Category: Music

Tracking is Done

All of the tracking for all 10 songs is done!  Sweet.

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It just occurred to me that if I mix the last six songs tonight I will have finished March in the same amount of time as February.  Yeah, I am losing it a little.

March is Almost Over

I know that no one else on Earth gives even the slightest fuck about yet another stupid song writing project.  We all have much bigger fish to fry.  I don’t care.  You’re getting another March Music post and that’s all there is to it.

I’ve got three days left.  Tonight while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I wrote the lyrics and the melody to the last three songs.  I now have three vocal parts to record, and six lead guitars to record.  I am hopeful that I can get them all done tomorrow, though that will require another trip to an empty parking lot for the three vocals.  No problem.

That will leave me with Sunday night, and Monday and Tuesday before and after work to mix the six remaining songs.  Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

Once that’s done all I will need to worry about is the global pandemic and the news stories detailing a growing sense of panic in some parts of the world… some of which are not too terribly far from me.

Until April 1st that is, when I start another month long writing challenge.

March Music

I finished two songs.  One last night and another just a few minutes ago.  I’d post them both here but hearthis.at is being a pain in the ass and not uploading the second song.  I couldn’t get the first one to upload last night either, but it worked this morning.

Both songs are crap, but they exist so there’s that.  If the second song ever uploads I’ll share it.  Until then, you’ll just have to settle for one stink burger.

 

Risky Behavior

I did two crazy things this morning and it’s still not even time to punch in to work.

  1. I left the house
  2. I recorded myself singing

It was risky behavior, not because I left the house.  Sure, I left the house but I never left the car.  I never even cracked the windows.  No, it was risky behavior because the security guard working at the strip mall whose parking lot I was hiding in buzzed me twice in his mall security mobile.  If he had come over to me I would have had to explain what I was doing and boy would that have been embarrassing.  I’m glad I avoided that hassle.

My mobile studio:

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I Don’t Have the Tools

I had a bad morning.  I was all emotional and messed up and stuff.  Two really awful night’s sleep in a row put me in a pretty screwy state of mind.  Before I fell into my personal little black hole I was talking to Jen about things we can do to keep our heads.  Seems ironic now.  I said that I need to try and give myself the illusion of control over our crummy situation and one of the ways I can do that is to try and be creative.  I’m going to keep trying to write and record terrible songs until it’s all over.  Of course I had the opportunity to work on music this morning but did I?  No.  Bad day.

March is almost over.  I want to do another 10 songs in April.  My tiny little brain wants to change the March process up (guitar straight into an amp, like some kind of neanderthal) by allowing one pedal.  My little Fuzz Face mini.  I have heard that a Fuzz Face circuit is really simple.  What, thought me, if I gave myself another project and finally built a pedal of my own?  There are companies that will sell you kits with all the parts you need and you just have to assemble it all.  I was so going to do it.  Then I realized I don’t own a soldering iron.  Or solder.  Or literally any tool required to build a circuit board.  Damn it.  I guess we’ll punt on this until after the COVID-19 gives us our lives back.

I did go looking for youtube videos showing people building fuzz pedals.  There are a couple, but nothing really like what I want to see.  Instead I found an episode of That Pedal Show from 2015.  I’ve never watched this one, but they compare a few different Fuzz Face pedals.

Let this video kill off 11-12 minutes worth of your coronavirus exile.

Guilt

I follow a lot of musicians on various social media platforms.  I follow a lot of performers.  I follow a lot of politicians too.  They all have something in common right now.

They all want my money.

Politicians are looking for money because it’s an election year.  Performers are looking for money because COVID-19 has put them out of work.  None of them are asking for handouts, but they are all asking.  Please buy some merch.  Please by my music on bandcamp.  Please buy a ticket to my stageit show.  Please pledge on patreon.

I have the same answer to all of these requests.  I would if I could, but I can’t.  We’re still working but the economy is collapsing.  I can’t afford to give money to any cause right now.  We could all be out of work tomorrow.  How can I give you money today when my family might need food tomorrow.  Come on, I can’t help you guys.  I want to, I swear I do and I absolutely would if the situation were different.  It’s not though, so don’t be surprised when I get tired of feeling the guilt and start lashing out.

The world is shit right now for all of us.  I can’t help you without putting my family at risk.  Just lay off, please.