Riverpedia archive - 10/31/2021

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=SZNS=
A planned series of four albums (8 songs apiece, totaling 32 songs), set for release on the first day of each season of 2022.
July 9, 2021 - Interesting convo with JD. SZNS may not come out as I originally envisioned but cool nonetheless.
August 25, 2021 - JD heard all of SZNS. He said his fav was Fall, which surprised him, he thought it would be his least fav. I was surprised too, but now that I look at it again, it is pretty immediately likeable. It's more uptempo. His fav track off of it is What Happens After You. I also just shipped off my SZNS PowerPoint to everyone.
I think it's going to be five songers digitally at first. Vinyl will have all eight songs each.
Records is the single. I believe I said that before but maybe not. Think of it as the “All My Favorite Songs” of SZNS. It will come out the same day that Spring is released.
You guys are going to have hundreds of demos for each song on SZNS. Documenting each step of the writing process. I've learned so much writing this album.
There are hardly any co-writes on SZNS.
==Inspiration:==
Each album will feature a specific emotion and musical genre, and musical themes from Vivaldi's 'Le quattro stagioni' will appear throughout. 
SZNS starts out fully Pagan-Narnia in Spring, and ends up crushingly Christian in Winter (increasingly Old and New Testament into Fall and Winter). 
Wow the Dead Sea Scrolls are pretty cool, I came across it while doing research for Angels on Vacation. It's on Spring. Gabriel and Michael take a vacay from heaven, come down to earth, Disney World etc. Halos off, baby.
I'm reading it [Ulysses] over and over until I'm done with seasons. Ulysses is one of the most influential works of art of the 20th Century. But I'm not mining it for specific quotes. More for techniques of composition and just general inspiration. It's pretty mind opening. He did things no one ever thought to do in literature before. Also I'm inspired by how he wanted to make an extremely difficult work of art (I mean difficult to understand).
Ethan says he wants to make Spring feel like optimistic sorrow. That's a bit of a shift from my original thesis happy chill.
• Spring (March 20, 2022): Happy Chill; acoustic & breezy; inspired by Island In The Sun.
• Summer (June 20, 2022): Youthful Indignation; crunchy beach boys; will be perceived as more "Classic Weezer.”
• Fall (Sept 22, 2022): Anxiety, Fear; dance-rock; inspired by Franz Ferdinand’s Take Me Out and the Strokes.
• Winter (Dec 21, 2022): Sadness, grief over loss; sad-acoustic 90's singer/songwriter Elliott Smith.
==Recording:==
Each Season will have a co-producer we've never worked with before, in addition to Jake (big picture) and Suzy (vocals). Ethan Gruska is the Spring co-pro.
SZNS will be the opposite of quarantine recording, as we plan to record with all musicians playing together in the same room with Jake’s version of The Wrecking Crew. We’ll also be working with Rob Mathes (LA Phil conductor we worked with on OKH) and his friends. The recording session will be in September after the Hella Mega tour.
My first deadline for SZNS is Friday, May 28, 2021.
Pre-production for Spring starts on October 25th. It's the first time we've done pre-production since Make Believe, but I believe all albums need it. I think Jake's gonna work us a lot harder this time. 
September 21, 2021 - the SZNS era begins. Had a meeting with Ethan and Jake today. We *might end up back at Sound City (of Pinkerton fame. And Nevermind fame...he.) Jake's talking about recording straight to tape...8 track tape.
October 22, 2021 - Good call with Jake. We're recording SZNS to 24-track with no click or grid. Even vocals will be done to tape. This profoundly changes how we record. Instead infinite tracks, infinite options to sift through, we'll have 24 (half of which will be drum tracks.) Any cut and paste will have to be done with a razor blade.
October 28, 2021 - We tracked drums for 8 of 9 possible Spring songs. At the last second, OPENING NIGHT was selected in favor of GOOD MORNING, which was voted off the island. ( GOOD MORNING has been almost making =w= records since at least Hurley ).
I renamed the song LOS ANGELES to THE GARDEN OF EDEN. I recorded acoustic guitars and vocals for it today.
==Songs/Lyrics:==
There’s a song on SZNS about the pilot of the Goodyear Blimp, although the specific season remains unspecified.
The opening song of SZNS is a tribute to Shakespeare, called Opening Night.
Maybe Fall is written from the perspective of an anxious android.
The verse from Hello, Concubine is currently being used as the verse for Basketball. Here's the Coach lyric from Basketball : 
"Under the bleachers
Hiding for an hour
Coach is looking for me
Cuz his job is to empower"
I’m happy that I worked the word 'triclinium' into Summer’s Cuomoville.
I’ve also mentioned possible lyrics for The Opposite Of Me (also on Summer). “Somebody's so relatable you feel as if they're your best friend. And when they begin to make a speech you wish that it would never end.”
MNF is the last song on Summer which is weird but technically football starts in Summer.
Across the Meadow is Ethan's favorite song on Spring, which surprised me. It's the most sweet, gentle song on Spring. I was wrong, Ethan's favorite is Wild at Heart.
with RECORDS being added summer, we moved ALL THIS LOVE from summer to spring. So one of the other spring songs will surely get bumped. ALL THIS LOVE is jake's fav. It's a beautiful, effortless =w= song.
Other songs in contention for SZNS:
Spring:
Opening Night
Good Morning
Angels on Vacation
Get Off on the Pain
Across the Meadow
Wild at Heart
All this Love
Summer:
Dorothy
Cuomoville
Don't Give Up
The Opposite Of Me
Monday Night Football
Puma Wheels
Records
Fall:
Francesca
What Happens After You
Winter:
Basketball
I Want a Dog
Tastes Like Pain
( Last edited by omelettetdq3z at 2021-10-31T20:58:28Z) 
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