Music / Addendum
On Memorial Day I got a new guitar. Now let's see...that was...May 26th. It is now June 20th, and I've written two new songs with it, using my Marshall to wail on it at all hours of the night.
One of the songs is pretty damn good. I wrote it a couple days ago and recorded it, as I am apt to do these days, both audio and a separate video.
Just 3 years ago, my band was struggling with the recording process (and our own plethora of demons). We were together for two years, and never wrote more than 10 songs. Sure, we played a bunch of gigs, and we were good enough together where we could take any of those songs, jam on it and make it work.
Recording was a lost cause - we were trying to replicate our live feel, trying every device we could get our hands on. We ended up getting a digital 8 track that used special discs to record - and special meant impossible to find. Luckily it came packaged with a few that we re-used over and over again. But no matter how we recorded it - either live as a band or track by track - nothing worked.
The best recording we ended up with was a soundboard rip from a gig at the Webster Underground in Hartford, Connecticut. I'm pretty sure we were playing with Mass Hysteria. It was Halloween, and we had a good crowd that night. I was in a evasive mood, as usual.
I got the master, tracked it and copied it for each band member.
3 or so years later, I record myself on a handheld device that weighs about a pound. I can film myself with the same device if I want. If I jam with a full band, I can put it on a shelf and record live, drums and all. Then I take the files, clean them up a bit, and put them online. This takes all of 20 minutes.
My current band is called Low-hanging fruit. We record every time we are together. New songs, every time we are together. There's no waiting, no bullshit. We make them up and put them out. We've already got one 47 minute CD done, and that was from one night. We have five of the songs on our myspace page (okay - four. one of them is more of a sketch). That's more than the old band posted and this is from two months of being together.
What I'm getting at is that the process has been simplified to the point where creative power doesn't have to be stifled, as long as you point the mic in the right direction. There's no level adjustment, nothing. Anybody can do it, especially a band like the two piece that I am currently in.
We're playing tomorrow night in New London, which is a first for us. I don't know if I'll be playing my new stuff. But as I said, we have more than enough to cover our brief 30 minute time slot. We'll probably make up some new songs too.
***********
According to JoeD's blog, it's been 10 years since we graduated high school. My father's retirement party is a half hour away. I'm going to Block Island afterwards, for the first time. I'm going to sit out on the beach and write songs, maybe have a beer, and watch the sun set over the ocean. I think that's the proper way to celebrate the demise of our "formative years", don't you?
One of the songs is pretty damn good. I wrote it a couple days ago and recorded it, as I am apt to do these days, both audio and a separate video.
Just 3 years ago, my band was struggling with the recording process (and our own plethora of demons). We were together for two years, and never wrote more than 10 songs. Sure, we played a bunch of gigs, and we were good enough together where we could take any of those songs, jam on it and make it work.
Recording was a lost cause - we were trying to replicate our live feel, trying every device we could get our hands on. We ended up getting a digital 8 track that used special discs to record - and special meant impossible to find. Luckily it came packaged with a few that we re-used over and over again. But no matter how we recorded it - either live as a band or track by track - nothing worked.
The best recording we ended up with was a soundboard rip from a gig at the Webster Underground in Hartford, Connecticut. I'm pretty sure we were playing with Mass Hysteria. It was Halloween, and we had a good crowd that night. I was in a evasive mood, as usual.
I got the master, tracked it and copied it for each band member.
3 or so years later, I record myself on a handheld device that weighs about a pound. I can film myself with the same device if I want. If I jam with a full band, I can put it on a shelf and record live, drums and all. Then I take the files, clean them up a bit, and put them online. This takes all of 20 minutes.
My current band is called Low-hanging fruit. We record every time we are together. New songs, every time we are together. There's no waiting, no bullshit. We make them up and put them out. We've already got one 47 minute CD done, and that was from one night. We have five of the songs on our myspace page (okay - four. one of them is more of a sketch). That's more than the old band posted and this is from two months of being together.
What I'm getting at is that the process has been simplified to the point where creative power doesn't have to be stifled, as long as you point the mic in the right direction. There's no level adjustment, nothing. Anybody can do it, especially a band like the two piece that I am currently in.
We're playing tomorrow night in New London, which is a first for us. I don't know if I'll be playing my new stuff. But as I said, we have more than enough to cover our brief 30 minute time slot. We'll probably make up some new songs too.
***********
According to JoeD's blog, it's been 10 years since we graduated high school. My father's retirement party is a half hour away. I'm going to Block Island afterwards, for the first time. I'm going to sit out on the beach and write songs, maybe have a beer, and watch the sun set over the ocean. I think that's the proper way to celebrate the demise of our "formative years", don't you?
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TheJoeD on
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Hey man...glad to hear the new axe is working out for ya. I'm happy it went to the right person. Definitely want to hear some of your stuff |
