Welcome once more to Laying Down the Sound! This is the sixth installment of the series and the second episode focused on my song “Unraveling.” Last week, I went over the core guitar parts and vocal melodies of the song, leaving off after the second chorus, just before the guitar solo at the end. In this video, I demonstrate the chord progression that underlies that solo, and I dig into the lyrics of “Unraveling” – their origin and meaning. To conclude, I include a full acoustic performance of the song (I also have a bit of fun with a guitar part in the song I haven’t shown yet). Next time, I’ll move to the recording side of things.
Tag: music
Looking Forward: MEMCO
Happy Friday, everyone!
This week I had the opportunity to chat with Akshay Chacko, Co-President of Michigan Electronic Music Collective (MEMCO). He gave me some insight into what MEMCO does on campus, how they’ve adjusted to COVID, and how students can get involved with the organization. Let’s dive right in!
The first thing to know about MEMCO is that they’re a multifaceted organization focusing on various pillars to get people involved in electronic music on campus. They have two main areas of their mission: 1) break down entry barriers and teach people how to DJ/produce music, and 2) Give students a platform to share their skills.
Electronic music can be a difficult space to break into due to the expensive equipment and limited availability of teachers when compared to learning to play the guitar or another instrument. MEMCO
addresses these areas by providing equipment for their members to learn and practice on – from their full-scale, state-of-the-art setup to more portable DJ controllers that are able to be individually borrowed during COVID (and which they were able to get thanks to an Arts at Michigan grant!). They also host a series of speaker panels and educational events which cover topics like the history of electronic music, insights from talent bookers or graphic designers, and understanding the intersectionality that techno music was built upon – including its connections to Detroit. Many of their educational programs have been able to be moved online fairly seamlessly, allowing their members to grow their passion and knowledge of music even in quarantine.
MEMCO’s performance programming has been a little more challenging to move into the virtual space. Akshay explained to me what the event process in previous years has looked like:
“Our biggest event [pre-COVID] would be, like, every month we would throw these events at Club Above on main street called Impulse Events, and these events were basically hosted, organized, executed, promoted, all by the club. We curate the lineup, 
which it’s usually just members of our club but sometimes we would book, like, bigger artists from Detroit and stuff. We handle the booking, we handle, like, the graphic design, the promotion, and we meet up and then go, you know, poster around campus and downtown and stuff, and then we handle the production of this event from start to finish.”
Obviously, those tasks are all incredible learning opportunities for someone looking to continue in the music industry, or, really, any industry. The process of putting on the event might be as beneficial as actually being able to perform at the event. So, while they can’t perform in clubs and bars as they would normally, they’ve found creative ways to make the best of this year.
“We’ve just had to switch to a live stream format for [Impulse Events]. And that is, I’m sure you’ve seen, like most electronic events or, like, DJ, or anything, that have switched to the live stream format and we have kind of just had to do the same. [It’s a] totally different experience and definitely way harder to, like, get new members or any members at all. You know, instead of beingat the club on a Friday night, you’re, like, sitting in front of a computer… We do like a simultaneous zoom call too but, you know, you have to be realistic that it’s not the same experience… We still promote the event from start to finish. [We] han
dle booking and all these things and, like, for an upcoming event we have booked some DJ and stuff… I’d say we have a professional setup that is, like, up to par with, you know, any big DJ and what they’re doing, so it’s as good as we could be. I’m honestly, like, really proud of the setup that we have to do our live streaming.”
As expected, some things translate better to the Zoom format than others. Speaker series work well, for instance,, while trying to teach someone to DJ for the first time might be a little more challenging. Setting up a DJ Livestream may be straightforward, but how do you get back some of the energy that you’d have in a club or bar setting? These are questions that MEMCO has grappled with this semester, and it seems like they are doing a wonderful job to make the best experience possible for their members.
If you’re interested in getting involved with MEMCO, you can email Akshay at achacko@umich.edu and he will get you set up with the Slack channel and make sure you’re in the loop for future events. One of the nice things about MEMCO is that being a member is super flexible – you can be as involved as much or as little as works best for you. If you’re only interested in one side of their programming, want to be on the backend of event production, only want to attend social events and performances, or want to do all the above, you are welcome no matter what. Also, be sure to follow their Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud pages.
If you want to get your feet wet, MEMCO is hosting a music production workshop series tomorrow (March 27) from 1-6 PM. More information can be found on the Facebook event or the event graphic below.
That’s all from me this week!
Stay safe & stay well,
Lucy
Laying Down the Sound: Unraveling – Episode 1
Welcome to the fifth installment of Laying Down the Sound! After completing my breakdown of “Colored Balloon” last week, I now move on to a different song, this one called “Unraveling.” It’s one of the shorter, simpler songs on my album and also one of my favorites. In this video, I expound and expand on the guitar parts and vocal melodies essential to the composition, and I demonstrate their organization and fit with one another. In all, I highlight the development (in terms of guitar parts and vocal melodies) of all but the last section of the song, which is primarily instrumental. I’ll get to that next week! Thank you for watching!
