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Stephen Hillier - Open and Empty

from SONIC 001 by SonicState.com contributors

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about

Open & Empty was written in November 2020 and was inspired by a walk around the streets of Brighton where I lived and worked, as the second Covid lockdown came to an end.
The arrangement is entirely made of treated recordings of my Yamaha CP-70B electric grand piano (apart from the bass guitar). This included manipulating samples using Izotope Iris 2, creating wavetables in Xfer Records’ Serum based on single notes from the piano and resampling in Native Instruments' Form. I also used a few Boss guitar effect pedals (Dimension C, Pitch Shifter and Distortion).

These sampling methods give me a wealth of unexpected sounds, all of which retain a natural ‘movement’ due to their origin. With regular synthesis you have to consciously put this movement into a sound with modulation and so forth, but with electro mechanical and acoustic sounds it's built in.

Picky recorded his vocal remotely due to Covid restrictions. We decided not have me directing him over Zoom as it wasn’t necessary. We’ve known each other a long time so I knew he would successfully approach this song without my step by step guidance.

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Stephen Hillier is a songwriter and DJ, primarily known for his work in Dubstar, the dream pop act he founded in Newcastle upon Tyne. Steve wrote seven of the act's eight top 40 singles, and has written more than twenty hit singles for artists worldwide since the early 90s. Steve lives in Brighton.

lyrics

Walking Victoria Street tonight, my love
How should I navigate these days,
And what’s coming next?
And its the strangest kind of loss
To find the open shops, but they’re empty, so I
Took a look at the windows
Where all the money goes
Looked through the windows
To find where the money goes
And walked on

Living on Waterloo St with you, my love
We used to sleep all day, then just hang around
Now, we’ve the strangest sober pride
To find the bars are open, and not crawl inside
but If we went out we could

Look at the windows
To see where the money goes
Look through the windows
To find where the money, the money goes

It goes on
But there’s nothing for you
So stroll on
And cross the streets again

Until then, it’s
The kindest stranger’s loss
That we came across
The weirdest way to hide
Inside
It’s the closest thing to love
That we’ll ever have
So for now
Take a look at the windows
You can see where the money goes
Take a look through the windows
You’ll find where the money, all the money goes

credits

from SONIC 001, track released June 18, 2021
Vocals: Picky
Piano: Stephen Hillier
Written by Stephen Hillier

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