I had yet another fairly productive weekend and I'm happy to report that I'm pretty much down to only 6 tasks left on my agenda for updates/fixes/additions to the "jazz machine" album. Admittedly, one of those tasks is fairly large (redoing the drums on "Tonight...") but on the flipside another of those tasks is extremely small. I'm thinking I'll have the album completely wrapped up next weekend but I can say, as of this moment, the album is "together", meaning that all the main melodies, lines, riffs, etc., have now been placed. I'm basically now in repair and fix mode and quickly moving towards mixing mode. I guess you could say the album is already finished since it now sounds like an actual album and it's what I'd call listenable.
Monday, July 26, 2021
Ready to Move On
Monday, July 19, 2021
In the Trenches
Wrapping up an album is always a weird feeling. You kind of get so attached to the work that it's sometimes hard to imagine NOT working on it anymore, and yet on the other hand it can also be a relief to not have to tinker with it any more. I guess it depends upon the project, and for me specifically it tends to be about how long the project has been sitting in the computer, waiting for completion.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Getting Close
I had a pretty productive weekend despite the distraction of Wimbledon. It did help a bit that it was Djokovic in the Men's Final, someone that I don't have quite as much interest in watching win yet another major title, so I certainly wasn't glued to the television.
I dare say that the "jazz machine" album is getting really close at this point. You'll notice I'm still putting that name in quotes and it's basically because I'm still toying with other names (I've got about 10 of them at this point). My biggest task between last weekend and this weekend was to get the drums nailed down for the song "I Can't Bear to Look In Your Eyes", the last track I really have to work on, and I clocked in at least 8+ hours on that very task last weekend. I did a bit more tweaking this weekend but probably only clocked another hour or so specifically on the drums. 9 hours on getting an EZDrummer track nailed down is anything but, well, "easy", as they say.
"...Can't Bear..." remained my focus this weekend, though, and I finally got around to flushing out the bridge portion which is basically a completely different minute and half of music wedged in between the two main parts of the track. I'm pretty pleased with the result, and I even got to add acoustic guitar to it using the new Breedlove C25/W which is slowly but surely sounding a bit better after hanging out in a humidified room for 2+ weeks. The song is really starting to take shape and it's clocking in right around 7 minutes total.
My official/unofficial personal "deadline", or 'year of working on it' marker for the "jazz machine" album, is August 7th. At this point, I actually think I may make it and be done with the album since it leaves me about 4 more weekends total. If I don't make it, it'll be extremely close either way and I guess it's not really something to kill myself over. My real point was that I wanted to prove to myself that I COULD actually get an entire album written/recorded, etc., within one year's worth of time. I've said it a thousand times but I'm pretty sure that, if I didn't have to work full time for a living, I could get most of my albums done within 1 month...but alas that's not my reality.
I'm entertaining the idea of revisiting my "Foreshadowing" instrumental album post this work being done. "Foreshadowing" was the album that I started working on in 2000 right after "Lost Weekend" and simply abandoned because, like most things that I started back then, it was just a tad too ambitious at the time. I definitely have the technology to work on it now so that may just become my next target project. It would be great for that one to finally see the light of day since I think there's some really interesting experimental pieces on there.
I also listened to an episode of WTF with Danny Elfman about a week ago and was shocked to hear that he and I have more in common than I knew. He mentioned how the worst thing in the world to him was playing the same song every night in his band Oingo Boingo, and that he basically can't even play the same songs over and over. I've been saying this forever myself and it would drive me nuts when the band's I was in would want to rehearse the same song over and over. It never failed but I would almost always play it worse and worse every time and it was never intentional. I don't have ADD or anything like that but I just can't do things in this manner and it just bores my beyond words. I can't even imagine being someone like Tom Petty who was basically forced to play the same 12 hits night after night, year after year. It just sounds like pure torture me.
I'm slowly but surely getting closer to that "first listen" of the "jazz machine" album all the way through, from start to finish, burned onto a CD and played on my stereo system. I can't deny that I'm incredibly curious to hear it and quite excited to share it with others. I'm hoping it's my best work to date but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Them "Fuses..."
I'm happy to report that I've been relatively productive thus far this weekend. I have a long list of small tasks to accomplish on the "jazz machine" recording and I'm simply making my way down the list little by little. The list entails tasks such as trying out small guitar parts, keyboard bits, momentary effects, drum beats, and so on.
Thursday, July 1, 2021
Keep Your Mouth Shut
I should apparently never make a comment like "...provided disaster doesn't happen...". Besides the first week of June, the rest of the month became a complete wash due to some personal things that came up that wiped out all productivity. I actually didn't even pick up a guitar for 3 weeks. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that I've apparently gotten much better at the instrument for I can attest that 10 years ago, had I not played for 3 weeks, I pretty much wouldn't be able to play at all and it would have taken me more than a month to get back to sounding semi-decent. These days I still sound pretty good overall even after not touching the instrument for 3 whole weeks. I mean, wow.
I'm hoping to once again have a productive next couple of days. It's a bit challenging with Wimbledon going on but I'll do my best to balance it. Few people know this but I actually got into tennis due to recording since I used to always record over long holiday weekends, and most televised tennis tournaments take place on those weekends. I'd take a break from recording, put the TV on, and then get sucked into 30 minutes of a match. It was always a great distraction.
I also just pulled the trigger on yet another Breedlove C25, circa 2005-ish? The person selling it was wanting to get rid of it asap and offered it to me at a price I simply couldn't refuse. I have absolutely no need, room, etc. for this instrument, and it's not even the model I was looking for. Sigh. I get the feeling that I'm going to be doing a lot of buying and selling over the next couple of years, all in search of the perfect acoustic arsenal.
Speaking of, the guitar market is absolutely insane. I mean, I thought with COVID hitting last year that everybody would be selling amazing instruments at rock bottom prices. It's been the polar opposite overall with people jacking up prices to unbelievable amounts. It used to be very rare that I'd see a guitar for sale for $4995; these days, I frequently see guitars for sale for $12995, and even weirder they sell right away.
Well, that's enough rambling for now. Here's to a pleasant holiday weekend!