the first
it's 12 past midnight on Saturday, April 4 and i'm up twittering on the audio files i recorded about a month ago in LA. chop, chop. that wasn't me urging myself to go faster, btw. in fact i'm just chopping up audio and moving the bits around to compensate for my inability to play with a metronome. studios take time (and money) out of one's hands. they also hide what goes on when making a recorded work.
my purpose in creating this blog is to talk about the process that goes into creating a record; to give my processes some transparency and expose them as they come up; to help and learn from others who aspire and do the same. i'm not sure who will want to read this which is to say i don't know my audience. so for that i apologize but on this matter i'll reference Andrew Bird who wrote a series of articles for the New York Times as he recorded/completed his most recent work. i read one or two of these articles...but i'm a musician. his influence is noted and an-noted.
so i'll begin here, somewhere in the middle of creating this record and try to explain my choices with as much clarity as possible. understand it's like starting in the middle of a novel because i have been recording songs my life: falling in love with a bit of melody or lyric i have created and deciding that it needs to be heard by others. it's a bit of hubris on my part- i recognize that. who am i to decide what people will think is good/bad/ugly? short answer- I DON'T KNOW. abbreviated long answer- SELF AWARENESS (i guess i'll save that for another blog). in any case, i'm HERE. i've made the decision to start and now the wheels of the machine are turning again.
at this moment i have 8 songs that are well-structured enough to record. these are the 8 audio files mentioned in the twittering above. by "well-structured" i mean they have a start and finish and i know what happens in the middle. they all have strong, memorable melodies (at least to me). some of them have complete lyrics. others just have phrases and sketches. all of them have a "concept" which i can articulate after 3 margaritas. under the confluence of these factors, i believe one can assemble a recorded piece of music.
personally i like not knowing all the lyrics before the singing-recording starts. it leaves for space and spontaneity which is essential when singing the same phrase 1000 times to get it right. i'm working with Kaeylea Van Keith on the project. she's the producer. that means she's the one who get frustrated when i don't have all the lyrics done or i haven't written out all the chords for her. it's good to have her influence: she keeps me on task and it provides the necessary focus to my scattered-ness.
in my audio window at the moment is a song called "Colored Trees." a very Nick Drake-esque folk piece with an arpeggiated guitar as the fundamental part. unfortunately, i have played this part clumsily and it needs fixing. so that's what i'm doing. fixing, hammering, chiseling. it takes HOURS to complete this because even the faintest of artifacts can make the final product sound like shit. the point being that if the foundation isn't solid and sturdy, the rest of the structure can't stand. so without further delay, i'll get back to my woodshop.
my purpose in creating this blog is to talk about the process that goes into creating a record; to give my processes some transparency and expose them as they come up; to help and learn from others who aspire and do the same. i'm not sure who will want to read this which is to say i don't know my audience. so for that i apologize but on this matter i'll reference Andrew Bird who wrote a series of articles for the New York Times as he recorded/completed his most recent work. i read one or two of these articles...but i'm a musician. his influence is noted and an-noted.
so i'll begin here, somewhere in the middle of creating this record and try to explain my choices with as much clarity as possible. understand it's like starting in the middle of a novel because i have been recording songs my life: falling in love with a bit of melody or lyric i have created and deciding that it needs to be heard by others. it's a bit of hubris on my part- i recognize that. who am i to decide what people will think is good/bad/ugly? short answer- I DON'T KNOW. abbreviated long answer- SELF AWARENESS (i guess i'll save that for another blog). in any case, i'm HERE. i've made the decision to start and now the wheels of the machine are turning again.
at this moment i have 8 songs that are well-structured enough to record. these are the 8 audio files mentioned in the twittering above. by "well-structured" i mean they have a start and finish and i know what happens in the middle. they all have strong, memorable melodies (at least to me). some of them have complete lyrics. others just have phrases and sketches. all of them have a "concept" which i can articulate after 3 margaritas. under the confluence of these factors, i believe one can assemble a recorded piece of music.
personally i like not knowing all the lyrics before the singing-recording starts. it leaves for space and spontaneity which is essential when singing the same phrase 1000 times to get it right. i'm working with Kaeylea Van Keith on the project. she's the producer. that means she's the one who get frustrated when i don't have all the lyrics done or i haven't written out all the chords for her. it's good to have her influence: she keeps me on task and it provides the necessary focus to my scattered-ness.
in my audio window at the moment is a song called "Colored Trees." a very Nick Drake-esque folk piece with an arpeggiated guitar as the fundamental part. unfortunately, i have played this part clumsily and it needs fixing. so that's what i'm doing. fixing, hammering, chiseling. it takes HOURS to complete this because even the faintest of artifacts can make the final product sound like shit. the point being that if the foundation isn't solid and sturdy, the rest of the structure can't stand. so without further delay, i'll get back to my woodshop.
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