“Static”: A Playlist
“Static” is the first collaborative effort between Adam Silverstein (my MEMOIRS and nearly all subsequent efforts collaborator) and me. I had written these lyrics with no clue as to what to do about a melody, so I sent them to Adam, who replied with a tape cassette of a demo a few weeks later (for you kids out there, a tape cassette was a medium for recording music back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s... we didn't have the ability to send mp3s, but that's a story for another time). While I didn't feel the arrangement suited my style of singing, I loved the melody he'd crafted and began working on my own version.
Having drawn lyrical inspiration from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, I now drew musical inspiration from the sparseness of Dar Williams titular “Mortal City,” I stripped down the arrangement Adam had sent me until I'd got to something haunting and plaintive. Woven into the arrangement are motifs that nod subtly to a few artists from whom I’ve also drawn inspiration (The Cure, Fleetwood Mac).
Originally, I had wanted strings on the song (and, indeed, I’ve created an amazing string arrangement) but couldn’t/can’t afford to bring a string section into the studio, so instead I opted to transform that arrangement into something more electronic and ambient behind the piano and vocal. I hope you enjoy what you hear, and you can hear not just this song but an entire playlist at This Spotify Playlist. (Contents below)
The Random Hubiak Band/Static
Aimee Mann/I’ve Had It
Crowded House/Better Be Home Soon
Foo Fighters/Learn to Fly
Fleetwood Mac/Gypsy
The Cure/Lullaby
Madonna/Frozen
Bianca Jazmine/The Key
The Blue Nile/Stay
Peter Gabriel/Red Rain
Arcade Fire/Wake Up
The New Pornographers/Whiteout Conditions
John Cale/Chinese Envoy
Peter John/The Majestic Sun Keep ’a Rising
Eurythmics/17 Again
Crowded House/Together Alone
Rusted Root/Back to the Earth
Passion Pit/Where We Belong
Erasure/Take Me Back
Depeche Mode/Waiting for the Night
New Order/Vanishing Point
Annie Lennox/Dark Road
Ásgeir/Dreaming
Suzanne Vega/Pilgrimmage
Madonna/Sky Fits Heaven
Lindsey Buckingham/D.W. Suite
Dar Williams/Mortal City
Painting: Philip C Curtis’s RETURN OF THE LONG BILLED NORT