MOON VILLAGE (2024)
This song was my submission for the capstone for the Developing Your Musicianship Specialization. I was able to document the process as I progressed with the coursework.
In DYM 2, we learned about different popular chord progressions in different keys. I learned that some of my favorite music were actually based off of classic chord progressions. I'd actually worked on transcribing and making my own versions of some of these tunes on my own in earlier stages in my musical journey.
The 4-3-2-1 progression is one of my favorite progressions. The song "You" by Tsutchie, off the soundtrack of the hip-hop anime "Samurai Champloo" is one of my favorite songs of all time. In 2013 an 2014, I was deeply in love with an and spent 9 months trying to transcribe the chords and re-mix Mario's "Let Me Love You" and Freddie Gibbs' "Shame".
The track is available to listen below.
I thought of how happy I was in 2017 when I discovered the 1625 chord progression on the guitar, and decided to record a song of my own with it. At that time, i tried using R. Kelly's "I'm a flirt" Acapella over the tune and it worked very well. I thought of the synth melodies to Ratatat's "Cherry" and re-made them for use in the tune as well. You can hear it here.
2024 - the two separate ideas combine
The magic happened in Q2 of this year where I finished DYM 2 and 3 and had the idea to combine the 1625 and the 4321 progressions in a Verse-Chorus format. When I discovered that it worked, I started messing with the time signatures. It is in 6/8 time.
Some of the reference tracks followed the same type of emotional timeline/song structure. ABABCBB
Lyrics
Draft One (Talk Box Style)
The reference tracks for this were Roger Troutman II's "Come with me" and Tsutchie's and Kazami's "You".
I tried to use the vocal melodies from these songs to write lyrics about the neighborhood in Seoul that I live in. It is a beautiful, diverse neighborhood on a hill right in the middle of the city, but it has a quiet and peaceful energy to it. These hilly neighborhoods that have been around since Ancient Korea were originally called "달동네", or "Moon Village" because of their crescent-like shape. So the first set of lyrics I wrote were about this quiet, peaceful village where I live happily, alone with my cats.
I followed the same talkbox style as in "Alien Aristocrat" for the first version of the lyrics. This was acceptable for the final project for the coursework, but I was not satisfied with it. This song is close to me as well, and I felt a change in my emotional attachment to this song after summer of this year. In the early fall of the year, I found that I wanted the lyrics to be more about my trust issues with women - after all, the progression and the reference tracks are both romantic, and the songs were companions during the highs and lows of past romances.
I recorded my friend singing the background vocals, which is simply a harmonized chorus of "You's a Hoe", with some adlibs.
As you can hear in the version above, I scrapped the Moon Village lyrics and decided to write about not trusting hoes. I apologize for the language, but allow me to explain what I mean.
What is a hoe? To me, a hoe has everything to do with validation and loyalty and not as much to do with being sexually promiscuous or adventurous. A hoe is fundamentally dishonest, a liar and a traitor, who betrays person after person in search of new sources of attention.
To me, a hoe is most often a physically attractive, multicultural, spiritual woman who portrays herself as a wholesome maiden of God, whilst having questionable ethics/moral fiber and not treating the people around her very well. She baits men into thinking that she is interested, only to lead them on and reject them because she never took them seriously in the first place. To them, I was usually not what they were looking for - genetically, racially, spiritually, or financially. As a non-Godly, person-of-color appearing out of left field and being actually relatable, over and over again I found myself a prey for these types of people.
This happened too many times in my teens and 20s, so i've developed some trust issues that took precedence over writing about my pleasant neighborhood. Especially in the wake of the two powerful and inspiring references, both overt love songs. It was fitting when I suddenly found myself singing the chorus to Outkast's "Roses" over the final chorus. It's one of my favorite songs as well.
I have many versions of lyrics that I want to use, but I'm not comfortable with finishing this song because the experience of singing away these emotions is very cathartic for me. This is another one that I must get right! Once i learn some songwriting techniques from Berklee, especially how I want to sound, and how many different ways I can say what i have been wanting to say
^ Session Photos ^
Studio Photos