Tony having fun on the 'Streets of Paris'... walking through a photo shoot for the new Aston Martin 'Cygnet', St Germain September 2010
The cover of my 1950′s record from which I took my sample
edit of Eyeful of Paris sample track click on this to hear my frenchy sample
Streets of Paris is a track that is a result of the new technology, although there is an element of that in all recording now. But this more blatant use has allowed me to create a sound almost impossible in the real world. Yet we are so used to this kind of aural manipulation that it sounds quite acceptable to our modern ears.
It all started with a quite brash dance style drum loop, which makes no attempt to disguise its machine origins. On this I laid a guitar track of chords, using my nylon guitar plugged directly into my imac, with a heavy chorus effect. Normally I would re-record this in the studio using a good mike to get a quality sound, but in this case it sounds just right for the track the way it is. Then I added what I thought would be the bass part, even though played on the same guitar, so rather a ‘guitar-as-bass’ part, using my first finger-nail as if it were a plectrum. This is the rhythm section you hear when the track first starts… the actual real Fender bass which comes in for the second verse I added at a later date. Then I thought I’d try some piano accordion, even though I can’t play this great instrument properly I do own one and can manage simple melodies and chords. Curiously the only mike I had at home at the time was a very cheap Shure, on which I managed to get enough volume (without a pre-amp) by holding the mike against the accordion while I was playing! I thought I was just getting ideas, so it didn’t matter what it sounded like, I was just making do. The funny thing is I ended up with a very appealing sound, a bit like a blues harmonica… which just goes to show you; its not how you get it but what it sounds like that matters. So a simple but haunting riff came out of the accordion takes, and thats what you hear now, with the piano part added later. Once again, though not what you would ever call a pianist, with the magic of technology I was able to add the piano myself. This section ends with the swell of an accordion chord, which sounds like lots of other accordions joining in, which is exactly what it is as I just added tracks and copied and pasted the line and then stereo spread them to get massed accordions, five in all! Then, after a break (and a single triangle note, a sample from the keyboard, as is all the percussion) the riff starts again, to be repeated using an effect called ‘ping-pong echo’ which makes the line bounce back and forward from left to right. Soon a mixture of accordions, with different effects, combine to introduce a rich string part, also keyboard generated and known usually as ‘synth strings’. The voicing of these ‘strings’ and the interplay with the inter-weaving accordions creates an atmosphere that is quite largely accidental; but I sure was pleased with the result as it gradually came together. The first breakdown comes after all the whistles (keyboard samples again), and the weird sound on the drums is phasing added in the studio later.
Now comes the strangest thing of all. Looking for some sort of dialogue to add, with a frenchy feel, I tried various things including sampling a very old (1950′s) record I had, called An eyeful of Paris by Nestor Amaral and his Continentals. This is a kind of record I love, and is great to play in the shop, being a good example of the sort of record a tourist in the ’50′s might buy to remind them of their holiday, in this case a trip to Paris. Although guitarist and bandleader Nestor Amaral is Brazilian and recorded in the US, his arrangements for this selection of classic French tunes (Under Paris Skies, Pigalle, La Mer, La Vie En Rose etc etc) are done in a typical French cabaret/cafe band style, including a cheesy French accented intro, with a French ‘count-in’ “un, deux, trois, quatre…” This is what I sampled and added to my track, and the thing is, IT’S IN TIME! There is no time-bending or whatever, it just happened to be at the same tempo as my track! So I just copied and pasted it to add a little something extra, as the elements all come together for the climax, and finally fade-away, leaving the French accent to count us out.
One final anecdote…. a charming young woman who was getting some work experience at Audrey studios the day Craig Pilkington and I were mixing this track didn’t realise that the voice sample was French… she thought they were saying “un-, der, the, cat…” !!!
…I guess it’s stating the obvious to say that Wendy and I love Paris! thanks to her for the footage and Denes Ujvari for the edit of the Streets of Paris film clip shot in the Rue Abbess, Montmartre
Tags: accordion, Montmartre, piano accordion, Rue Abbess, Streets of Paris, Track 6 Streets of Paris