KŌAN LP Overview and Think About It (Track / Production Commentary) - Scoobert Doobert

0:00 What's good guys, it is Scoobert Doobert coming at you.Today I want to break down one of my songs called Think About It.

0:22 It is the opening to my record, KŌAN, that is coming out in September, but being releasedin shrunks and EPs, basically sides of the record.So I just want to give an overview of what that record means to me.Talk about this song a little bit, a little bit of the production, and then kind of set the stagefor what this record is going to be and what it already is and what it won't be.

0:48 So a KŌAN comes from Japanese Zen practice, which is talking about things that are and aren'tat the same time if you've heard of some of the famous KŌAN, the kind of like riddles.Now, what is the sound of one hand clapping if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?These things that you're supposed to ponder and by pondering them, they're supposed to bring you closer to enlightenment.

1:12 The reason why I made a record called KŌAN is to kind of explore that within my own music.Like the idea of things that are and aren't this playfulness that I have within the Scoobert Doobert projectthat is trying to be both super silly but also sometimes good serious and go in between these two extremesand sometimes be at those two extremes at the same time.

1:39 Having a goofy, bouncy song that is about something kind of heavy or something kind of darkor having a dark sounding song that is actually very, very happy.These kind of things I think are really fun to explore in music.These like loose concepts of duality and two things but being at once.So instead of saying it's either like the heads or tails, it's both heads and tails.

2:05 And so that's the reason why I started with this song, think about it.I was trying to kind of set the stage, kind of put people in a space like,oh, this is going to be different than other Scoobert Doobert records that you've heard before.And how's it going to be different? It's going to be like a little bit heavier, a little bit deeper but also not.It's going to explore some of these things like Schrodinger's Cat.

2:28 Where Schrodinger's Cat is, you know, the concept is if you're not observing a cat,you can't tell if it's alive or dead.So you have to assume that it's both at the same time until you observe itand then you can see whether it's alive or dead.It comes from particle physics.But I like these kind of weird concepts and trying to put them into music

2:48 because music is something that's like, if nobody experiences this music, is it music?It is born and dies every time you go to press play.And I think that's like a powerful thing of this medium.In the same way, if you have a painting and you paint it and nobody else sees it forever,does that painting really exist anymore?It's like in the perception of things that makes it breathe life into it.

3:15 And to set the scene, I rely on a very cool synthesizer and it kind of pushes the ideaof what a synthesizer would be because it is actually taking organic soundsjust stuff from the environment that you feed into it.So I put just a bunch of random things, some stuff from the record itself,some stuff that was just like in some sound libraries and things.And it swirls around your head.

3:45 So see, if you're listening headphones, then you'll be able to get this effective, not no big deal.But try and see if you can perceive where stuff is above or below or behind or to the left or right of you.As people, we are kind of evolved to hear more left and right.That is the dominant signal.So even when you're out in nature, I was just in the mountains and I was picturing, you know,

4:08 there are birds that are way, way above me and on 100-foot trees.And it's harder to tell the distance above my head as it is the proximity to the left and right of my ear.Just kind of interesting.So you have to focus a little bit more to hear things that are behind you or above or below you.But that's what the synth is trying to do. It's trying to put things there.

4:29 So here's a little bit about that intro so you can hear me setting the scene.You're the birds, the jangles, it's behind your head, swirls, fade out there.So see how it starts really small.It's using organic sounds like birds and chimes, little chopped up tambourines.It's doing all of these things to try and dance around your head.

5:08 And it's using high frequencies because I feel like high frequencies are, you know, they're smaller, they're tinny or they're a little bit more pointed.I feel like they help kind of draw you into this portal.And I was trying to provide contrast because again, greatest musical tool ever is contrast.Of being, you know, way up in the clouds, these little sounds.And then after that first super dry, inorganic snare drum,

5:34 it's inorganic because it sounds like it's not in any room, which is a very weird experience, I think, for drums especially,because it's so attack focused and for it to be completely dry, no room within it.I feel like that's a colon in itself.This is like this thing that you expect to have some sort of, you know, trail, a reverb.It's in a cave, it's in a valley, it's in a hallway, it's in a elevator,

5:59 it's at least in some sort of small room and it's no, no, it's perfectly sterile.This is computer recording that is only possible within the last, you know, 50 years to make that sound.And then from that, low end, big, big, big explosion of what sounds like an 808,but what it really is, is it's a sub base run into a cassette tape player.And the cassette tape player, what it does is it's called saturation.

6:26 It brings out a ton of the harmonic series that comes off of that very, very low note.And again, those kind of low notes, only within the last 50 or so years, can we even generate them.This like super, super bassy sound, even the lowest part of the piano,does not generate that much of those sub harmonic frequencies in the way that we can do it on a computer.

6:48 And so that's kind of what I was trying to show. It's like organic to inorganic.High to low, small to big.And so like that alone is me trying to like pull you in on what this KŌAN record is going to be.It's going to be a study and contrast.It's going to be a journey through both the absurd and the silly and the very, very serious.

