FAQs About the Portal 2 Song
Much to my delight and relief, people seem to be enjoying the song I did for Portal 2. There’s no question that Still Alive was a hard act to follow, not necessarily because the song was so great, but more because the overall experience of the game turned it into such a well-known and widely appreciated cultural moment. Thank goodness I didn’t totally blow it!
I’m getting lots of questions on Twitter and in emails, so this is an attempt to answer some of them in one fell swoop. Ready?
Can I buy this song anywhere?
Not as of this writing, and I don’t know when you will be able to. The song and the recording are owned by Valve, so I’m not at all involved with what happens to it next. I happen to know that they’re planning on putting out a sound track, more than likely it will be on iTunes and Amazon and other places just like the sound track for the first Portal. But I don’t know when that will be – I’ve heard them say “soon.”
What about Rock Band? A karaoke version? Source tracks for remixes?
See above – not up to me. I hope that Valve will do all these things though.
This is under Creative Commons like all your other stuff right? So I cover this song? Create a parody? Make a video?
It is not under Creative Commons. Technically you would have to get permission from Valve to do something with it. In the past they’ve not seemed to mind all the crazy things people did with Still Alive, so if I had to guess (and I do), I would say that as long as you weren’t profiting from it in some way, they’d generally be supportive of fan-created stuff. But this is not legal advice, and I certainly can’t give you (or refuse you) permission to do anything.
Are you going to release your own version with you singing, the way you did with Still Alive?
I might. In fact I have permission to do that from Valve. I’m not yet sure what form that would take – the new song is so much more dependent on the arrangement and all the electronics that I haven’t quite figured out another way to make it work. But you’ll be sure to know when that happens, because I will tell you. I am finishing up a new recording of Still Alive that I did in the studio with the new band, with guest vocalist Sara Quin from Tegan and Sara, keyboards from Loser’s Lounge superstar Joe McGinty, and professional thereminista Dorit Chrysler. That version will go on the new album, I don’t know yet if there will also be a version of the Portal 2 song.
Are you going to play this song live at shows?
Eventually. For now I think it’s a little too close to when the game was released. It’s debatable whether or not the song contains actual spoilers, but it is certainly true that hearing it outside the context of the game will be a different experience. So I want to make sure I’ve given people plenty of time to buy and play the game before I start forcing it on them at shows. I don’t know exactly when that will be, sort of going to play it by ear.
Did you play the game before you wrote the song?
No, they created the game based on a song I made up based on nothing. <--joke. Yes of course! I spoke at great length with the writers as they were finishing things up, and I had an early version of the game that I was able to play through. I thought a lot about GlaDOS and her new experiences, what she was experiencing in this story, and there is a lot of new stuff that comes to light. Much later when it is less spoilery I can talk with more specificity about what things mean and what I think is going on in her head. But certainly I tried very hard to hit the moving target that was the story of the game, and a big part of that was playing it - it's really the only way to know how the player is going to feel by the end, what they'll know, what they'll expect, what will make them go aha!
Did you write any other music for the game?
No. The song that plays through that radio you find is by The National, all the great turret stuff is by Valve composer Mike Morasky.
How did you make this recording?
I wrote it on guitar, made some scratch tracks of synths and drums and things, sort of worked it out from there. The opening musical idea was inspired by a drum loop that Flansburgh sent me, part of a giant "inspiration pack" of drum loops to help kick start some songwriting for my album. It just seemed to fit what I was doing with the Portal song, so I tweaked it and stuffed it in. I took a demo version with my scratch vocal to Valve to go into a studio there and record Ellen McLain singing it. We did the processing of her voice back in the Valve offices. I took that track and all my instrument tracks back to the NYC studio where I had been working on my album, and John Flansburgh and Pat Dillett and I messed with the arrangement. So really it's the same producer (Flansburgh) and sound engineer (Dillett) team I've been working with on the new album. We took out a track here and there, changed a sound here and there, mixed, EQ'd. It was Flansburgh's idea to drop out the instruments on "Oh, did you think I meant you?" which still gives me shivers.
I think that's most of the main questions, but I'll update here if I come across more. Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone, I feel very lucky to once again be involved with something as wonderful as Portal 2.
Thing a Week 31: Just as Long as Me I wrote this song for a…
Thing a Week 31: Just as Long as Me
I wrote this song for a documentary a friend is working on about being tall (and in case he is reading this: yes, I certainly do owe him a phone call). Some people fake the funk, me, I fake the bluegrass. And this feller in this song, you see, he’s extremely tall and he would like to find a tall woman. I like the vocals and I’m pretty proud of the word play in the chorus, but I think this song could be much improved by the addition of a little fiddle – any bluegrass fiddle players out there?
PRESENT DAY JOCO SAYS: It would be interesting to track the “day late and dollar short” index of the songs week to week from the original Thing a Week against the same measurement for these Redux posts. I am late a lot! It’s touring that does it to me. Short bursts of travel preceded by a stretch of planning and followed by a period of recovery and catching up. It amounts to a black hole, a dark, timeless void where I cease to exist – I become merely a shadow that smells like an airplane and only wants to fall asleep in front of the hotel television. In case it isn’t clear (it isn’t), this post was meant to happen 6 days ago, so if I want to get back on schedule I will post again tomorrow. Blargh.
