he shall die here

Far from his home, far from his child

Please release him from your spell

 

Cathy

(6a)

And now you put me to blame

because I love him unashamed

I cared for him and his tears I dried

when there was no one by his side

 

Melissa

(7b)

Please relieve his suffering of cruelest pain

Why are you keeping him in this living hell

I ask of you to release this unbreakable chain

release this prisoner from your spell

 

Cathy

(8c)

It is not fair

I can not fight my fate

If he insist he wants to go

I'll release him from my spell

Check out Peter Gabriel's Don't give up, which is one of my favorite conversation songs employing this same song format.

 

 

I dream

In the meanwhile.... Let's return to our story at the fourth song on the concept album recording.

In the previous scene we left Tyler searching for his father, Hugo. Now it is time for us to meet Hugo in person. We have heard much about Hugo. In Freedom day we learnt that he was a hero. In Talk about democracy Tony told us thaat he left us on our own. Pamela then told us how they met in I recall. This is the first time that we give him a chance to speak for himself. He is far away from South Africa, but where is his real home? He faught for the the freedom of the country, but what did he get from it? Is he really free?mdoes he still think about the possibility of going back home?

Quoted directly from the script.*

HUGO sits on the balcony of an apartment, looking out over London, while the sun is setting. CATHY enters.

CATHY

Are you feeling ill, darling? You ate so halfheartedly.

HUGO stares out at the horizon and the setting sun. He is holding his pipe in his hand, resting on his lap.

HUGO

It is nothing, my dear.

CATHY

It can not be nothing if it troubles you so. Is it I? Was it something that I have done? I knew mother should not have come to visit two weeks ago!

HUGO

I am so fortunate to have one such as yourself, you know? If it weren't for you I would still be lost, all those years ago.

CATHY

I too, am fortunate my darling. However I know that you have troubled dreams. It may have been I that got you back on your feet, but I am aware that it is not I that keep you here.

HUGO

Nightmares.

CATHY

And nightmares they will stay if you don't tell someone of it, my darling. Tell me what has troubled you. Show me!

Track: I Dream

(Click song name to listen on soundloud)

Album: The Exile, concept album recording

Artist: Eric Swardt

HUGO

(1a)

I dream that one day I will be going home

I dream I see sunshine every day

I dream I see mountains that reach

up towards the blue skies

I dream of my home

All of my life I fought for the freedom

I fought for the right of the people to be free

but for me that freedom remains just a dream

(2b)

Every day I dream of my home

I dream of the things I left behind

I still remember the times

and remember the ones I left behind

But here I am now so much time has gone by

I'm in a new place and I live a new life

I am a prisoner of time

but no one can see the rivers I cry

(3a)

Every day I sit here and I watch the sun rise

Each day I see my life pass me by

There are some days

I feel that I just want to run away

back to my old home

Other times I want to stay here with you

It beaks my heart that I should forget my old home

Take my hand

dry my tears and help me forget

(4b)

Thirty years ago I started my mission

For thirty years I fought for the cause

Never a moment did I change my position

Never did I ask for applause

After thirty years we reached our goal

After thirty years no one can disagree

Every man can go to the pole

but freedom is worth nothing if I'm not free

* Book by Edward Swardt