I finished tracking my new song Frozen Ocean a good while back, and have honing the mixes to the point where I have a pretty satisfactory rough mix. This was one of the few songs I’ve ever done where the main sound is built up out of layers of guitars, and I learned alot.
To rewind a bit, Frozen Ocean is the sixth song on my upcoming record Spellbound. It’s one of two songs that was not on the original record Martin and I made back in January of 1990, but one that he wrote around the same time and was part of the live set of his band Shade. I think it was Martin’s first really great song, great lyrics, great melody, great sound, imagery, tone, build and dynamics, everything.
This song took alot of practicing to get the guitar parts right, but along the way I definitely leveled up my guitar playing skills. It opens with the guitar playing an arpeggiated pattern shifting among open and fretted strings. Martin was such a good guitarist, even early on, that I didn’t realize how subtle and complicated the part was. Next up, lead guitar part was another major challenge. First I listened to his original recording and learned his riffs, then began to practice and memorize them. The song has three guitar solos, a light and airy one at the beginning and end, and a heavy one in the middle. There’s alot of nuance in the tone and phrasing I sought to capture, as well as some moments of intense shredding that really needed to woodshed. Lastly, I decided to double the rhythm guitar with the twelve-string, since it worked so nicely in the two other guitar-y songs. I subtly changes some of the voicings and patters to bring it more in line with Martin’s original, and to create more depth. It took a while to make all the guitars sit well together in the mix. They key was to put a bit of flange on the 12-string to make it match the original rhythm track.
Compared to the guitars, the other instruments all went down pretty quickly. There’s a piano part in the background, which I actually recorded first to serve as the spine of the track, and to retroactively insert myself into song to make it fit with the tone of the rest of the album. The drums, being midi, took some work because I was trying to replicate lots of open-sounding cymbal work and some jamming-style fills. My plan is retrack the drum part with real drums, as with all the songs on the record. The vocals went down surprising fast, since Martin’s vocal range and sense of phrasing was very similar to my own. I think I did three takes in less than twenty minutes and knew I’d nailed it.
So here you have it, enjoy!
https://zingman.com/music/mp3/spellbound25/FrozenOcean18a.mp3
…
Frozen Ocean
I’m going to fly away
Watch me on the run
Try to sail a frozen ocean
See the world but she won’t want me
See the stars they only haunt me
Sail this path until my life is done
You learn the waves you ride
They carry you to the other side
Wait for a springtime tide to bring you home
Here upon my frozen ocean
Watch the world drift by
Caught between the sea and leaden sky
See the life that’s moving under ground
Hear the death that rolls with thunder sound
See the place where all our spirits lie
You learn the waves you ride
They carry you to the other side
Wait for a springtime tide to bring you home
You’ll see the breaking of the day
Your spirit blowing you away
With nothing nothing left to say
The wind is calling you to stay yeah, stay yeah
You learn the waves you ride
They carry you to the other side
Wait for a springtime tide to bring you home
I see the sky is falling
I hear the wind is howling
I see the death that gathers ’round
Lost upon this frozen ocean
Watch the sun go down
Nevermore and never to be found
— Martin Szinger, 1990