Still Here in Hero Falls, June 2022

So 15 months later, where are we? Only slightly further forward, but forward nonetheless.

Kat’s big idea for Hero Falls was one that she had suggested to me at the start — as did Brian McCune, for that matter: Why isn’t this a stage musical? I had a linear narrative in my head, or at least most of it. I had distinct characters, many of them female, and I’d written full character backstories on them. I had comedy, I had pathos, I had heroes and villains and some characters who were both, so plenty of conflict. I had flashbacks, secret histories, crowd scenes…everything but a clear structure.

I had always intended that Hero Falls be a puzzle that the listener would put together, piece by piece. There were links between characters and songs that I’d hoped curious listeners would connect, or at least ask me about. I wrote cryptic taglines for each song, and while I was pretty overt in telling the story of the moment in each song’s lyrics, I didn’t divulge the backstory or even a lot of character details.

All of that was a mistake.

I didn’t give people enough bread crumbs to even consider there might be a trail. Nobody was given the chance to get invested in this world that I’d built because I simply didn’t explain anything.

So a musical makes a lot more sense. Kat, herself an excellent storyteller, knew all the backstories and said, “Oh, well, start with this, set this up, do all this in Act I, then resolve these subplots after intermission, and oh yeah, you need to write five or six more songs, so start doing that.”

As usual, she’s right.

I have dragged my feet because I just haven’t been motivated. I had intended to release one song a month and I did…except the year of those months was 2020, when everybody was scared literally to death of COVID-19 and the escapism they were seeking was apparently not my music. As the lockdown ground us all down, I found myself less and less interested, and I was getting very little feedback or any sort of reaction to my Big Idea. So I came to resent the project rather than refine it.

I’ve also been busy — new job, new house, that all takes time and attention — but we’re settled now. All I have left now are good intentions, half-baked ideas that need to be cooked up, a slightly bruised ego, and a collection of serviceable demos that I can use as story beats. And they really are demo quality; I listen to them and then I listen to professional tracks, and I’m embarrassed. But hey, that’s why they’re free to download, right?

But the songs themselves — I still like them. It’s been so long since they were recorded that I am now listening to them with some distance and, harsh as I may be on myself, I still like the turns of phrase (I have found exactly one lyric I’d like to change) and the moods I was trying to create. I got to work with some really talented and professional friends. I just hear these tracks now and go “wow, if I worked with professional producers, this could be something.”

I am now conflicted about how to move forward. I am using my train commute to reassess the material as well as write new stuff — not just songs that serve the now-clear narrative, but also a first draft of the libretto, based on Kat’s outline. It will no doubt change a lot later, but it has to exist in some form to start that process. But it has occurred to me that I might get a little of that attention I’m craving if I try to create some of this on a livestream. If I finally invite others into this world and tell people this story, maybe they will buy in on how I’m now trying to tell it.

I know these characters and I believe in these songs, scrappy and crappy as they may respecfully be. I want to keep pushing forward. It’s just easier to play World of Warcraft right now, and since my job is creatively fulfilling again, leisure activities are a siren’s call. Writing songs is hard work. Who knows how hard writing a musical will be?

State of Hero Falls, March 2021

It’s been an interesting two years of working on this project. I’m not done but I am…shifting gears. The identity of Hero Falls is changing, and I think for the better. As a result, the first batch of songs has been bundled into an album called Hero Falls: Origins, and it’s still free, but it sort of represents the 1.0 milestone to me. The 2.0 idea is a little different but builds on the characters and places and ideas in my head — and it offers a better way to get those ideas out of my head and into the ears of other people.

I came to realize how vague I’d been about everything, and how the only people who even had a glimpse of the story I was trying to tell were the people who directly collaborated on it. The vocalists all got character dossiers with full histories and context for the story they’d be helping to tell, plus some insight into what happened next. I thought it would be fun to let everybody else guess. It was not fun for anybody else to guess. So when Kat came up with a really plausible idea about how to tell this story in a more compelling and interesting way, why wouldn’t I listen to her? I’m moving forward with her vision.

So, no releases for a while, probably. I’m in songwriting mode at the moment, which is a scattered process involving guitars in various tunings, a small digital recorder for capturing ideas that might be terrible, and a text file on Dropbox. I am currently bouncing between two songs as inspiration strikes, which is fun. It’s still moving by inches when I would love to be the kind of songwriter who sprints. But I’m learning — and if nothing else, Hero Falls has taught me that I’m always learning — that songwriting, for me, is more difficult than that. Maybe it’s this difficult for everybody. But for now, I am not giving myself a deadline — I’m just holding myself to continue thinking about it and work at a natural, slow pace. I have that luxury since I have no other constraints on this project, so I might as well enjoy it.

Song: “Two Weeks to Live” (Feat. many guests!)

