The Obscurities (of which I’m the drummer) released the EP on Wednesday 23rd may. We held the official EP launch on that day as that was when our college had set the final performance deadline. We had just finished the mixing process the day before which was the same day we uploaded the EP to distrokid. We chose to use Distrokid as it is cheap ($19.99 per year), and you get unlimited uploads every year.
Here is a screenshot of The Obscurities EP on Spotify, it is also on many other streaming services such as:
Below is an evaluation of each song as it sounds on the EP
Colossal, the title track and opening track for our EP. This is the first song that people will hear when they click on our bands page so we wanted a song that fully reflects our sound. I, as well as the whole band, was very happy with how this song turned out. However, on my part, there are a couple of mistakes. For example, in the sped up section at around 3:30, I have a minor slip up in the fill that I do which causes me to go a fraction out of time. It is hardly noticeable, but still noticeable to me. A way to avoid this in the future would be to practice with the entire band more to a metronome to get used to playing at a steady speed.
Long time is the second song on our EP. It is one of our more technical songs and the most high energy song on the EP. It has a swing groove, an odd time signature introduction and bridge, and is up tempo. This is my favourite song on the EP. I very much like the drum part I wrote for this song as I feel it fits with the rest of the instruments, especially the intro and bridge section which I have notated below.
I like this part so much because it is good for building suspension, and it is in different time signatures which will catch the listener off guard and make them notice what we were intending to do whilst writing the EP.
Overall, I am happy with the sound of this song, I think it is mixed very well, and the tones of all the instruments are on point.
However, if we were to re record this song, I would fix the timing mistake that happens at around 4:25 where the band comes in out of time after the guitar riff. I would do this by simply re recording that section of the song from there, but making sure we come in on time. This is a really disappointing part of the song as I am so happy with all other aspects apart from this one that sticks out like a sore thumb every time I hear it. Due to the strict time schedule we were on meant that we couldn’t time stretch the music to make it fit either. That being said, I am still happy with how this song turned out.
Potential, the third song on our EP. When we first cam up with the chorus riff, we all agreed that it had a lot of potential to be a catchy song (hence the name). My drum part that I am proud of is in the chorus, where I accent the guitar riff by hitting the crash when the guitar hits the notes. I feel this emphasises the riff a lot more than a generic beat would.
Again, I am very happy with how this song turned out, the instrument sounds work well with each other and compliment what they are doing. I especially like the multi tracking of the vocals in the chorus. as it gives more depth and punch to the chorus.
However, if we were to record this song again, one thing I would definitely change is the vocal melody at around 1:02 as it is out of tune, we could’ve had the choice to autotune the vocals but I would rather have the raw human voice even if it is slightly out of tune. This is because I didn’t want to have an EP that sounded too overproduced as I feel that most music nowadays is.
The final song on the EP, What’s done. When writing this song, we decided that this was going to be the long, technical, and meaningful song on the EP.
I am happy with the way that this song was recorded and mixed. However, there are some things that I am not happy with and would like to change about the song. One aspect being that I think that the drums are too quiet. If we were to mix this song again, I would make sure that the drums are a lot louder to give more punch to the heavy sections of the song. Also, in the second half of each chorus, there is a phaser effect that wasn’t intentional. Sonny, the singer, wanted a flanger effect but accidentally said he wanted a phaser during the mixing process. this went unnoticed until we uploaded the songs to Distrokid. If we were to mix this song again, I would make sure that we had the correct effect on the guitar.
Overall, I think that the EP was a success, as a band we accomplished what we set out to achieve. There were however, some mistakes and regrettable choices made, but that is what learning is all about. I have learned from my mistakes, and it is the mistakes that have allowed me to learn the most from this project. I am now able to take what I have learned in this project and use it to pursue a career in this aspect of the music industry.