Category: Song Writing

Volume Five is Done

I mixed the last song on the list for Quarantine Tunes Volume 50/90. This one makes 10 songs written over the summer, redone for the winter… or something like that.

There is really nothing to this song so I went overboard on the gimmicks and effects and now it’s a soupy, saucy mess, but I like it.

Now I need to come up with a running order for the 10 songs and I can declare the fifth volume of re-recorded songs finished and get back to work on the sixth volume.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone. Maybe next year I’ll mix a Christmas song on Christmas Eve. For now, you’re stuck with this guy.

HoHoHo.

One More Song for Today

I haven’t finished Quarantine Tunes Volume 5 yet, but here I am mixing the first song for Volume 6. This is just getting silly now.

Written in February 2007, rearranged slightly and rerecorded in 2013, and now rererecorded in 2021. I keep coming back to this, even though it’s really a crap song. Also, this is a seriously ratty, crap performance, but it is a lot of fun to play.

Song, Second Attempt

I just wrote this post a few minutes ago and it included what I thought was a new version of a song from this past summer, but the hearthis.at player actually grabbed the original version. Weird.

Let’s try again and see if we get the right one this time….

This One is Pretty Blah

I thought this song was coming out pretty good but now that it’s done it doesn’t really do anything better than the first version. It is faster so I guess that’s something.

Two more songs to mix and then I’ll be done with this batch of songs.

Record Every Month Number 10

The RPM Challenge was in February. The new Record Every Month thing kicked off in March. I’ve had at least one song each month now for 10 months. Granted I did forget to submit a few of them to the website, but I didn’t forget this one.

I am lucky that this isn’t too terrible because it’s the only newly written thing I have this month. Whew!

And I’m Spent

To quote the great Austin D. Powers, International Man of Mystery, when he finishes a photo shoot, “and I’m spent.”

I already wrote how I spent my lunch break cranking out vocal tracks. Tonight Jen and I had dinner and watched the girl from LA Story break up with the boy from Northern Exposure* and then she went off to the World of Warcraft and I went to the world of shitty guitar playing and shittier song writing.

I spent about two hours recording and was so into it that I forgot to eat anything ahead of tonight’s intermittent fasting time, or drink anything. I’m already hungry and I’m so dehydrated I have a sore throat.

I didn’t finish everything on my plate, but I did a ton. I put leads on the Record Every Month song. It’s ready to mix now. I put leads on the final re-recording vol. 5 song. It too is ready to mix. I put leads onto one vol. 6 song, and put leads and rhythm onto two more. All three are now ready to mix.

There was one more vol. 6 song ready for leads but I was so fried that I could barely move my fingers. I’m also not mixing anything tonight. My ears are toast too.

The four vol. 6 songs are all from before I started using GarageBand. Two of them are from the first RPM Challenge I did after moving into Chez Duplex with Jen. I didn’t finish the challenge on time, but I did finish it a couple of months late. There were only two songs worth listening to that year and I worked on new versions of both of them tonight. How’s that for nerd nostalgia? Is your heart feeling all warm and fuzzy now? Awwww.

*Sex and the City

Peak Music Nerd

I wanted to record some guitars tonight but I didn’t. Given the choice between guitar and hanging out with my wife there was no choice. She wins.

I was thinking of car music tomorrow. I had two songs ready to sing and I was hoping to get them tracked before my step son comes home on Thursday. I want to be able to hang out with him and start trying to find the elusive christmas spirit without having recording thoughts nagging me from the back of my skull. So car music tomorrow, finish off the two songs that are ready to go and maybe sneak in some lead guitar tomorrow night and that should hold me for a couple of weeks.

Then I nerd leveled up like you’ve read about.

I had the bass and drums done for another re-recording. Well tonight, sitting up in bed and avoiding the sleep I very much need, I put a MIDI guitar track down to use as a guide so when I do the car music tomorrow I can put vocals on this puppy too. How lame is that. A re-recording getting vocals before the rhythm guitars are recorded? That’s unheard of. It’s down right blasphemous.

But wait, there’s more.

Once I was done with that lame guide track, I took another song from the to do list and put together the drums and the bass and a guide fake guitar for that one too. Now I have four songs to sing tomorrow. Even more, I edited the arrangement for this fourth song pretty seriously. Also, I rewrote a chunk of the lyrics. What the hell am I doing? Go to bed! You’re not going to be able to record vocals for four songs tomorrow, you’re just torturing your musical nerd self! Stop it!

So I guess the question then, as the clock approaches 11:00pm, is whether or not I get out of bed early enough to do this tomorrow.

We’ll see.

Sleep Failure

Did I have a crummy night’s sleep last night or what?

I went to bed at midnight. Woke up at 1:00. Woke up again at 2:00. Woke up at 3:50 and could not get back to sleep. I bet I dozed off a little at a time without realizing it, but I know I saw the clock hit 4:40 before I really went under again.

My back was really sore and I couldn’t get comfortable. My arms kept going numb from laying on my side. I mean, my arms were just showing off. Look, jerk, we can go to sleep. Why can’t the rest of you? Ugh.

My CPAP mask kept feeling like it was losing it’s seal. I don’t think it actually was, but during the rare times when I was asleep I was drooling like a fooling and the mask was sliding around all over the place and it was driving me nuts.

At about 6:30 I gave up and got up. I took the trash to the street and I did my whole morning routine and I did car music. Just two songs. The one song I have for Record Every Month, and the last song I had for Quarantine volume 5.

I’m leaving work a couple of hours early today, but I have meetings pretty much for the whole rest of the day. It’s going to be a busy Tuesday. I expect by the time the day ends I am going to be wishing I had a good night’s sleep, right?

New Song Alert

Not really a new song. More like a new recording of a song from the summer, but it does have a new melody. I liked this song enough to included in the batch of 50/90 songs being redone, but I can’t tell if I like it because it’s good or just because it’s fun to just blow all over the ending. I’m thinking I like it for the jam factor. Whatever.

The lyrics in the verses and the chorus are haiku because I am incapable of original thinking.

I’m planning on car music tomorrow. Fingers crossed. I have so much more of this crap to share with you, gentle readers. Huzzah and shit!

No New Songs Tonight

I wrote lyrics and a melody for December’s song and made sure I had all of the lyrics I needed for the re-recordings so I’m set for Monday morning car music.

I brought up a song that’s ready to mix, but changed my mind. I’m feeling a little brain fried tonight. I’ll try again tomorrow night. We will see.