(A-HA! It's posted, finally! Thanks youtube 🙄😂) Hi David! Taylor from Nova here, first of all thankyou so very much for reacting to my songs! I can't tell you how excited I was seeing this notification pop up on my phone! This I should've made clear and is my fault. I worked with a producer on this project. Mike Wells, he was fantastic. He mixed the record, programmed the drums and played the bass lines. All the songs are still absolutely my songs. But I can neither produce, play bass or program drums. So I would write the basslines on my guitar, he would then play them on bass to record them. Drums we worked together to compose, and he would program. I then gave him input on how I wanted the mix to be. I started writing this when I was 14 in April of 2020, just before the Lockdown. I must've turned over 40+ songs as I pieced this 12 song album together. Most were torn apart, reworked or left behind completely until I had 18 full songs. I picked the best and that became the album. Mike did a fantastic job understanding what I wanted from what I gave him. The songs are 100% mine. I wrote them, I composed them. But without Mike they would not be what they are. He is an awesome guy and a top producer. Next is the main overarching complaint you had, my voice. Out of the things I do, guitar, song + lyric writing, and vocals, vocals is my weakest point. I've never learnt how to sing *properly*. I enjoy doing it, I've definitely come a long way since I started. I began singing when I was about 11, and I was absolutely tone deaf. Couldn't hold a single in-tune note at all. I never gave up, and taught myself how to sing by standing in my bedroom and singing along to Muse, Radiohead and whatever until it sounded decent. I am not trained, nor a healthy singer. I know I don't have a great sounding voice and I get your comments on the nasal tone. Absolutely no offence taken, it's something I'm aware of and appreciate you pointing out. I asked for honesty and you gave it, I'm more than happy to take it onboard. Unfortunately I've developed a medical condition that's effected my throat making singing, sometimes even talking, much harder on a daily basis. I can't practice half as much anymore, I don't know at this stage if I'll have it in me to make a 2nd album. So sadly improvement may never come. What you heard may be the extent of what my voice will ever be. Which is a shame as you're right, there is absolutely room to improve. If it's ever possible for me to get healthier and give it a go, I certainly will with your comments in mind. 1) Echo this was the second song I ever wrote for this album, I was 14 years old when I wrote this song. That's probably why it's the most straight forward song, simple, maybe even a little bland. But it's still, to me, a really fun song that holds a special place in my heart as writing this song was when I noticed I was really on to something with a project for the first time. I'd attempted many before and never felt like I was making anything decent compared to my own inspirations until I landed on this song. (And what you said during this reaction about me being heavily inspired by Muse is absolutely true, they are my favourite band of all time and I have no shame in admitting it. That band is almost entirely responsible for the sound of my voice and music. I don't even care that people might say it's too similar. Muse's music is so special to me so writing stuff that sounds like that to me is something I'm actually quite proud of). Hearing it now too, in that build up section, you are right with the drums. If I remember, that was my idea too. Mike had a suggestion that was close to what you said in this video, and I was silly enough to reject it and go with my idea. This song is the one that stayed the closest to how it was written when it was released. All the other songs did evolve. However this may be because I was 14 when I wrote it and didn't record it until 3 years later so I'd been sat on it for so long that I couldn't imagine it sounding any other way than what I had in my head. 2) All The Hollow Souls was a song that I wrote just under a year before starting to record the album, so I would've been around 16. It very nearly didn't make it on the album as I thought it was too much, and was actually a little bit scared of recording it. I showed it to Mike and he said it was the best song he'd heard from what I'd written and said I'd be a fool not to include it. So yeah, we went for it. It is by far the most complex song on the album. There's lot's of layers of guitars, bass, strings and synths. The drums are mental and the vocals are absolutely the most I've ever pushed myself as a singer. I can barely get through singing this song these days . That break in the falsetto you pointed out, I genuinely can't remember if that was intentional. This song was one of the last vocals I laid down for the album and my voice was pretty shot by then. About the guitar tone, we basically had one clean tone, and one distortion tone for the guitars for the whole album. We would then add extra effects and sounds if needed during each individual song. But for the most part the guitar tones are identical throughout the album. Also sidenote, that section you called the bridge (before the 4/4-5/4 section) is actually the chorus. It just takes a while to get there in the song. Also it's just straight 9/4. The 6/8 section actually has three time signatures going at once. The drums are in a mix of 6/8 and 4/4 depending on which accent you pick up on first, the clean lead guitar thing is 4/4 and the rhythm guitar and bass is in 3/4. As the section progresses, from 05:15 to 05:43 there is other guitar tracks in 4/4 and 6/8 being added on both sides every two bars to increase the intensity as it builds. At 06:11 I think there is around 5 to 6 guitar tracks hitting that dissonant chord. When it drops out to just the one guitar and my voice moving into that (admittedly, awesome) slam back into the chorus where the other guitars, bass and drums come back is the bit Mike actually said was his favourite moment on the entire album. The outro is a repeat of the 9/4 section from earlier but I think that it's actually 3 bars of 9/4, 2 bars of 5/4 and then a single 6/4. I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that's it. You may have to listen that section back a few times to figure it out. Overall this song, if I'm being totally honest, is the best one on the album. I think it is the most detailed and well-put-together song that I've ever written. I don't want to sound arrogant, I'm just really really proud of it as a song and I'm glad you liked it. 3) Sociability was the third song I ever wrote for this album, I literally wrote Echo and then sat down the next day and wrote Sociability. I don't have an awful lot to say in response to your comments on this one, you pretty much picked up on everything I would've wanted you to and everything you said was perfectly spot on. The only thing I do want to mention, and I think you knew I would mention this in response, is the strings at the end. They aren't actually random, they are taken from the song itself. There is three rotations of the chorus in this song. You actually pointed out the bridge as the chorus, the 10-9-5 bit you picked up on is a repetition of that little clean interlude after the first verse and is just the bridge. The chorus is the section at 02:00, 03:08 and 04:49. And in these chorus sections there is a string section that builds each time. The first chorus it's just the cello and viola. The second chorus is divided, first half is cello, viola and a simple violin; second half features the full composition that is a cello, viola and three violins. The third chorus is the full string composition throughout. I came up with this piece by just humming an improvised melody for each harmony until it sounded nice and Mike would lay it down on the track. Two reasons I stuck it at the end, firstly because I wanted people to be able to hear it stand alone, and because whilst it does not directly lead into the next song, it prepares the listener for it. And I get why this won't make sense listening to the song alone. This is the second to last song on the album. It's the slam of energy before the creeping outro. The last song starts really, really quiet and the transition from the heavy drums and guitars into the start of the final track was really jarring. The string section serves to bring the energy down just a bit so it isn't such a drop of pace from this track to the next. However your complaints about it being there are absolutely fair and totally logical, especially as you heard it on it's own and not in the context of the album. That's about all I have to say. Thankyou so much David! I could never have dreamed of you reactng to my music and I wasn't expecting that you'd actually enjoy it. I can't thank you enough. All you said is everything I wanted to hear, I appreciate your criticisms, you're a far more knowledgeable man than me, you've probably been in the business far longer than my 18 year life. With that being said, thankyou so much for your kind words about my music. It means a lot coming from my favourite reactor. I hope you'll go and check out the whole album in your own time, you can find it anywhere like I said. Thanks again David, keep up the awesome work, you're a legend! - Taylor

