Johannes Schult

Heads up: I’ll be playing a solo gig here in Konstanz on December 16th, opening for Suff-X. I’m also hoping to line up one or two more shows. Meanwhile, here are the links to a bunch of my 52-second songs.

• The most recent one is my attempt at a “Wedding March”, because a friend of mine, who likes ska, was getting married last weekend.
• My song about the “Bud Spencer Tunnel” is my first video to get more than 1,000 views. It even got me on German television.
• My belated birthday song “Nachträglich” is another German song, presumably better than the quickly penned tunnel anthem.
• “Dragons Fly to Burning Asgard” is a rather experimental song in which I try to sound like a cappella metal pioneers Van Canto.

Vorgestern hatte ich meinen ersten öffentlichen Soloauftritt. (Bis dahin hatte ich nur bei meiner Abschiedsfeier 2001 einmal solo gespielt.) Mein Debüt fand im Rahmen der Kulturnacht statt. Die bunte Mischung aus Schauspiel Musik, Tanz und anderer Kunst wurde von KUK (Kultur Uni Konstanz) veranstaltet. Vielen Dank an dieser Stelle an alle Beteiligten für einen tollen Abend!

Die Veranstaltung fand im Kulturladen in Konstanz statt. Mein Auftritt umfasste drei Stücke und steht (ohne die Anmoderation) bei YouTube.

1. Die wichtigen Fragen
2. Einkaufszettel
3. Kulturnacht-Programm

Gestern folgte spontan gleich der nächste Soloauftritt. Unter dem Motto Küchenkunst gab es in einer WG ein buntes Programm u.a. mit Goethes Zauberlehrling (nass und klasse), Kammermusik (emotional und klasse) und A Cappella (sehr unterhaltsam und klasse).

Ich spielte erneut einige meiner 52-Sekunden-Lieder. Es lässt sich schwer in Worte fassen, wie gut es sich anfühlte, nach einem Jahr des Schreibens und Aufnehmens die Songs in freier Wildbahn zu erleben. Auch an dieser Stelle vielen Dank für Einladung und das tolle Publikum!

1. The Time We’ve Lost
2. Die wichtigen Fragen
3. Wunschzettel
4. Joey Dumps Pacey
5. Reis (Video!)
6. Laundry Day
7. Einkaufszettel
8. I Wish Natalie Portman Was My Neighbour

PS: Meine Musik steht unter einer Creative-Commons-Lizenz (by-nc). Das heißt, solange Jutze dabeisteht und kein Geld damit gemacht wird, kann man die Lieder einfach kopieren, verschenken, hören, nachspielen, ausschneiden und anmalen.

This is what happens when I come up with a song in a hurry. I started out with nothing and ended up with this dark story. The title was a rather arbitrary choice. I didn’t even know whether there is a Lincoln in Texas. I just checked: there is one.

#19 Lincoln, TX

Jane is talking to the red old barman
Stalking me out like a roaming son
Here in the desert of Lincoln, TX
Promise me heaven outside the door

I can see there’s a man in the shadows
And I know I have seen him before
He turns around and says, I’ve been waiting to meet you once again

I return to Jane and the barman
I say, I’m sorry for the mess I made
I drink my whisky and I head for the front door
Leaving the body and a bribe behind

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is a song in German about a shopping list. It deals with the everyday encounters at the supermarket. Thankfully, I had to stop at the 52-second mark. Otherwise the song would have ended with red cabbage being the last item on the shopping list.

#17 Einkaufszettel

Ich sah noch aus dem Augenwinkel, wie sie im Aufzug verschwand.
Ich nahm mir ihren Wagen, der vorne in der Schlange stand.
Für einen Euro Pfand gehörte er vorübergehend mir.
Da entdeckte ich ein kleines Stück Papier.
Es war ihr Einkaufszettel.
Sie brauchte ihn jetzt nicht mehr.
Es war ihr Einkaufszettel.
Und ich vermisse sie so sehr.

Dabei kenne ich sie gar nicht, weiß nicht mal ihren Namen.
Doch was sie einkaufen wollte, lässt Großes erahnen:
Buchstabensuppe und Möhrensalat, Cornflakes und Bio-Käse,
Eine Packung Taschentücher und zwei gezeichnete Küchengefäße.
Es war ihr Einkaufszettel.
Tomatensauce im Doppelpack.
Es war ihr Einkaufszettel.
Sie hatte ganz klar Geschmack.

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is a little homage to WatchTower, written in anticipation of their show next Friday.

Eleven years ago I wrote a song called “Golden Future” for From Thy Ashes (my band back then). It was an attempt to combine a whole bunch of complicated parts. The result wasn’t very impressive. But I figured back then that the ideal unit for writing such material wasn’t a couple of bars; much rather does it boil down to chunks of maybe three or for notes. If you have a big simple thing and start adding details, the music just gets weary. So this time I didn’t really bother with the big picture and concentrated on making every single note count.

