Pink Floyd's "Mother"

[CowboyNQ]

The gang and I recorded this one over a period of a about a month leading up to Mother's Day. Unbeknownst to us Roger Waters also was working on the same thing, he was able to publish his about 24 hours before we got ours out! Anyway, here's our version - from a keyboard player's perspective it required a deft patch change as the guitar solo commenced. When we play live I use my SV-1 88 for the piano part - here it's been done on a Korg Krome 61.

Hope you enjoy it - it was very challenging (but fun) to make.

 

[happyrat1]

Tempo seems a bit slower than the original. Were you all syncing up to a click track?

Still a nicely polished piece of work.

Kudos

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

Thank you Gary.

Well spotted mate - this is our bespoke version of the song, which combines elements and ideas from the original plus various live versions. Rather than play to a click, we used a recording of ourselves playing it live as a guide track for tempo and timing.

You'll find the timing flexes a bit - Mark deliberately plays the initial part quite slowly to give it bit of air so you can hear what he's doing on the guitar, then the pace picks up slightly as the drums come in. When the drums finish Mark slows it down again and there's an obvious ritardando right at the end.

 

[happyrat1]

I think that was a bad idea. The timing seemed a bit choppy. Cues seemed to lag by milliseconds. Perhaps from trying to play to an echo of the tape and the live instruments simultaneously. An arrangement like that would confuse the hell out of me

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

You're entitled to your opinion of course. I'm thrilled with how it came out.

Personally one of the things I love about playing live is the slight unpredictability of the end result.

We could have easily pitch corrected and quantised the life out of this recording on Logic - but then it would lose the flavour of what we intended it to be, a true capture of us jamming along together, literally with each other, just in different times and places.

 

[happyrat1]

No offense intended. Only a true critic can tell the artist what he's supposed to be thinking

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

Not offended at all my brother.

Trust me I've heard all kinds of feedback over the years and it's always taken in the spirit intended. That's the beauty of putting your efforts out there for perusal - you'll hear all kinds of interesting views.

We do a "meet the audience" thing at the end of each show and Pink Floyd fans are always very happy to share their opinion on what we do, good, bad or indifferent. Plus there's the standard social media feedback plus some occasional trolling. Then there's media reviews.

All part of the wonderful tapestry of presenting your work for others' consideration!

 

[Rayblewit]

Tempo seems a bit slower than the original.

NAH! The other mob (Roger's mob) got it wrong!

 

[CowboyNQ]

It varies from the original in a few aspects, but we've been doing it this way live for quite some years now and we're pleased with how it conveys the emotions and themes present in the song. It gets excellent audience feedback too. An obvious example is the use of female vox in place of David Gilmour's part - but I really love what Bree brought to this tune.

 

[Biggles]

Good job by all, well put together and the tempo changes worked for me but if I had to nit pick it would be with Bree’s part, not her voice which is great but the recording of her voice, which has a harsh edge to it but this is probably just down to room acoustics and the lack of sound absorbent materials within it..

 

[CowboyNQ]

Thanks Col!

Yep she recorded that at home, as we all did. Unlike Matt (who is a VO artist by trade so has a professional recording booth at home) she did the best with the resources she had available. Not having to mic digital instruments is such a blessing - which is why Jase went with the v-drums. He doesn’t have the equipment to mic his acoustic kit at home, although of course if this were done well it would have sounded a lot better.

 

[Rayblewit]

but I really love what Bree brought to this tune

Yes indeed! Bree gives this tune an energenic lift. Love her voice. Good looker too.
Matt really powered this tune. His voice is magnificent. Timing spot on and Pitch perfect. A robust sound with high clarity. His solos dominate the song.

The vocal threesone harmony and the rest of the tune musically is a perfect blend too since I picked no faults.
Thumbs up guys.
Ray

 

[CowboyNQ]

Thanks Ray, we’re lucky to have some pretty strong vocalists in our collective. Jason our drummer has a mean set of pipes too.

More importantly (to me), they’re also the nicest people you could ever want to work with.