Everybody Wants To Rule The World - alternative version

[robertolabruna]

Hi everyone. I used to play this song in the 80's. I was trying to work as a drummer and used to play in night clubs. I've never loved the original arrangement and melody. But I've always liked the lyrics а lot. Аnd I'm still using the original song when I practice on the drums set  (I also use another song by Tears For Fears -  Shout - but I love that one).

 

I can say that this is one of the songs of my life even if I've never loved it particularly. And it made sense to me to make a tribute to this song by writing an arrangement that I like. Hope you like it too. I would like to have your opinion on this arrangement,  I wanted to feel free to make an experiment and I'm curious to know what you think about it.

 

 

[StevieM]

I am a massive fan of the original (and Tears for Fears in general). Very interesting interpretation of the song. Unlike the original, your instrumental actually matches the heaviness and darkness of the lyrics. Kind of sounded like A Perfect Circle track to my ears. Personally I LOVE the huge-sounding blissful instrumental of the original - but that is strictly stylistic. In general, I love ironic music/lyric combos - when the mood of the instrumental contrasts with the lyrical content (especially the happy music w/ dark lyric dynamic). This is why I love artists like Lennon, Tears for Fears and Tame Impala.

 

The mixing & production-value on your track is excellent. Can you elaborate on how you did the mix and what instruments are at play? Curious how you did the guitars as it's a very dense, well-balanced sound. Are you a professional?

[robertolabruna]

13 hours ago, StevieM said:

I am a massive fan of the original (and Tears for Fears in general). Very interesting interpretation of the song. Unlike the original, your instrumental actually matches the heaviness and darkness of the lyrics. Kind of sounded like A Perfect Circle track to my ears. Personally I LOVE the huge-sounding blissful instrumental of the original - but that is strictly stylistic. In general, I love ironic music/lyric combos - when the mood of the instrumental contrasts with the lyrical content (especially the happy music w/ dark lyric dynamic). This is why I love artists like Lennon, Tears for Fears and Tame Impala.

 

The mixing & production-value on your track is excellent. Can you elaborate on how you did the mix and what instruments are at play? Curious how you did the guitars as it's a very dense, well-balanced sound. Are you a professional?

 

Hi Stevie. And thank you very much for your feedback. I haven't received any for a while and I was wondering  if all the last works were really so bad :).

 

And now I've found out that you can also write a critique. Beside being a singer, a guitarist, a songwriter, a sound engineer and who knows what else. You should post more on this forum. Both as an artist and as a critician. (if you can find the time )

 

I'm not a professional at all. I work in an insurance company and all this started as an hobby. And we are a team of 5 people (5 little StevieM ) . We have an affordable process to bring the song to a professional result (or semi-professional result) in a short time.

 

I mainly choose the song to cover, write the parts of arrangement  and produce a demo with my midi workstation. Then my band mates decide if they like the proposal and if they would like to change something in the arrangement. After that we record bass and drums in our rehearsal room. I play an electronic drums set so that I can take and edit the midi track. 

After that we go to the studio (we work with 2 young sound engineers, this is their first working experience but they are very talented) and we record vocals and guitars. Our temporary "guitarist" at the moment is one of the 2 sound engineers (our previous guitarist left the band last year). 

 

All the additional instruments (strings, synths, pads etc.) are taken from my midi file. In the studio we assign better sounds from better sound libraries. We also took from other libraries the sound of the drums (I have a Roland TD 25KV but we are not using those sounds in the record).

 

Sometimes the 2 sound engineers suggest us to add or remove some parts. On this song for example they've added some guitar chords and  lowered a lot the strings part.  

 

After that they start working at the mixing keeping my initial demo as a reference. They ask for our feedback and after 2 or 3 attempts we have the song. Therefore the quality of the production is because of them.

 

You are right saying that it sounds a little like A Perfect Circle (and a little like Tool). Years ago I fell in love with their version of Imagine. The little hope of Lennon was completely lost in their version. The same song changed so much through their vision. Most of my arrangements are inspired by that great cover. Including this one.  

 

Have a nice day

 

Roberto