I will go to bed with you
But only because you asked me to
You pretending not to care
As I shoot you from the air
You will step outside tonight
Think of this and feel it die
I'll be sitting in my car
Waiting for the heat to start
Close your eyes and try to keep
An older version of me
I will try hard not to know
The cookie monster shorts you wore
Thinking I might spend the night
But watching as my shoes were tied
Keeping on the kitchen light
Throwing out old polaroids
Hating that you ever dared
To want to catch up with me here
Close your eyes and try to keep
An older version of me
One who always knew what to say
In the silence of the doorway
Tryhard is one of the oldest songs on the album. It was basically a huge ripoff of Between the Bars by Elliott Smith. It also might have been the hardest to mix on the whole album. For some reason it was just always so harsh sounding, I think mostly because of how aggressive the guitars are in the 2nd half. The three things that were probably the biggest influence on the production were El Paso by Marty Robbins, Life in a Glasshouse by Radiohead, and this album Tibiri Tabara by Sierra Maestra. I wasn't sure exactly what it was supposed to be. Like 1/3 Indie, 1/3 Afro-Cuban, and 1/3 New Orleans Jazz funeral. I spent so much time trying to get the percussion to sound like that Sierra Maestra album, especially the song Son Para Ti which is definitely one of my favorite songs of all time. At some point I realized it was never really going to happen because the groove just isn't the same, maybe because of how swinging it is or something. But in hindsight, I think not sounding exactly like those influences might make it better. Or at least that's what makes it "indie" and not Cuban Son. I think that failing to achieve the sound of whatever influence is actually what makes the difference between inspiration and appropriation.
I'm pretty pleased with the production and songwriting on this one. I think the layers are good, especially the percussion and vocal harmonies. I feel proud about consolidating so many sections together, and I really love the trumpet solo and the chords under it. I think it's cool to get as much chromatic motion in a row as possible and this one does pretty good. It goes from C to B to A to G to F# to F. I'm also really happy with the decision to play the Ab before the F in the last chorus. I thought that had a cool effect.
Frontier Psychiatrist by The Avalanches was probably what influenced the horse and cowboy sounds right at the solo. I had always known I wanted something there, something to really wind up and slap on the downbeat, but couldn't ever figure out what it should be. I ended up having like a Westerns marathon at my mom's house looking for a good gunshot, or horse, or whip sound. I believe what I ended up using was from For a Few Dollars More. My dad used to always play those movies for us when we were kids. He was also the one playing The Avalanches.
The first recording of Tryhard dates to November 18th, 2018 and is sort of a sketch of the chords with a different rhythm. There's another recording from the next day and 10 days later with a little progress on that:
The next one after that is not til a year later, in December 2019, and is the little intro section with some random lyrics:
That part always reminded me of Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden.
From the next day is a demo with crazy vocals. Taking shape, and now with the rough fingerpicking pattern:
From the 28th of December is a more proper demo with a melody. It's also named after the original title, "Airplane Graveyards", which was a reference to the "shoot you from the air" line:
That same day the song got its chorus, and the decision to swap the F and Ab around:
Two days later the song was basically finished, except for a couple lyrics, the trumpet solo section, and the switch from fingerpicking to strumming in the second half:
One week later, on January 7th 2020, there was a solo section:
The next recording after that is not til March 2, 2021. It's a sketch of the verse trumpet part:
Then from December 21, 2021 a cool outline of the trumpet solo on guitar:
After that came the move into Pro Tools.
Here's a pretty first take of the vocal harmonies:
The earliest full band bounce I have is from March 1st, 2021. It's pretty rough:
And by the next bounce on September 2, 2022 it was pretty close:
Solo'd Harmonies:
Solo'd Percussion:
End horns and strings solo'd:
Personnel:
Ibanez Artwood AC240
Jupiter JTR700 Trumpet
Steve's Stand-up Bass
Paganini WR70 Cello
Wood block
Claps
LP Mini Bongos
Castanets
Banana Bells
Metal Camping Flask
Hydroflask
Claves
Guiro
Shakers
Shell shakers
Recorded at 16bit 44.1khz
Unmastered Version:
Lyrics sheets:
