Quality Over Quantity: Why Not Both? The Art of Long Songs
There is an art to long songs, regardless of what your mate thinks. There is a patience in being able to craft songs that ebb and flow on a far greater level than most other music, and there is also a real sense of achievement being able to sit and listen to songs of such extravagant length from start to finish.
We’re not just talking about songs that go seven or eight minutes, despite them still being considered ‘long’. No, the length of songs that is being discussed here is the grandiose near-90 minute length of Mirror Reaper from funeral doomers BELL WITCH, or the epic Subjects from the recent OHHMS record, or the unsettling and oppressively heavy movements of BISMUTH and their Slow Dying Of The Great Barrier Reef record that saw a title track of the same name run for 32 minutes.
Songs of this epic stature play host to not just elements of regular song writing, because usually when delving into anything longer than 10 minutes there is a forgoing of structure and song writing and instead a deeper focus on atmosphere and message. Dylan Desmond, one half of BELL WITCH, opened up to us about why he finds lengthy songs so interesting. “I think many people want music to be very quick burst of emotion or energy that they can have on in the background during another activity. Everyone does this to some extent, myself included. For myself however, I thoroughly enjoy digging into an album and looking for similarities in compositional style throughout it. The more density something has the more I’m interested.”
Reaching out to Tanya Byrne of the mighty BISMUTH revealed even more into the nature of actually crafting these songs. “One of the main difficulties is getting a sense of how a song of that length fits together without becoming lost within itself. I’m very aware of trying to keep a common thread within the composition so it does not sound like several shorted songs smashed together. Once we have sections defined, we don’t have a set time on how long we play each riff. In that sense, so long as we remember what sections lead into what, we can play around with the structure and timing a little bit. I actually find it trickier to remember short songs, maybe my brain is just predisposed to long form music!”
Where long songs begin to lack the easily digested structure and throwaway concepts that the majority of music comes out with, there is a rabbit hole of discovery in its place. The inner workings of Mirror Reaper reveal a deeply emotional recovery from the sudden death of long time BELL WITCH member Adrian Guerra, playing his last recorded vocals in the closing act of the album. By building the ground work in the opening drones of the song, this unexpected segment cuts through the noise with an ethereal calm and lands with such immense emotional impact it’s impossible to imagine the same result if this was relegated to a interlude track at the end of the album.
Dylan and Tanya are both open to the difficulties that come with writing long songs, and indeed putting them out the to world. Dylan explains that “It definitely requires more attention and resolve than short songs. That simply comes with the territory of the project. It can at times be frustrating and potentially limiting, but somewhere is a whole other level of potential for expansion and potency that might be lost in a shorter piece.” There’s a slightly more light hearted approach from Tanya. “When we play festivals, we sometimes don’t have enough time to play the piece at the length it is intended. That can be slightly frustrating. The only other issue is if equipment fails 15 minutes in, it’s very obvious! Luckily that hasn’t happened too drastically to us yet. My issue is that I can’t seem to write shorter songs, so we have to always have a modified version of longer songs.”
Long songs gain a lot of eye rolls, but when they are looked at for the art they are, then there is more to be discovered than not by listening to them. Some of the most colossal and imposing riffs are found in the depths of Mirror Reaper, and some of the most intense doom on the scene at the moment comes in the closing moments of Slow Dying of The Great Barrier Reef, so other than a few extra minutes spent listening, what are you losing by missing out on these songs?
BELL WITH play The Dome, London on November 30 (sold out)
BISMUTH are currently on tour with VILE CREATURE, remaining tour dates are as follows:
29. 11- Harley Live, Sheffield
30.11 – Cardiff – The Moon
01.12 – London – DIY Space for London
02.12 – Bristol – Stag & Hounds
03.12 – Brighton – The Cowley Club
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