Electric Lecture - The Story of a Song Gregory Ansin

In this episode Bronson and Greg take a break and start a new song.

In episode #17, we continue working on our new song; The theme song for our podcast and our band, Electric Lecture. We first experiment singing through some guitar pedals before abandoning the idea and moving onto recording what becomes our chorus vocal. After a minute finding the right notes and harmonies, the chorus line starts taking on its shape. Next we start thinking about lyrics for our second verse. Beginning with the idea to flip perspective from teacher to student. “Constant learner, seeker of knowledge” Greg suggests. “Guys like Tim Pierce, until he can’t play, he’ll be psyched by some pedal or some new thing”
This is what we’re striving to capture in the song, the constant pursuit of music and that spark of inspiration we feel when we learn and when we get it right. Once we zone in on our topic and start feeling connected to it, the lyrics for this verse seem to come very quickly.
“I’m on a tone quest, always searching. The perfect lyric, and a tambourine.”
As the song starts sounding more full, we try to be even more intentional and cautious when adding any more tracks. Bronson hears a vocal response and we decide it adds to the song instead of cluttering it. We double it.
Finally, we take a listen through the demo of our song before the next part of the process, bringing the tracks to the remarkable, Anthony Resta and Karyadi Sutedja, to be further produced and mixed.
Thank you for listening to episode #17 of our podcast, Electric Lecture: Story of a Song. Please reach out to us if you have any comments, suggestions, and/or questions. We would love to hear from you!
Below are links to products mentioned in the episode:
Boss VO-1
Box of Metal by ZVEX Effect

In this episode we get started on a new song. The Electric Lecture Theme Song! We set out to make this track different from others we’ve done. Starting with a very fast and rough acoustic guitar track (something to play to), Greg takes that home and adds some electric guitar (a distinct sounding Silvertone). Already the song is taking on a quality that we love.
After adding drums we start talking about vocals and whether or not to even add any. This being the theme song for our podcast and our band in general, we held onto the possibility of it being an instrumental. We discuss adding some background vocals or maybe singing a melody with no lyrics. We quickly come up with an idea for the background vocals and once we start recording them, some other melodies develop and we find ourselves writing lyrics.
“Maybe we could convince people that... guitar is cool again” Bronson jokes. We talk a lot during this part of the process about our topic. We think of metaphors and share stories that are somewhat related. This helps us develop some groundwork for what our song will be about.
Greg mentions hanging out with Jeff Gray (previous collaborator and part of the Electric Lecture team) and asked him what he thinks we should name the song. Jeff suggested using the word “architecture” when talking about the song. Like “architecture of a song”, and almost immediately the lyrics for our chorus come, “Architecture of an Electric Lecture.” We come up with our melody and how to fit the lyrics in and move right onto our verse. “I’ll be your teacher, a sonic architect, put it together moving brick by brick.”
In talking a little more about lyrics and how sometimes changing “me” to “us”, or “you” to “they” can make a line feel more appropriate for the song. “Us” and can be more unified and empowering while “me” or “you” can be more personal and impactful in that way. Before finishing this episode, we record the vocals for the second verse we just finished writing and move through them pretty quickly.
This ends episode #16 of The Electric Lecture Podcast. Thank you for listening and remember to reach out to us if you have any comments, suggestions, and/or questions. We would love to hear from you!

In this episode Bronson and Greg listen to stems of the final mix.

In this episode Anthony and Karyadi finished the mix.

In this episode Anthony and Karyadi continue to mix