Siren’s Song, the song

In life, you snooze, you lose.

That’s one thing I learned early on in high school. If you don’t ask out that cute girl, some other guy will. Then you get stuck with who’s left.

I got smart about babes right away. Unfortunately, I didn’t apply this mindset to life until much later.

I always had musical passion. Even in high school, I loved Metal and had a soft spot for Romantic era Classical music. I started off with Vivaldi then eventually worked my way into Romanticism.

Mom loved the same music I love today. She was ahead of me.

She played Chopin and Beethoven on the piano.

At the time, I thought I was musically retarded. I played Chopsticks. Yes, I’m sure you’ve heard that song before.

I moved out a year after high school and that was that. Picked up guitar, got into all these failing bands, and went nowhere. I was simply too late to enjoy the fruits of the Metal scene. It was already on the decline.

I got good though. Really good. I learned that I wasn’t musically retarded. You simply have to practice, practice, and practice some more to get good at stuff. That’s something I didn’t understand back when I played piano.

Decades later

By the time I got into orchestration, Mom was already dead. She never learned how good I got. Nor did she ever know I painted. nor did she know the Mrs and I made it into the upper middle class.

You snooze, you lose.

So here I am, composing nocturnes and lullabies (of which you’ll hear later this year) on the piano and she had no idea I got this good.

I took so damn long to do anything. I wasted decades of my life doing nothing, including years doing hallucinogenic drugs trying to “find myself.” I didn’t know that a man doesn’t “find himself.” He makes himself. I learned that later.

Siren’s Song

So I dedicated this piece to her. The piano part is very simple. Here it is:

Siren's Song piano
Siren’s Song © 2021 Roman R for opiumtales.com

It was a blast recording it. In the studio, our band consisted of Randy Burk on drums, Nick Bellabucci on bass guitar, and me on guitars and synths.

Then we hired an Argentinian Classically trained Metal singer to sing the opera part named Inés Vera-Ortíz. We found Inés online and mixed in her part.

Inés Vera-Ortíz
Inés Vera-Ortíz

Then the fun part. I had to compose a string quartet over the band and vocals.

So I noticed there was one mistake in the song. One measure went one count too long. Oops.

Yeah, I got carried away with the feedback and added an additional quarter note. Too funny. That said, I kind of like it. So I simply compensated by putting in a 5/4 measure.

Maria, who I almost always use for strings, brought together her string quartet team and added the string quartet.

To get that sea sound, Randy ran their string quartet thru tube amps with reverb. Yes, those are actual strings. They almost sound like synths. Then near the end when the string players do that kind of musical breakdown part, he added delay. Sounds pretty ethereal.

Now, if you don’t know what a Siren is, it’s a cursed creature from Greek mythology. She’s a beautiful woman with a voice so captivating that her singing causes sailors to go mad and crash their ships into the rocks. As far as I know, Odysseus and his crew are the only sailors to survive the Siren song. You’ll have to read the Odyssey to find out how they did it as I ain’t gonna say it here.

Roxy posed for the album art.

Opium Tales – Siren’s Song

And there you have it. A complete single.

My pinup art is highly profitable. My music is a money pit.

But I’ll never stop playing music. An artist has to follow his passion, no matter what. It’s his curse. Sometimes the reward comes after his death.

I got a purely Classical EP coming out late this year too. I never stop working. It of course helps to have three beautiful muses.

Only 99c, my friends. I hope to get some sales on this one as it’s an ethereal piece.

Oh one more thing – my Producer doesn’t believe in the volume wars (also called the loudness wars). This is mastered for high end speakers so turn it up!

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