Great to good

@forsain4533

4 күн бұрын

Taylor here, from Nova. These are my songs, and I appreciate you not slating them 😆 This project was my first outing so even earning the title of "good" is more than enough for me. First attempt will never be perfect. So I'll say thanks for saying they're at least good! 😃

This kids voice is the perfect example of the difference between a good singer and a healthy singer. He sings well, with clear control over his voice, fantastic vibrato, great power, intelligent melodies and his falsetto is obviously notably fantastic. However, from a technical standpoint, despite the fact he sounds good and has clearly practiced, if he keeps singing like that he's gonna ruin his voice, if he hasn't already. Honestly sounds to me like he's singing all of that in the back of his mouth right in the top of his throat. Especially in those high "chest" notes in the second song. There is no support from the chest, and there's no lift into head voice. He's just digging in and forcing air through the back of his throat. Sounds strong, but it also sounds painful. And if it isn't yet, it will be. And it will kill your throat. I hope he gets some lessons, not to change his voice as i said he sounds great. But just to get his voice to be more sustainable. The songs are great though, and the potential for this kids voice is insane. Also, if Taylor himself reads this comment, please can you tell me where to get your music. David said it's not readily available but if I could get a hold of it, I'd love to check the whole album out.

@THEDavidHeretic

3 күн бұрын

Taylor actually corrected me in the comments, and it turns out the songs are all available on all major music platforms.