Student Song About Ants!

I’ve got something special to share in this entry, this is a song written, produced and recorded by one of my keyboard students, the über-talented Sappho Hansen-Smythe, who is studying music theatre performance at Saint Lawrence College here in Brockville.

It’s a song about love gone wrong, using a species of parasitic fungus (cordyceps) which takes control of the behavior of the ants it infects as an analogy. Also known as the “zombie fungus”, it causes the infected ant to find a spot in the forest with the right temperature and humidity for the fungus to grow when the ant dies.

It was written using my “six easy steps” to compose and record a song, which I teach at my Technology Assisted Music Creation workshops.

Sappho wrote the lyrics, produced the music in Logic Pro X, and recorded the vocals using an Apex 181 condenser mic. I just did a bit of audio post-production and editing in Logic and Reason 7.1.

You can hear more of her music here: https://soundcloud.com/sappho-hansen-smythe

Hope you enjoy the following excerpt of the song!

“Ants” Excerpt by Sappho Hansen-Smythe (©2014)

“Ants” Excerpt Lyrics
By Sappho Hansen-Smythe

I recall
Walking through the halls
Believing what I was told

But no more
Will this game of yours
Keep it’s hold

And the ants
Are so much like us
You’re carrying
The cordyceps
Into our heads

To the queen
Our mother goddess.
You’re carrying
The cordyceps
And loving the dead

And the ants
Are so much like us
You’re carrying
The cordyceps
Up to the trees

And to think
That I’d trust a soldier
Although the spores
Can be ignored
I won’t let them near me