July was a fun month for artwork. Around July 2nd or 3rd, I started working on a cover of a song I’ve long thought would be fun to do: Holding Out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler. The original is over-the-top enthusiastic about itself in all of the right ways, so when I started to working on this one I knew I wanted to try and do something different. I wanted to try and take it in a new direction and make it more my own. Of course, here I am making it sound like it was some carefully deliberated creative choice, but in reality, I also just needed to tame it into something I could mange. Bonnie Tyler is a much better music-er than I am.
About 90% of what you hear in this track was finished within a few days of starting the project. Then I let some people listen to it before I should have and it turned out I wasn’t ready for critique yet. Their comments bounced around in my head for a few weeks and I almost allowed it to derail the project altogether. I went from pretty satisfied with everything to very unsatisfied and not knowing why. So I spent a lot of time listening and listening some more for what I didn’t like.
It came down to a cumulation of different things before I really started liking it again. Some of the vocals were sounding thin, and there was not enough reverb for my taste. This spot here and that section there needed some delay. The drums were timed a little too perfectly. Stuff like that. In spite of how quickly the majority of the track came together, I think I probably listened to this one more than I listened to any other tracks that I’ve worked on so far, while making fewer sweeping changes. I also think it might be my favorite so far. It’s hard to tell though; I really like Bonnie Tyler.
I hope you enjoy, and if not, don’t tell me about it.
I’m already well into my August project (part of the reason this one is late). It’s a video montage sourced from a friend’s cross country trip. Well, hopefully anyway. See you next time!
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