I started out with the drum track, programming some wild, odd bars of hectic noise with only very vague ideas of guitar riffs in my head. I have little (meaning no) advanced harmony knowledge, so I just played what I’d never play in an ordinary e minor setting. Half-step runs? Yes, please. I wrote pretty much every single note by trial-and-error as I went along, recording the tiniest bits separately, one by one. I was baffled how flawless it all sounded once I stuck everything together. I played the bass on keyboard, as usual. At that point I was close to keeping the song an instrumental. Most of you probably wish I had. But then I figured I could mirror the title of WatchTower’s third album, Mathematics, by singing about my profession: statistics. I dare to say that it all made sense in the end. At least to me. I know, I sound somewhat ridiculous when I try to channel Alan Tecchio’s vocal style. Still, I’m very happy with the overall outcome!

#16 Statistics

When I say what I do for a living
The response is silence
Statistics: misunderstood and ignored
Statistics: valuable and powerful

I love data
I love Stata
Statistics: misunderstood and ignored
Statistics: powerful and valuable

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is just a quick experiment with distorted keyboard sounds. I have no idea how Targorian beings are marching, but I imagine them having enough legs to warrant the 5/4 beat of this track.

#15 Targorian March

This is probably the most annoying song I’ve ever made. I could pretend that there is a deeper meaning behind the lyrics. But it’s really just a trip on memory lane back to when school children had electronic pets that were as annoying as my falsetto vocals. If you want to translate the situation to today’s portable devices with their apps and cameras, do so at your own risk. The main reason for even publishing this is it lowers the bar even more. At least it was a good exercise to play all the synthesizer parts. I corrected almost no notes and I wouldn’t even know how to digitize the tracks to the beat.

#14 Feed Me

Feed me, need me, keep me closer
Love me, touch me now
Please me, tease me, take me with you
Tell me all your secrets
Take good care of me in the morning
Keep me in your sight
Dream of me while you are sleeping
Hold me close at night

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is a short ode to the TV series 24. It’s about Renee Walker in particular. And I inserted a birthday greeting to Annie Wersching, the actress who plays Agent Walker. If you don’t understand anything of what I just wrote, let it suffice that this is a fanboy song. Again, the 52-second limit comes in handy, forcing me to concentrate on the essential message. Not that the song contains an important message. But when I found out about Wersching’s birthday this morning, I figured that this is the best time for such a song. I also made a little video of me singing the song a bit slower, a half-step higher and just with the acoustic guitar.

By the way, I was thrilled to incorporate a reference to bloody stumps; you see, eleven years ago, when I first accessed the internet, the bloody stump homepage taught me a lot about this new medium, all of which is still true today.

#13 Dear Screenwriters (Happy Birthday, Annie Wersching)

Dear screenwriters of 24
Please don’t kill Renee Walker
I’m sure there are many more
People like me who ♥ her
Despite all her flaws
And the way she handles thumbs
But who hasn’t bent the laws?
And who doesn’t like bloody stumps?

So happy birthday to you
Annie Wersching, who played
Renee Walker so real and true
Here’s to her surviving season eight
She’s the best red-haired woman on screen
Since Lena Headey played Luce
The red-haired flower queen
In the movie Imagine Me & You

Dear screenwriters of 24
Please don’t kill Renee Walker

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This one started out with vocals. The melody still hints at the title, which I just kept, because I was running out of time to think of something else. A while ago I was looking at the sky and beheld shifting clouds (see video below). It was there that I came up with the title. I intended to make it a song with space between parts and notes. It ended up being rather packed, anyway. I also admit that the verse uses the same chords as “1998” (which Manticess made for Song Fu last year) and that the middle part is basically the bridge from “The Flower Song“. The end result justifies the self-citations, I think. The main reason I omitted the vocals was that I’m not a good singer. But I also figured there’s a pattern in the previous tracks (except for the first one): every third tune is an instrumental. And I’m a sucker for patterns. And, as I said, a bad singer, who didn’t want to spend what’s left of his weekend failing to sound fragile.

#12 Clouds Are Passing by

This is a rather cryptic song that will hopefully become obsolete rather sooner than later. Hint: It’s not about Bryan Adams. The music is based on a little picking figure with the first three notes of the g# minor scale. I just built the rest of the song around it. Just like last week, I haven’t excelled in my playing. Still, it was a good exercise and maybe someone else beside Patrick will be able to make sense of the lyrics.

#11 Canada

Canada, why did you do this to me?
Canada, why couldn’t you just leave it be?
Canada, how could you go this far?
Canada, oh Canada
If it weren’t for Rush I’d just give up on you
Still it seems this time the joke is on you

Canada, I know you meant no harm
Canada, this ain’t no call to arms
Still I think you owe the world an apology
It’s not too late for you to see

Canada

(words and music by Johannes Schult)