New Honey Hunters - The Gentlemen

[Armistice]

Last song for the upcoming album...

So this is, conceptually, about this group of guys I meet for coffee once a week on Thursday mornings. Ostensibly a mental health support group for blokes, in reality it's just a small bunch of guys shooting the shit about this and that for a couple of hours. It's called "Grab Life By The Balls" and on that basis alone, I almost never started talking to them... I just call them the gentlemen when telling GF I'm going down to chat to them each week.

I thought they deserved a song. Although it's pretty abstracted. No names are mentioned. I've been fritzing around with the beginning for a couple of days and had a thought late last night to redo it, which then stopped me sleeping, so spent a bit of time on it this morning to see if it "worked" - it's certainly better than what was there before.

I'm going to play it for them on Thursday - unsure if I'll be hailed or scorned as a result...

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MIX 2


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Snare drum tinkering and a few other minor tidbits...

MIX 3


DELETED

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Moar snare drum frolics and a few other changes....

MIX 4


DELETED

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Lyrics

Something’s going wrong my son you need a better head
It never quits talking and you always keep it fed
It’s laying traps and snares you’d best be wary where you tread
Booby trap mind
You’ve read all the manuals, yes you’ve read all the books
You’ve tried the new procedure, not as simple as it looks
The beast has got its claws in you, it’s digging in its hooks
You may well find, time to rewind

In the early morning come on down and take a seat
Tell us of your vices, and how life has got you beat
Your existential crisis is of interest to the crew
The gentlemen will talk to you

Wisdom has been chasing you but you’ve always run too fast
Sometimes the new direction is no better than the last
You talk of past escapes my friend but you can’t escape your past
You need a plan
When you peer into the tunnel your brain gets set to overwhelm
It’s time to step up on the bridge it’s time to take the helm
Time to exert dominion as you survey the realm
The gentlemen know you can, be your best man

In the early morning come on down and take a break
Left to you own devices your enemy will quickly wake
Your existential crisis is of interest to the crew
The gentlemen will talk to you

CALMING INTERLUDE

So tell them of your triumphs and tell them of your falls
Tell them of the trenches and tell them of the walls
Tell them when it’s going well and tell them when it stalls
You have their ear, they’re always here

In the early morning come on down and take a seat
Tell them of your vices and how life has got you beat
Your existential crisis is of interest to the crew
The gentlemen will talk to you
The gentlemen are resident, the gentlemen are in
The gentlemen will triumph, the gentlemen will win
The gentlemen are wise enough, they’ll always see you through
The gentlemen will talk to you

[vomitHatSteve]

Something about this snare tone is sounding unnatural to me. (I mean, I get that most of us are using canned drums, but this one is particularly not matching somehow)

[Armistice]

Something about this snare tone is sounding unnatural to me. (I mean, I get that most of us are using canned drums, but this one is particularly not matching somehow)

When, as must surely be inevitable now, I become famous, I will be employing a full time snare drum engineer so that I don't have to worry about them anymore. I spend so much time on them. It's the same drum as on every other track I've used on this and every other HH recording, but as we canned drummers know, there are at least a zillion parameters you can play with ... so without knowing exactly what you're hearing I've done some adjustments on what I thought was not quite right with it - and there's always something. Touch less reverb, EQ, attack adjustments etc.

Deleted the original mix so there's no comparison.

Few other minor tweaks as well. Discovered, whilst noodling with the snare, that all the OH drums were centred... god knows how long that's been going on. Softened the kick. Adjusted volume of the second note of the guitar intro - which makes all the difference, I can tell you...

Cheers

[vomitHatSteve]

The increased flappiness helps it sit better. Now that I'm listening for it, it sticks out a lot either way. Hashtag: ruining music for myself by listening to closely!

I think it might just be too loud on a lot of the hits in the verses. I think the solution is turning down a lot (but not all) of snare velocities.

[WhiskeyJack]

Cool jam Armi. I think the lads will love it this. I don't know them but i no doubt they have never had a song written about them before so i am sure it will go over really well.

Mix wise everything is atypical for you and sitting nicely and cohesive except that snare. I gotta agree with VHS. I didn't get to Mix 1 at all but even in this one it's not really gelling.

I think the solution is turning down a lot (but not all) of snare velocities.

this. The velocity of the snare hit doesn't match the vibe of the galloping kind of feel to the jam. The programming is all good and fine and that all works no problems there but i think the velocities of the snare hits need to uniformly get dropped to something a bit less aggressive. It sounds like a wildly up tempo rock and roll smash versus a little gallop on the snare drum.

Look at me trying to talk like a drummer but i hope you know what i mean.

If this was only ever going to be a gift for your buddies i'd day fuck it, leave it and move on, but if it is going to be an album piece might do well with trying to tame it up a little bit.

Which guitars are these on here?

[Armistice]

Cool jam Armi. I think the lads will love it this. I don't know them but i no doubt they have never had a song written about them before so i am sure it will go over really well.

Mix wise everything is atypical for you and sitting nicely and cohesive except that snare. I gotta agree with VHS. I didn't get to Mix 1 at all but even in this one it's not really gelling.

