Many months ago when I was writing the Song Breakdowns for LoZ I promised to share this. It is a compilation of the dozens of voices who contributed to my song 1,000, each filling in the sentence “The time I…”. This is how they appear in the outro of the song, sans instrumentation.
What I love hearing in this is the collectivity—these dozens of voices and experiences knit together, all answering the same question, start to form a tangled interconnection. These are the colours, tones, cadences, inflections, and rhythms of what Charles Spearin from Broken Social Scene called our “accidental melodies”—the melodies of everyday life. When each of ours is woven together, like they are here, our world kind of sounds like psychedelic prog. That feels fairly apt to me: expansive, complex, improvisatory…unusual time signatures. How many times have I caught myself saying, “Boy, is that guy an unusual time signature.” None. But I will now. I’m also certain my predilection for tape delays doesn’t hurt this theory either.
Alex Penney and I explored these ideas to even greater effect through a 4D Sound installation of this song at LoBe Studios in Vancouver, Canada; an experience we’re hoping to remount in the near future.
I received many more recordings but these are the ones that made it into the song. I loved getting these voice memos—all of them unexpected; some of them ridiculous; every one thoughtful.
❤️ dW
PS - in case you’re wondering, yes, that is a Benjamin Franklin quote in there. And no, we didn’t speed up the tape on the voice memo he submitted. He did that himself.
Just a reminder that David Ward’s Station 234 is next Tuesday, February 28th. You can be with us in-studio for the live taping or watch at home online (with a 7 day re-watch). Once you click the “tickets” button it will give you your options, which includes something new we’re trying called After Hours. This’ll be a short set of music from Jonny and I immediately following the show, ripping through songs in my catalogue. Pure concert.
I don’t mind telling you again and again about this show because I can unabashedly say (well, maybe slightly abashedly) that I love it. And that’s a difficult thing to admit. It is hard to shout from the rooftops about my own work, even when, in one of those glorious moments, I am absolutely convinced of it. But until this thing starts attracting a cadre of scalpers that requires me to create new ticketing software to ensure my fans pay fair prices and get their tickets first, I’m gonna yell it from the rooftops! This is one of the most fun, soulful and positive projects we have on the go. I’d love for you to join us.
Musical guest: Janette King
Vocalist, producer and multi-instrumentalist, King’s soulful voice fuses across the skittering and woozy beats of her beautiful brand of rnb. Janette has billed with some of the current forerunners of RnB including Jamila Woods and Sudan Archives.
Expert guest: Krystle Dos Santos
Creator of the acclaimed musical “Hey Viola!” Krystle and I will be talking about the civil rights trailblazer, Viola Desmond—the fearless woman featured on your 🇨🇦 $10 bill!
Added bonus - we might just do a song together from Krystle’s musical. 😉
The time I...