Perpetual Emotion Machine
from Omega
2006
Lullabye is the second track on the Omega album.
This is one of the oldest songs in my repertoire, originally composed in 1986 when I was 14. I composed it on a crappy Casio keyboard (almost a toy, really) which was the only musical outlet I had at the time. For posterity, I scored the melody and chords on staff paper, along with some other head candy and probably I recorded it to cassette, although that is long gone.
I never gave that composition never had a title, but when I was searching for inspiration for new material in 2005 I came across the sheet music for the songs I wrote as a teen, and this one was the first that I picked out. It struck me because the chords sounded melancholy — exactly what I was feeling at the time.
When I produced the new version, I was lamenting the fact that I hadn’t seen my daughter in some months and I deeply missed those times when I would read to her at bedtime and kiss her on the forehead. So the song became Lullabye.
The score had a melody and a more verse/chorus-like structure which was not suitable for the tone I was going for, so I dropped those in favour of more percussive elements and a smooth pad overtone. Only the chorus sequence was kept. To top it off, I inserted audio from a home movie I took of my daughter when she was two that took over all the quiet portions of the track.
The finished piece really captures both the dismay of being apart from my child and also the joy I felt in remembering the time I had spent with her. It also explains why I added samples of her into the track itself.
Lullabye (Demo – No Dub)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
The first iteration of this, unmastered and without the home movies samples.
Lullabye
Perpetual Emotion Machine
The final album version.
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. ©2007 Woof Boom Productions.
Lullabye (Remix)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
The harder remix which appeared on the single for The Flight Deck in 2007. This actually started because I thought I had lost the original work file for the first version and this was an attempt to recreate it using the same tools. But I did eventually find the other version.
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. ©2007 Woof Boom Productions. remixed by OCIII.