Banana Divine is part love song, part documentary, part musique concrète and a whole lot of analog synthesizers. It's also a bit of a cautionary tale. Don't let me think you're going to fall in love with me if you don't really intend to... or I'll make a ten minute song about you with our secret messages from our forbidden trysts embedded into the music.
I knew damn well all I'd have to do was send this song to a certain person, and you'd possibly wind up single and available. But I have morals. The fact that I could have but didn't, is a pledge of allegiance to our noble agreements, and a testament to my honor. I am, after all, a woman of my word. Words and actions must align or one becomes a sorcerer of bad magick.
So I remain noble, honorable. In all things. You on the other hand... well.... that's a different story.
A lot to unpack there, right?
So it is with love... and its deceptive decoys.
When I'm into someone, I fall hard. The whole Aries/Leo Rising thing takes over and I become obsessed. And I'm used to winning, so when my advances didn't seem to be working with a fellow synth enthusiast (who absolutely, undeniably SHOULD have fallen in love with me), I couldn't take it and I threw everything I had into making him mine, or else.
In the end it only worked half way. And that's all well and good really, because it turns out that I found another synth enthusiast who is so devoted to me it boggles my mind why I ever tried so hard with you.
Of course, like most questionable choices I've made, I got a song out of it!! The ultimate payoff, really.
And I'd always wanted to give a blowjob to a banana, so I finally made my dream come true. But that part comes later. First, let's talk synths.
I created the project exclusively with Analogue Solutions monophonic synths and a few choice drum samples. When I sat down to create the song, the only thing I knew is that I wanted it to be all analog, and I had a general feeling of what mood I wanted to impart, but I didn't have any lyrical or melodic ideas ahead of time. I enjoy the kind of creative process where I let ideas come out in a very free-associated way, and see what ends up being built... and that's what I did with BANANA DIVINE.
I started by programming a beat in Logic using a custom drum kit built with samples from Linn Drums and a few other favorite vintage machines. I looped the beats long enough to give myself room to play around and started dialing in sounds with the synths.
I used the Leipzig-s for bass, and put delays on Leipzig glissandos to harken back to the days of the little record player stories.... where there would be a sparkly sound and u were supposed to turn the page of the accompanying book.
All other sounds were dialed in on the Nyborg.
I played the parts live using MIDI controllers, and multi-tracked every part. That way if there was something I wanted to change, I could edit the MIDI data but still have the live feeling of having played parts in the moment.
Coming from a classical piano background with a lot of singer-songwriter experience, my approach to songwriting used to be very straight forward.... the lyrics and melody would come to me, and then I would build a bed of piano around it. I had to unlearn a lot of habits to write this kind of music. With analog synths, especially something like these analogue solutions machines with so much character, you can get more sonic interest out of one note dialed in right than you could out of a whole verse at just a piano. I had to start thinking more simply.... fewer, simpler parts made with interesting sounds than would unfold and evolve, ultimately melding together into a good groove.
Comments