{"id":183519,"date":"2023-03-16T05:07:33","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T11:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/errr-magazine.com\/?p=183519"},"modified":"2025-08-15T10:59:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:59:57","slug":"little-sable-point-lighthouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/errr-magazine.com\/english\/little-sable-point-lighthouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Sable Point Lighthouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is the origin of this song?<\/strong>
\nI’ve been fascinated by lighthouses since I was a kid growing up in California, & living in Chicago as an adult man with a driver’s license, I often drive around the perimeter of Lake Michigan into Wisconsin & Michigan where there are dozens of beautiful old lighthouses to see.<\/p>\n

When I’m writing songs, I often start with a simple drum loop & a few chords & see what kind of feeling they give me. The lyrics to this song developed almost subconsciously as I repeated the patterns that became the song’s structure. The rhythm of the song reminded me of the revolving lamp of a lighthouse, so that became the central image of the song.<\/p>\n

I chose a real lighthouse in Michigan for the title because I liked the way the words Little Sable Point Lighthouse sounded, & I thought it might be interesting to write about a lighthouse that had been recently deactivated from the perspective of a person who remembered when the light was still in use. The two halves of the lyrics represent a before & after.<\/p>\n

How was the recording session?<\/strong>
\nLike most Advance Base material, I recorded this song in my basement on a Tascam 424 MKIII cassette 4-track. I recorded this song quickly using first takes during one of the rare instances when I had the house to myself. The tracks (sampler, drum machine, keyboards, Omnichord & vocals) were recorded one at a time using the same tube pre-amp, an Electro-Harmonix 12AY7 Mic Pre. Once the recordings were completed, I digitized the individual tracks & several submixes to finish the mixing & editing in Audacity. My friend Matt Bachmann mastered the song.<\/p>\n

What were the references, influences or musical inspiration?<\/strong>
\nI don’t recall if there was a particular piece of music that inspired this song, but I had the Peter Weir film Picnic at Hanging Rock in mind when I was finishing the lyrics. The song is based on a Joan Lindsay book that I haven’t read, but I love how haunting & ambiguous that Peter Weir’s adaptation is, & I wanted to give my song a similar creepiness, but with the optimism of persevering with unanswered questions that might have once seemed unbearable.<\/p>\n