#9: Сказка (Цой cover)

Morgan Freeman has said that he wasn’t born with his voice – he developed it. When you relax your voice (yawn), it drops and becomes deeper.
 

A low night

2010 November 5th – Friday night, I was asked to lead a youth band for a service at a local church. At this time of my life, I’m all about Цой and real-alternative music. I’m not gonna play Hillsong, or worse yet; Planetshakers. I compromise, but I bring the SOUL AVANT approach: What’s the use of playing a song if you’re just trying to make it sound like the original? It’s un-Christ-like to perform someone else’s worship – words, melodies, pitch and tone, have no life behind them unless you are the author. When your write a song; share a part of you – you write it at an approach that comes naturally for you and your essence. Likewise, when you deeply relate to a song and the words are your own and you perform that song: it comes out in your essence, naturally, and different. Anyway I tried the best I could at the time, even to see if the guys could switch into a shoegaze-like chorus of Here I Am To Worship. It wasn’t great, but my hope was in presenting a more real alternative to the given typical situation. I came home that night after a few low-ranged songs, and felt that my voice was really relaxed. (I used to think I could only sing low, until over time came more and more reason to hit high notes, especially in live settings.) For no reason, I woke at 3am. Maybe I had enough REM sleep, or I was so relaxed and glad last night’s event was over.. I recorded a take of this song, liking how the low vocal tones took presence. I realized the guitar wasn’t entirely in tune, then focused more on timing the guitar between vocal lines. But ultimately I gotta say, I focused on the right things and was just in the zone. I probably could’ve kept playing for a while longer, but I quickly spliced a few takes together and was happy with the result as it was, without editing. I took a while to find the right synth sound and actually found it. (Since then, I have spent days attempting to recreate it. hahaha. Remember to make many project saves, especially when you decide you want to try a different setting..) This Сказка cover got posted online that same morning and I haven’t touched it since. (Not counting dithering.)

Цой’s Influence and Style

I’ve been very fond of Цой’s work, the more I discovered it. His acoustic guitar songwriting especially, I’ve yet to come across another artist who can write simple chorded songs so creatively. All the songs on Observe were written while learning and playing his acoustic songs. This specific song is something I played in a session before and it happened to come to mind when I picked up the guitar that night. It very well expresses the day-to-day haze of each fighting for their own and the existentialism of being aware through it. My personal favorite is the third verse, perhaps the darkest but a great meaningful rhyme and play on words: in the end you’re told to leave the body on earth, but the body didn’t quite finish it’s tune, but the body wasn’t given enough love – strange situation.. a strange tale. Most of Цой’s lyrics have really thought-provoking ideas that have you think of where you stand and how life is really. It’s no wonder I enjoy a more “speak to each individual” style of songwriting, and envision many songs in a lower calmer vocal setting. I also enjoy Константин Кинчев’s low voice heard with his band Алиса. I can’t speak for all of the band’s work or history, but the songs I do like, I love. Looking back, my vocals on this cover sound almost more like Кинчев than Цой or my own, maybe I’ll want to revisit this vocal depth.
 
Thanks for reading, listening, enjoy the song. Three more Russian covers coming up.