What went into "New One"? (Pt. 2)

In this series, I discuss the inner guts of my music creation process.

Hi all, last time I wrote about what inspired the lyrics of that song (see there). Now let's follow up with the musical part of that track.

Its main theme came from the idea of a sound that would play with a rhythm of its own, not as struck on a keyboard. So the way the lead chords in the chorus are played is very different from what one would assume, actually. Well, I did play these chords. And I did play that rhythm. But not at the same time, and not in the same way. How the two elements are joined is a little secret I'll keep: you need to keep some secrets, sometimes ;) (No it's not anything like sequencing or programming...).

And even if this cannot really be noticed in the final mix (not meant to be, by the way), this “trick” comes with a nice side effect that adds some depth to the result, because notes still play at a way lower level when they don’t, which creates some contrast.

Another specific idea that went into this one, was about some rhythmic “dialogue” in the verse between the clean guitar arpeggio and a drum sound, resulting in some hidden notes, so to speak.

The bass sound(s) required a lot of effort, too, so as to tame them (bass is the hardest type of sound to keep under control, IMHO). But once that was done, this track turned out to be surprisingly easier to mix than other ones on the No Limit EP.

All in all, it was a lot of fun for me to do :) I hope you enjoy the result!

Listen to "New One (No Limit)"