(September 2018 "Something New") - "Sentinel"

As you may know, Joe Dorsey and I have been working on writing video game music (we already posted one of these songs, “Sky Chase”, here on Patreon). It's been a great way to keep our songwriting chops up while we're rehearsing for shows and preparing to release our new album!

As we’ve been working on these songs, I’ve begun to feel like some of them have the potential to be Tea Club songs. "Sentinel" is one of them.

This song actually goes back to when we were writing the songs for our 2015 album Grappling. I usually write my songs on the guitar, but at that time I was having a lot of fun writing songs on the keyboard. The keyboard I was using was this old 1997 Yamaha with a built in recording feature. It could record up to 6 tracks, so I would usually start by creating a drum beat, which I would then added a bassline to, and then melodies and whatever else I felt like adding. That's how this song was written. I called the song “Sentinel”, because it reminded me of the giant mutant killing robots called Sentinels from the X-Men ;) From this same period, I also came up with a good amount of “Dr. Abraham” from Grappling. I plan on posting that original all keyboard demo here on Patreon too!

When me and Joe decided to start writing video game music together, I remembered "Sentinel" and sent it to him. Joe liked it and decided to take a  a stab it his own version of the song. He changed the sounds to be more sophisticated and added additional melodies and percussion all over. He also added a proper ending. The last 15 seconds are pure Joe Dorsey.

This recording is only 1 minute and 45 seconds long, but I fell in love with how it turned out. While listening to it, I started to have tons of ideas for vocals and guitar and even live drums. We’ve been throwing around the idea of releasing an EP shortly after we release our next full length album, using some of the songs that didn’t fit with the album. Those songs seem to have a bit of an electronic edge to them, à la Radiohead. "Sentinel" would fit perfectly on there. I think this little jam has a bright future.

What do you guys think? Are you digging these video game tunes? What would you think of a Tea Club "Electronic Music EP"? Leave a comment below and let us know!

And as always, thank you SO MUCH for your patronage!!

-Dan McGowan