Last year, I started thinking about how I am surrounded by absolutely incredible, world-class musicians, and what an idiot I am not to invite them to play. I realized I would love to have an excuse to ask them to play on one of my songs. So I wrote an 80s hard rock/metal song around a melodramatic tale of the supernatural, primarily because I thought several people might have fun showing off through it. The solos from Leila-Abdul Rauf, Ry Kihn, Audrey Shida and Brian Poedy were all recorded independently, and I told them to play for as long as they liked. I just sort of hoped they’d all fit together in the final mix, and they did. I then had to try to improve the rest of the song to get on their level.

To top it all off, I clearly do not have a metal singing voice, but Audrey’s sister Kate regularly performs an epic death growl, so I asked her to be the Voice From Out Of The Black. I deployed her power judiciously, but she has some of the biggest impact on the song.

Unlike a lot of other more cryptic songs in Hero Falls, this one is a pretty straight up origin story, where I just laid everything out in the lyrics.

“Two Weeks to Live”
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State of Hero Falls, October 2020

Last month I talked a little about my motivations around HF and how things felt a little off. Getting Blythe’s track done and starting on the next song is good for me, but I’ve also started to look at why I have not gotten the reception I had hoped for. I think Kat’s observation that “finding an audience for original music is hard” is true, but I also am starting to think I have not given my potential audience enough information to get emotionally invested. I know the relationships between the characters; I am making a certain amount up as I go, but I do have some connections that I take for granted that the audience has not made…because I have not given them enough information to make them.

Part of the fun of this for me was giving people a puzzle to solve — listen to the songs, seem if you can figure out what’s going on with just a few clues. Those clues are too vague; there’s not enough revealed to make anybody care about who these people are, who they love and hate, and what they have done or might do. The only thing I’ve said about the backstory is here and it’s admittedly super light on details.

So, that’s pretty easy to solve. I am going to start a section of the site where I offer character bios. I have these all written on my end as part of the development and songwriting process, so they are easy enough for me to share, in full or in part. Basically, I guess I need to start building a wiki for Hero Falls so there are points of reference for the characters, the history, the timeline of events, and the city itself. I know the names of businesses and which characters live in which neighborhoods and all kinds of fun stuff that might make the place more real for listeners, in the way that it’s becoming real to me. It would also give me more opportunities to post on social media, announcing there’s a new page of backstory posted.

Oh, yes — social media. I talk about HF on my own Twitter account, but I had the idea to talk about it in-universe from @hero_falls on both Twitter and Instagram. I had been writing as the city’s social media interns for a full year before releasing any music, thinking “wow, people will be so impressed!” They were not — nobody noticed! So I’m dropping that schtick and I’m going to use those channels as standard promotional avenues, announcing new songs and info and whatnot. Every YouTube video I’ve made points to them, so I think making them less creative and more informative is probably a good idea. I can always revisit it later if people get invested.

So. I have never set up a wiki before, but I guess learning how (or if it’s even the right way to go about this) is the first step. Then, cut and paste! 🙂

Song: “Happy Family” (Feat. Blythe Renay)

First, I hate children.

Second, I wanted to work with Blythe Renay since the earliest days of this project. I’d actually asked her to take a crack at “Another Hero Falls” first, but I wound up going with Moorea’s take. But at that point, I realized, okay, I need to write a song specifically for Blythe. Something that matches her voice, her delivery, her ability to be sweet and nasty at the same time. Little did I know she would be immortalized as GenIVIV in Borderlands 3 shortly thereafter — now she’s gamer famous! But she agreed to work with me anyway, and for that I am extremely grateful. She’s kinda one of my favorite people in the world.

The result is a story of a Karen. I started thinking, as I often do, about kidnappings, and if there was a case where someone would do that from a position of mercy. Like, Karen here is selfish — she wants a kid, her henpecked husband has issues delivering the payload, and she’s looking for other ways to grow their family. But then she looks around at all these parents who seem to hate their kids — ignoring them, neglecting them, just looking exhausted and like they realize they have made a terrible mistake that wrecked their lives. So…why not solve both problems at the same time? Frank’s work at the Epicenter gave him access to mind-wipe device from a canceled project, so, you know…what you don’t remember can’t hurt you. Just rearrange the pieces on the game board and everybody wins. That’s Karen logic for you.

“Happy Family” (feat. Blythe Renay)
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State of Hero Falls, September 2020

August came and went without a track being released, which broke my streak. It’s not the end of the world, but you know, it kind of feels like the world is ending, and that’s part of the reason I’ve slowed down considerably on Hero Falls output.

Actually, let me break this down.

1. As I’ve been working from home, I have seen a sharp decline in my creativity and interest; it’s been difficult to remain productive, even though I have ideas for more songs and more characters. As COVID-19 drags on and the world feels very different from just nine months ago when I started releasing tracks, I have not taken refuge in this project. I would rather just spend my time doing other stuff, like playing games. My daily commute was actually a great time to work on lyrics or listen to snippets of songs and refine ideas. As soon as I lost that compartmentalized space, I lost momentum

2. My collaborators are dealing with the same pandemic issues in their own lives, which affects their speed and interest as well. Things that I thought would be quick turnarounds have dragged on weeks and months instead. There’s been some hurry-up-and-wait to this, because I am relying on their kindness. This stuff takes time and energy; I’m not going to demand either from my friends.

