Heroes (D.Bowie) - Alternative Rock Arrangement

[robertolabruna]

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I like to change the arrangement of old songs. My main passion is songwriting but I also play some drums. When I started to play with some coworkers few years ago we decided to make  cover songs but only if deeply re-arranged. And we still agree on this :-)

 

This year we decided that it was time to have a proper production. But we also wanted a nice "music video" for each of these "cover" songs. Since  we are not rich  we decided to spend money in the audio production (we work with 2 sound engineers here in Milan). For what the video is concerned we are doing everything by ourselves: scripting, shooting and videoediting. We are studying the art of "making music videos" but we are definitely amateurs.

This is the our first "cover" song and video. I'd like to have an opinion mainly on the arrangement and the production. But I would also like to understand if the video is good enough for your personal taste. :-)

 

Thanks in advance

 

Roberto

 

 

[robertolabruna]

Hi Rob. Thank you so much for your long and detailed review! I was not expecting all these details. :-)

 

Thank you  for the time you have dedicated. We really need external eyes and ears.

 

Yes, we have realized that changing so much the original arrangement is not appreciated by part of the audience. And I can perfectly understand that. When I was young and I fell in love with a song I always wanted to listen to it in the first version :-). I remember years ago when Ian Anderson came to Italy in tour and made so many changings to Jethro Tull's songs during the performance. I was angry at him! :-) I know what to be a fan means.

 

But some time ago I listened to a  version of Imagine (Lennon) arranged by "A Perfect Circle". That version was so amazing and touching. I could feel the respect for Lennon's vision in any beat of their version. But it was different. The "hope" of Lennon was turned into a "lost hope".

 

I don't want to say that my arrangement have the same result. I'm not that good unfortunately :-). But giving your vision of a song you deeply love is paying respect to the author. Because you spent time in trying to make their idea live. Otherwise any song become a museum of ideas. Anyway....I still love the original! :-)

 

This project is all about songs I loved in my life. We should be able to make all videos during the 2018.

 

Yes this video is an experiment. I bought and handycam and an action cam in august. Then we decided we needed some green screen background in order to make the video "interesting". Then we decided that my videoediting software was too old and the bass player bought a new one. Then we found out that there was something called "creative commons zero" and a lot of stuff that could be downloaded and used for free. and so on. We used what we call "agile iterative approach" to get something meaningful. Well...maybe not that structured :-). We have ideas and will but no experience at all. We are studying. And having feedback like yours is crucial. We know it is "nice" to be an amateur video. But we need to focus on what is not nice.

Yes italian is our first language. The singer is studying the correct phonetics but it will take time to have the perfect pronunciation. 

 

We don't use Autotune. But in some cases we ask for corrections with Melodyne. 

 

I'm not a tech guy. I can use a midi workstation and a midi sequencer (Cubase). I can translate my music ideas in a midi sequence. That is the way we start. Then before involving external sound engineers we record the tracks and make a premix. It is the bass player in charge of the tech part (and we use Cubase here too). We have two cheap studio monitors (Mackie Cr4Bt) and cheap sound card (Steinberf UR22). Then we involve the 2 sound engineers. They are very young (25 both) and at the beginning of their career. But they do know their job :-). They use Reaper and tons of plugins. We do everything digital (only a mic for the singer is needed) to lower the cost. And my doubt was "does it sound too digital?"

 

Thanks again for the nice review and the compliments!

 

Roberto    

[Quintin]

Great production, sounds like your not in a home studio

Edited January 19, 2018 by Quintin

[robertolabruna]

17 hours ago, Quintin said:

Great production, sounds like your not in a home studio

Thanks Quintin. It is not our home studio but it was a home studio. We did this one last june. At that time we were sharing our rehearsal room with 2 young sound engineers (amateurs). These 2 guys have been a surprise to us too. After few months thay started to work in a professional studio. We are still working with them for our first album. Now they have better equipment but 5 of the songs of our album were recorded on their home studio.  They are simply great :).  

[nicetalkintoya]

@robertolabruna I was very impressed with this, Roberto!  First of all, "Heroes" is an awesome song, so it was a great idea to do a cover of it.  I really like that you put your own stamp on it.  With a few exceptions, I'm not a huge fan of covers that sound very similar to the original (might as well just listen to the original).  The music sounds great!  Interestingly, it reminds me a bit of Queensryche.  Great chunky guitar tone.  The vocals are solid.  It's really hard to sing in a foreign language, so I'd say the lead singer should be commended for putting this song across as well as he did.  Overall, however, his energy was a bit low for a front man.  Maybe you guys were going for that kind of effect, but generally speaking music like this demands a bit more animation from the singer (not that he has to swing from the rafters or anything).  The video production was quite professional, in my opinion.  I really liked how you captured settings for the "everyman" in a way that beckons them to break the monotony and be "heroes just for one day."  Great job all around!  I look forward to more projects from you guys!         

