The Story of a Song : TED
Sharing the story behind the studio door...
TED. Teddy? Edward? Theodore? Edmund…?
I never asked what his real name was… but the Ted I was channeling when putting together this composition, taken from my last album Spirits & Reflections (Aural Canyon), was inspired by a chance encounter on the road, somewhere outside the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Whilst reading the wonderful
recently, I came across this reference to the French word ‘flâner’ :“flâner” which roughly translates to “meandering aimlessly”… it conveys a feeling of ease, daydreaming and intuitive wandering.
It brought me back to this time - the Spring of 2012. Me and my friend Richard had been meandering aimlessly on a nomadic voyage across the Western states of America. We had spent a few nights in Flagstaff, Arizona before deciding to drive on out to the Grand Canyon National Park.
Somewhere on the approach, beneath the sapphire sky on a road like this one, we picked up a man thumbing for a ride by the side of the road. He held a cardboard sign that had written in thick black type “G.CAN”. We were heading there anyways. Something in us both said “hey, let’s give this guy a ride…”
What happened next was pretty weird by all accounts. We were so lost in the landscape, and getting to know our new passenger, that we failed to notice the shrill whirl of the siren behind us. Pulling over shortly after to be greeted by a stern member of Arizona law enforcement sporting thick dark Wayfarers, a wide brimmed Stetson and that dreadful cream-mustard coloured uniform. Trouble. It seems we had been speeding 30km/h over the 50 limit… I mean… BUSTED. Turns out this officer had been stationed behind an advertising board when he clocked us flying by. I couldn’t help but picture this scene as something drawn from a Wacky Races episode.
Anyway, there we were - Dick Dastardly, Mutley and this guy we knew simply as Ted - negotiating for leniency with a disgruntled cop who wasn’t buying it…
He ran a standard check on our IDs and it turned out Ted was a wanted felon.
My heart was racing. I looked at Richard beside me, his face was pale white. Fair to say, we were in the soup…
The strangeness settled down after the officer seemed to sympathise with our situation. He believed us when we said that we really had just picked up a stranger hitchhiking by the side of the road, and that we really were oblivious to his felonious ways.
We got off with a ticket (that I never paid…) and a scornful adieu. All things considered, looking back we were pretty lucky boys…
Many years later… reminiscing about this adventure, I began composing an instrumental guitar piece that would become “Ted”.
Here’s an early version I performed back in 2019 at a Starry Starry Nights show in Hackney, London.
“I was experimenting with this style of playing and composing based on memories, moments and interactions from my past. Inspired by chance encounters from the natural and material worlds.”
Written in G G D G B♭ D - a tuning I came by through - flâner-ing - and so it was that I began experimenting with this style of playing and composing based on memories, moments and interactions from my past. Inspired by chance encounters from the natural and material worlds, it was a period where I was listening to a lot of Robbie Basho, John Fahey, Kinloch Nelson and Rick Deitrick - spellbinding instrumentalists for 6/12 string guitar, who seemed to possess this beatific gift capable of transporting us to sentimental settings within their finely stitched musical universes.
Finally in Spring 2020, I tasked myself with recording some of these instrumentals with the idea of releasing them. I had been interacting with Matthew Erik Hanner at Aural Canyon who was keen on putting out the album as a release on the label.
I recorded the acoustic guitar very organically, taking care to capture the unique reverb characteristics of the stone and glass walls of the small studio, L’Orangerie, I worked out of in the small town of Saint-Bonnet-du-Gard, France (pictured above).
I then experimented with tracking some electric guitar to give the tune its wistful character, and hone in on the sparse, solitary atmosphere I wanted to create.
You can hear an early outtake from one of my recording sessions below:
The final mix came out really well. It was the first time I had attempted to record and mix an album front to back by myself. I also have to give a great deal of credit to Ian Hawgood for the wonderful mastering work he did on this album which really complimented the sound I was seeking.
I’ve just started working on a new collection of compositions which I hope will make it to you later this year. As subscribers you’ll be hearing more about this here as the project develops. It’s a slow process and something that I like to leave in the hands of time.
I was visiting a friend recently who shared with me this advice :
“Seek not for events to happen as you wish but wish events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly and serenely”
I later discovered it was Epictetus, the Greek Stoic, who he had referenced.
On the way home that night I came across this beautifully written post from
referencing the Frank Zappa track “It Just Might Be A One-Shot Deal” and this particular lyric:You can be scared when it gets too real
But you should be diggin' it
While it's happening
'Cause it just might be a one-shot deal
Wisdom can be found in strange places.
But when it finds you, be sure to take note…
Time for me to say a huge thank you for subscribing and for all your incredible support so far. I couldn’t have imagined that Sonic Tapestries would be receiving this much love in its first few weeks but it’s all thanks to YOU for reading, sharing and supporting!
Stay safe when you’re out there on the road.
Mat
🌻