Serenades | Dev Diary: Construction
Today we'll be taking a deep dive into the selection, naming and ordering of tracks in the new album. This is an art form in itself!
Selection
For any collection of music I always end up composing more music than what appears in the final product. For the Ante Bellum OST, there were around 4 extra tracks that didn't make the cut (they felt to similar to existing pieces). In fact, the AB Main Theme was my second attempt starting over after the client rejected the original composition.
For Serenades the net number of rejected tracks is -2, or even better put: I removed one song and added three to replace it.
In composing this album I was aiming for a certain mood and tone. In general I wanted a positive and upbeat album with light instrumentation and a wide appeal. I wanted an album that would make you feel good when you listened to it; that would make you smile with happy memories.
In its first draft, most of the pieces achieved this sufficiently, but this long one did not. It was a slow and sad piece. A tragic piece. And whilst it is a very good piece of music, it has no need to be there amongst the album, spoiling the mood. That, and it was the longest song by far (as in: 9.5 minutes long ). Keeping it in there just made the album feel too aimless and unbalanced.
However, I liked the duration of the album (~30mins), so I had to add in a bunch of new songs to make up the lost time; hence ending up at a cosy 10 pieces, instead of the planned 8.
For the rest of the album I was looking for a good spread of instrumentation across the music tracks, as well a wider spread in song length and some clear variation in themes. When you listen I hope you can hear and appreciate how varied the different music tracks are!
Naming
You'll be amazed at how long I spend thinking about what order the music should be in, and what name each track should get. The first draft especially has some interesting names:
11^2 -> Affinity
Ashes -> Embers
Democracy -> Kaleidoscopic
Forward -> Valiant
Hope -> Jubilation
A lot of these name changes stem from a desire to convey the song in a clear and positive way. Ashes sounds like something that has just ended, whilst Embers can be the start of something new. Hope implies that you're in a bad situation, whilst Jubilation celebrates that you're not. However, some name changes are simply due to tying it to the tone of the music better, or avoiding an obviously bad name.
Ordering
But song titles are one thing, whilst ordering of the songs is another. When I consider this there are four things at play:
The flow of the music from one track to the next
The overarching story that the music tracks are trying to tell
The overarching story that the song titles are trying to tell
What songs are likely to be most popular
The first is the most important one. This is what mixes up the tracks to give you gradual buildups, small climaxes, a winding down, and then a repeat of the process to something bigger. The variety is very much to keep interest and to avoid listeners being overwhelmed by having all the big and loud epic tracks in a row. When I consider this I always try to mix up songs with different rhythms, styles, tempos, themes. In the case of Serenades there is a nice flourish in the middle of the album, and a grand finish at the end.
2 and 3 both play into this, but in different ways. 3, in particular, is mostly about keeping things visually appealing (notice that the AB album is the only one not in alphabetical order?). Both are fairly self-explanatory; the music is ordered in such a way that it tries to tell a story as you progress through the album. Have a look again at the song titles; what sort of story do you think they tell?
4 is simply marketing. The best, catchiest, most recognisable songs should always be right at the very start of the album. I also like to put fairly good ones near the end as well, but rarely in the middle. This is purely because the start of the album is most people's entry point and the second song is where people become engaged Utopians or not.
So with all this in mind, here's an interesting example of how the ordering played out in the first few songs of this album:
I wanted Affinity first in the album (4)
I wanted a piano song or two to follow before another violin piece (1)
I wanted to follow up Affinity with something forward-thinking before diving into a celebration of all the good times; so as to say: "You have these nice memories of all these natural things in the past, don't just dream about it, make it happen!" (2)
Embers was called Ashes and I did not want it coming before Dreaming in the list, so I renamed; but then I didn't like the lack of a song starting with "A" so I renamed 11^2 to Affinity (3)
Oof. That was probably a long read!
TL;DR
Choosing which tracks to include in the album involves a lot of factors, like length, tone, instrumentation and musical themes. Song names are intended to be clear descriptors of the general meaning of the song and contribute to the overall vibe of the album. The order of the songs in the album is critical for storytelling and engagement, though this can also complicate things through stubborn conventions (e.g. alphabetical order).
Serenades comes out August 26 on streaming serves worldwide and as a music mod for all major PDX titles.
Enjoy!
- Utopia