Notes from Michael “What About Me?” written and arranged by Michael League transcribed by Chris McQueen recorded on We Like It Here, GroundUP Music / Ropeadope Records 2014
I’ve noticed that as time goes on, I tend to write slow tunes more often than uptempo ones. In an attempt to avoid having We Like It Here turn into Ballad Fest 2014, I dug into my IPhone’s voice memo library and found something I recorded on guitar a few months previous. It was the intro to “What About Me?” - a really guitaristic, Wayne Wayne Krantz-ish sound bite that could have lent itself to either a funky tune or something a little more rock. The result, I would say, is in the middle, as each section of the song digs into a different bag of influence. I was staying at the Shofukan Japanese Cultural Center of Rotterdam at the time (Lingus, Shofukan, and What About Me? were all composed or finished there), and I was listening to a lot of o f different music, from Tunisian to classical to everything in between. Strangely, the main point of influence for each section in this song seems to come from my childhood, or at least college years. As I said, the intro feels like Wayne Krantz’s Krantz’s trio (especially the broken drum/bass interplay) during the Carlock/Lefebvre era. The verse reminds me a bit of Prince or Maze rhythmically, rhythmically, but something else I can’t put my finger on harmonically. Letter C has been b een compared to Led Zeppelin, which wh ich I totally don’t hear, but can’t really deny considering that I spent five years of my teenage life basically only listening to them. Letter E probably comes from my over-listening to Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Rosenwinkel’s Heartcore, with its interconnected but angular melodic and harmonic motion (I wrote this whole tune on guitar, so the Krantz/Zeppelin/Rosenwinkel glimmers make sense). Letter G, or the chorus as I think of it, is probably the funniest reference… when I was explaining how it should be played in rehearsal with the guys, the track I played for them was Stone Temple Pilots’ “Sour Girl,” my favorite song of theirs. It has such a unique feel for a pop tune! Half-time drums with an eighth-note, muted bassline. Crazy stuff. I miss high school. In playing this tune, make sure that letter B (the verse, as I think of it) doesn’t default to a standard backbeat. We We tried this in rehearsal first and it made the who le section feel really lame. I think the broken groove really makes it swim in a funky way. The subtlety of Sput’s drum pattern in letter C is what really makes the section feel g reat. He and Nate slaved over that decision for about 30 minutes during the rehearsal, trying to
find the exact, perfect pattern that would acknowledge the groupings of 5 without losing the backbone of 4/4. As a sidenote, for those of you who own the DVD We Like It Here, check the bonus footage for an alternate take of Larnell Lewis’ drum solo. The first night of tracking, I counted it off about 25 clicks too fast… and that thing stayed right there the whole song. As for the story behind the title, I’ll give you the PG version. We We had just played a gig in Liverpool, UK, at Kazimier. Kazimier. I was in my 6th day of Noro Virus affliction affliction (which is basically a flu on steroids) during its epidemic over there, so I was quarantined in a bedroom that had been meant to sleep two of us. Without Without the extra space, one guy was left to have to sleep on the floor. This This unenviable position was left, of course, to the last guy to come back that night after the post-gig hang. I was sound asleep in a fever coma at about 4:00am when I awoke to someone screaming their lungs out upstairs. All that I, or anyone else, on the block heard for about 15 straight minutes, was “Really? Really?! What about me, ************? What about ME?!” So there ya go. In this band, if you want a bed, or even a couch, go to bed early. Off-the-page stuff to try: 1) Try Try it at a much slower tempo. tempo. The The B and C sections get really really,, really funky funky when played slowly. slowly. 2) Come up with with a groove for for the solo solo section section that transit transitions ions nicely nicely from from the chorus to the hits behind the solo. 3) Reprise Reprise the end of the the song with with the chorus. chorus. We We do this sometim sometimes es and it seems to work. 4) During During the drum solo, solo, remove remove certain certain notes from from the groove groove to create create interesting spaces. It’ll change the feel of the whole section.
find the exact, perfect pattern that would acknowledge the groupings of 5 without losing the backbone of 4/4. As a sidenote, for those of you who own the DVD We Like It Here, check the bonus footage for an alternate take of Larnell Lewis’ drum solo. The first night of tracking, I counted it off about 25 clicks too fast… and that thing stayed right there the whole song. As for the story behind the title, I’ll give you the PG version. We We had just played a gig in Liverpool, UK, at Kazimier. Kazimier. I was in my 6th day of Noro Virus affliction affliction (which is basically a flu on steroids) during its epidemic over there, so I was quarantined in a bedroom that had been meant to sleep two of us. Without Without the extra space, one guy was left to have to sleep on the floor. This This unenviable position was left, of course, to the last guy to come back that night after the post-gig hang. I was sound asleep in a fever coma at about 4:00am when I awoke to someone screaming their lungs out upstairs. All that I, or anyone else, on the block heard for about 15 straight minutes, was “Really? Really?! What about me, ************? What about ME?!” So there ya go. In this band, if you want a bed, or even a couch, go to bed early. Off-the-page stuff to try: 1) Try Try it at a much slower tempo. tempo. The The B and C sections get really really,, really funky funky when played slowly. slowly. 2) Come up with with a groove for for the solo solo section section that transit transitions ions nicely nicely from from the chorus to the hits behind the solo. 3) Reprise Reprise the end of the the song with with the chorus. chorus. We We do this sometim sometimes es and it seems to work. 4) During During the drum solo, solo, remove remove certain certain notes from from the groove groove to create create interesting spaces. It’ll change the feel of the whole section.
