Song Saturday – Templar’s Lullaby

We have a first today: a Song Saturday with actual music. Now, don’t get too excited by the awesome notes, this is not a professional recording. I’ll concede semi-professional.
A little background first. In September of last year, I mentored a game-designer-to-be at ENDI (École Nationale du Divertissement Interactif or, for you English folks, National School of Digital Entertainment). Besides taking care of my intern, who has now grown to full-fledged game designer, the sound designer came to know I acted and sang, and asked if I would like to help him. They needed a few lines and a bunch of war cries recorded for the main character of their hack-and-slash student game, Templar 13.

Abigail, main character of Templar 13, has my voice!

We recorded everything in one session out of the two scheduled at the studio. We decided to use the second one to record a theme song for the game.
The sound designer provided me with the music he had planned for the credits and right away, it shaped itself in my mind to become a lullaby a mother would sing to her child long after the game’s events happened. The lullaby resulting from Abigail’s heroic acts.
I wrote the whole song in about four hours and we recorded it in two takes, plus another couple of takes for the backvocals. I like it a lot though I would fix a couple of notes if I could record it again. Nothing major though.

You can listen to the song here. It is not the usual MySpace I use for the blog but it’s still the first song on the list and you just have to hit Play. The other songs are old a cappella stuff recorded with a bad microphone. Don’t pay attention to them I’ll have better versions up in the coming weeks. 😉

Here are the lyrics of the Templar’s Lullaby:

Templar’s Lullaby

Sleep now, my dear
Forget every fright
Stars shine bright and clear
Slumber’s safe tonight

Surrender all fear
No danger’s in sight
My love, warm and near
Hugs you ’til dawn’s light

Are you all tucked in?
Yeah!
Are you sure?
Yeah!
Ok then! I’ll tell you the story your grandpa used to tell me.
He’d start like this.

Come ’round the fire
And harken my tale
Of times most dire
When evil prevailed

The crown lost its jewel
In ventures so vain
Its wearer grew cruel
To smoke out new gain

And then rose a warrior
To right all the wrongs
Not the usual esquire
But still worthy of songs

Caleb!
Be a good little templar now and stop teasing your sister!
I won’t finish the story…
Now, where was I?

Raised in the monks’ parlor
She traded wedding bands
For a strong suit of armor
And the lead of divine hands

Footsteps of her father
Long lost in the night
Pushed her ahead and further
‘Til sacred Templar Knight

She faced some fearsome threats
Cruel minors and crown’s army
But she’d never forfeit
Her quest for the land’s safety

Legend has it that since Abigail walked the kingdom
Every time a king’s about to do wrong
The wind sings “hack and slash, slash and hack”
*Children gasp.*
In warning that she might still strike back.

She fought for her honor
At the Templars’ last stand
The restored The Order
And died making it grand

Let me hear the motto!
“Templars fear neither demon nor man.”
Good job!

Sleep now, my dear
Forget every fright
Stars shine bright and clear
Slumber’s safe tonight

Surrender all fear
No danger’s in sight
My love, warm and near
Hugs you ’til dawn’s light

Sleep tight…