ANYWAY. This last week (that is to say, last Friday’s “this last week”) was when Hodgman’s Apple ads started running. I thought I was becoming famous, but what happened to John as a result of these ads was another thing entirely: TV famous, very different from Internet famous. It was thrilling to watch, and I was very happy for my friend. Did I really call Justin Long “the guy from Jeepers Creepers 2”? Yes, I did.
Those were heady days! Code Monkey Tshirts first went on sale this week at CafePress, the beginning of my merchandise empire. MySpace was still a thing. And I, well, I failed to write a new song. Just as Long as Me was from the reserve tank, I think that I may have added a verse and tweaked a lyric or two, but it was mostly a repurposing of something I had already made. No excuse this time. Maybe too busy, er, watching Apple ads? Dunno.
I would later acquire a fiddle part from some kind internet person – I can’t locate that post right now and am too lazy to keep looking. It helped a lot with the bluegrass flavor. You may be wondering if I play the banjo this quickly. The answer is yes, for short stretches of time, like Wile E. Coyote running in the air right before he falls off the cliff. Thanks to digital editing capabilities, it almost sounds like a guy playing the banjo.
The song is a little too gimmicky for my taste now, I’m not as interested in writing these kinds of songs as I once was. There are some good jokes in there though. And YE GODS do I love three part bluegrass harmony, I don’t know why exactly. It’s like, the way my brain is wired, bluegrass harmonies are a direct line to the very center of pure musical beauty to me. Sometimes just the sound of it makes me tear up. Probably a tumor.
I also wrote an Al Jolson style number about being tall for the same documentary, and likely I used the same jokes there too. And the same banjo. Not sure if he ever finished that thing, I should ask…
You can find more info on this song, a store where you can listen to everything, and also other stuff at jonathancoulton.com.
Milwaukee Ticket Giveaway
UPDATE (This contest has ended – the secret time was 2:37 PM and the winner is twitter user @baddox. Congratulations @baddox, email me through that contact link up there and I’ll get you your sweet delicious free tickets to the Milwaukee show. I’m sorry the rest of you didn’t win, I wish everything could be free all the time to everyone and the world was made of candy!) END UPDATE
In an effort to nearly DOUBLE the size of the audience for the Milwaukee show this Sunday, I’m giving away a pair of tickets to one lucky winner. I stole this contest mechanism from Scalzi, and I love it because it demands practically zero work from me! So here’s the deal:
I have chosen a time of day today that is secret because it is KNOWN ONLY TO ME. To enter this contest you must simply @ reply to me (I am @jonathancoulton) on Twitter and include the hashtag #JoCoInMilwaukee. The person whose tweet is tagged with the time closest to my secret time without going over will win the tickets. Times will all be in my time zone here in NYC. You may give away one or both tickets to someone else if you win. You may enter more than once but please no bots – I will know if you are using some sort of trickery because my reply stream will be flooded with minute-by-minute replies from you all day long.
In case there is something dumb this contest – my final decision is final even if it’s totally unfair, I am the boss of you on any media known or hereafter devised, throughout the known universe in perpetuity, etc. etc. I will hear no bellyaching!
It is currently 9:41 in New York City. The winning time is some minute after that. Go!
JoCo Update #Umpteen
Just sent this to the mailing list (but you already know most of it don’t you?):
Hello! This is an update about where I will be, when I will be there, and what I will be doing.
First! Good news for those of you in the Midwest: I’m bringing the band to Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee. That’s right, band PLUS Paul and Storm, which is practically a show with TWO ORCHESTRAS! Did I mention Madison and Milwaukee? Because those were recently added to this trip and I just wanted to make sure I had mentioned them. Great!
Second! More good news for some of you in the UK: I’m going to go to there! Details still in the works, and tickets will be on sale soon, but for now I can tell you Bristol June 9, Manchester June 10, and London June 11. Plus incredible bonus city which is not in the UK, Amsterdam, on Monday June 13. Watch the Twitter and the mailing list, more announcements about those gigs coming soon.
Third! Album! Yes! Release date is not 2013, despite what you may have heard. Release date is more likely some time this Summer. You will know soon.
Chicago, IL – Park West
Friday April 22 at 8PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/gs4LAh
Band show with Paul and Storm
Madison, WI – Majestic Theater
Saturday April 23 at 8PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/eJIBfq
Band show with Paul and Storm
Milwaukee, WI – Shank Hall
Sunday April 24 at 8PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/ebvI0p
Band show with Paul and Storm
Minneapolis, MN – Guthrie Theater
Monday April 25 at 7:30PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/f6MJfc
Acoustic show with Paul and Storm
Richmond, VA – Hat Factory
Thursday May 5 at 7:30PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/fu7Kjp
Acoustic show with Paul and Storm
Alexandria, VA – The Birchmere
Friday May 6 at 7:30 PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/ihg2kZ
Acoustic show with Paul and Storm
Annapolis, MD – Ram’s Head Tavern
Saturday May 7 at 8:30 PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/eiaYUx
Acoustic show with Paul and Storm
Ottawa, ON – Gladstone Theater
Friday May 27 at 8 PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/eXkbgw
Acoustic show with Paul and Storm
Toronto, ON – The Mod Club
Saturday May 28 at 8 PM
Tickets: http://bit.ly/gUDgGt
Acoustic show with Paul and Storm
That’s all I got. Happy tax day, suckers.
-j
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