It's Happening from Making Space by Robby Baier

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.

Songwriter, Producer, Creator

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

robbybaier.com