Synthetic Jazz - The Otten Family (instrumental music)

Details

Description

*Because we add a lot of sonic layers, please listen with headphones to get the full effect.*

We started recording music as a family in Summer 2024. The goal is to play a synthesizer keyboard or an acoustic instrument to find a little nugget of a song idea and then workshop the structure, add rhythm, and layer in sounds from the Roland JV-1010 synth module. This is our fourth piece from Summer 2025 and is the fastest we recorded from nugget to finished product (about 3 days).

John, late one evening, found these two chords he liked on the piano (Fm7 - B♭7) and also had the feel for the chord changes. We began working on it the next day and John also found that he liked the chords with the SYNTH/PAD 64 sound as well. Then Harv helped come up with the main elements of the drum part, including the idea to follow the piano at certain points and hit the snare on the "and" after 2, instead of always hitting the standard 2 and 4. The verse drums are more standard, but once we found that "and of 2" drum feel for the choruses, we also used it for a breakdown section (1:42). Over that drum part, it was fun to add all the layers from the song, including some guitar (Sam playing SYNTH TALK on the DigiTech RP200 pedal; and he based the guitar riff on the same intervals and same rhythms as the main piano theme, whereas the piano goes syncopating up from F to A♭ to B♭, the guitar goes up in the same rhythm but from C to E♭ to F, the same pattern but a perfect fourth lower) and our first appearance of John's tuba (2:06), which is then featured throughout the final chorus.

Sam and Harvey both worked together to record the drums. Sam and John both added a few ideas for supplemental synth sounds. Sam and Maggie recorded several layers of claps. The repetitive riff to end (2:53) is inspired by Josh Klinghoffer, guitarist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who similarly used a three-note pattern in "Ethiopia" and continued repeating it until the downbeat came back around.

The outro (3:03) is based on an alternative version of the song that John and Harv played live, using the main chords (Fm7 and B♭7) but putting them into a slow swing style. We also felt like having a sort of "song after the song" was an homage to one of John's favorites, "Mr Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra.

Original Demo Ideas for This Piece: coming soon

Footnote: The original photo was taken at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, Spain, July 2025. We of course altered it for a bit of fun.