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Lifeline [NGAP20]

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Author Comments

Hey everyone, Troisnyx writing.

I started by keybashing the piano and bass guitar for this fragment (which appears at around the 44 minute mark of the NGAP20 collab). I was certain from the get-go that I wanted to do a jazz waltz; I was fairly open regarding what went on top of it.


MH4 approached me re: vocals and informed me that he could rap, I welcomed it. He approached his words from what NG meant to him, a place of community and great creative good.


I ended up using the 3/4 swing stems that he gave me, but that left a lot of the song empty. The only other things I knew to sing for this fragment were the choral bits that you hear in here -- yes, they're all my voice. There was a lot of empty space that I didn't know what to do with for a time. So I swallowed my pride... and rapped for the first time in my life.


To be specific, I channelled the energy and flow of BLKY, a rapper local to Preston, a frequent face at Soundskills (my local community centre), and a friend. BLKY raps with the Lancashire accent, the accent local to where we live. The difference, of course, is that BLKY has been rapping for years. This is my first attempt, so the effects and production and possibly even the flow are not on point.


Yeah, rap and Enya-style choirs over jazz waltz. Styles you never thought would actually fit over each other. There's a bit of a trad streak in there too, as I improvised on my bodhrán! "Rap and Enya" sound like two things that nearly never belong with each other, and if I recall correctly, Enya was at first remiss about her work being sampled by rappers, but then relented. It's a bit surreal to have both the rap and the Enya-style choirs being done by the same artist.


For the purposes of this fragment, I tried to talk briefly about the things I endured through my earlier years in Newgrounds leading up to 2021 (my 10-year mark on the site). I faced many hardships that left me longing for an entry into a music career at 20, seemingly at a dead end as I was forced into law school by my abusive dad. I was already facing ageism, as many scholarships for choirs, orchestras, bands for young people had a cutoff point of 20 or even 21. It was around my 20s that I discovered Newgrounds, and I improved by leaps and bounds in the years to follow. I would also undergo painful metanoia, learning from many people I would come to call friends here on this site, and realise the error of my ways, because I was once very hateful towards a number of groups of people.


Much of my time on Newgrounds saw me go through the process of seeking asylum in the UK, and because asylum seekers here have a strict nonprofit rule to obey despite the process taking years to complete, Newgrounds became my only outlet for my music for eight years. Soundcloud only gave limited minutes; Bandcamp and other streaming sites worked on the assumption that I would get paid, and no, I couldn't access a distribution service of any kind either.


So in this fragment, I did my best to sum up what Newgrounds meant to me through the years.


-------


LYRICS (rap in italics)


>>TROIS:

20 years old,

lookin' at NG like it's made of gold

after I'm told

you're just too old

you've already sold

this place will open its arms and prepare you a home

it gives you a purpose for livin' when you've had the whole world to roam

 

10 years have passed

didn't need to look far for things that'd last

no matter my past

Troisnyx comes into her own at last

I have worth

no matter the land of my birth

this place was the first

to open my eyes

and give me a voice

 

>>MH4:

Yeah I've been on that NG grind,

I jam 'til weary

(You know you made a lifeline for me!)

All in good fun so it's fine,

So goes the theory

(You know you made a lifeline for me!)

Community not just upheld,

But so uplifted

(You know you made a lifeline for me!)

No genre can define our sound

Don't say you missed it


You know you've made a lifeline

(20 years old,

lookin' at NG like it's made of gold,

after I'm told--)

when the world's been so unkind,

("You're just too old, you're already sold!")

you know you've made a lifeline

(This place will open its arms and prepare you a home!)

for the likes of me.

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This is perfection!
The voice and piano and bass chords and melody all blended together so well and just filled the atmosphere inside the reverb with such an amazing feeling I wanted to get embraced by.

Thank you for letting me help bring this to life. Sorry again that not all of my segments I sent over could be used (oops) but the final product is downright magical regardless, and I'm honored to have been apart of it.

Credits & Info

Composer

Listens
3,016
Faves:
8
Votes
26
Score
4.83 / 5.00

Uploaded
Mar 19, 2023
3:11 PM EDT
Genre
Jazz
File Info
Song
1.6 MB
1 min 20 sec
Software
  • Flex
  • Harmless
  • FL Studio 21
Hardware
  • Scarlett 2i2
Misc. Kit
  • Soundpaint
  • Alesis Recital
  • Shure Unidyne III

Licensing Terms

Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.