[robertolabruna]

8 hours ago, nicetalkintoya said:

@robertolabruna I was very impressed with this, Roberto!  First of all, "Heroes" is an awesome song, so it was a great idea to do a cover of it.  I really like that you put your own stamp on it.  With a few exceptions, I'm not a huge fan of covers that sound very similar to the original (might as well just listen to the original).  The music sounds great!  Interestingly, it reminds me a bit of Queensryche.  Great chunky guitar tone.  The vocals are solid.  It's really hard to sing in a foreign language, so I'd say the lead singer should be commended for putting this song across as well as he did.  Overall, however, his energy was a bit low for a front man.  Maybe you guys were going for that kind of effect, but generally speaking music like this demands a bit more animation from the singer (not that he has to swing from the rafters or anything).  The video production was quite professional, in my opinion.  I really liked how you captured settings for the "everyman" in a way that beckons them to break the monotony and be "heroes just for one day."  Great job all around!  I look forward to more projects from you guys!         

 

Thanks a lot James. Heroes has been one of the most important songs of my life. I was a teenager when Bowie and Eno made it. And that song and that arrangement never get old. I wrote this version 3 years ago and I would have liked Bowie to listen to it. But we were late.

 

We are amateurs. Very busy in our daily jobs. And the other two guys have families. We cannot spend too much time on this project unfortunately. What we achieved so far is almost a miracle :-). The video is made by ourselves (I also posted in the music video board explaining the process) and we had never made a video before. 

 

But you got the message in it! :-) Yes, our (simple) interpretation of the "wall" and  of "being a hero" is exactly that one. The wall separating your social role and your creative mind and how you can be a hero by trying to make art in your everyday life.

 

Thanks again. Have a nice day.

 

Roberto

Edited January 24, 2018 by robertolabruna

[Sreyashi Mukherjee]

Hello Roberto,

 

I'm visiting the "Covers" section after what feels like eons. And I'm so happy that I started by checking out your post first (yeah, I'd noticed you from your earlier constructive posts in the critique sections... and was curious about the kind of music that you' make)!

 

This is a great song, cover or not! I hope I don't sound too cheeky but, melody-wise, I liked this version much more than the original (preferences  ). The singing and arrangement is also great. Honestly, I wouldn't worry much about someone not using the correct phonetics all the time in a language that is not their mother tongue. There's no harm in having another stamp of originality apart from those in musical tone and delivery etc. If the words can be made out,  it sounds good enough. Besides, isn't it considered exotic these days if one speaks with an accent?  .

 

I'm not a video person, so wouldn't be the right person to comment. But this looks really good for a DIY effort. Of course, there could be no end to improvement and, as it was pointed out above, some more "theatrics" from the frontman  and the rest of the band could probably pull in a few more million views  . 

 

Great stuff.. enjoyed a lot!

 

 

[robertolabruna]

18 hours ago, Sreyashi Mukherjee said:

This is a great song, cover or not! I hope I don't sound too cheeky but, melody-wise, I liked this version much more than the original (preferences  ). The singing and arrangement is also great. Honestly, I wouldn't worry much about someone not using the correct phonetics all the time in a language that is not their mother tongue. There's no harm in having another stamp of originality apart from those in musical tone and delivery etc. If the words can be made out,  it sounds good enough. Besides, isn't it considered exotic these days if one speaks with an accent?  .

 

I'm not a video person, so wouldn't be the right person to comment. But this looks really good for a DIY effort. Of course, there could be no end to improvement and, as it was pointed out above, some more "theatrics" from the frontman  and the rest of the band could probably pull in a few more million views  . 

 

Great stuff.. enjoyed a lot!

 

 

 

Hello Sreyashi (or do you prefer Sumi?), I've just heard your beautiful voice in Autumn Leaves,

 

thanks a lot for the compliments! I could not expect someone to prefer our version :). For the phonetics issue I think that in Italy we have a kind of inferiority complex :). English and american songs are very popular in our country since the end of world war II, and so is the teaching of the english language. But due to the traditional approach of our school system, they teach english language with a lot of focus on  grammar, vocaboulary and literature. Not on the phonetics. And there are so many sounds in the english language that are not present in the italian language. As a result we are famous in europe for our bad pronunciation.

 

The video is our first one. We shot it in our (small) rehearsal room and we were so focused on being "on the beat" for the synchronization. Especially the singer. If the lip sync is bad the whole video makes no sense. We will try to do better next time....for few more "hundreds" views :).  We do not have those many followers :).

 

Thank again and have a very nice day!

 

Roberto
 

Edited February 11, 2018 by robertolabruna