This is a bit of a rarity for me. One of the few instrumentals that I’ve ever produced. I first came up with the opening four chords – which were really just four notes that sounded nice in a sequence – many years ago. Probably 10 or more but I can’t say. Fortunately I crudely recorded them back then … and simply cycled the chords several times. Every now and then this short, looped, meditative string line would come back to me. A few years back when I was putting together the last of my ‘audio talks’ from my coaching / speaking work I used Awaken, as I called it, at the end of the audio talks as part of the ‘outro’ information for my talks.
Last year I started working on a short film project with my friend Marcin who has filmed / directed my pop videos. We needed some pieces of music to go with it. Marcin came up with a piece of music and I realised we could use Awaken. So together with a string line from one of my songs with vocals and with another instrumental I went into the studio to record them with John Hamilton.
I was very excited about using Awaken for this project; it was a challenge as I’d never really attempted a score before and I’m a singer / songwriter and would not call myself a musician. But I had the four chords. This is where John’s brilliance came in. He listened. We recorded the chord sequence and you’ll hear that after the opening original chords have cycled a few times a new sequence begins including a Cello sound. John created this sequence inspired by the first chords. So what you hear is very much a joint piece of work. There’s a moment later where I can’t actually tell if it’s John’s work or mine – I think it’s a blend of a simple intuitive set of piano notes that I think I play and a lower bass sound that is certainly John. Anyway I’m trilled with the result.
Anyway I’m not sure if / when the short film will unfold. I hope it will emerge if that’s meant to be. If so you’ll also the hear some of the other instrumental bits we recorded that day. For me this recording session is one of the sessions that stands out most to me as I remember going in knowing it was one of my biggest challenges to somehow come out of the studio with instrumentals that work. But much of that outcome was thanks to John’s brilliance.
Awaken emerging now sprang from me wanting to test out I-Movie which I wanted to play around with as I’d be doing a few simple edits on interviews I recorded with guests in my coaching / speaking work. So I used ‘Awaken’ with some photos from Marcin’s videos. Anyway when I uploaded to video to my Music YouTube Channel OgunlaruMusic I sent the link to, Kevin Arnold, my musical collaborator on my earlier songs and demos. Kevin said that he really loved the track. The funny thing is that when you create a piece of music you never really know what someone’s going to think. Even if you do know their taste / style and have a bit of a sense of whether they’d like it you don’t know quite the degree to which it will connect with them. And it was great that he really connected with the song.
When I now listen (and watch) Awaken it has that meditative quality that always appealed to me from when those first chords first emerged those years back. I hope you enjoy it.