7:11 And you know, like the stuff that we're all going through because this is a weird time.So I'm going to isolate that bass just so you can hear that super, super low end as it comes in.Do you hear the distortion?That's the stuff that's helping it cut through the mix.In the same way that distorted guitars, you know, help things to pop out.That's that's kind of what that distortion is doing in case saturation.

7:40 I've got a ton of stuff going on on that trying to bring out both the sub harmonic frequencies,both those super, super low notes that shake your car, shake your subwoofer.The kind of thing that you hear somebody listen to music really loud.And you like on the street you find it annoying, but inside you find it like Nirvana.

7:55 It is that not Nirvana the band like the state of being like being pummeled by low end frequencies.That awesome, awesome feeling.That's what I was trying to give you because again, the contrast.Let me show you those drums just for one more example as you can hear it go from perfectly dry.This thing that is a fairly organic sounding drum kit, but an organic room.

8:23 Then you hear the noise above it creates that kind of vintage-y sound.Because what I was going for was again, old and new at the same time, playing an egg shaker.With that egg shaker, let me play it again.The egg shaker is run through a phaser.Which what a phaser is is kind of the sound of like shhhh.And the way that it's achieved, I think it was invented by the recording engineers for the Beatles.

8:51 You take the original audio and you flip the phase and then you offset it.So if you use noise canceling headphones,what the way that they cancel out the audio around you is that they have a microphone,they take the audio that's around you and then they phase flip it.By phase flipping something, perfectly, you can eliminate it.Because it's like every top is something else's bottom.

9:16 And so by doing that, the other thing gets eliminated.It's like a cancellation.But with phasers, you take that cancellation principle and you kind of spread it out.So then it's at times canceling, at times building it back up.So just listen to only the egg shakers, how it goes shhhh.That's a phaser sound.I use it all out of my stuff.It's more psychedelic, cool little EQ tricks, equalization tricks.

9:52 So as the song evolves, it goes into basically more of that same groove.It just kind of like is chilling in this space.But I'll throw in different rhythms on that egg shaker.And the egg shaker is what's called side change to that kick drum.So every time there's a big kick drum, the egg shaker kind of goes away.Now I got toms.On either side create that stereo picture from a very mono picture.

10:21 Again, trying to deal in opposites, playing my little tambourine,that filter phaser sounding egg shaker way in the background.Now let's talk about what the guitars are doing.Because the guitars are trying to bring this,you know, a little bit more hip hop sounding drum and bassand then pull it more into that indie world.While at the same time giving you a vintage throwback vibe.

10:49 So it's kind of trying to go in between those two spaces.So on the one hand, I've got this thing that's kind of like brothers Johnsonplaying in a way that you would in the 70s.That little sound.Those guys are kind of ascending beat 4, which gives it both like a boom-bap hip hop kind of feel.But also like Motown using a guitar to accent the backbeat the snare drum.Do you hear there's a big room near left ear?

11:36 Try to make these guitars a little bit smaller, but now they're stereo.So though there's a guitar in each ear before it was just a room in your left ear.And here comes the chorus.Push into it.That little glitch using digital tool on an organic instrument.This isn't me just chugging along our guitars.Now I start to stack, build up that momentum.And then what that was is is I'm pitching up the guitars at the very end

12:15 to again like blending that organic with that inorganic.I'm using a digital tool to go all right, build the whole thing.So it creates excitement and it creates that flow.And also like we're attuned to rising motion as questions.And I think that's a really powerful musical tool that is exploited.But I think we do it a lot like subconsciously where when you go down,you're expecting me to give you some sort of point.

12:43 But when I go up, I might be asking you a question.What do you think about that?You know using the inflection of speech within music to both like create excitementbut also kind of create some irony where the whole thing is like don't thinkI'm not thinking about it.Don't think I'm not thinking about it.Yeah.Because there's no freaking answer.So it's like the whole song is its own little question.Yeah.

13:07 Anyway, let's talk about the synthesizers.So here's kind of what's going on in that world over here, binaural.It's all around your head.And none of this is like a previously used sample.It kind of sounds like it.It's kind of eerie.But yeah, this is a synthesizer that's generating weird stufffrom some of these organic inputs like my tambourine that's in there right now.Yeah.Just some fun ear candy.

13:50 Your candy is the stuff that's like not necessarily functioning as a musical tool.It is, well, it is and it isn't like it.It is in the concept of painting with sound.That's where your candy comes in for me.It's like I am using sound and organizing it to create musicrather than organizing picture rhythm.And then it's like you take that sound and you put it into different satisfying places.

14:16 But it's not necessarily carrying some sort of groove or carrying some sort of,you know, like pitch center as much.It is more just functioning as interesting stuff going around.And that can get like a little in the same way as ear candy.It can get a little cloying.It can get a little sweet.It can get a little, leave a bad taste in your mouth with you.Do too too much of it sometimes.

14:38 But at the same time, it can be really cool if you make an entire song.It's just ear candy.It doesn't even have a groove.That is a very valid way of making music always of valid.But the idea of you don't really need anything musical for it to be music.It's just kind of you need like intention or organization.More intention even than organization.All right, let's talk about the vocals.I like the second verse.

15:04 I'm going to pull it over the second verse so you can hear that.So, I did some fun stuff there.

