At a Glance

Songwriting can start from anywhere. For a song I wrote called “Rain in Purple Frontiers”, for my band Lorenzo’s Music the song started as a spontaneous instrumental on a live stream and evolved into our latest single. Here is the behind-the-scenes story of how we developed the track’s arrangements, vocals and lyrics, and open-source production workflow.

1. The Start: A Live Stream Jam

It all started during a live stream session I did with my band. While experimenting with song ideas live, I played an organ riff using a “Deep Purple” organ preset. The band jammed on that for a while.

Lorenzo's Music jamming over the live stream via @Lorenzosmusic on YouTube.

Instead of letting it sit, I recreated the idea into our Ardour DAW and backed it up to my band’s GitHub account where we share songs, so we could return to it later.

1: Live Stream Jam (Organ Riff & Band Improv)
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2: Recording Bass, Drums & Re-tracking Guitar Stems
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3: Arranging the "Vagabond" Vocal Idea & Verse Structure
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4: Final Mix & Song Release

2. Multitrack Collaboration & Production

I created an open-source workflow using Ubuntu Studio and Ardour, where every band member is able to contribute to the session remotely over time.

Lorenzo's Music jamming over the live stream via @Lorenzosmusic on YouTube.

• Program Drums & Live Drums: I had first created the drum idea I wanted to use for the song by programming the beat in the DAW. Eventually having my drummer replace the beat with live drums.
• Bass & Guitar Layers: Over successive studio sessions, Cliff, my bass player, tracked custom basslines while both him and Rob, my drummer, built out the guitar arrangements.
• No-Merge Branching: Each tracking pass existed on its own Git branch, allowing us to record remotely without having software conflicts.

3. Developing the Vocal Character

Finding the right vocals for the song was the trickiest phase. The instrumental section was sounding great but I had not thought about how the vocals should be yet.

• The “Vagabond” Persona: I riffed on a character idea, a kind of vagabond the rolls in and out of people’s lives. It stemmed from a line I improvised while thinking of the melody, “I guess it’s not Valenines day.”
• Refining the Hook: I recorded different vocal ideas at the studio. Testing different tones and voicing approaches helped shape the narrative tone from the character repeating thoughts in his head to loud expressions.

4. The Final Mix & Song Release

After tracking and arranging different iterations, “Rain in Purple Frontiers” reached its final mix. But because we operate as an open-source band, releasing the final track to streaming platforms is only half the story.

We have the entire raw Ardour session file and multitrack WAV tracks available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license on our GitHub organization. Producers, remixers, and musicians are free to clone, edit, or remix the track for their own projects.

Listen

Check out the final track