I think the solution is turning down a lot (but not all) of snare velocities.

this. The velocity of the snare hit doesn't match the vibe of the galloping kind of feel to the jam. The programming is all good and fine and that all works no problems there but i think the velocities of the snare hits need to uniformly get dropped to something a bit less aggressive. It sounds like a wildly up tempo rock and roll smash versus a little gallop on the snare drum.

Look at me trying to talk like a drummer but i hope you know what i mean.

If this was only ever going to be a gift for your buddies i'd day fuck it, leave it and move on, but if it is going to be an album piece might do well with trying to tame it up a little bit.

Which guitars are these on here?

I've knocked about 20 off all the snare velocities and also, the main hits were all rim shots, so I've turned them back to normal hits, so that should de-whack it a little as well. Buggerised around with the EQ, volume etc. as well. Should be a lot less prominent...

Guitars are pretty much the Duesenberg, expect for the melody lead in the interlude with is the LP.

Thanks for the listen. Better now?

The increased flappiness helps it sit better. Now that I'm listening for it, it sticks out a lot either way. Hashtag: ruining music for myself by listening to closely!

I think it might just be too loud on a lot of the hits in the verses. I think the solution is turning down a lot (but not all) of snare velocities.

Cheers - as above I've tinkered with it a bit and it should be a lot tamer now, snare-wise...

[rayc]

Good sounds...busy musically for a song about busy head.
I hope all of the catch phrases area good laugh "be your best" always gets me. Probably because of Melania's E.S.L. "Be best".
Cool song, interesting to know how they react - did you hand out lyrics for a sing a long?

[Armistice]

Good sounds...busy musically for a song about busy head.
I hope all of the catch phrases area good laugh "be your best" always gets me. Probably because of Melania's E.S.L. "Be best".
Cool song, interesting to know how they react - did you hand out lyrics for a sing a long?

I did indeed. And head guy kept a lyric sheet so he could show his head guy.

They were quite chuffed at being immortalised in song. And yes, it's a bit corny in places, but the core of what this group is supposed to do - although in our case we just chat about whatever, and tell war stories - is provide support for men who are struggling with their mental health to the extent that they're thinking of offing themselves. "Be your best man" being a play on being best man at a wedding, obviously. I'd probably never say "be your best" and just leave it at that. The two main guys ride motorbikes, so the use of "Triumph" in there.... There are a couple of other little nods to various people as well. Anyway, they thought I'd captured the essence of the group quite well. Maybe they'll adopt it as their theme song, more widely...

There's already talk of incorporating "The Gentlemen" into the logo etc.

In a classic case of "people teach what they need to learn", one of the head guys is himself a bit of a basket case. Early 50s, hugely overweight, largely unemployed, close to homeless... one of those people who seems to just cling to the margins of society and never quite work out how the world works and integrate themselves into it in a way that involves a relative measure of success and/or comfort. Salt of the earth, do anything for you, guy though. Perhaps he's just going through a phase.

Other head guy seems to be atoning for something, in that he shouts everyone (but me, I buy my own and I don't need the financial assistance) pies and coffee, and is always bringing bottles of wine and dog food and other gifts for Johnny, a late 60s dude - who has a dog - and is clearly under some relatively severe financial constraints. And also spends a significant amount of time helping out some 70+ old "difficult" man who lives off grid somewhere nearby. It seems like atonement to me. But also a really nice guy who'd do anything for anyone, as indeed most of them are.

Another old guy brings his nylon string acoustic along and whangs away on it singing weird songs of his own devising. He really can't play. And he drives us all a bit nuts. He couldn't even shut up for the 4.20 of the song. But he did ask to hear it again. He's a strange one. There's some switch in the off position there that most of us don't even know we have but which is welded to "on"...

And the youngster of the main bunch is a completely normal guy who lives down the road, has a job, a wife, and a family - two very cute, very small moppet daughters who come along every now and then and run riot. Lots of fun.

Plus I now know the names of all the local's dogs... as they always stop in, begging for food. Don't know the names of their owners, but I know Ziggy and Noah and a few other hounds.

[rayc]

Ah, will you have to add extra verses as new members come along - and one for the dogs?
Beware the "normal".
Outdoor coffee shed thing I suppose. There's one almost everywhere these days and they are needed.
Becoming marginalized is pretty easy these days and with the weather up here it's a clear & present danger to many. Home damage squeezes the housing market, rents rise, cars become home.
Good onya for participating and for buying your own because you can. I've known enough people who can afford it who'd go along simply for the freebie.
The closest I get to that sort of thing is making sure I talk to the bloke next door once a week. He's retired, has a wife with special needs and a live in daughter. They don't get out much and he's always rattling around the yard in his hiviz doing something with a petrol powered tool. He usually talks about people I don't know and his drainage problem but I can afford the ten minutes. I did make a batch of vanilla slices for them last year. Perhaps I should go the cheese cake route next time.

[WhiskeyJack]

Thanks for the listen. Better now?

Yes this is way gooder now! More believable at least and the snare is now breathing rather than being throttled to death by some AI drummer. Love it. Good save Armi!

Just going to get read up on how the lads took to it here now.

[TheTestingYak]

good choon brav

[Armistice]

good choon brav

I thought yaks were endangered. You seem to be doing OK. Getting any yak love with the ladies?

[vomitHatSteve]

Yeah, those snares are sitting in an Armi groove better now.