Mark's posted a new video for a song he collaborated on with good friend (and incredibly good musician!) Larry Benigno. Check it out on our YouTube channel. ～好奇走一回～的最新音樂。請欣賞。
[Mark]
Larry Benigno and I have never actually met, but thanks to Sue Morton, we've been friends for several years! In fact, I don't think we've ever been within less than 3,000 miles of each other! Sometimes things just click. Larry and I collaborated on this piece
when he and I lived on opposite coasts. Larry wrote the music and came up with the title concept. I wrote the lyrics on my lunch hour one day. Then we traded .wav files until all the final parts were recorded. Larry mixed the sound. Over the last few days, I put together the image montage. The lyrics start about halfway through the piece. After the lyrics, you'll find the story of how all this came together. Enjoy!
"Love Theme for Aliens"
-Music by Larry Benigno, Lyrics by Mark Ivan Cole
Mourning another orbit 'round the red sun,
Every day that you're apart from me
Carves a piece out of the heart of me.
My world won't recognize a love from your world.
Still, my heart believes that you're my girl,
Even if we go alone.
Make this work.
I know we can,
If you'll only take my hand.
The love between us never fails
Even if they can't make heads or tails.
Let the planets sail away.
We'll bring them all together.
No drifting, lost in empty space,
Our love provides the tether.
No one will understand my feelings for you.
They all say we are simply not the same
And there's nothing left to gain.
Even if my arms could never hold you,
Anywhere we are in space or time
There your soul will be with mine.
__
"Love Theme For Aliens" started out as a piece Larry was composing and recording on his own. He emailed me an early version of it and said he had this idea of these two aliens whose home worlds wouldn't let them be together. "See if you can come up with lyrics for it." I did, during my lunch hour.
With his usual skill, Larry wove the lyrics into the piece, even recruiting his wife, Teri, to do a spoken word section during the transitional break. I got up early one morning with that section of the piece on my mind. Since it was before dawn, I didn't want to make any noise, so I whispered the spoken word parts into the microphone. Then I opened the resulting .wav file and pitch shifted it up a couple of steps. All of a sudden, the whispers sounded like a teenage girl! Perfect. I emailed the file off to Larry and he sliced and diced it to fit.
That's how we work together. He records his stuff and sends me rough mixes as mp3s. I import them into a Reaper project. Then I record my parts as separate tracks and post them for him on my server. He downloads those, does a new mix and sends me another mp3. We'll discuss the mix via email and see how we like it. If need be, I can re-record my parts to make them work better or send him new ones as we come up with different ideas.
Larry covers everything in the first part of the song, including the guitars, drums and bass. I very much enjoyed adding guitars later in the piece. I got to do the power chords--lucky me! He also had me add a bass line. I worked on a bass part for the first half, but Larry's original bass line was so perfect for the feel, I told him just to keep that and didn't bother to send him mine! My bass part comes in just as the lyrics start, about half way through the piece.
I love the last verse where the whole thing comes to a crux. I added the power chords and solo guitar lines there. I cranked up my Boss VR-1 preamp with one of my favorite custom patches and played the short lead lines at the end of each phrase. That section still makes me grin! :)
Larry has a knack for getting a big, open sound, even with a lot of tracks and multiple layers of stuff going on. I'm still learning to do that. His keyboard, vocal and guitar skills combine with his composition and sound engineering ability to make him a musical "army of one," and he certainly is a force to be reckoned with. Did I mention he records the drums live...using the keyboard?? He does.
When Ping and I were shopping for a compact sound system to replace our home theater for our move to Taiwan, we used "Love Theme For Aliens" as part of our test mix. Boy, it sounded good when we cranked it in the stereo store!
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