The Theory of Funkativity

Overview

Lyrics

Overview

Engineering

Can you believe we're already mid-way through October? Time is flying by!

Our trees - once laden with hundreds of figs - have lost all of their leaves, giving our backyard a cool Autumn feel (hard to come by in SoCal).

The seasons may be changing, but our dedication to the Odyssey is as solid as ever. We call this week's song "Waste Away."
By Sean
"Waste Away" is a goofy song. By nature, it's pretty poppy, but the syncopation of the drums and guitar prevent it from being a pure bubblegum bopper. I wanted to make sure that the lyrics sounded accordingly mainstream, but focused on darker subject matter. The other night I was listening to Love Line on the radio, and this woman called in complaining to the Dr. Drew about how her boyfriend wasn't performing well in the bedroom. After minutes of her saying she had no idea what  the cause could be, she nonchalantly mentioned that she and her boyfriend do tons of heroin on a daily basis...I know that isn't supposed to be a funny thing, but I found it to be hilariously ironic. Her opiated obliviousness, but genuine concern for her lover is the main inspiration for this song.


"Waste Away"
by The Theory of Funkativity

Verse:
I tried to explain
This situation's gravity
Oh yeah

That doesn't mean
I always think you're out of it
No, no

I wanna make
All of the cool kids proud of me
Don't you?

I think my eyes
Are always playing tricks on me
Yeah, yeah

Chorus:
I know that I'm a hypocrite
Your cheeks are turning red
How long you gonna waste away
How long you gonna stay in bed

I know that I'm no different
Fever burning in your head
How long we gonna waste away
I'm trying to do what's best

Verse:
You got the
Power to bring me to my knees
When you want

You and I
Can't afford more enemies
No, no

Our only weakness
Is that we have to sleep
It's alright

Growing up
Too fast is such a tragedy
Yea, yea

Chorus:
I know that I'm a hypocrite
Your cheeks are turning red
How long you gonna waste away
How long you gonna stay in bed

I know that I'm no different
Fever burning in your head
How long we gonna waste away
I'm trying to do what's best

Bridge:
You got the
Power to bring me to my knees
When you want

You and I
Can't afford more enemies
No, no

Chorus:
I know that I'm a hypocrite
Your cheeks are turning red
How long you gonna waste away
How long you gonna stay in bed

I know that I'm no different
Fever burning in your head
How long we gonna waste away
I'm trying to do what's best

I know that I'm a hypocrite
Your cheeks are turning red
How long you gonna waste away
How long you gonna stay in bed

I know that I'm no different
Fever burning in your head
How long we gonna waste away
I'm trying to do what's best
By Michael
It's been a fun sixteen weeks, but it's time for something new. "Waste Away" is about this. It's is a parody of itself. It's early-Beatles-inspired pop with a self-aware twist. There were a number of points in the song where I consciously avoided the obvious pop progressions and went in a darker direction. As always, I tried to let the song develop on its own, but this one needed frequent nudging in the Theory of Funkativity direction to prevent it from becoming overly pop-y.

The ending will make sense later.
By Michael
Sean wrote this melody in the dead center of Pat's range. It was great. Tracking took no time at all because Pat was able to nail the pitch and energy with minimal rehearsal.

I used the White Falcon on this song for the first time since our self-titled album. It came out close enough to the sound I was expecting. I used it for the guitar double so that I wouldn't have two instances of the Telecaster competing for the same frequency range. I ended up using the bridge pickup position to make the tone more pronounced, but this got in the way of the chorus vocals. I had to do some light 4kHz dipping to make room. One of the greatest parts of having our own studio is that I get to experiment. The acoustic environment doesn't change, which means one less (extremely critical) variable. And every variable counts when you're toying with guitar settings, pedal settings, amp settings, mic choice, and mic placement to name a few. Best of all, I don't have to pay by the hour to do it.