I Lan Road (pronounced ee lahn) came to me on a train to I lan City, where I had a job teaching english once a week. This job paid pretty good, and included my train fare.
The I lan line runs along the ocean on the northeast coast of Taiwan. That day, the waves were “rolling in so rough”, literally. I looked out to my left and saw the “turtle mountain island”, aka Gwei San Dao. That sight really impressed me.
Also, the train was chugging along at a pretty good clip, which inspired the drum pattern you hear throughout the song. The line ” I can be your man if you want me to” has a double meaning; it could be romantic, directed at a woman, or spiritual, directed at God. It signifies the act of commitment after being awakened by such beauty.
I went home and worked out the rhythm on Hammerhead, a freeware drum program. The piano and bass are all on the Korg 01W synth, along with some extra cymbals and drum fills.
I recorded 3 guitars, as I remember. There is the basic strum, the backpedaling riff in the middle, and the solo, all done thru a Zoom 505 pedal. I did the vocals thru a live type mic, not a recording one. I never use a recording mic for vocals, for several reasons, one being that on that day, i didn’t have an exactly soundproof recording environment. Live mics tend to reject sounds farther back and to the sides (otherwise they’d pick up the whole band and would be useless).
Everything went in one pass. I didn’t “MIDI-fy” the synth tracks, except for the drum pattern. All the tracks went into audio live. The guitar solo I left as is, though it could be better. The feel was right, and sometimes,that’s the thing.
So there you have it: I lan Road. Enjoy.^^
randy lin guitar 