This week we recorded our acoustic version of “Square Hammer” by Ghost, and it went a lot differently than I expected. I started out trying to record it almost exactly like the original, just on acoustic guitar. It was sounding pretty good, and I was getting ready to film it.
Then the night before filming, I got an idea and changed the whole thing. So I ended up rushing to finish the new version, and that meant I needed Emmy’s help with the visuals. She handled all the FX for the clips, and she did an amazing job. Editing was way easier because of her work. She even made a fake newspaper called the Coyote Gazette, and we liked it so much we bought the domain. We’ll have that site up soon.
Filming Day
Filming actually went smoothly, even though I didn’t remember the chords perfectly while singing. I also thought I had all the lyrics memorized… I did not. I had to do a bunch of takes, and at one point I almost lit my hat on fire. Typical day.
We also bought candles, but they weren’t really candles. They were more like crayons. We put two in at a time just to get a decent flame. We pulled the green screen down and hung a black blanket on the wall. With Emmy’s FX it looked good. Without FX it looked kind of strange, but it worked out.
Getting Comfortable On Camera
I tried a bit more stage presence this time. I’m still getting comfortable doing that stuff on camera, but it felt better than usual. The whole thing ended up with this darker, gothy acoustic vibe that we didn’t plan, but it fit the song and was fun to play.
Extra Stuff We Did
We also created a Patreon this week. We film for hours and only use a small amount of the footage, so now the extra clips will have a place to go.
I also recorded a quick “Happy Birthday” thing that I’ll be sending around soon. We had candles ready for it, but again—they were basically crayons.