Artist: Two Feet
Zachary William Dess known by his stage name 'two feet' is an electronic music producer and singer. He shot to fame in 2016 when his first single 'Go f**k yourself' became a viral hit with over 135 million streams on Spotify. His follow up song 'I feel like I am drowning' was also a huge success climbing straight to number one on the alternative songs chart on billboard. His music fits perfectly into the alternate and electronic category as his influences and inspirations, as expressed in his 8 track EP, range from Jazz to blues even to rock and soul and he successfully expresses all of these genres within his work.
Embodiment of Track: Her Life.
The single 'her life' from the album 'First steps, released in 2016 embodies someone who is viewing their life from the outside. As if they are doing their everyday mundane things, day in, day out but there appears to be some sort of disconnect between them and the life they are living. The lyrics "Everyday she sees her life in fade away, and pass her by? what can she do.." suggests that the point that she is in is not enough for her anymore. All these things she has and is doing with her life have lost all meaning for her and she seems to want to change that in some way. This is further demonstrated by the lyrics "wants to quit all of her jobs, sell her house and move along. What can she do?.." The electronic accompaniment of the song has melancholic vibes to it and is successful in supporting the lyrical content of the song. However the upbeat and preppy chord progression of the electric guitar, the soothing and repetitiveness of the shaker and the simple drum beat allows the listener to feel an underlying feeling of hope throughout.
Arrangement:
Time signature is 4/4. Average BPM is 183. 'Her life' by two feet starts of with the electric guitar being plucked playing a jazz/ bluesy chord progression to establish a base rhythm. Then the vocal starts over a syncopated drum beat with electronic snare for each verse. Symbols are played throughout the chorus to emphasise "It's her life" lyrics which is the main theme of the song. The main vocal line has an overdub and reverb to give an echo or doubled effect through out most of the song. In the verse there is a slight delay on the overdubbed vocal to accompany the main vocal line. These are most evident in the lines "It's her life". Most of the song is electronic except for the vocal however the vocal has been manipulated with some EQ, a reverb and an overdub so as to blend more subtly with the electronic elements. This song is produced in a way that you want to focus on the lyrics and you can get a sense that the instrumentation behind it is supporting this by being placed slightly behind the vocal in the mix. The instrumental only shows more prominence and becomes slightly louder between the vocal sections to give the listener a sense to take a breath as the lyrical and instrumental content of the song is captivating. When I listen to the song the vocal and the drum line seem to be placed at the front of the mix with the guitar slightly behind supporting the drums and the vocal.
Production:
Zachary Dess, better known as 'Two feet" started his recording process in his home. He would write songs about his personal life and dealing with mental illness. Then he would upload these songs to his sound cloud. A label called Majestic casual found his work on sound cloud and turned his song into a video to be distributed on a video platform such as youtube. Dess uses sampled instruments likely in kontakt or another sampler program to come up with the sounds he produces to get the melancholic vibe of the electronic section of the song. He then adds a vocal line with some overdubs as a doubling effect with a very slight delay on the overdub. When you listen to the song however it sounds as if the instruments have a faster rhythm or tempo juxtaposed with the vocal line which supports the idea that the vocals have a delay effect over them.
Sonic Content:
The estimated BPM of this song is a steady 183. The structure of the song is unique due to the alternate and electronic genre that it fits into. The song starts with a verse then goes to the hook and repeats this twice for the song. Even with this structure the song is of a 4/4 key signature. When listening to the song it does sound like there is some auto tune over the vocals. A lot of two feet work for this album was mainly beat focused rather then lyrical. two feet is likely to be using the protools HDX rig with Bricasti M7 reverb, a Lisson grove R-124 compressor, Moog analogue delays and Neve and API preamps as he is influenced by Chet Fakers sound and is likely to emulate his work processes into his own music.
Subjective Feel:
The song "it's her life overall feels gloomy with undertones of a warmness or hope which is expressed instrumentally throughout the song. As described above this is done in the way that the instrumentation was used and the interpretation gathered from these methods. The sounds that were developed and used for the song is what makes it feel gloomy yet hopeful.
Objective feel:
Some techniques involved in the process of the song being developed include reverb. the reverb most likely used would be the Bricasti M7 reverb. This gives the vocals a smoothness to the tone of the vocal. The vocal would also have been compressed using a Lisson grove R-124 and this would have aloud Zachary to use his full vocal range with out falling out of pitch or with out the vocal becoming too harsh in the top end frequencies.
Final thoughts:
My concluding thoughts about this piece is that the overall message of the song is successfully conveyed through all of the elements. From listening to the lyrical content the song is about someone who is just confused about where they are going and what they are doing in life. They are in a stand still not sure if they are evening going forwards or backwards but are just stuck. I feel that the way the music was produced, using the chord progression they have and using the basic beat of the drum they came up with for the piece aloud the listener to go on the same journey from the perspective of the person being talked about in the song.
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