PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase Not like your Love

Hello everyone,

Our new song

Not like your Love

The song is about the well-known 'fear to commit' in relationships. A theme in many pop songs, directly or indirectly.
The point of view in the lyrics tends to change every now and then. This is because it's a story where there is also a third party involved.
The final result: confusion, misunderstood love etc.
We decided to create a more "live" kind of video for this. Since these are all real tracks, and I'm not nearly 5 % of the guitarist Brent Mason is, I decided to simulate the solo. Hope I did a good job of this ;-)

I have recorded this song before, several years ago, but I wasn't happy with the final result. For one, the hi hat sounded too sharp and too loud in this version. The arrangement also had more of a R&B feeling to it.
Since I lost the work files, I couldn't rearrange it and therefore more or less abandoned it. But now with Band in a Box in the game the song gets a new perspective and a refreshed, more poppy, sound. Anne-marie's vocals add an extra dimension to the song. I edited them to get that 'breathy' sound. It's also the first time we experimented with a choir like backing vocal sound that resembles an instrument like strings.


Song specifics:

Style is -R_HHFNK.STY (Funky Hip Hop in Swing 16ths)
Style MIDI Instruments are : Electric Piano (5), Muted Electric Guit (29),
RealTracks in song: 1689:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopPromiseGrittyA-B Ev16 100
RealTracks in song: 1829:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopModernGrooveBrightArp Ev16 075
RealTracks in song: 1732:Bass, Electric, TexasBluesRockFunky Ev16 090
RealTracks in song: 2280:Synth, Rhythm DiscoShakuhachiPulse Ev 120
Soloist:2204 guitar electric soloist country crossover Brent sw 16 075 1
RealDrums in style: HipHop: a: HipHopb: HipHop

Hope you like it, any comments are welcome.
For those who are interested, you can listen to the old version

(link no longer valid)

Regards,
Rob

Lyrics

I turned around my head again
One more time like that I ran
Going straight down, straight down

I felt just like I used to be
Twisted thoughts surrounding me
Going straight down, straight down

Caught up in my head all the reasons to fly
I couldn't leave you even if I tried
Tried to make her see but she won't understand
Though it's not the way I planned,
Still my love comes her way
But it's not like your love

With everything I want to be
To lose my head could hardly see
We'll break down, break down

She is watching she is near
Tried to tell but do I hear
Going straight down, straight down

Locked up in my head all the reasons to run
From a love that had only begun
Tried to make her see but she won't understand
Though it's not the way I planned
Still my love comes her way
But it's not like your love

Repeat chorus 1 + 2

Another superb track! Watched the video and said "I didn't know Rob could play like that"-you totally had me going. But the sound was all you and all excellent. Please tell me you guys are retired. Otherwise, I can't imagine producing quality material at the rate you do. Great stuff (again)!! Take care. Greg

Rob & AM, This is another fine production. I enjoyed the video-I especially liked the finger syncing on the guitar solo. It looked very realistic. Really nice write and as usual very well sung. You guys are cranking out some very high quality material. I enjoyed it a lot! Tom

Superb production and video. Yep, the
syncing was very impressive and must
have taken a LOT of work.

Great audio and video production
that is the equal your high standards.
And then there's the fine write and vocal.

WTG on another one!!

hi rob this another great production very well done thanks for sharing eric

Hi Rob and Anne-Marie,

a great piece again. Liked the vocals and that choir.
You are a good guitar player. Brent will like it.
I like that you took original footage for the video.
Good syncing!
Let me quote Greg: "Please tell me you guys are retired. Otherwise, I can't imagine producing quality material at the rate you do."

Guenter

Another nice production of music and video. I'll add I prefer the updated musical version to the original. It is more dynamic. The extra depth of the backing vocals worked for me.

All around good effort.

Charlie

Hi Rob & Anne-Marie ...

We left you a comment on your Youtube video.

We'll say, more or less, the same thing here ... great song & great production. Not only do you write, record and produce great songs, your videos are super, too!

And yes, you did a great job on syncing the guitar. we watched the video before reading your narrative intro here. I (Alan) actually thought you were playing the piece! I'm aware of the medical problem you have that affects your guitar playing. I thought to myself, if plays this good with that problem, he must have been one of the best ever, before the medical situation!

I think this is our favorite from the two of you. Great in every respect. Nice to see you on the video. It was very catchy the way Anne-Marie superimposed her silhouette on the wall while you were singing. We thought that was very subtly dramatic ... exemplifying the lady in the relationship wasn't convinced enough to reveal everything about her and fully commit ... very nice, indeed!

Best to you ...

Alan & Di

Yes indeed...excellent work all the way around.

