Demotron: Whip and the Chair (PART 4)
This will be the final track on the first album (once the studio version gets recorded). View the exclusive final demo (video) in this post.
Behold, the finished demo!
This is Part 4, the final Demotron for my new song, ‘Whip and the Chair’. I started writing this song on Feb 9th, 2024 and completed it May 31st 2024. I didn’t work on it every day, but when I did, I obsessed about it a lot.
You can read all about it in my previous demotron posts.
If you missed Part 1, click here.
If you missed Part 2, click here.
If you missed Part 3, click here.
Here is the finished demo with a sweet video.
Hopes
‘Whip and the Chair’ a song that stores and delivers great emotional weight. When I sing, I’m thinking about a specific person, but the main character is transferable by you. I suspect that the people who listen may consider themselves the subject, ‘waiving so long from the stern of the ship’, but I’m not sure. Perhaps it conjures a heap of empathy for you, or someone you know?
I’d be interested to learn what this song does for you.
Scroll down for more about the new parts of this song…
Shameless Self Promotion Section
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Amateur Blonde + Pretty City Lights.
While Amateur Blonde is the past, I still have some killer limited 180g vinyl and t-shirts.
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Everything is discounted. Products will be shipped to you from Portland, Oregon–thank you to my loving brother. Visit AB bandcamp to purchase.
Lyrics
If you have been following along, I hope you have enjoyed the ride. Here are the big changes that I made to this song, replete with an entirely new bridge and slowed down outro.
The New Bridge
Previously, at this point in the song, a 3rd verse existed. There was also a key change. Technically, the chords here are still a key change. The difference is this dissonant melody.
Such that it is
In the handful of times that I’ve heard people say this, it has been to diminish a compliment. Here, I’m using it as a response to Post-Verse 2:
Now the lions have come to chew your head And just like you the lions feel alone and depressed Such that it is...
It’s diminishing both the worth of the head being chewed, and the quality of the meal for the lions.
I got into these words. When I was trying to find them, I couldn’t stop imagining the goriest of images. Of a bunch of lions charging me down and savagely eating my skull, only to spit it out–the flavor so depressing. Ha.
I did have some lines about the lions being depressed that I chose to lose. One of them was about how they lions are only eating BECAUSE they are depressed–this is one of my weaknesses. I eat to calm myself down, sometimes. Anyway, I was quite amused in trying to write about a lion who would much rather being chewing the skull of a happier person.
Ululation
I was looking for words about lions. I love details in songs. I adore learning vocabulary in search of lyrics, and visa versa.
I was looking for the word associated with with giant purring that lions do. I’m sorry, lions don’t purr. That’s kitten shit. The closest word I could find for what lions do is called a chuff, or chuffing. It’s a good word, but I was looking for words to describe the giant sighs lions make when they are going down for a nap. I make them sometimes.
If lions are depressed, then maybe those sounds they make are more sorrowful than measure. I went looking for the word that describes what people do when they give into communal wailing, say during a funeral. Those sounds people make when they collectively, and unconsciously, let loose their pain through vocalization.
Ululation is an incredible word. I’m not often so impressed by a word. But this one has a bunch of lyrical juice inside it. I didn’t know how to pronounce it, then I discovered there’s a couple different ways you can say it, and one has a bunch of ‘Yous’ inside it!
SIDE NOTE: One of my older songs, Sobriquet, was discovered in this way. I discovered the word in NY times crossword puzzle.
The Outro
This entire Outro was sung on the spot. I didn’t mean for it to be the song, but I’ve grown as a writer enough to accept a gift when I find one. This was definitely that.
As a singing exercise, sometimes I latch onto a word or phrase and loop it. In this instance, I chose the word “You”, but really I was singing the “U” from the previous ‘Ululation’.
There’s a song by The Who I want to live inside of called, “A Quick One, While He’s Away”. It’s actually 9 separate song ideas, that’s 9 minutes long. I read somewhere that at the end of the recording they wanted cellos, but didn’t have them–or couldn’t afford them. So, they sang a placeholder part into the recording, where the cellos should go–hoping to later get them. Ultimately, they just kept the placeholder, “cello cello cello cello”.
I hope to make incredible songs like this in the future.
Learn to Play This Song
Learn how to play this song in this new Song Blueprint post
Gratitude
Thank you subscribers. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this 4 Part Demotron series on the creation of my new song, “Whip and the Chair”. I appreciate all the new subscribers!
If you are just browsing, that’s cool. It’s way cooler to subscribe. Here are some good reasons why:
It’s free.
It will be delivered to your email inbox (you can read it there)
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Recommendations
Your solid recommendation of my publication www.behindthelights.org is appreciated. Eventually, I’ll have music released you can also share.
Wear Out The Lights!
The new band name Pretty City Lights has a new store! Wherever you live in the world, you can Wear Out The Lights. I hope to have more merch for sale soon. Check out the embroidered hoodies!
About the author
Ryan OToole (aka, RYNO) is a skateboarder from Arizona with too many film degrees, who writes songs for Pretty City Lights—a new music project based in Seoul, South Korea. His songs have been described as, "alternative rock for people dying of middle age". Formerly associated with the band, Amateur Blonde, his songs have been featured in television and film - notably, The Walking Dead (S10 Ep21). RYNO is the author of Behind The Lights a freemium substack publication, documenting the Pretty City Lights song & album creation process with the slogan, “watch me make music”.