https://soundcloud.com/thetryingartist/ever-come-near-me

Hilariously, this song uses the same chords as Hyper for the verse. If it ain’t broke… A phrase that doesn’t really apply here. 

Just to get the elephant out of the room- yes I am saying ‘with your hate with your hate with your hate’ in the chorus. Again, blame Muse. Basically, as a young teenage musician, I had a bit of sass. A bit of attitude. It’s almost punk-y in places, I like to tell myself.

This one was slightly more rhythmically interesting than Hyper. Ever so slightly. There’s some offbeat strumming there, for crying out loud. And some fast out of time strumming too.

For the music people out there, it’s great that the chords for the verse are:

A major e minor

and the chorus:

a minor E major.

So rogue, so cheeky. I mean where is the key? Where is it??

I attempt to sing the first verse again more softly, more vulnerably, at the end, before building to a massive crash cymbal climax. I don’t know if you noticed. My first strength as a songwriter/producer, and maybe still my greatest strength, was an understanding of textures. This was born from my ability to play many instruments, all not very well (except for maybe drums- although at this point even the drum playing was basic and inaccurate). Rather than coming up with one complex hook on a guitar, for example, I would weave together various sounds to make a thicker, more interesting sound. Or, as in this early tune, I would have quiet bits, and I would have loud bits.

Another elephant: Those with finely tuned ears might have noticed that my voice isn’t very good. This will be quite a consistent feature actually. You know when people announce: ‘No, no I can’t sing’, as if it’s something they just don’t understand, like rolling your tongue? I think that basically I was born to be one of those people, but then proceeded to sing in (casual) choirs regularly from the age of about 7, gradually forcing my ears to hear whether something is out of tune, and moulding my voice into something that occasionally can sing. During these early songs though, it sort of straddles the quality ranks: ‘Embarrassing’ and ‘Bad’.

Oh, and I say ‘hello’ right at the end in a funny voice.

I used to really like this Muse song. Amusing lyrics on screen.