Autumn Rain

My inspiration for this song again came from listening to an instrumental track on a chillhop playlist. The song Autumn Breeze by J'san (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4hE6R18vJ8) really stood out to me when listening through the tracks due to its amazing percussion and beautiful guitar melodies.

I dragged the song into a logic file and used my sample packs to try and replicate a similar sort of drum sound with a few differences. One new thing that I added in this track that wasn't in Crossroad was a reverse cymbal crash which really builds up an atmosphere before a drop. I watched a quick tutorial to teach me how to do this and sound good (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LVjn-vggAk). As i didn't have a chord progression prior to making this track, i decided to start off by making the drums. Doing this gave me a beat which i could loop and jam over. I used the same technique as before to build my drum track but used a different snare and added an open high hat as well as a closed. I decided to keep the kick drum sample the same to make the EP sound unified. What makes the drum beat especially special is the way I have edited the high hats.



The combination of different velocities, panning and a stereo delay has created a beat that when listened to transports you to the place it makes you think of... It almost hypnotises the listener due to the atmosphere it creates.

Once I had the drum track in place, I wrote a chord structure which is used throughout. For the chillhop genre that I want to get my music into, this is very much what artists do; they have a similar basic sound throughout and introduce different melodies at different points. When recording the guitar, like in Crossroad, I layered the same take but panned them to each side with different effects. This lead to a very warm sounding guitar that still sounded clean. I really liked what a lot of chillhop artists do which has a sample of an environment playing; for instance, people talking or general background noise. When doing my photo shoot, I took a photo of a leaf that had water droplets on which gave me the idea to use a sample of raining in my track. It is introduced at the start and automated in and out accordingly when space is available in the track. I feel like this connects with the listener as it makes the music feel like its part of your day to day life as people will associate the sounds.

I then added some guitar melodies over the top which gave the song structure and dynamics. My initial intention was to keep this track as an instrumental as I want some of my music to be put in chillhop playlists as that would give me good exposure. However, I thought I would try writing some vocals to see whether it would work better as a track with words. I decided to go off the idea of "Autumn Rain" for inspiration towards my lyrics. I wanted my vocal track to feel like it was an instrument that fits in the mix instead of on top of the mix. Hence I added a lot of reverb and lowered the volume. This meant the vocals weren't overwhelming, but still added something.

After listening to both versions of the song, I have decided that I will release both versions of the track but at different times. For the EP I will release the version with lyrics as it fits in better with the other songs and will generally be more appropriate for a wider audience. However, I definitely plan on releasing the track as an instrumental as a single after my EP because if it does make it onto a playlist, it will expand the number of listeners I have and give me good exposure.