Original Song: A Lot Of Ways To Die In Alaska
I recently read a great story on the ESPN-owned sports/culture site Grantland about the Iditarod dog race by Brian Phillips. So many lines in the article grabbed me that I started playing around with some lyrics based on them for another original song this month.
This was another quick recording process using Garageband as usual. Playing it on a guitar didn’t sound quite right so I did my usual and turned to the piano to see how it felt. I played the keyboard bits on an Arturia Experience “The Factory” Hybrid synth but as a midi track. Sadly my pianist skills aren’t quite at the level of this song so…
I went in and tweaked a bunch of stuff afterwards. I debated adding more instrument parts to is but it just seemed right keeping it simple. The new TC Helicon VoiceLive Play was broken out again for the vocals – I quite like the doubling patch I used but could probably have spent a bit more time finding a better sound. Still, it’s in a passable form so here it is…
Update (18th May): Make sure you have a listen to the remixed version of this song that, thanks to the mastery of Aaron Cliff, sounds heaps better!!
A LOT OF WAYS TO DIE IN ALASKA
©2013 Chuck Smeeton
A thousand miles from the Beiring Sea
Many thousands more from home
Compass points that mark the way
No path from which to roam
With 16 dogs in the Farewell Burn
Where the tundra burnt to rock
Too far gone to think return
No luck a mortal lock
But the only way I’m turning back
Is through an act of god
There’s a lot of ways to die
Terra incognita
Random blanks upon the map
Think about it for too long
Another rookie trap
We dove into the blizzard
And the world just disappeared
Filled with melancholy
Exposing everything you’ve feared
Surrounded by the ice and snow
In the shadow of the pole
With a coffin hanging over you
And a grief you can’t control
You’re not a pilot til you’ve crashed
But the wrecks are never cleared
When the mercury is a frozen ball
Your life no more revered
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