♪ Down, down ♪
(clears throat)
♪ Down ♪
(coughs)
- Hello, everybody, and welcome to STEREOtypical,
a musical comedy series where Nick Agee
and myself, Michael Yanoska, attempt to write
a song in the style of our favorite bands,
exploring all the different tropes
that give them their signature sound.
- So to start off week one of STEREOtypical,
we decided to tackle Muse, and we knew it
had to be this huge, epic production of a song,
and this is how we pulled it off.
- The track opens with very, very gentle piano,
songs like Space Dementia, Survival,
movements of the Exogenesis Symphony.
We wanted to start as small as possible,
and then really have that build
that you hear in so many of Muse's songs.
We got musical mastermind and one
of our very best friends, Andrew Hahn,
to contribute piano to the track,
and he absolutely nailed it.
(gentle music)
(moan of disappointment)
(crying. Dammit Hahn)
- Production-wise, what we knew we had to do
to take it to that Muse level, especially
when everything kicks into the song is
this big orchestral string part at the beginning,
as well as a huge drum sound and a bunch
of layered guitars, as well as Michael's vocal
that's screaming over the top of everything
just to really take it over the top
and make it as epic as possible.
♪ Down ♪
- As in the song United States of Eurasia,
when everything kicks in, they go full Queen
with these screaming guitars,
and we just knew we had to do something like that in ours.
(pretty much Queen guitars)
(energetic drum music)
- So there's this riff that I've had,
since, I think, 2013, and I've wanted
to use it for something.
I've always thought it sounded very Muse-ish,
something like MK Ultra.
So when it came time to write this bridge,
I thought this would be a perfect opportunity
for that riff.
- He's been trying to put that in a song forever.
It's an okay riff.
It's pretty good, actually.
♪ These United States of ♪
- Not bad.
- Now, no Muse song is complete
without keyboard arpeggios,
and we plastered them all over the place.
♪ I'm ♪
(energetic keyboard music)
♪ Democracy ♪
(energetic keyboard music)
- Additionally in the choruses,
we threw an homage to the robot harmony vocals
that you hear in the song New Born.
That's what you hear as the song fades out
at the very end.
We added a light quarter note tremolo,
and we auto-tuned those vocals hard
in order to get that robotic tone.
(robotic vocal music)
Now speaking of vocals, let's take a look
at some of the ones throughout the track.
♪ Rest ♪
(clears throat)
♪ Rest ♪
♪ Or protest ♪
♪ The invisible hand aims to desensitize ♪
♪ A mandatory mention of drones ♪
♪ I'm one for the grandiose ♪
♪ You were never one for the prim and the pwoper ♪
♪ We're obligated to say the word drones again ♪
First things first, if you're doing
a Matt Bellamy impression, you have to breathe,
and you have to breathe like
it's your absolutely last (beep) breath.
(BREATHE LIKE THERE'S NO MORE OXYGEN)
Then, you've got to stack some vocals.
All right, let's records some Muse vocals together.
♪ Conspiracy ♪
That's not a bad bass.
♪ Conspiracy ♪
Step two, not bad at all.
♪ Conspira-- ♪
(clears throat)
No, let's try that again.
♪ Conspiracy ♪
Okay, that'll do.
That's fine.
We're not hitting all the notes, but that's okay.
♪ Conspiracy ♪
I don't know if that's the note,
or a note in a registered octave.
♪ Conspiracy ♪
So when it came time to write the lyrics,
there were little things throughout their discography
that I really wanted to throw nods to.
The album Drones, for example,
I think they say the word drones
on about half the songs, about 15 or 20 times.
They really start beating you over the head with it.
So I thought in order to keep our song authentic,
we gotta throw in some drones of our own.
♪ A mandatory mention of drones ♪
I also had to make sure that we wrote
a pwoper Muse song, which,
if you haven't seen the video of the guys fishing,
I highly recommend it.
I also can pronounce my Rs, I promise.
♪ The pwoper ♪
Lastly, I snuck in references to 1984 and Fahrenheit 451,
both dystopian novels set in the not too distant future
whose oppressive themes fit right in with the lyrics
of many Muse songs.
♪ And yes I've glanced through 1984 ♪
♪ One day I'll read it all ♪
Hey, guys.
We are shooting the first few shoots of STEREOtypical,
so today we are doing part of the Muse video.
We are doing part of the Death Cab video.
So here we are at Tiger Lab Productions
out in the valley, and we're shooting
against the cyc wall.
We've got Mary Jo helping out today.
- [Hahn] Mary Jo!
- Wonderful soul, she's fantastic.
And we've got Nick here.
We're setting up all the drums
and getting all the instruments and everything.
We've got Alexi helping out.
- [Nick] What's up, I'm Nick.
- We're very excited because we
are officially breaking ground
on the first STEREOtypical episode.
We just finished promo pics, as you can see.
And, it's gonna be fantastic.
So, watch what happens.
- So for the music video, I play Dom,
who is left-handed.
I, unfortunately, am not left-handed,
so, what we did for the video is
I played the drums right-handed,
and then we flipped the footage
for complete authenticity.
- So we thought it'd be funny,
since the guys are always about
overthrowing oppressive regimes,
and standing up against the government,
what if somebody's just begrudgingly getting
a city permit to have a picnic in the park
but with the absolute same badassery and attitude?
- Fun fact about the music video
is that everyone that you see in it is not actually
on their primary instrument.
Michael, for example, is a drummer,
and he's playing guitar.
I'm a guitarist, and I'm playing drums.
Hahn is usually a keyboard player,
but he's playing bass.
So in the video, everybody is performing
on a different instrument
than they actually recorded on the track.
- Overall, for our music video, we drew inspiration
from their videos such as Neutron Star Collision,
Dead Inside, Dig Down, Feeling Good, and Supremacy.
- Big drums, shredding lead guitar, stacked vocals,
crazy keyboard arpeggiating synth things,
a general theme of rebelling, or anarchy, or something,
put it all together, and that's how you make a Muse song.
♪ S.O.S. ♪
♪ Or fiddle while the fires burn ♪
♪ Impending revolution ♪
♪ Take a breath ♪
(BREATHE MAN BREATHE)
♪ And gaze upon the ashes ♪
♪ Ashes ♪
♪ We all fall ♪
♪ Down ♪
♪ Rest or protest ♪
♪ The invisible hand aims to desensitize ♪
♪ A mandatory mention of drones ♪
♪ I'm one for the grandiose ♪
♪ You were never one for the prim and the pwoper ♪
♪ We're obligated to say the word drones again ♪
♪ This surveillance state demands a status quo ♪
♪ But I can't forget the crimes that they've allowed ♪
♪ And yes I've glanced through 1984 ♪
♪ One day I'll read it all ♪
♪ Democracy ♪
♪ And liberty ♪
♪ Authority ♪
♪ The enemy ♪
♪ Conspiracy ♪
♪ Orwellian rebellion ♪
♪ These united states run deeper than you know ♪
♪ And I can't escape who represents us now ♪
♪ So yes I'm turned up to 451 ♪
♪ Someday I'll burn it all ♪
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