The Story of daVe
If there is one thing that separates daVe from the rest of my albums, it’s the simple fact that most of the songs are an absolute bitch to play. I started actually getting better at bass in the nearly one year it took to make this album, thanks in part to my bass teacher Mason, and also from me just playing whatever stuff sounded cool, and actually having the skills now to make semi-complex riffs. Who knows, maybe the next DAVE album will be a math rock album. Another thing which I got better at was mixing, getting better tones, and coming up with different structures for songs. I’m not really sure what else to write because I’m not creative. I will mention that this album, and all other albums I make in the future, are in tribute to my deceased cat, Alice. Rest in peace, you lovely animal.
LAST HURRAH
Recently, after having it sit in my basement collecting dust, we decided to donate my old bell kit and practice pad from elementary school to some kid who might actually use it. As a tribute to the many years I spent not playing it, I decided to crank out a song utilizing it. The beat you hear in the beginning is the practice pad, and you can probably guess what the bell kit was playing. Everything else was played on normal instruments, with a great keyboard solo courtesy of Sam. This was either the second or first song done for the album, way before I thought it would go on it.
LOVELAND FROG
Named after Ohio’s only cryptid (probably not true), the song itself has nothing to do with the Loveland Frog. There isn’t too much to say about it, other than it features a sax part played by Jillian, which was recorded in the middle of band class, and somehow lined up exactly with the improvised bit at the beginning.
I THOUGHT I WAS SAVED….NOW I’M IN HELL!
Fun song I finished in a day or two. The name came from a pamphlet I found sitting on top of some cans of dog food at a Walmart, and the name was funny enough to me that I knew I had to use it somewhere. This is one of the first songs I’ve had where I’ve only used my fingers to play and actually have it sound good. Not much else to say, other than there is one measure where it switches from 3/4 to 4/4, and that was by complete accident, but I kept it in cause it sounds cool (to me, at least).
CANTINA’S LAMENT
Let me start off with this: I have no goddamn clue where the name came from. I needed a different name for the song (original title was Peggy), and somehow came up with this. Anyway, the song is actually two songs I put together, the first part being a more metal inspired one, and the other starting as an acoustic demo I recorded around the same time D4VE was released. It’s probably, from an objective standpoint, the best song I’ve made so far.
CHRONICLE OF THE DAEVAS
Title is taken from SCP-140, as I was binging Brendaniel’s SCP series and thought it sounded cool. This was the last song completed for the album, and exemplifies my statement at the beginning about a lot of the songs on here being a bitch to play. On the middle part on drums, I gave up counting and just memorized how the bass line goes to make sure I was playing the song correctly, and even then I wasn’t ever completely sure if I was playing it right. Ends justify the means though, and it’s one of my better sounding and more complex songs. Bass part is fun, too.
LIN JAIL
Name is an anagram for someone, although I’m not saying who. From a subjective standpoint, probably the best song I’ve made. It's extremely fun to play, it’s one of my best mixing jobs, and sounds nice. I came up with it when I was thinking about the BCNR song Kendall Jenner. That’s about it.
TURKEY DAY
Recorded on Thanksgiving, it is the second Thanksgiving song ever made, as the song which holds the title of first is the theme to the Garfield Thanksgiving special. This one is one of the first where I used slapping and actually did it properly, you can watch the DAVE 3 Live Sesh to see how I did it before. This one started out at three different songs, and I had the beginning as just some random part and wanted to use it somewhere, and that was the only place that it fit in. Very fun but pretty difficult to play on bass, at least for me.
SONG FOR THE WOODCRAWLER
To this day, I still have no idea how I recorded the drum part and had it sound okay. One of the simpler songs on the album, although I think the album might have needed a simpler one, plus no other parts I had fit with this, and I didn’t want to re-record the drums. Name comes from Gemini Home Entertainment (good series).
DOG SOUP (FLAT EARTH MEDLEY)
One of the first songs done on the album, started out as four separate songs, and their names were as follows: Dog Soup, Flat Earth Society, and I Am Never Online. I thought I was real clever having Flat Earth Society be in 5/4, and then a few months later I made Chronicle of the Daevas. Cool song though, having Never Online be at the end I feel gives a nice closing to the album, and all the parts fit together a lot better than they did on All Hail the Time Cube. That’s all I got.
(BONUS) ROAD TRIP
Bonus track, bonus track. Cool funky electronic song I made in GarageBand on a long car ride. Recently Jillian informed me that the Minecraft YouTuber named Dream released a song called Road Trip, but I’m too lazy to change the name. I have lyrics for this one, but they are about a group of people playing Mario Kart and one person getting mad at the other people and firing a gun at them.
I would seek therapy, but after writing that out, I realize I’m a bit too far gone for it.
FUN(?) FACTS(?)
Chronicle of the Daeva is the third song I’ve made to be lifted from an SCP entry.
The release date, February 3rd, is my birthday.
The location listed on the back cover is the place where he did it to ‘em.
The cat on the back cover is my brother’s cat, his name is Whiskey. He is a little bastard.
The picture on the front is the first to feature Tovik (my other dog), as she appears on the socks hanging over the drawer.
The front cover is a picture I made using two different photos of Alice. If you look closely, you can see where I edited them together.