Johannes Schult

This is actually the song I made for the second round of Song Fu #6 (listen and vote!). The task was to write a song that doesn’t contain any rhymes. Years ago I had written a song in German entitled “Morgen kommt der Kommunikationsentferner”. I reanimated the lyrical idea and translated a few of the original lines into English. The chords of the verse also remained the same. Still, I think it became a completely different song. For instance, it used to be a ballad; now it’s a rock song.

The song fu-version of this song (entitled “Communication Removal”) is 45 seconds longer; it contains more instrumental mayhem as well as an additional line about Mike Lombardo and Nickelback. I had originally planned to have a chorus going “And as of now my rhymes are out of order”, but that didn’t fit the rest of the song, so I scrapped it.

Some trivia: For the music box in the outro I punched arbitrary holes into a sheet of paper and pulled it through the little machine. Other instruments I recorded for the outro were ukulele, harmonica, melodica and tin whistle.

#8 Communication Removal Is Due Tomorrow

I just shut down the weather
Love doesn’t work anymore
Communication removal is due tomorrow

The shadows no longer obey the sun
All seasons are in exile
Communication removal is due tomorrow

Yesterday I made silence a little bit louder
And now I’ll turn off time
Communication removal is due tomorrow

I successfully divided by zero

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This one was written on the spot today after I had decided that the song I had prepared during the week will only be released at the very end as song #52. Last night I saw the Dubliners live in St. Gallen. (They played a wonderful show including favourites of mine like “The Rocky Road to Dublin” and “The Town I Loved So Well”.) So I was in the mood for some Irish folk. Please excuse the cheap keyboard sounds. Just keep in mind that me playing a real fiddle would have sounded much worse! Anyway, it’s just a 52-second tune, so please bear with me and my artificial orchestra. (The guitar is real.)

#6 Jutze’s Jig

This one was inspired by Self-discipline gives girls the edge: Gender in self-discipline, grades, and achievement test scores (Duckworth & Seligman, 2006). I had the title in mind while I was writing the chorus. Once I had the whole song, I figured I could just write some lyrics about the actual article. A 52-second song certainly cannot do a whole scientific paper justice. But maybe it’s entertaining; and maybe it spreads a tiny bit of knowledge from academia into rock music.

#5 Gives Girls the Edge

Gotta do, gotta do her homework
Gotta do, gotta do her job
Gotta pay, gotta pay attention
Gotta pay, gotta pay her bills
It seems there is one thing, one thing that
Gives girls the edge
Gives girls the edge
Gives girls the edge
Gives girls the edge
Self-discipline gives girls the edge

It seems that boys don’t have the one thing that
Gives girls the edge
Gives girls the edge
Gives girls the edge
Gives girls the edge
Self-discipline gives girls the edge

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is the theme song/instrumental introduction/stadium gig opener I always wanted to have. I stumbled across the word ‘bonkers’ in a dictionary years ago and immediately filed it under ‘perfect title for future theme song/intro/opener’. I kept this recording short, but the song can be extended with multiple solo spots if I ever get the chance to perform it live.

#1 Bonkers