We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

It's Happening

from Making Space by Robby Baier

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

I wrote the original chord progression and melody in 2012 on the Optigan, a strange toy piano made by Mattel. It features an optical reader that plays back sounds from a transparent acetate disk, like a very early sampler. It is very temperamental and is always on the brink of failing. You have to start the thing and let it run for like 30 minutes for the motors to stabilize. Then, as you are recording you have to constantly mess with the speed wheel because the pitch starts wavering. I had to record the song in many little segments to make it work. Then, it makes this cool sound when you turn it on and off while a disc is in the reader. That is the sound you hear at the beginning and end of the song. I also did 2 takes of the song on the Optigan, one with the disk in the right way and one with it upside down. Upside down all the sounds play backwards! Then I lined it all up on the computer. All in all I was busy for a day getting this all to work. Fun and frustrating at the same time. I sold the thing after I finished this song. :-)

“It’s Happening” was a lyric I already found as I made my first demo of the song. It was new for me to sing in this way, more open and less affected. Years ago a band rolled into the studio called “The Top”. My friend Clemens Knieper, co-founder of the band, is an old family friend. His father Jürgen Knieper is a film composer and grew up making music with my father Michael. With Clemens I went through old recordings our father’s had made in the 70’s and it inspired both of us to explore this kind of old songwriting style that was popular in Germany during that time. You can find one of our father’s songs on The Top’s record. It is called “Diggi Dee”, sung by The Top’s Dan Stern. “It’s Happening” pays homage to the music our father’s used to make.

lyrics

On a walk in the woods
Quiet I stood by a tree
Found part of me flowing
Out in waves through the woods
Found it was good just to be
So off of my feet

Where all the world is happening
Breathing into everything
Just a soul out traveling
It’s happening, it’s happening

On my way back home
Not so alone anymore
I’d opened the door once again
Geese where up in the sky
Silently i shed a tear
Just glad to be here

Where all the world is happening
Breathing in and everything
Another soul out traveling
It’s happening, it’s happening

credits

from Making Space, released March 12, 2021
Published by Robby Baier Music LLC

Robby Baier: Vocals, back-up vocals, Optigan, Mellotron, percussion, toy piano, glockenspiel, melodica, acoustic guitar
Kenny Siegal: Cymbals
Will Bryant: Farfisa
Brendon Morrison: Bass
Lee Falco: Drums, percussion

Drums, bass, cymbals and farfisa recorded at Old Soul in Catskill, NY. Vocals, back-up vocals, Optigan, Mellotron, percussion, toy piano, glockenspiel, melodica, acoustic guitar recorded at Substation Studio in Lenox, MA

Produced by Robby Baier and Kenny Siegal. Basics engineered by Kenny Siegal at Old Soul. Overdubs engineered by Robby Baier at SubStation Lenox. Mixed by Mathew Cullen at Old Soul. Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, NJ

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Robby Baier image

Robby Baier Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Songwriter, Producer, Creator

I record, produce and write alone, with bands, with friends, for films, for you, the universe and to stay sane.

contact / help

Contact Robby Baier

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Robby Baier, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Beans joins the show to discuss his album release, "ZWAARD".

listen now