Demotron: "Whip and the Chair" (PART 2)
Ryno discovers what this song is about–Lions. Depressed Lions. Thank you Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and silent film.
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WELCOME TO: PART 2 of the ”Whip and the Chair” Demotron
If you missed Part 1, click here.
*Demotrons are self-documentaries of songs-in-progress. The end result is an elaborate demo, ready to be recorded properly. Demotrons are only available for subscribers of Behind the Lights! 💋
I hope you enjoy Part 2.
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Remember that time you were chased by an angry donkey and you accidentally locked yourself in the lion’s cage?
Inspiration for ‘Whip and the Chair’
I know what this song is about:
Lions. Depressed Lions.
More on that in a moment…
I live in Seoul, South Korea. I’m blessed. I’m learning Korean. New languages are not an overnight notion. I walk around Seoul not really understanding most things people are saying. It’s nice, most of the time. I enjoy the information vacuum, wrapping myself up in a cellophane of my own ignorance.
Through the plastic wrap, I look to improve. It’s taking some time. To supplement my toddler-level speaking capabilities, I find myself using hand gestures and charades to make myself understood. It’s very aristocratic. When I’m gesticulating at a restaurant about how I prefer no meat in my 비빔밥, I think about silent film stars like, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin. How would they do it?
Charlie Chaplin’s “The Circus” (1928) is a winner.
The Circus left me pondering the shared nature of The Tramp and the Lion - how could they possibly be friends? What particularly struck me is they are both inherently lonely - dare I say, depressed. It’s a nagging loneliness that haunts them as well. The Tramp is always searching for food, entering and exiting movie plots, alone. Male lions often roam about alone, forcefully driven from the pride by competitors. Even if they prove the victor, they keep themselves in a satellite position from the pride, resting beneath the trees, with all those nagging flies in the eyes, hungry and looking miserable AF.
All Flies On Their Eyes
For the lions and the Tramp, there is depression. This idea punches me in the face. It’s enough for a song. Immediately, a heap of words and imagery bubbles up. Those sad, lonely, and vicious lions laying around thinking about themselves, all depressed, made me get off my ass and do the opposite.
NOTES on the OFF NOTES:
Temporary Song Titles
I give song ideas names, immediately. Even simple guitar riffs. The names are often place-holders, but I make them as surreal as possible so I can start associating any new idea into a shared purpose folder. It allows me to work on multiple songs at once, without fear of losing it. Sometimes these temp-titles become the final title. They are fun to make up. I never choose “untitled new rock song #20”. Here are some examples of past temp titles:
Ping Pong Bloodsport
Rain Sandwich
Older Then
Dear Shabby
Back to Whip and the Chair
There are so many correlations between depression and the brutal and majestic lions. One of my first images was the lion tamer with the chair–Hence the song’s new title (perhaps permanent?).
NOTES FROM READERS:
Thank you to my reader friends who have given me advice on improving my posts. Your notes have been received and implemented.
The posts are too long.
I compose these posts on my computer, but most are reading them on phones. In vertical aspect, even the shortest thought becomes a CVS/Walgreens receipt very quickly.
Below is the content
Preserve The Mess™️
A note on my mindset while songwriting
The increasing scope of options is the first bear trap. I could be talking about anything, but with songs, it’s the alternative pathways that quickly overwhelm. You must allow for them–but how do you choose which way to go?
I’ve learned to think about song making as ‘easy’ and ‘fun’. It’s an adventure.
I JUST LET MYSELF BE…
be a bank robber
a bird with a ski mask
a ransom note written by the ocean
an anvil that can swim
a conversation with someone who’s not alive.
As you guessed, songwriting is a license to be totally nuts. Yet, the act of doing it is not the same as ‘following inspiration’. I’ve always thought that phrase was as helpful as staring directly at the sun to stop a sneezing attack. Really, what I’m searching for is a songwriting elf to tell me what to do. It would be helpful if that elf spoke answers to me in a Morgan Freeman narration voice. Is that too much to ask?
Towards my beginning as a songsmith, I made the common mistake of trying to please a phantom listener. I was trying to write what I thought someone else might want to hear. Some call this a muse. Getting into this kind of creation thinking didn’t work for me. In fact, it torpedoed my post-creation happiness for years. It’s absurd to think I can know what others want. It’s also not very fun to make stuff for a bunch of choosy ghosts.
I examined how music made me feel as a listener. The first thing I discovered was that it’s not a rational experience–so I should not create that way.
When I put a record on a turntable I want to change or improve the way I feel. From the speakers, sonic vibrations and lyrical syntax fish out of me a heap of imagery, memories, and raw emotion. My left and right brain start Rorschochin’™️. Afterwords, songs tend to feel orderly, but only because I organize them for myself. This beautiful mess arrived and I put a frame around it–making sense of it for myself.
We all do this with songs. All our frames look different. Songs have a powerful effect on our lives. They instantly take you to a specific place in time. Perhaps they make you think of someone, or you associate a song with a certain food taste. For me, a great example of this happens when I hear The Eagles’ Take it Easy. I’m instantly vomiting out the window of friends car going over Coronado bridge in California in 1995. Danny, again, I’m so sorry.
This is the magic of music. The right brain/left brain Rorschochin’™️. The lyrics ask you to think, but with your emotion. The music tells you how to feel. There is repetition and often counterpoint.
I want to write songs and feel like a listener simultaneously, but how?
It turns out that listening to music only scratches the surface of feeling and imagination. In making music, you get to explore your own depths in greater detail. At its start, a new song idea feels perpetually spontaneous. Trying to shape it feels like wine tasting from a firehose. It’s impossible to slow down and examine while it’s happening–because it’s not a science. I’ve found, the best course of action is to let the paint spill onto the canvas, and then push it around. Divert the river further downstream.
I refer to this act as ‘preserving the mess’. I’ll drop my hands upon the keys, hum in the shower, or wake up with a drum beat zinging my dome. No thinking required. I’ll care for it by making a quick recording or note to self. When I return, I try to get back to this messy first feel–shaping it up bit by bit. All the while it should be free, easy, and fun. When it gets tough, I put it aside for another time.
Preservation of mess is mostly about NOT feeling the urge to make choices–allowing for things to just be. Obviously decisions are being made all the time. The goal is to not notice the choices. If I do notice them, I don’t claim ownership of them. I just keep going.
Preserving mess is the best process for song-making I’ve found. If I’m going to be happy while creating something no one is asking for, then it’s got to remain a pleasure. So I please myself alone. Gross. Conjuring something out of thin air is fun–even if it’s turd shaped. I make those with pleasure too. Gross. I don’t consider sharing any of it. Songs, unlike turds, do sometimes get shared. It’s gross.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORT!
End of Part 2
In the next episode, PART 3, I get super greedy. I dragged 500 lbs of lighting gear, multiple HD cameras, and microphones to a tiny rehearsal space in Hongdae, Seoul. I am really liking this song. I need music videos. It was a bit foolish. A large overstep, maybe too soon. The results are neat. I had fun doing it.
These behind-the-scenes videos only be available here on Behind the Lights – tell a friend?
About the author
Ryan OToole (aka, RYNO) is a skateboarder from Arizona with too many film degrees, who writes songs for Pretty City Lights—a new music project based in Seoul, South Korea. His songs have been described as, "alternative rock for people dying of middle age". Formerly associated with the band, Amateur Blonde, his songs have been featured in television and film - notably, The Walking Dead (S10 Ep21). RYNO is the author of Behind The Lights a freemium substack publication, documenting the Pretty City Lights song & album creation process with the slogan, “watch me make music”.