When the clock struck midnight on July 4th I opened up my MacBook and launched GarageBand and noodled out the first idea. At the time I was awake and feeling all right. Now, 25 minutes later, I can’t keep my eyes open. I also have a two and a half minute long bass and drum track.
Game on, folks!
My Nana Sitting shift has begun. The doors are alarmed and the pills have been distributed. She’s okay right now, she’s dishing out some ice cream for herself, but I know pain is a bit of an issue.
I was planning on putting the Red Sox game on with the volume down and then streaming something on my laptop through headphones but the USA Network is running a slew of Marvel movies. Harry, Jen, and I watched Antman this afternoon (on Disney+, not USA). When I got here Age of Ultron was on and now Captain America Civil War is on. Okay, so it’s a Marvel night. That works for me.
50/90 starts in under four hours. I had this idea to write a series of songs that have all of the verses and choruses written as haikus. Anything to force a little creativity, right?
Okay, I’m going to sign off and watch some super heroes and be sad that I am not at home. Until next time (which, knowing how Nana Sitting goes will probably be three or four more times before I go to sleep).
Okay, I’ve got the guitar rig for the summer in place. Welcome back to my sweet little 15 watt Fender Bassbreaker.
Dusting faux tweed is hard.
Just add a shiny new Les Paul and we are on our way.
Addendum: My iPhone autocorrected “on our” to “In-N-Out”. WTF, I ask you. W. T. F?
50/90 starts next weekend so I probably shouldn’t be using up new song ideas now. Oh well.
Written on Saturday, recorded on Saturday and Sunday, and mixed before work on Monday. Not a bad little weekend tune.
I think I already wrote a bit about this. The first song I worked on this month was based on a guitar riff I came up with back in May. On the day I recorded the vocals I started work on another song and, accidentally and totally without realizing it, used almost exactly the same guitar riff. It was slower by quite a bit, but for the most part it was the same thing.
Oops.
Now the question is, which song is better? Here’s Part One:
Now here is Part Two:
I am leaning toward part two, but that might just be because I’ve been listening to it all day.
I did vocals for two songs first thing this morning, and now I put leads on those songs too. Tracking is done for both. I’m trying to make myself love the Blues Breaker clone pedal. I used it as a boost yesterday and as a light drive pushing a huge Klon Klone boost today. I like it. It’s just not… I don’t know. It’s not love. It makes me sad, though why? It’s just a friggin’ guitar pedal, right? Stupid red head.
I did some car music today. It went much better, gear wise, than last time. I had three songs ready to go and I got to two of them, but I was in a bit of a time crunch. Also, it was super hot in that car and the MacBook Pro was actually almost too hot to touch so… yeah. Call it.
The digital drop out problem was sort of addressed. At least I attempted to address it. I changed the USB cable and the USB to USB-C adapter. I had some problems early on that lead me to believe the mic cable might be the source of the fails. Next time I’ll use a different cable. I am really hoping it’s not the mic or the interface itself because those kids are expensive.
I did both of the songs that I started working on in the last week. I hope to put leads on them today and then mix them while I’m Nana Sitting tonight. That would mean one song was started on Saturday night and finished on Sunday night. 24 hours from the first idea to the finished mix. Cool.
In closing, here’s the obligatory “I drove through the center of town” pic. This time it has a groovy old timey filter because… why the hell not, yeah?
The 50/90 challenge starts in about a week. It’s probably not the best idea to try and force out a song this close to the starting point. A song that had it waited a week would have been one of the (hopefully) 50 but now cannot be. You know.
Maybe a little patience is warranted on the musical front right now?
Screw that, I need this.
I took out my new guitar again and told myself that the first thing I play is going to be worked into a song. Welp, here we are a little while later and there aren’t any lyrics and there isn’t a melody, but the song structure is there and the rhythm guitars, bass, and drum parts are all down.
Good boy.
I need to come up with lyrics for this one and the one from the other day so that I can do some car music in the morning. Tomorrow is my last chance this month… I think. Schedules are screwy, you know?
Want some unrelated good news?
Harry’s paying us a visit tonight. WOOHOO! Harry time!
I wrote last night that my hearthis.at account had run out of upload space and that I would get around to creating a second account. I don’t remember doing this, but it turns out I already made a second account. Did I time travel back from the future and do it so that it would be there when I needed it? Am I Marty McFly? Am I one of The Avengers?
No and no.
Here’s the crappy song.
I think I had a little too much caffeine this afternoon. It’s late but I’m not really tired at all. The Vegas Knights and Montreal Canadiens are going to overtime in game six. Vegas has to win. Vegas. Must. Win.
So in my non-sleepiness I mixed a song. The Record Every Month Challenge thingie will have an entry from me for June.
Note how the link to the song is a link and not a little embedded audio player. Why is that? Well, kids, I found out the hard way that hearthis.at has an upload limit for free accounts and I’ve reached it. I’ll make a second free account and somehow link them together, but not tonight. Tonight I am not up for that challenge. Tonight we’ll just settle for a link to alonetone.
Inside the Red Head's Head 