Painstaking Process, Part Deux

We're still struggling with how to make the vocal on my tune Goddess of War sound right. I wrote this weird melody and have worried about the chorus being powerful enough for some time. So yesterday in the studio Wayne started putting me through the paces.

"Who is this person singing? Is it the Goddess of War?"

"No, it's me, a person who once admired the Goddess but no longer does."

"How do you want to sing this? All light and pretty and melodic? That doesn't match the music."

"No, I know it doesn't."

"OK, sing this as another character. Don't sing it as Alexa."

I think for awhile.

"There's a voice I do for Sebastian called Stinky. I could do that." I'm joking.

"Do something that's not you."

I try singing through clenched teeth, which is how I did the spoken-word portion of this song.

"OK, now sing it like Bob Dylan."

"What? I don't think I can do Bob Dylan. I haven't listened to enough of him."

"Think of Lay Lady Lay. That was him at his best."

I do a silly imitation of a groaning Dylan half speaking, half singing. At the end of the take, I crack up.

"You laugh, but that's closer than you think. We're getting somewhere. Now how would Chaka Khan sing it?"

"Oh jeez, I don't know. I wish I knew how she'd do it."

Ultimately we settled on a different way of phrasing the chorus that reminds me of that "I'm too sexy for my shirt" song. Then we ran the verses through a plug-in that creates an octave double of the vocal, since it's too low for me to sing an octave down. That sounds malevolent enough. Wayne also pointed out ways my phrasing works against the funk feel.

"I don't think I'm ready to abandon my melody. I wanted it to be unusual."

"OK, you don't have to if you get the rhythm right. Don't worry, when we're done it will be African, funk, anti-war, intelligent, everything."

Hope he's right.