Surfing & Civilization

In the great, epic expansion west that marks American history, some may think it ironic that it all culminated in only one truly new experience for Western civilization: surfing. I'm inclined to think it was worth it.

I penned the paragraph above in my journal some time ago, clearly in a Hunter Thompson state of mind. When I reread it later, I decided I need to create a surfer song. Thus Surfing & Civilization was born.

Starting out, the key was to find the right guitar sound. I searched for awhile, experimenting with the different software guitars that I had. I never got to that classic surfer sound but one of Logic's stock guitars was sounding pretty good to me and, toying around with it, I stumbled on a set of chords and riff that really rocked. Close enough, I thought, I began to build the song.

I divided the song into two parts, the quiet section and the rockin' section. The quiet section is supposed to represent choppy surf and the sort of melancholy waiting around for the big waves. The rockin' section is the big waves coming in. (Disclaimer: I've never surfed a day in my life.) There's a key change between the parts and I use a solo bass run to make the transition. I had to work hard to get the bass to sound just right and be able to carry the song through both parts.

The drums are recorded live -- many takes with the best bits turned to loops then spliced together. This is how I got good at making audio loops with Logic. Curiously, despite all the time I took tweaking the guitar sounds, adjusting the bass and creating drum loops, it's the driving organ that steals the show. It was the clear choice for the big solo at the end.