The Music of David Mackenzie

Taylor LaFlam

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:18:00 -0400

"You never really know what it feels like to have a song with your name in it until it happens to you." —Taylor LaFlam upon hearing this song for the first time

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This song benefits from a bunch of software I recently bought from iZotope, an audio company that has a whole array of entirely awesome products. Much of the crazy sweeps and glitches come from them as well as many of the more common audio effects.

Harmonically, I wrote this song to have a constant drone note throughout. This was a fun challenge as the rest of the harmony is non-standard enough that it allowed for weird things like crazy chromatic melodies on top of a constant note.

I debut this song at a party in Taylor's honor.

Charles Zhu

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:47:54 -0400

Evidently, Charles' coworkers were weirded out when he played this at work.

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I decided to have this song feature both the English and Chinese version of his name. I believe I'm still following my own rules with this one.

Having my accordion back in my studio is exciting after having it stuck at my parents' house for over a year. For the curious, the distorted "fill in the gaps" sound effects in the middle were produced by drum sticks on a dinner plate, a slide whistle, my guitar, and a good old tongue trill.

Dinosaur Comics - March 9th, 2011

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 14:23:32 -0400

Lyrics by Ryan North, author of Dinosaur Comics. The trick to writing music to words that were not intended to be lyrics is to vary wildly between time signatures.

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I've been a reader of Dinosaur Comics for some time. I'd been thinking of doing some sort of music homage to it, but wasn't sure how to best do that while remaining true to the spirit of the comic itself. When a bunch of fans started sharing translations of this comic in different languages, it occurred to me that I could do my own "translation" by setting the words to music. The resulting piece is all over the place and comical (I'd like to think) just like the comic itself, so I feel pretty good about that.

It was fun to write music for words other than my own, because I got to match musical styles to the content of the words, like how Utahraptor is more jazzy to contrast with T-Rex's more rock style. I also wrote questions and side comments to somewhat reflect their place in the conversation.

Lizzie Fulton

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:34:39 -0500

"This made my whole year." --Lizzie Fulton

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After a long hiatus, I have returned to the name songs project, though the piano part has been rattling around in my mind for quite some time. This also marks the first of my college friends to have a name song.

Skullcrusher Mountain

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:29:05 -0500

Written by Jonathan Coulton I decided Mr. Coulton's version didn't have enough marimba or silly voices.

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This song was written by Jonathan Coulton, who was part of the reason I was inspired to start this website. The first time I saw him perform, someone in the audience asked him to perform his favorite song that he had written, which turned out to be this song. I decided to honor his work by mangling and embellishing it unnecessarily.

If you want to hear the song sung by someone not switching wildly between bass and falsetto, you can download the original song on Jonathan Coulton's site.

The Subjective Experience of Others

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:58:05 -0500

Seriously, how could we ever know the subjective experience of others?

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It kind of blows my mind that I'll never truly know what it feels like to be a person other than myself.

Banjo Back Baby

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:02:20 -0500

Playing a musical instrument: decidedly better than dealing with an ex.

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A few years ago, I was writing an email to a friend whose banjo I had borrowed, and I asked if he wanted his banjo back. It struck me that "Banjo Back Baby" would make a really great name for a song. So I wrote it.

Everything and Nothing

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:30:20 -0500

I guess this is what happens when I write the music before writing any words.

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The main chord progression of this song (first heard in the "free speech" section) oscillates between major and minor chords. The first two times it appears, the bass line emphasizes only the major chords, while the third time it appears (the "suffering" section), the bass line changes to give the same chord progression a much more minor feel.

The "hide and seek", "world without you", and "annihilation" sections all have the same chord progression repeated at different tempos. The guitar part from "hide and seek" was reused in "word without you" at double time and in "annihilation" at quadruple time.

And yes, several of these lyrics were lifted from other songs.

Feel

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:34:14 -0500

"Be grateful for your body. It's the only way we get to feel all this partying." --Andrew W. K.

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I wrote the core part of this song on the piano. (That is, up to the crazy middle section.) Since I have trouble playing the intro section on an actual piano, I thought it was a great candidate for a song to practice my MIDI skills.

Audio clips are from Star Wars, Dirty Harry, Austin Powers, The Simpsons, my friend Molly, and the YouTube sensation, David After Dentist. (No one tell their copyright lawyers, okay?!?)

Oh, and ten points for catching the Handel's Messiah reference before reading this.

The Excluded Middle

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:17:47 -0400

∀ P: (P ∨ ¬P)

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I wrote this song as I was playing around with my newly purchased copy of Logic Studio, the recording software from Apple. Hence I chose to make the title a reference to a key concept in classical logic. That is how I do things.

Neuroplasticity (feat. Aki Nikolaidis)

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:01:34 -0400

A remix of my friend's neuroscience YouTube video.

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Aki is a friend of mine who has a YouTube channel all about neuroscience. The remix was mostly a chance for me to try out the editing capabilities of my recording software, but the result was entertaining enough to share!

Will Dagger

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 21:21:12 -0500

The French horn needs to be used with great care in rock music.

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Annie Rix

Sun, 19 Dec 2004 23:52:02 -0500

Key changes are so good.

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Emmah Martin

Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:19:49 -0400

This Name Song can actually be performed by one person.

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Her name is actually spelled Emma, but I adopted her own weird spelling that she was fond of at the time.

Garry Nelson

Sun, 25 Jul 2004 16:18:02 -0400

Gary once set up his computer to play this song on startup.

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Gillian Jackson

Fri, 23 Jul 2004 16:18:02 -0400

Though I don't consciously try to make Name Songs reflect the person they're for, I do like to imagine Gillian dancing to this song.

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Molly Hart

Thu, 03 Jun 2004 21:19:49 -0400

Once I gave Molly a CD that was just this track repeated as many times as would fit on the disc.

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Vanessa Funk

Thu, 01 Jan 2004 21:21:12 -0500

How can you not write a Name Song for a girl whose last name is Funk?

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Tim Anderson

Fri, 03 Jan 2003 21:19:49 -0500

This was recorded in about fifteen minutes.

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Tim Reber

Thu, 02 Jan 2003 21:20:38 -0500

Tim told me he would write a Name Song for me. I wonder if he ever did.

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