nowarlpl-blog

[nowarlpl-blog]

April 2020

In light of the recent coronavirus outbreak, those of us who are privileged enough to not be key workers, have begun a new lifestyle. Organisations have adapted all around; from cafés going to delivery only to the influx of influencer and band livestreams on social media platforms, people have found a new way of communicating. We thought we’d use this opportunity to try something new, and this blog is that. We wanted to create a window into No War as we see it, to shed some light on what goes on behind the scenes, for those who are interested.

As you would guess, in the world of self-isolation, it has a been a quiet month. We had a hometown show planned with our friends in Crawlers, for which we were all really excited – but that obviously did not go ahead. We had also planned to begin recording some new music this month, that also was thrown aside. Instead, our last few weeks have consisted of recording fifteen second riffs on iPhones, Google Drive demos, and, most notably, releasing our Three Song Promo on cassettes with Counterculture Records.

I aimed to get a lot of writing done given the circumstances and so I got to work. I didn’t initially have a DAW on my laptop because all of the writing we do is generally together at Nathan’s or in a practice space - unlike the songs on the Three Song Promo, which I wrote most of before the band really existed, on an old laptop. Writing in a DAW feels like more of a scientific approach than jamming in a room, it always makes me aware of the constraints in music, that of tempo, key, time signature, and song & section length. So, when I’m stuck on a track, I often go back to these core ideas and I’ll look for inspiration in others’ music. One way I’ve found personally good for working in the constraint of tempo, is that I’ve made a spreadsheet of a couple of my favourite albums and tapped out the tempo to all the tracks and changes, so I have a reference for tracks I can adapt ideas from. I’ve been stuck (and as of writing, still am) on a track that’s a rewrite of a song we had when No War began that was about 168bpm. This isn’t a particularly unusual tempo, but I felt that I needed rhythmic inspiration. Then is when I go to my references and find tracks a couple tracks at a similar tempo; I went to the What You Don’t See record by TSSF. WYDS is one of my favourite records for groove, specifically the way they lock in the bass and kick together and work the snare and the guitars together (not even mentioning the lyrical flows). I also went to Floral Green by Title Fight, I love how that album uses chord progressions that move around above the groove, often changing offbeat, and the way that pushes sections forward – at this tempo, they often pair it with what I guess would be called a classic 70s sounding punk beat (like the one in Secret Society). So the remains of this old unused song and the inspiration from those two albums are my impetus for this track. If the song turns out any good, I guess you’ll find out.

Anyway, I’ll keep it short, the way things are is changing, so we thought we’d try something new. Feel free to leave questions, feedback, or any topics you’d like us to talk about in the future, and thanks for reading.

-          Tom from No War

Check out the Three Song Promo cassettes on Counterculture Records here: https://counterculturerecords.bigcartel.com/product/no-war-three-song-promo-cassette

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