15:36 Primarily I did kind of what I normally do, where I sing a little bit in each ear, do a double, spread it out.But that basically straight takes editing out some breaths here and there.But then when I get into the pre-chorus, is anybody listening probably not that whole kind of section?

15:56 I am layering in both real vocals and artificial vocals taking what I didn't like wouldn't it be nice in some of my other songsand pitching it both in the computer, but then also singing it.So it creates again that weird contrast of organic and inorganic.And then it pushes you into this chorus that is very repetitious.But it's kind of the point of being repetitious is to drive home a point.

16:18 That is the point of being repetitious, to drive home that point.Did I drive home that point by being repetitious?

16:23 And also like there's something kind of beachy with these deep ways about punctuating things with harmonies.

16:50 Like saying the same line, don't think I'm not thinking about it, don't think I'm not thinking about it.Don't think I'm not self-aware about what I'm doing right now.But I'm punctuating different lines in the phrase to try and create contrast and create a forward momentum,even though I'm saying the same lyric over and over and over and over and over again.

17:08 But it's like by doing the Beastie Boys thing where it's like you say something at the end of the lineor you punctuate a thing with a group vocal, doing that with harmonies helps break up that flow.And yeah, so that's basically the production stuff that we've got going on in this song.Just to talk about a little bit more about what KŌAN is and what this record is,

17:31 it's supposed to be broken up into four different EPs.But that's kind of a, it's kind of like a, just a marketing way that we're doing it.It's really is four sides of the same record. It's a double record.You're listening to side A. So it's KŌAN A. You're listening to side B. So it's KŌAN B.You're listening to side C. So it's KŌAN C.

17:50 We're not going to release KŌAN D because that's a little silly because then we'll have all sides.We're just going to release the LP is the final thing.But what that's trying to do is nobody listens to records anymore.Like I get that, especially not a double record. That's ridiculous.But people do listen to EPs because it's not that big of a time commitment.So what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to pace out people.

18:08 So you listen to A. Think about A for a little while. Listen to B.Think about B. Listen to C. Think about B. Let's see.And then at the very end, I'll give you the full LP.And hopefully you'll revisit those songs that have kind of sunk in a little bit.You've thought about a little bit that, you know, there's a weird thing with music.The more you get to know music, the more you get to like music.

18:28 The familiarity bias is huge in music as is a popularity bias.It's part of the reason why when you see somebody, you've seen probably seen videos.Like this is a Juilliard performer on the subway. Nobody's listening to them.And then like here's the performing in the concert hall and everybody's listening to them.Part of it is perspective and popularity bias.So my goal with this is to kind of like use that a little bit.

18:52 So, you know, hopefully this project has grown and it has grown since January to nowuntil until September when the whole thing comes out.So then there's a little bit more popularity bias with it.And then hopefully there will be a familiarity bias because some people will have listened to these EPs just once.And then when they get to the LP, they might have forgotten that they even listened to the EP.

19:12 And they'll go back and they'll go, oh, this sounds really cool because you've heard it before.That's like such a thing.But that's part of the reason why stuff that's on the radio or stuff that's in department stores or whatever.Sounds a little bit more like, oh yeah, this is a real release.It's because, you know, marketing.But I give you credit.

19:35 You're here for a reason, so hopefully you will not fall prey to just those traps.But yeah, that's part of the reason why that's the strategy of spacing out this record in that way.But then it also is that kind of that fun journey of being able to spread out over the course of a year,what I normally would have just released in January all at once, letting the chips fall.

19:56 And then also seeing now this journey of this record, which it goes from A, which is that kind of feeling of wanting discovery.But not really like going for it.The going to be where you're starting to make that discovery and not quite sure how you feel about it.Going to see where you kind of have that ego death, where it's this, who am I really fooling anyway?

20:18 I've got a lot of songs that my album art designer, Grizz calls.I've got kind of like Scoob's emo phase.I even have people on the internet reaching out and being like, are you okay?Well, it's like, well, it's because I'm on KŌAN C. KŌAN C is that moment.It's the dip of the narrative of the record.And then KŌAN D starts to lift you back up.

20:39 And then this next record that I'm working on beyond that, you know, continues that wave up.But that's kind of what, like, KŌAN is supposed to be that wave.These cancellation, KŌAN is no noise cancellation.It goes up in the beginning.And it starts to dive down in the end.And it starts to come up in the end.But it never quite makes it to the same height that it did in KŌAN A of happiness and lightness.

21:02 Because it's all intentional.And it's all the flow of what it feels like to be alive right now.And what it feels like to be writing songs about two things at once.Happy and sad at the same time.Because that's how I feel sometimes.And it's all good.That's a reasonable way to feel.There's a lot of stuff out of our control.And a lot of stuff that's great.

21:24 And a lot of stuff that's really bad that's happening in the world right now.And I don't want to get too heavy into that on this because this is supposed to be a music vibe and whatnot podcast.But there will be another time in place and song to talk about those things.In this case, I just hope that you're thinking about it.Don't think I'm not.Have any questions?Hit me up.scoobertdoobert.pizza is the place to find me.

21:55 Later.