Let’s talk about the weather (and my new Watermark High single)…
I’ve been living in Boston for less than a year now, and one of the highlights of this beautiful city for me is the weather. I know this is an unpopular opinion (most people seem to dislike the East Coast’s cold weather), but coming from South Africa where distinctive seasons aren’t really a thing, it’s been a dream.
South Africa’s weather (or Gauteng, the province I’m from) can be summed up as a scorching 9-month summer with more or less 3 months of colder weather. Contrary to most people, I dislike this because the incessant heat and brightness really gets me down for some reason. Whatever it is, it’s always been a strange feeling I’ve experienced, that I’ve been trying to figure out. I’ve not been professionally diagnosed, but my super solid Google self-diagnosis lead to the conclusion that I’m pretty sure I might be suffering from "Spring and Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder"?
Overcast or colder weather affects me in a positive way. It generally lifts my mood, I feel more comfortable, I sleep better, and it sparks my creativity. Because I experience all this most of the time in Boston (and am grateful for it), and seeing that I’ve been in the spirit of writing singles inspired by everyday mundane topics, I thought it was time to give my favourite season a shoutout.
When I started writing this track, I just called it “Winter Song”, which was lame and lazy. So I opted for “Ode to Winter” which just popped into my head as I was thinking of “winter titles”. Pretty dramatic, maybe overly so, but I guess that’s literally what this piece of music is (an ode), so I stuck with it. It also turns out that it’s the title of a famous poem? I did not know that, or maybe I did? Anyway…
Seeing that I’ve been dabbling with some upbeat stuff over the last couple of months, I felt it was time for something slow and sombre again. I was listening to Spotify’s “Lush Lofi” playlist a lot around the time of writing this track, so I thought doing something with a lo-fi hip-hop feel would be fitting and fun. I added lots of foley and just aimed for a melancholy, calm tone to convey my fondness for the cold.
A bit on the nose, but I used a lot of snow samples on this track. You’ll hear a bunch of crunchy snow footsteps mixed in with the beat. One of the hi-hat patterns were also made entirely out of snow sounds. Finally, very subtly at the very start of the track, I included the (shitty) audio of a quick video I recorded with my phone, the first time I saw snow late last year.
It was early in the evening, and I was taking my dog for a walk — who was as excited about this “white stuff” as I was. There was a garbage truck making a racket nearby, and you couldn’t really hear the snow — not that it has a super distinct sound in the first place. Still, I wanted to work this little sonic memento into the track for myself. If you turn the volume up, under the tape noise in the first 15 seconds or so, you should hear this ambience.
This track came together quicker than usual. I had a lovely creative flow going, which is always helpful as it can be creatively trying sometimes. I’m fond of this little song, and I hope you enjoy it too, especially seeing that most of us are cooped up inside thanks to that asshole virus. Put on some headphones and stay safe…
credits
released March 20, 2020
Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Watermark High.
Also available on all other major streaming platforms: bit.ly/odetowinter
