Production Log #1: Electric Boogaloo

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Hullo there, friends!

So for a while, when we released a new song, we'd upload a little mini-podcast episode on youtube to give people a bit of a look behind the scenes and talk about the song and it's creation.

 Now, we largely stopped doing that because well, to be honest, we ain't got the time for it. Recording that stuff, figuring out what to do in terms of visuals, and all that stuff takes a while, and videomaking isn't exactly our passion or field of expertise, so..... eeh.

 But now that we have this Blog, the idea struck us that we could do something similar to that! In fact, we could do one better! Along with a summary of our thoughts, why don't we turn it into a sort of production diary? Make an entry every time something meaningful happens in the song's creation, so that you can read our thoughts in the moment, and see how things evolve through the creative process!

That could be both interesting for you, our dearest readery folks, and also potentially a bit of extra motivation for us, driving us to do better in the studio so that our entries will look professional. 😉

And while writing blogs still takes time to do, we like writing wayyy more than we enjoy making videos for youtube.

Thus, enter our new format. We shall call it:

 

Production Logs

 

Mmh, yes. Very  snazzy, we know. Incredibly original, too.
But anyway, the idea is for these to be something we add to over time as we create each of our songs, and then add a nice little summary to and release it along with the song.
We might figure out a way to post the individual entries as we make them (Maybe on Facebook?), so that folks can follow along live, but yeah, we'll sort out the details in time.
 
So for now, the song we're talking about:
 
 
You can also find it on most streaming services, like here:
 
There's also an instrumental version of the tune available on all services!
 
So then, Electric Boogaloo!
Well, we won't go too deep into the "making of" here, because you can read all that below. So, instead, what are our thoughts on the song, now that it's finished and we're writing this summary while waiting for release?
 
Well, we think it turned out rather nicely. The blend of blues/jazz piano and Indian percussion and of course, the Sitar came out quite nicely, and the scratched-up vocals turned out to be a fun experiment that ends up adding a new layer to the song that we didn't have, before.
 
Also, it's not 5 minutes long for a change, so that's quite neat. 😜
 
But yeah, do enjoy the song, and have fun reading our log entries below:
 
 

12th of March, 2025:

 Started working on a new project! The idea was to do something with an indian feel, but mixing it with something more electronic, maybe even some hip hop-style elements.
We got the mood down, and recorded some drums to lay a foundation to work with.
A defining feature of the song immediately jumped out at us: We found a cool acid-style bass that sounds like it's saying "Yoooooyeeeee". That's our working title for the song. Might even make it  as the actual title. :p
 
 

17th of March, 2025:

Okay, change of plans. The "Yooooyeeee" synthbass is gonna be used for Drum Beets, instead. It's hilarious, but building a full song around it didn't turn out to be the best of ideas.
 That said, the song's moved back to the original idea of an Indian-inspired vibe. Recorded some (MIDI) Sitar today. 


24th of March, 2025:

 Okay, it took a bit of time, but we're starting to get some proper traction in this project.
We're settling on a nice fusion of blues and some Indian influences.
We went for a new working title, too. We thought of "Electric Bombay Blues" first, but we figured that putting "blues" in the name would falsely set expectations of a more traditional type of tune.
So, after some musing, it became "Electric Boogaloo".
 

30th of March, 2025:

 Yeah, things are developing with this one. We've got the vibe properly down now, and various bits and pieces are coming together.
By now, the song's got some nice acoustic elements like a Guiro and a Singing Bowl to round things off, and while we've got a ways to go before we reach a respectable song length, things are flowing properly now.
 

5th of April, 2025:

  Awright, added a second lead to the song! It's now turning into a sort of dialogue between a Sitar and (Of course) a Piano. Gotta do some more recordings for the acoustic elements, and generally work to lengthen the tune. Right now, we have something really cool, but it's only a 1:30 long. It's good we're not doing a 5-Minute chonker for once, but still, that won't do. :p
 

6th of April, 2025:

That's right, two days in a row! We're starting to get some proper traction, now. And yeah, we've continued constructing the tune, made some new additions and are now aiming for around the ~3 minute mark in terms of length.
 
 

20th of April, 2025:

Sheesh, has it really been 2 weeks since our last entry? Well, work on the song's been gradually going along, but there hasn't been anything too interesting to report. By now, we've largely got all the instruments recorded and sounding cool.
Special thing for today: We decided to add some..... "lyrics", let's call them. More like spoken samples with a healthy dose of scratchin', but yeah. Adds a whole new layer of cool to the tune! 😀
 

22nd of April, 2025:

Right, mixing and processing is coming along, now. We're in that stage where the song is all laid out, but you need to decorate it, make it sound just right. Production, basically.
Also, we've decided to try something slightly different. So we've got those distorted lyrics in there, and we're not sure if we prefer the tune with or without them, right? So, rather than picking one or the other, we're simply gonna release two versions of the song. One with lyrics, one instrumental. Let's see how that goes for us.
 

24th of April, 2025:

Alrighty, after some last touches, we've now officially moved the project onto the mastering stage. That's not to say we shipped it off, mind you. We do our mastering ourselves.
But yeah, both the normal and instrumental versions are just about finished at this point, really! 🙂
 
 

25th of April, 2025:

Well, things have moved quickly, now. We've put in some time to master the song, put together the basic cover art and video files for the youtube upload and uploaded both the normal and instrumental versions, scheduled for release on the 23rd of may!
It's a bit of a long time to hold it back, but we wanna give submithub another shot, and it's best to give the curators there a few weeks time before a tune releases. But yeah, from here, it's all admin, so here's hoping you folks like the tune when it comes out! 😃





 

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