6. You Could Be Happy! IRL!

You Could Be Happy

Welcome back again. This week I’m talking about the sixth track to be released from ‘You Could Be Happy’. It’s called ‘You Could Be Happy’. Somehow writing that out makes it seem more confusing than it actually is. You remember how albums always have a track that has the same title as the album? That’s this one.

I’m also super happy to announce the multiverse crossover event we’ve all been waiting for. Dr Balanced (me when I’m DJing) has done a promo mix for The Sixteenth (me when I’m writing music) and it’s up on YouTube, Soundcloud, and Mixcloud right now! If watching videos of large men playing records is your thing, I suggest you head over to YouTube pretty quickly as I suspect some kind of weird copyright algorithm thing is going to disappear the video soon. The audio versions will carry on being available though.

You could, actually, be happy

You could, right?

The sharp-eyed amongst you will note that we’re trucking down the road of a standard three-act structure with this album. Act one - we meet everybody (Luke, Obi Wan, Leia, Vader, Han). Act two - they get a mission or a problem to solve and have to figure out what to do (rescue Leia from the death star). Act three - the mission complete, their problems are solved and after a final battle they discover the next stage on their journey as characters whilst having a party (Luke destroys the death star and then everybody except Chewbacca gets a medal because… yeah… not going down that rabbit hole).

The act two mission here is that very simple insight that forms the title of the whole album. You could be happy. We recapped last week the emotional state of the main character, which was a cycle of unhealthy ways of being in the world. The album doesn’t really tell us how the journey out of that cycle starts. If this were a legend, I’d guess a god in the form of a bird would settle on the protagonist’s shoulder and whisper this insight into his ear. Maybe let’s say that’s what happens.

But that moment is a genuine, massive revelation. That’s how it was for me, when somebody told me that not only was being happy a legitimate life goal, but it was actually possible. Not easy necessarily, but possible. For a lot of my life, the precise opposite had been true, so trust me, it was big news when a bird landed on my shoulder and gave me that piece of news.

The structure of this track reflects a little of that act two mission spirit. We hear the main character - this time in the form of a cornet - setting out on the mission with uncertainty but also a sense of fragile optimism. I used to play the cornet in brass bands when I was young, and the cover image of this track references that time in my life, albeit obliquely. Walking tentatively towards the promise of something better.

But things are really not that easy, and in the track the protagonist is dragged down by doubts, fears, and the ghosts of the past. You can hear sibilant strings, feedback, and harsh sounds from some of the first sequence threatening to overwhelm him. That isn’t a quick end to the quest though. It never is in these kinds of stories. A rescue is afoot. Another character swoops in and holds him up, carries him through this first trial; the orchestra. We met this character already, fleetingly, in the first sequence, trying to help. This was the voice trying to break through the curtain of anger in last week’s track. This week they try something different, an act of support to the main character, and it works. We’re on a different path now. We will meet this character again soon.

Hope

There are more musical symbols in this track than the protagonist (a solo instrument) and their hero (the orchestra). One in particular is the theme for hope. I promised a story about hope, and it’s so central to this album that it got its own piece of music. You can hear it in the brass instruments at about 2:34 in this track, which is the first time we hear it on the album. It’s two chords, and they will return later. You might have fun spotting them over the coming weeks.

For the musically inclined, the hope theme looks like this, and is usually played by brass instruments (french horns, or less frequently, trumpets).

Why those two chords in particular? Well honestly, like most of anything worthwhile, it’s taken from something else much better. In this case, Sibelius’ Symphony no 5, where it crops up in the trombones right at the very end of the last movement, and looks like this -

In case any of you are out there reeling at the flagrant way in which I just stole (then transposed and modified) a chunk of Sibelius, well firstly, you ain’t heard nothing yet :-) And secondly, I have further thoughts on this habit I have of stealing things. I’ll share those next week.

What next?

Glad you asked! Firstly, thanks for reading this far. You’ve already been part of the creative journey of this album, and I very sincerely thank you for paying attention. All I’d really like is for people to listen and be part of what I’ve made. Job done. However, if you have friends or people you think would enjoy this, please encourage them to sign up to these updates via www.thesixteenth.net. It would mean a lot. And maybe actually listen to the songs in whatever way you enjoy!

You can listen to the music here, or through the links below.