Musings on the Recording Process of "The Scientist" - @jessamynorchard

I released my first single since 2018 on Spotify a few weeks ago. I've tried like hell to minimize it, but when it comes to other people, I think that sort of thing should always be celebrated, so I'm trying to figure out how to celebrate myself (even a little bit), because it just feels selfish and there's always more work to do, so it's wasteful, too. I'm trying, here.

The whole of 2022 has been a pretty huge creative era for me. Another thing I'm so excited about being back on this platform and with a (hopefully actually) disciplined schedule is to be able to share all this music/poetry/art/random stuff that I've been making during the past year.

This track was the result of a deeply inspired moment and what felt like the convergence of stars, and I'm stoked to share the origin story of this recording with you here in the Hive ecosystem.

Musically, I have absolutely been on one since last October. I've been making mostly electronic music in some form or fashion, and doing more piano-based musical work, as my guitar and I have had a love-hate relationship over the past few years. I'm working on it.

In a morning of profound inspiration, I found myself drawn to Coldplay's The Scientist. I am one to do over the years, because this song has always held meaning for me--but the evolution of its meaning has taken a new life--and then on a morning in April, I just naturally found my hands gravitating to these chords without even trying--I was just jamming, completely in my feelings, and stream-of-consciousness musing on the piano. Why had I never tried playing this song like this before?

Sidenote: that moment is one of my favorite moments. The moment when I'm jamming on any instrument, just playing around on chords, and then realize that I've found a song: sometimes that song will be my own, and it is new, but sometimes that song is old, and my spirit just reaches out to it and pulls it out of the void and gives it to my hands. In that moment, whether I find a new one or locate an old one, the feeling is pure magic, and it's one of the things I absolutely live for as a creator. Being the conduit. Knowing I can take almost zero credit for it happening--I just pick up what is put down before me.

It's a tune I'd played only on guitar on a couple of one-off occasions; it never found a comfortable home in my cover set, and I never felt comfortable with the chords or the key I was playing it in--something was off, and that was reflected in the fact that I only played it a couple of times. That song called to me from the ether that morning, and I found myself creating a one-take recording: vocals and piano. Recorded raw from my Mackie Mixer into the Voice Memos app of my iPhone. Pretty rudimentary.

It was never meant to be a released single, initially. But as this day progressed, the song just came to life: I recently added a Roland VT-4 vocal effects processor, and I've been loving that piece of gear (it's also endlessly frustrating, but there's a review coming for that pretty soon). It gave the track some ethereal harmonies and a vibe I was digging, so I kept going.

I added the harmonies and started trying to make it happen in a way I could start to control. Since the original recording was done in a single one-take, there are so many imperfect elements that exist. I clear my throat. I take a breath. It's just imperfect and alive, and what a metaphor!

...and what really stood out to me was this fact didn't bother me. I am a person who has been plagued with unattainable perfection: it's a whole mood that during certain times of my life I felt like I was just a big ole universal joke because my ability never matched my ambition (so emo). As I get older, though, I find myself caring so much less about the perfection, and I wish I'd not wasted so much time and so many recordings that were left on the cutting room floor because they weren't perfect. What the fuck is perfect anyway?

So I found myself creating this one-take layered with further one-takes. It has a live feel, I think, even though it's very thick with auto-tune and has that otherworldly and robotic quality to it at times. It's processed yet raw, and that is a sound I can get behind, which is also new for me: accepting my music and liking it for what it is.

It's analogous to me, and holds a much higher creative meaning for me. This track absolutely represents a breakthrough.

After I finished the elemental recordings, I jetted the file over to my musical BFF Dustin at Jacks Fork Recording and he mastered the track beautifully--he gave it the headroom and rounded the lows to give it both the open space and dynamic feel of a haunting theatre stage.

You can jam it on Spotify, Apple Music, and buy it on iTunes. But of course, I've also made it freely available right here for you on Soundcloud, conveniently from your Hive browser.

Thank you for reading these words and for checking out my music, and be on the lookout for a dedicated post about the cover art for this single. So many wonderful affirming synchronicities involved in the total production of this tune. :)

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Jessamyn Orchard · The Scientist (Coldplay Cover)

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Thank you for always being so awesome. I greatly appreciate your suggestions, upvotes, reblogs, follows, and comments. The genuine spirit of creation, sharing, and constructive transparency in this community are what make it so special.

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Follow me @jessamynorchard for more assorted randomness!

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Click here to read my very first intro post from 2016--wow, that's a long time ago.

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ALL proceeds from my Hive account go toward furthering my career as a real-life, full-time artist and creator. It's a dream that you help make possible. This includes needed equipment, recording costs, gas to and from out of state gigs, and things like food when I'm on the road. To be a full-time creator has been my goal for as long as I can remember, and your upvotes absolutely help me to sustain that. All of my love and thanks to you.💚

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All photos, unless otherwise credited, are taken or chopped/screwed/edited/altered by me and are hosted either here or at Imgur. Stock photos are used with permission from Pexels, and banners are made using Canva for iOS.

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