Sounding Off – Wayne 54

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.]

[There's some back story here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Wayne episodes like this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

The noise of the dishwasher was sort of OK. Jezzy reckoned if they plugged it through a mixer and a few effects the thing would provide a great loop but Wayne was reserving judgement. So far that day they’d made their way around Dave’s flat with a microphone and digital recorder trying to get as many samples as possible. They’d done the kitchen appliances, cupboard doors (without succumbing to reproducing the drum opening of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight) the squeak of Jezzy’s trainers on the polished wood floor in the dining room (why didn’t Wayne’s do that? - and then they had to pause and manically clean the black marks he’d made) and finally there was a matrix of clicking noises as they turned lights and plugs on and off. It was good, but Wayne wanted more.

In the park the basic background noise was intriguing. It had depth and interest. Silence and subtlety. Bird song, vehicles in the distance, cycles in the foreground the occasional beat beat beat of a runner or walker sauntering past. A sudden siren somewhere which Jezzy faked as passing from left tonight by whisking the microphone around. Even as he listened Wayne knew he could loop that as some kind of back beat.

“Thing is,” he said to Jezzy as they sat under a tented outdoor cafe table, “I don’t want to do what I normally do with these things. I can’t just rap over it or whatever.”

“So what’s it gonna be?” asked Jezzy, looking up from his phone briefly. “Actual like, songs or something?”

“Yeah, maybe,” said Wayne. “It’s like the busking stuff, everyone loves a good chorus and they’re pretty keen on the verses once they know the lyrics too.”

“Cool,” said Jezzy, vaguely. 

“I don’t mean to pick you up on the phone thing, man,” said Wayne, “but can you leave it a bit and talk?”

“Sure, sure,” said Jezzy, pocketing the phone hastily. “So how does this fit with your whole, like, concept?”

Wayne snaffled his beer. “Dunno yet,” he said. “That’s what’s exciting about this. If I don’t know how it’s going to work out... what I do know though is that it’s gonna feature the noises of lockdown.”

The other thing Wayne had decided was that the concept needed the word ‘ray’ associated with it. It was to do with rays of light, of hope, of energy, rays from the sun, and all the rest of it. Jezzy asked if the central fictitious character for the concept album should also be called Ray but Wayne was holding back on nailing it down too much.

“Whoever they are they’ve been through a hard time,” said Wayne.

“Yeah, haven’t we all?” said Jezzy.

“What so you reckon that’s not enough?” asked Wayne.

“No, no, just you’ve... picked a universal theme I guess,” said Jezzy. His phone buzzed and he apologetically checked it.

“Look,” said Wayne, “if you don’t think this is important enough for your time or whatever…”

Jezzy put his phone down. “Got things going on.”

“We’ve all got things going on,” pointed out Wayne.

They managed to get back on track in the afternoon, finding more unlikely samples to collect and finally ending up at Dave’s restaurant where the tables looked packed, vibrant and happy. Dave was also vibrant and happy. Not only was he back in his element but it was beginning to look like he’d soon be back in his element indoors too.

Wayne and Jezzy landed a table outside and Dave listened over their work. 

“That’s not a dishwasher,” said Dave of their early pieces. “Follow me.”

He got up and with everyone masked they followed him through the empty dining room and into the kitchen. Here, he introduced them to his own cleaning machine, a somewhat larger affair with the ability to use at least double the amount of water his domestic one was capable of handling.

“This is a dishwasher.”

He hit the green start button and the machine lurched into life. Wayne immediately got the rhythm of the machine as the jets of water swished regularly around inside.

“That works,” he said, voice raised slightly over the noise.

Jezzy linked up the microphone and got in close to get the sample. But then he stopped.

“You know what we need?” he said.

“What’s that?” asked Wayne.

“Mask.”

Wayne was puzzled, and he watched bewildered as Jezzy took off his own mask and put it over the microphone. He then took the recording again.

“I want it to sound authentic,” he said as the machine continued to pulse.