(Stephen Merritt says, “Never try to write a song when you’re actually feeling the emotion.”)

Anyway, this is not that song.

That day — the day after, that is — after looking at and listening to and being horrified by what I had done the night before, I decided to write another sad song, but this time I made it as upbeat and happy as I could. That’s this song.

Now, years later, I’ve finally gotten around to making a halfway-decent recording, so, um, here you are.  It’s called “My Favorite Sunbeam’s Gone Away.”

Tech specs: Autoharp, Alesis Micron, Boss DR-202 Dr. Groove & HC-2 clap machine, and a couple of cheap cymbals. The tremoloa and a small plastic harmonica make cameo appearances.

This was my entry into the Metafilter “Holiday Song” challenge and is my first seasonal song ever.

I tried to sort of make everything into a big fuzzy mess this time, rather that have everthing really seperate and clear.  There’s two autoharp tracks, one flanged and one thrumming steady quarter-notes on the bass strings. There’s marimba, of course, along with some other percussion, including a Kinder egg shell filled with rice, (briefly) sleigh bells, and a match being lit.

There’s the Mopho synth, some Micron organ, and, on the chorus, my “new” Piano Mandolette, which stays in tune for minutes at a time. Oh, and a harmonica!

The Autoharp has masking tape across the strings. The drum machine is the “hip hop” StreetBoxx, which is a very poor drum machine — it does not seem to be sync-able — but it’s okay as a sound source if something else is running it. I think all the keys are the Alesis Micron, except for the piano, which is a piano. My wife supplies the oohs and uh-huhs.

Mostly keyboards this time, incuding the Kawai, the MicroKorg, and an accordion.  The drums are an Alesis SR-16 sent through a Dean Markley amp — one of those tiny ones with a clip to put on your belt.  There’s also, on the chorus, a couple of tracks of ball-point pens.

“Thanks to the Wishing Well” is my entry to a MetaFilter challenge to write a song with only two chords; this one uses D and G.

Instruments used, in order of appearance: Autoharp, marimba, marxophone, triangle, glockenspiel, and accordion.

I have a couple of other songs in different stages of completion that might only use two chords, but when I was messing around with one of them I accidentally wrote this one instead. Lyrics came about through one of my favorite methods, the “open your mouth and start making sounds” method; once I knew what the song was about I was able to figure out the rest of it.

Technical notes: There are actually two autoharp tracks. When figuring out the structure, I took single autoharp chords and cut and pasted and looped them; that track is still there, panned all the way to the left, and then there’s a straight-up ‘harp track dead center.

No electronic instruments, a rarity for me. Everything was recorded with the ShinyBox ribbon mic. Backup vox were recorded through the Electroharmonix Voice Box, and they’re doubled with a second, higher octave on top, but I can’t pick it out in the mix.

This arose from a songwriting exercise where you look around you and quickly write song titles based on whatever is lying around. For instance, I’m in the dining room right now, and I see a mug, a telephone, a piano, a ceiling light/fan, and a cat. Okay, so going as fast as I can and thinking as little as possible, I make up the song titles: “I Love Your Mug,” “1-800-THIS-SONG,” “88 Keys That Don’t Open Anything,” “Blow Out the Light,” and “Hey, That’s My Cat.” Obviously, most song titles you get this way will suck. But every now and then you’ll get a good one; one that never would have otherwise occurred to you.

It must have been around Christmas or someone’s birthday when I came up with this one.

Technical details: Let’s see. There’s Autoharp with a split signal panned, unevenly, L-R. Toy piano. Synth bass (Alesis Micron). Combination of real and fake drums (the snare is real; the kick is fake; the cymbals, I think, might be both). One lead vocal and a couple of backups; the backups were recorded bit by bit as I figured parts out. I think that’s it; it’s a pretty simple song.

I wanted that choppy rhythmic sound for the autoharp (the second sound you hear, right after the synth bass starts) but I didn’t know how to do it, so I asked on MetaFilter and it turns out that it’s done with a compressor and a ”sidechain.”  So, there’s something new.

Technical details: There are two autoharp tracks — one with flange or chorus or something and the other one overdriven and run through a sidechain noise gate (see above!). There’s also marimba, Alesis Micron, a tiny bit of piano, and four vocal tracks. The drums are the Boss Dr. Rhythm (except for a couple of actual cymbals); the handclaps are the Boss HC-2 clap pedal.

Finally, I can’t really tell if my own songs are actually catchy, so let me know if you find yourself humming this one tomorrow or the next day.