Frozen Solid

I just got home from some car music. I think it was a success. I’m not sure though because I am literally frozen solid and can’t tell if I am even alive or not. It is soooo freaking cold out right now.

I spent about an hour and a half in the car in the (mostly) empty movie theater parking lot, singing my lungs out while trying to keep my extremities safe from frost bite. It is tough to use a laptop while wearing winter gloves, but I sort of made it work. I put vocals onto seven RPM Challenge songs all while the temperature topped out at 19 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s -7.2 or so for our metric, Celsius using friends).

Right now I am sitting in my living room, hoping that the feeling will return to my toes soon. Once it does, I will go down cellar to my music nook and start recording lead guitar tracks. Today is Music Day, boys and girls, and it is off to a cracking good start.

First Time in Ages

When was the last time I drove to an empty parking lot to record myself singing for one of my dumb songwriting project demos? February? Maybe?

Well, we’re back. I did it this morning. I had an annoying interruption, but I still managed to record very bad, terrible even, vocals onto five songs.

I started here:

Oh, did I mention it was pouring rain? As I was finishing up the first song a truck pulled up near me. It looked like a landscaper. Then a security truck pulled up. Then another car. Everyone got out and just stood around looking at each other. Then another car. Then another car. What the hell?

I moved. I just drove to the other side of the parking lot.

From there I finished up four more songs. I could have maybe done one or two more (the battery on my MacBook Pro is legendary) but I had to pee so incredibly bad that I had to drive home. Oh well. Hopefully we’ll be able to do some more tomorrow.

Driving Out to Car Music

I don’t think I’ve ever used Flickr to host a video here. Does it work? I had this idea of a post about me driving somewhere for some early morning car music today but then I didn’t post it until I got home after finishing the car music. Oh well.

I put vocals on four songs today. That means there are only five songs left to write and record the vocal parts for. 15 songs have their vocal tracks finished. Excellent!

No pics of the clock downtown today. I didn’t take the long way home, I took the fastest route possible. There are tons of things going on today and I didn’t want to delay my return home for even a minute or two.

Things unrelated to music projects that were in the planning, semi-hypothetical stage 24 hours ago have ramped up to the imminent and stressful stage. Bring it on! Roll with the changes, as the song goes.

Like Some Kind of Lame Canary

I did some RPM Challenge work this morning after finishing my exercise and my breakfast and my daily writing prompt. What did I do? Vocals. I drove off to an empty parking lot in town and recorded the vocal tracks for four songs while sitting out in the cold. I really wish I wasn’t so shy about recording myself singing. It would be so much easier to just do this at home. The negative then would be all the noise I make and how annoying it would be to my wife, rather than me just being a wimp who is too shy to sing when other people can hear me. I’m fine singing with the band, but in those cases there is enough noise that I can trick myself into thinking I am hiding behind it. Also, I am playing guitar at the same time and for some illogical reason that makes a difference. Why? Who knows.

The only interesting thing about today’s car music is that I only had three songs prepared with a melody and lyrics. After I cranked out the vocal tracks for those three songs I wrote the lyrics and melody to the fourth song while I was recording. I wouldn’t say I improvised the vocal parts, but they are lame enough that you might think they were improvised. Who cares. I sure don’t. This means I have 11 songs with vocals, and the RPM Challenge definition of an album is 10 songs or 35 minutes… which means that even if I don’t record another vocal track for the rest of the month, I can still finish a full album. Nice.

Here are some pics from my “studio” for today.

Can you guess where the snowplows dump the snow when they clear the mall parking lot? I can.

Also, here’s the obligatory down town clock, because reasons…

Also, because I can’t resist, I happened to catch the cats sitting together on the old cat tree just before I left the house, so you get that picture too.

Car Music

Car music happened this morning. I recorded vocals for four songs while sitting in the car in an empty parking lot next to a giant snow bank.