3. I can’t lie that I had also hoped more people would be listening to and talking about the songs by now, so the soft reaction hasn’t helped my motivation either. Original music is always a tough sell, but I’m giving it away for free, you know? I really thought the comic-book hook would help it stand out, but when I post about it, those posts are rarely shared. I appreciate the few bucks here and there, but I actually want to be paid in exposure. (I am considering buying some Facebook ads — just as friends are leaving the platform in droves!)

So, it’s been easy to back-burner this. I was mixing the next track tonight, so something will appear before too long, and I have another song partially written that I would like to invite several friends to play on. After that, I’m thinking I might revisit some of the characters I’ve introduced and tell a standalone story with them. So far all the songs have been origin stories or moments in time; Kat suggested I try writing stories first, then translating them to songs, and I’m not sure if this is what she meant, but it makes sense to me to do, like, a three-song EP that works like a three-issue comic arc. Dunno. I’m kicking that around.

So I’m not done with Hero Falls, but it’s been hard to want to create more of it right now. I’m expecting this funk to pass, so stay tuned.

Song: “Another Hero Falls” (Dan’s Demo)

I am honored and thrilled that Moorea Dickason agreed to sing the final version of this track, but I lived with my guide vocal for so long that I kind of grew to like it. I also wrote the song in a different key, so I wound up rerecording everything for the final version. That makes the demo something of a relic.

So, since I’ve been battling some tech issues and could not finish the current track in progress before the end of the month, I thought hearing how the song evolved between demo and final would of mild interest — and it would at least cover the July release!

“Another Hero Falls” (Dan’s Demo)
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State of Hero Falls, July 2020

I record everything in Logic Pro X…and my Mac died this month. I have since had it repaired, but it did put me a bit behind schedule on the next song. I have the core instrumental track with vocal now, and I’m doing early mixes while I add a few solo instruments and embellishments here and there. I realized today that it’s a product of multiple influences — it’s sort of Barenaked Ladies by way of Tom Lehrer.

It’s coming, eventually.

Song: “The Dinner Party”

It’s about time we got to meet the main villain in Hero Falls. The Crime Minister has been running the underworld and more since 1973. This song explains how he came to power. Bon appétit!

I am incredibly grateful to have Jackie Perez Gratz and Travis Kindred both appear on this track, contributing cello and bass, respectively. The addition of real strings is not something I expected, but it totally made me believe in the track more once I had them. Jude Kelley was, as always, super helpful with the organ parts; he not only played the Mellotron choir voices but he suggested them as an addition to what I had.

Also, it’s not clear in the song, but The Crime Minister has a very distinctive real name — Talmadge Garvin Blevins — so a sincere thank you to the real Tal for letting me use his name for such a murderous scoundrel!

“The Dinner Party”
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Song: “How Does This Work”

I grew up with two parents.
I feel fortunate for that, as a lot of my friends didn’t. Everybody deals with something like that in a different way.

Kelly Argyle grew up knowing her dad existed, but not really knowing him — he was always working, gone for long periods of time, never seeming to have time to spend with her. That kind of resentment builds up, but her mom was always making apologies.

When her dad died during her freshman year of college, she learned the surprising truth: Her father was Wyldchild, a cosmic superhero who’d been killed in a battle in another galaxy. She’d never really known him, and now she never would. Kelly wasn’t sure whether she should be sad or angry.

But when a glowing gold bracelet comes hurtling in from space, attaches itself to her wrist, and goes dark…well, then she knew which emotion to feel, and she questions both the presumptive motives of her father and the alien artifact that she cannot seem to remove.

More happens after the song, of course, and she starts to make sense of it all with a little help from someone special. But we’ll leave that for another time.

Of special note for this angry, angsty riot grrrlly track: F-bombs fly in the lyrics, so if you prefer a clean/radio edit, I made one available for free on Bandcamp. I know some of you listen with kids in the car so I wanted to give you the option….but if you go clean, you’ll miss a bit of vulgar wordplay of which I’m proud. 🙂

When I got to know Stephanie Dowling as a co-worker, I really enjoyed her company and energy. When I found out she also fronted a cover band in Los Angeles and sang a song in Fallout: New Vegas, I thought, well, I gotta work with her. She came over to my house and recorded the vocals live, soaking up any and all direction I gave her, and I’m very grateful she was so dedicated to making this character snarl and bark and sneer.

Also thanks to the real Kelly Argyle for letting me hijack her name!

“How Does This Work”
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Everything you've heard is true. Musical tales from The Quantum City by Dan Amrich