My favorite one of all the songs I've heard from you both..... so far.

Nice job learning the solo to fake it so well. I know that takes some time.

Rob and Anne Marie,

Best video yet! Anne Marie always does wonderful videos but live performance (synced or not) is SO much more powerful. And the shadow was brilliant. Loved this video - it really drew me into the song.

Great sound as always. Arrangement spot on to me.

Totally enjoyed.

Josie

Thanks Greg!

Simulating the guitarsolo was great fun for me!
And I have a job, but Anne-Marie is in the position that she doesn't have to work, so... she has lots of time for the videos.

Regards,
Rob and Anne-Marie

Thanks Tom, much appreciated!

Rob and Ann-Marie,

Awesome.

I had to listen several times. Watching the video (super!) makes you miss a lot of the artistry of the song. So listen again... Listening to the amazing production - the instruments, how they fit together, the flow of the mix - made me forget to pay attention to the lyric... Listen again... and then I got "lost" in the vocal - Rob, your singing in this is magnificent!

Hip hop drums, Texas bass, pop guitars, disco synth, crossover solo. What an amazing combination!!!

I enjoyed ALL my listens. This is Top-Notch!

floyd

Lots to like here!

First of all, I just want to comment that your singing is quite good.. and it seems to flow naturally, without having to stretch for the notes. Seeing the video drives that home more than just listening to a track.

One of the tough project decisions is coming up with a topic worth the time to develop as a song. You have a pretty good track record (pun intended) of picking good relationship topics that hold interest for both male and female listeners. This song is a good example of that.

I agree that your finger-synching of Brent solos was pretty close, and must have taken you some time to get familiar enough with the passages to mimic that closely. But being a guitar player, I could tell you weren't actually playing what I was hearing. Good fake though! For the sake of the video, it was definitely a good production choice!

I also thought it was interesting the way each verse was introduced by a brief instruments-only passage. Usually song writers want to get straight to the lyrics. The pauses worked well for me. And I also notice the only time you didn't use the pause was at the end when you sang both choruses back to back... because the use of guitar solos made up for the pause. Interesting.

Anne-Marie... I liked a lot about your video too. The singing shadow on the wall was very interesting and clever. Reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock's method of framing shots. He was famous for substituting direct reality with reflections, shadows, implied shapes etc. I'm guessing you already know that, because I see it all the time in your videos.

The country lane at the beginning and end of the video with (I guess it's you?) the female character walking toward and away from the camera.. its a beautiful scene. It is another interesting shot, because compositionally the lane leads the eye to the moving human form in the foreground, which is balanced by the brighter background at the other end of the lane (which is quite striking). Have you studied scene composition and film making? If not, you intuitively do many of the same things that professional film makers intentionally strive for.

Those are just a few of the favorable comments that come to mind on the spur of the moment... there are more, but I'm old and can't remember what I just watched by the time I get to the forum to write down my thoughts.

I'm curious to know... is your music mostly a commercial venture or more of an incredibly well-developed hobby?

Great song and nice video! Enjoyed the singing, and I was really fooled by your guitar playing ;-)

Well done!

Anne-Marie,

I think you'll find THIS ARTICLE interesting

I'm guessing you've already seen it.

Hi Patt,

First... thank you very much for the link, I hadn't seen this before.
I've just watched the first video (later on I will watch more of these, at the end there are a lot more video's about different interesting "video subjects").
I knew about the "dividing in thirds" and the Golden Ratio, but as a whole the video is a very good short lesson about the basic principles of composing images. I'll keep them in mind.

Creating video's is just a hobby of mine (as is singing for both of us) I've been doing this for 2 years now.
I met Rob at the end of 2012 (my husband died rather young in 2011) and it turned out we were both devoted to singing (Rob has been singing for over 20 years and I for over 10 years).
First I only created video's to accompany Rob's songs, later I started singing the backing vocals and when we found out about BIAB I started to occasionally create songs myself, which Rob engaged.
Next Friday we will post one of the songs I created with BiaB.

And yes, the woman in the video is me. Everything was shot at my place. The lane turns out to be a "pyramid" as is shown in the video above mentioned. The scenes were shot at sunset.
I hope I will learn a lot more about singing and videos!

Thanks again, as well as for your nice comments as for the link!

Anne-Marie

Wow want an awesome song. Excellent lyrics, singing, playing, and the video was a really nice touch..

Thanks J&B,

well actually, the guitar simulation was done in just one take. Since I so very much like to be able to play like Brent (but can't ), I could pretty much visualize how to make this look real.
Luckily, nobody noticed I was just playing some random notes
Thanks (again) for your loyal support, it's always appreciated!

Regards,
Rob

thank you Eric!