Obligatory clock pic:

Bonus Fenway Park scoreboard mural thing on the liquor store wall pic:

Hopefully I’ll be able to get out and record more vocals in the car before work tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Saturday Morning Music

Car music happened this morning. I drove to the movie theater parking lot and put vocals on four songs. Three of them were written beforehand, one was written on mic. I don’t do that very often anymore, but I had run out of tracks to sing and wasn’t quite ready to stop so I threw it together on the spot. Sweet.

I was originally thinking of spending some time playing guitar today but I don’t think I will have quite enough time, what with our plans to go to Vermont to visit the kids this afternoon. Instead the goal is to write some more lyrics so I can have another successful car music tomorrow, and set up some song forms so that I can have a lot of songs ready for rhythm guitars tomorrow as well.

The goal is 50 songs by October 1st. 27 songs are done, 46 are in progress. It doesn’t look good, but it’s still doable. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Friday Morning Car Music

I recorded some vocals this morning. Three songs worth. I drove to the movie theater parking lot so no one could hear me, which is how I do things because I am such a wimp. Here’s the view:

I was only out for about half an hour and I did cut things off early. I had three songs ready to go that were written in August and two more that were written in July. I did the three August songs and was about to start one of the July songs when I opened up the GarageBand file and found there were a lot of lyrics to sing. I just didn’t have the energy and decided to save the two July songs for a weekend session.

I have changed up my workflow a little. Mostly in terms of standards. I am thinking of quick and dirty demoes now, due to flaking off for three weeks and falling so far behind the 50/90 pace. Last night when I wrote the melodies and lyrics for the three songs I recorded this morning I purposely decided to use the same parts in multiple places. Meaning I wrote one verse part and used it 2-3 times. I usually do that with chorus sections but I’m doing it more often now. I also purposely did not write a lot of harmony parts. One or two here and there but nowhere near as many as I usually write. I’m also lowering my standards for what is a useable take. That goes for vocals and guitars. I’m going to be much sloppier than usual and much less nitpicky. Is nitpicky a word?

I want finished demoes from here on out, rather than quality demoes. Know what I mean?

Anyway, here’s the obligatory downtown Methuen clock from the drive home pic:

Morning Photos and Car Music

I pulled double duty this morning and it might throw off my whole day.

I went out early for car music, but on my way there I stopped downtown for some film photos. I took my Nikon and Dad’s zoom lens and finished the roll that was in the camera. I went to the dam and our little downtown shopping area and took a few pictures. I did not bring my mirrorless camera, but I did bring my point and shoot, just so I could have something to post here.

The sunlight was really nice for a change. It was a good day to go out.

After a short trip downtown I went to the movie theater parking lot and put vocals on three songs. I could have done two more but my voice was starting to get tired and I wanted to get home for some breakfast and a shower before work.

The one thing I failed to do this morning was my 30 minutes of exercise. I am going to have to get that in a piece at a time throughout the day. I failed to close my exercise ring on Saturday, and I failed to close my move ring (calorie counter) on both Saturday and Sunday. That ends today. No more missing rings, even if I do have a day where I am feeling sick. August starts tomorrow and I want another perfect month.

Until then, here’s the obligatory clock pic.

Morning Car Music

I was able to get out to the movie theater parking lot to do some singing in the car. Success. Well, success-ish.

I had five songs ready to record. I was hoping to get to all of them, but I only had a little more than an hour and that probably isn’t enough time for five songs, even when I work with my super low standards. I got through three of the songs and then had to go home. I had time remaining, and I still had some voice left. I wasn’t tired, I could have kept going. Unfortunately, one of the roadblocks you encounter when you’re mentally defective and can’t sing when other people are around and therefore have to go to an empty parking lot to sing in the car when you have voice parts to record is that if you need to go to the bathroom, you need to go home.

Too much information?

The view from my recording studio this morning!

Drizzly Morning Car Music

I had four songs ready for me to record vocals and I just got home from recording in the car. I picked off all four songs. Sweet.

Now I have four songs ready to mix, four ready for lead guitars, eight ready for lyrics, and one still waiting on rhythm guitars. How much of that pile of stuff will I get to today? Hopefully a good chunk of it all. It’s a music kinda day today, I think.