Travis Conrad

So I’m a little bit obsessed with this song at the moment.

Don’t even say it. I’m just as disappointed as the rest of the you. It’s just so good though!

-Travis Conrad, Mothafucka

Guess who just finished a song for a musical called Dysfunction? Wow. That was lame. I’m far too lazy and tired right now to delete it though and think of something wittier to write. Moving on….

I finished the song entitled Kim tonight, after several weeks of tweaking and hammering and fiddling with chords and rhymes and designers name. I’m pretty happy with the final product. The song started out as a 3/4 waltz, then spent some time as a 6/8 waltz, experimented briefly in 5/4 time (that was messy) and finally settled down in 4/4 common time BUT with a mean tango-esque rhythm. This is the first song where I’ve actually written the music independent from the vocals. Everything else I’ve done has been mostly derived from the vocals, something I’ve been wanting to get away from, and this time it just worked out really well. I can imagine this arranged for some heavy strings with a piano playing the upbeat sections, maybe even with a little snare drum too. Oh yes, a snare drum would be exquisite.

This song features Kim (Cameron’s ex-girlfriend) and her two best friends Justin and Natalie. This is where Justin really gets a chance to shine, granted that the actor playing him can act AND sing at the same time. If he can’t, well, then it’s just going to feel dark and out of place. Halfway through Kim takes over, and at the end she has a little reflection moment alone. The melody shifts notes but the beat stays the same and I think the effect turned out sharp, although I’m still finding sometimes I’ll write some music and it turns out different from what I envision but still awesome. There’s also the first couple lyrics included below. Let me know what you think!

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J: First we’ll get you out of the dumps.

K: I’m not in the dumps!

N: It looks like you are.

J: We’ll get you back in your Gucci pumps.

K: Okay, fine, I’m in.

N: You’ll look like a star!

J: Rather than looking like Courtney Love, you’ll be our Kim who’s worthy of the dresses and purses from Guess and Lacoste that you’d die if you lost!

Hehehehehe, yes, the whole song is like that. I tried my best here to emulate the banter and one-liners Sean’s written for the characters in the script. And I like it cause they’re not HAHA one-liners, but rather aha or hoho.

No word back on the job interview yet, but here’s hoping. Tomorrow I start on Guys Always Disappoint: The Plan. Yes I’m aware most song names don’t have colons in them but I’M THE GOD-DAMNED COMPOSER, I’LL NAME MY SONG Albatross ^_^: 81[The Final Seabird] IF I WANT TO…. ok that looks a little bad, convention and I are really getting along at the moment. Gotta go make pasta k bye!

-Travis Conrad the Maladjusted? lol. Malnourished maybe.

I found a couple incredibly awesome new comics within the past month, my favourite of which is definitely Hark! A Vagrant, by fellow Canadian Kate Beaton. Mostly about history, I find them incredibly fresh, which is rare in a webcomic.

Other new delights I’ve stumbled upon include the maelstrom of cynicism that is The Fart Party, an actually humourous gamer comic called Fanboys and the curious experiment called Slow Wave, a comic made of real dreams that people submit to the artist, who then draws them.

I apologize for the remarkably horrendous job I’ve been doing updating, but you know, such and such excuse etc. etc.

On the plus side, I have a job interview coming up and have almost finished the scintillating Our Kim for Dysfunction. It’s a humourous tango-esque song with an underbite of dissatisfaction for living a life made up of expensive labels and a polished exterior. Should have more to post on it soon!

-Travis Conrad