Adventure (song lyrics in progress)
You make me wanna take a train to you
when the weather man says it’s too cold to fly
and I
know it’s not right
you make me wanna take a risk or two
and figure out a better way to live my life
oh you
make me want to
you spin me round on my kitchen floor
playing country songs I’ve never heard before
it’s those crazy ideas that you have in your head
you grab my waist throw me onto my bed
all the checked-off boxes on my bucket list
those once-in-a life-times you don’t wanna miss
it’s the blood rush to my brain when I see
you looking over your shoulder smirking back at me
I can’t remember what life was before
with you by my side it’s always an adventure
You’re covered in flags and I know that they’re red
but my heart is so convinced that they are green
you see
you’re no good for me
you make me wanna change the way I’ve lived
every day of my life until the day I met you
I know it’s wrong
but I’ll still go along
you wash my hair when I’m just too tired
and though I know that I am playing with fire
I love those crazy ideas that you have in your head
when you grab my waist and throw me onto my bed
all the checked-off boxes on my bucket list
those once-in-a-life-times you don’t wanna miss
It’s the blood rush to my brain when I see
you looking over your shoulder smirking back at me
I can’t remember what life was before
with you by my side it’s always an adventure
They say time flies when you’re having fun
it seems our time is over before it has begun
they say don’t risk it all or you are bound to lose
but all I think about it how I’m missing you
and those crazy ideas that you have in your head
when you grab my waist and throw me onto my bed
you’re checking boxes off my bucket list
so many once-in-a-life-times that we haven’t missed
I miss the blood rush to my brain when I see
you looking over your shoulder smirking back at me
I can’t remember what my life was like before
it was a shadow of the life entwined with yours
with you by my side it’s always an adventure
Laying Down the Sound: Colored Balloon – Episode 4
Welcome again to Laying Down the Sound! This is the fourth installment of the series and the fourth and last episode focused on my song “Colored Balloon.” Picking up where I left off last time, I continue to concentrate on the recording process and the various constituent parts of the song. This occurs mainly in Ableton Live, the DAW (digital audio workstation) I used to record, although some segments are demonstrated acoustically. This video wraps up my breakdown and decomposition of “Colored Balloon”; my next video will spotlight a different song of mine. If you wish to suggest a song, please leave a comment about that. If not, I’ll choose! Either way, thanks for watching!
Looking Forward: Sirens A Capella
Happy Friday, arts, ink!
It’s a good day to be a Wolverine. With the news of vaccine eligibility increasing in Michigan sooner than many anticipated and President Schissel’s announcement of a closer-to-normal looking Fall semester plan (let’s not forget the exciting win of our basketball team, either!), things are looking up for the campus. Of course, until we get a larger portion of our community vaccinated and further recommendations from the CDC + state officials, we all need to continue doing our part to socially distance, gather in small groups and preferably outdoors, and wear masks. Hopefully, though, we will be able to create together again in the near-ish future. My fingers are crossed!
For this week’s spotlight, I chatted with Hannah deSilvia, Business Manager for Sirens A Capella. She told me a little bit about how the Sirens have adjusted to COVID restrictions while still building strong relationships between members and creating amazing music. Let’s dive in!
“We’re just a really tight-knit group of girls that likes to sing and we work collaboratively all semester to put our repertoire together and have our concert at the end of the semester normally. We really emphasize, like, building friendships and having fun, especially now because that’s something that we don’t get to do and we often miss each other, so we try and make the most of our time together.”
This year the group has moved their rehearsals to being completely virtual, a transition they started to plan for over the summer. Although Zoom doesn’t effectively allow the group to sing synchronously together, they’ve found ways to still make this time productive by allowing individuals to sing their part alone while others mute their sound and sing along. Hannah also explained that they’ve made their rehearsals a little more of a relaxed and flexible space – spending a little more time than they normally would to catch up and talk about things. It helps them feel more connected despite not having some of those more casual conversations as you walk into the building or get settled in. 
Rather than performing a concert like usual, the group decided to focus their energy on recording music – something that they could do remotely, and individually. The group has recorded music before (you can check out their song “Talia” on Spotify) but they typically did so in a physical studio. Although it was a little bit of a learning curve, the girls made the best of it and the recordings are being mixed now.
April 20th will be Siren A Capella’s 10th anniversary, a special milestone for the group. No spoilers, but I would definitely recommend you keep an eye on their Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube pages in case they drop some fun content to celebrate. The group will also be holding auditions in the Fall – so if you’re a singer, warm up those pipes and stay tuned for more details in the first few weeks of the semester.
That’s all from me this week! I hope you all have a fun and safe Saint Patrick’s Day. Come back next week for a spotlight on the Korean Student Association.
Lucy
