‘Former Witchcraft’ Song Builder
Drummer Korum Bischoff breaks down The Phantom Years debut single ‘Former Witchcraft (featuring Mackrayz)’ from early drum idea to final mix.
It was early quarantine and I was doing a lot of walking in my neighborhood to blow off steam, deal with the stress, and have an excuse to go outside. On my solo walks I was listening to a lot of songs with heavy grooves like ‘Pardon My Freedom’ by !!! and wanted to write a song with the type of energy I was looking for on those power walks. I was looking for that feeling of driving a stealth car in the dark, fast, late at night—perhaps with a bit of a Knight Rider vibe. The song started with a drum beat.
I'm still learning how to record and mix, and at the time this was created, it was probably my second or third attempt at using my recording gear, so it was all pretty rough. I knew going into the first drum part that it would be layered, but wanted more out of the bass drum. I added an 808 bass drum groove and then recorded some big tom fills and cymbal layers.
With those parts added, the basic drum groove was complete.
To capture the feel I was going for, I knew it was going to need a muted guitar part punking away. I'm not a guitar player, but I figured I could capture a few notes in the pattern and then just loop it. I also adding a plodding bass part to keep it bopping along. The first half of this is the guitar and then the bass comes in so you can hear the difference.
Altogether, the drums, bass, and guitar sound a little something like this:
I still wanted to hear K.I.T.T. coming across the sand toward me and knew that it needed some 1980s synth sounds to capture that feeling so I added three parts. You can hear them here, layered in order, each coming in after 4 bars.
Once all that was put together, I felt like the seed was ready to head over to Drew for him to water. Here's what I sent over (hint, it's all of those parts together):
Drew did a ton on this song, including writing whole new sections, playing a ton of instruments, and writing lyrics and singing. But in this particular section at the very top of the song he added a super processed vocal part that almost sounds more like a synth (which became the intro) and two electric ukulele parts that are the same but off by an octave. Here are his parts alone:
And mixed in with rest, it sounds like this:
From there, the song took on a life of its own. The new sections were added and the basic structure was done. I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen in the middle, at first I had been thinking about a guitar solo or something. But, at the point that I was dealing with that section, I was really looking to connect with another human and we were beginning to get better COVID guidance on how to make that happen. I had met Makiah (Mackrayz) once before at an office function—I worked with his wife—and heard he rapped and suddenly that felt like it might be the right middle section to the song. I checked out a couple of songs and thought, what the heck, let's give it a try and see if it makes the cut?! Makiah came over and just laid it down like a pro—I had no idea what he'd do and it was awesome.
Once that was done, the track went to Jherek who spent time adding some glue and mixing. Originally the drums powered through the entire rap section of the song, but he cut them out for the first part and it just totally made the song and gave Makiah's section a purpose it didn't have prior. His and Calder's mix notes were the special sauce that got us to the final version of the song.
The Phantom Years
From bold and bright synthesizers, to ambient soundscapes and drones, to finger-picked electric ukulele and a grand use of strings, The Phantom Years bring a new sensibility to Art Pop influenced by their wide variety of influences and backgrounds.
Born out of a global pandemic and longtime musical friendship, The Phantom Years is a recording project of Drew Holloway and Korum Bischoff. Along the way, the duo enlisted the time and talents of Korum’s brother, Jherek, and son, Calder who breathed extra life into a project created in isolation, across bodies of water, and multiple state lines.