Podcast: At My Window (cover version)

Thanks to Jeremy for allowing me to perform and record his original song!

This is my cover of his song: At My Window (cover version by Ivan Chew)

Composer: Jeremy Yew
Lyricist: Jeremy Yew
Vocals, Instruments: Ivan Chew

At the second Songcraft session, Jeremy (the guy who started the Songcraft Songwriting Circle) shared his original composition song. I was struck at its simplicity and catchy melody.

Here’s a recording of him performing the song at the session — Listen to it here.

You can hear me unabashedly telling him “I can sing Seconds (i.e. Harmony)” to the song. So he gamely played a stanza; I tried to sing (badly, I might add); you can hear mostly Betty’s much nicer harmonising (unfortunately I accidentally cut off the recording). Anyway, I was so taken by the song that I uncharacteristically gave an impromptu performance near the end of that second meetup. The participants were pretty polite by not getting up and leaving. Frankly, I did a terrible job that evening! I decided I had to try recording the song one of these days. I asked Jeremy for permission to do so, and he said he’d be honoured that someone decided to perform his composition. Heh.

Recently, one of the Songcrafter, Kah Loong, did a cover of Jeremy’s “Back Into The Arms”. Which reminded me of Jeremy’s earlier “At My Window”. So tonight, I spent four hours recording, arranging and engineering the song.

The chords are:
G/C/G/D (x3)
G/ Am/ C/ D/ G

For the last stanza, the second last line goes G/Am/C/D/Em. I just love how Jeremy added that “Em” chord at the last stanza!

You can check out the notes of what I did, at this Flickr image:

[Click on image to see notes]

In summary:
First, I listened to Jeremy’s recording (he gave me a copy of the lyrics and chords earlier). Once I caught his original melody and guitar strumming, I recorded a test track in GarageBand. I also experimented with the Beat Per Second and settled on 95. I chose a simple Tambourine and a “Rock Drum (093)” loop.

Next, I recorded a few attempts of the acoustic guitar track, chose the best one, and made copies (except for the last stanza, which needed a separate recording).

Then I had fun just singing the song! I started by singing at my normal range. Then I added a 7th. Somehow, it occurred to me to sing at a bass and a mid range. Turned out to be quite nice, if I say so myself.

After that, I recorded another guitar track for the incidental picking sounds, as well as the solo. In Jeremy’s original composition there wasn’t a break. I decided the song could use one, to lead to the final stanza.

Finally, it was adjusting the individual track volume levels to make sure they don’t “Red-line”. As always, this part too a bit of time, but it wasn’t too bad this time round.

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