Factory Yoyo presents: "Look Away", featuring Cian McGovern

I’m blown away with the quality of the recording, the use of dynamics, the slowing down, speeding up . . .all so well executed. A+ on the production. Vocal is perfect (maybe a bit overpowering in some places for me but still, so well done). I can’t get a feel for the lyrics though – I understand it’s about a citified couple that seem to have lost that loving feeling when their dreams didn’t quite pan out – but I know I am missing something here. Very “broadway/theatrical” sounding  - so to my ears it’s more interesting than it is melodic (in a pretty way). The transitions work well. As always, your efforts produce something at the highest level (my fav is still the crazy Slum Dog type piece you did, sorry can’t remember the name – that totally blew me way). Great stuff.

Wow man, seriously ambitious project here. Extremely creative and sounds very convincing and well executed to me. I use to hang with an art crowd and they would blast Andrew Loyd Weber tunes constantly. This brought me back to those days. Mix sounds wonderful, I'd say you definitely captured the essence of the genre. Who are Allison and Steve?..

Different

Wonderful production guys, like a Broadway musical with lyrics by Billy Joel and vocals by James LaBrie from Dream Theater

James, the orchestration is superb, top notch work.

This is a hell of a tune.  The orchestration is brilliant.  Vox are excellent.  Production quality is amazing.  Great job James and Cian!

Wow James. This is just FANTABULOUS...  
It's so far beyond anything I would do or even try I don't really have any crits as it's just way way out there for me. But, the time, energy, and skills involved in getting this to sound ths way is mind boggling.  Great work Yoyo.

Excellent, fantastic, superb, incredibly rediculous, spacious, inspiring, excellent execution, mood, performance, writing, arranging and production....PERIOD. That covers everything...ok, almost...ummm...WOW this was awesome! You guys make a great team! :)

-Danny

This is some SeriousNoize!!!!   

I can't believe it.....this is top shelf production work!

+1 on the intro...fantastic...you pushed a thousand dollars out of that $39.00 purchase...some kind of musical....

Superb music making.   I love it.  Barrels of fun and very theatrical.  Cian is fabulous.  You guys rock.

Wow! Thanks for the great comments everybody. Funny thing is, except for a few transitions, this is pretty much what I wrote almost twenty years ago. Good stuff never gets old, it just gets updated... :) I always appreciate that y'all like my indulgences into these off-beat paths.

I just want to thank Cian again for his excellent reading of this tough piece. His first take he sent me resulted in a detailed 17-bullet critique going through phrasing and note choice. He took it as well as one can imagine, and then did what I had envisioned in my head all those years ago. Kudos to him for really selling the song.

As for the story: Steve is an artist, Alison makes the money. She finds out she is pregnant, is torn over what that might mean to their lifestyle, and then quite quickly decides to have an abortion. Steve knows nothing about what happened. But then things start going wrong for them: he suddenly can't write, their flowers won't grow, they lose interest in cooking (no more "epicurean delights"), even the take-out goes haywire. The karmic reprecussions are everywhere, so much so that she can't look him in the eye anymore. 

When I wrote this, it was really not to take any side on the debate. But I could see in the lives of some people I knew that the aftermath of it is real, and not often spoke of. Where I stand today, I still am unsure.

Some specific replies:

Manny:
There are a ton of subtle tempo changes in this recording, as I was trying to mimic the whims of a conductor. Glad you noticed, as it was a pain to get right without being obvious.

Ed:
Ha! I totally ripped off ALW's Phamton of the Opera with that chromatic run after the 1,2,3 line! I had a girlfriend who got me into Broadway a year earlier, and that was a big influence on this piece.

Phil:
Anyone could attempt something like this...making it work is another story!

Scotty:

I have an idea: why don't you sit back in a Rocking Chair while Bob-bing your head to this Serious Noize!  ;)

Mark:
I had a feeling I would hear from you, seeing as this is your wheelhouse. Yeah, I mixed some Battery 3 orch perc with the perc stuff in Miroslav and TBH I kinda lost what was what...there were over 30 tracks of orchestra and the midi after a while looked like that stuff from the Matric movies. I was surprised at the levels of compression I had to use during the mix, on almost every track and bus. I feel I lost some of the "space" of the feel to get the punch the tune required.

Kiki:
Sure you can do it. I used hardly any envelopes on any of the string, winds or brass stuff. The trick, I have found, is to familiarize oneself with the the different actions (legato, strach, pizz, etc), and know when to use them to convey the emotion you want to get across.

Hi, James,

This is both very impressive and highly creative!  It almost feels operatic, and definitely has a a professional Broadway feel to it!

The Miraslav Philharmonic sounds terrific and amazingly authentic, (especially for 39 bucks!!!), and Cian's dynamite vocals truly fit the song like a glove.  The mix has a high quality professional sheen that really stands out for this genre.

Great songwritng and clever lyrics, as well as dynamite performances by both of you.  Excellent job, guys!
Bob

fantastic gentlemen!!!  truly fantastic!

Wow, that is soooo not what I was expecting.  What a fantastic piece!  Unbelievable in it's quality, the complexity of the lyrics, the awesome vocals and that amazing orchestration.  Man, beautiful stuff, just great.  I am glad that I am not familiar with your references on this one (well I know who Elvis Costello is but can't recall hearing a single tune of his) because it might have spoiled my perception of this very cool tune.  Great stuff!

Hi James,

This is totally amazing!

The quality of writing, the production, the use of dynamics and the overall attention to detail are just incredible.

Great call on getting Cian to sing it...he absolutely owns the vocal.

Great work from both of you.