Just when you thought the March Music project goofiness was dead and buried…
I came up with something new last night. Just a few little riffs. I put them down on the iPad just before bed. This morning I added some guitars. That’s nine songs in progress and two more ideas that I haven’t made go anywhere yet. Tomorrow. More will be done tomorrow. Really. I promise.
Here’s the obligatory post-RPM Challenge post.
Now that my musical month of February is in the past, what’s next?
Well, I think I’m just going to do it again. Not the same songs, and not the longer FAWM based album, but a new recording of either 10 songs or 35 minutes. Call it RPMarch.
I’ve still got four things that I was tinkering with in January, and there was the 15th song idea from RPM that I never got to. There is also the missing Tempest Fero song that I took a listen to this evening. Those six plus four more? There is also the three unfinished things from the 2008 failure. Maybe I’ll save those for April.
Any one else want to take a shot at RPMarch?
I mixed two songs last night. I don’t like either of them, or anything else I’ve worked on this month. It’s good, because I don’t think I am going to have enough time in the house alone to finish all of the vocals.
This is the first song I worked on, and the first song I finished:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/small-3.mp3%20
This is the 12th song I worked on, and the second song I finished. As you can guess, I am jumping around all over the place right now.
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/not-in-this-lifetime.mp3%20
I have one more song that is ready to mix. I was just too tired to finish it off last night. Yesterday I wrote lyrics and a really rough melody for three more songs. This morning I recorded two of them. My vocal performance was terrible at best, but it’s done and I don’t think I am going to have time to fix anything that irks me when I start listening back to it. I didn’t take the time to put rough mixes up onto Soundcloud.
So that’s five vocals recorded, and a sixth that is written and ready to record. I need to get four more done to qualify for RPM, and eight more to qualify for FAWM. FAWM is starting to look like a lost cause. I took Thursday and Friday off from work, but I don’t think I am going to have time on those days to handle vocals. I’m starting to honestly consider driving to an empty parking lot somewhere and recording in the car. It’s looking more and more like that’s the only way I will be able to finish everything. Cold weather be damned, you know?
Hey, check out the playlist I posted earlier today. It’s up to 10 songs at 39:59. That clears both requirements for the RPM Challenge. Four more songs to sketch out and I’ll have enough to complete FAWM. OF course, then I just have to finish writing and recording everything. I am feeling good about this though. (even though all my songs sound exactly the same)
Last night before bed I started work on song #6. It’s just base and drums for now but it is a return to form for me. Last year’s RPM project was the first one I’ve done that did not include a 12-bar blues. Well this year I have rectified that error. Song #6 is a 12-bar! Welcome back!
Tonight I started work on song #7. It’s a little melody I tinkered out on the iPad using GarageBand’s Heavy Metal Organ sound. Gotta love that. I ported it over to the Mac and used the GarageBand Drummer function again. It worked. I’m satisfied with it this time.
This project needs more time signature variety. I’ve got one 6/8, one 5/4, and five 4/4s. It might be time to break out the old prog rock favorite, 7/8. Maybe over the weekend.
I don’t know why, but for some reason whenever I do one of these music challenges I pick one electric guitar and use it exclusively. In November I used my Les Paul, so this month was going to be all ES 335.
Until this morning. Songs 1 and 2 are all acoustic so far. Song 3 is the 335. I worked on 4 and 5 today, but I used the Les Paul. Weird, huh?*
*I warned you there would be a lot of lame posts this month.
One more before the RPM craziness begins. This one was written in 1998 during Spring Break. It was then recorded in 2007 when I first heard about RPM but was too late to try it officially so I recorded 10 songs in March before taking a real shot at the challenge in April and failing miserably.
How’s that for a run on sentence?
I’ve always liked this one but I’ve never really been able to pull it off. The lyrics are about a photo of my grandparents that I first saw at my grandmother’s wake. I never new my grandfather, but my grandmother had always been there. Then she was gone. At the wake there was a picture of the two of them together when they were young. I think it might have been taken while they were dating. They were standing on the street looking like too kids who were acting goofy. It was hard to reconcile the saint I knew with the goofball in the picture. A few months later I came up with this song. My brother, John wrote the drum part. I was playing the guitar part in our little practice room at home and he came running in and jumped on the drums and started playing along. Just one more reason to really dig this song.
Here’s the new version:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/photograph-redux.mp3%20
Here’s the old version, for suffering’s sake:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/photograph.mp3%20
Back when I recorded this little puppy I said it would be the first of a handful of pre-GarageBand RPM songs that I was going to do. I picked out 3-4 other songs to work on and then never did anything with them.
Until now.
I have three songs ready for guitars and vocals. I’m going to try and get them finished this week, but I want to use my amp for all of the electric guitar parts. That means I’ll be recording before work on Monday and Thursday. We shall see how they go.
All my old friends came over for a visit today.
I finished another song today. This one was written in 1991. I can’t say for sure, but it might have been the first song I ever wrote from top to bottom all by my lonesome. At least I can’t remember anything older. There were actually two others that were written at about the same time that might have been my first solo effort. It doesn’t matter.
I think it was 1994 or 1995 that Mike, Dan, and I went into Northeast Broadcasting School’s 24 track studio after hours and recorded four songs. This was one of them. The other three have all been redone in GarageBand too. At first I wanted to record this one, and then make a playlist with all four. Then I thought I’d record the other three too. Then I thought I’d add a few new songs onto the end, just for fun. Then I thought I’d keep the three finished recordings and still add the new songs.
As of this moment, I’m going back to the original plan. Just the four old songs, using the already finished recordings. Yippee.
There is one cool thing about this demo, from my goofy point of view at least. Ever since I started playing the home recording game back in 2007, every song I’ve done (with one exception) has either used a headphone amp, or some kind of software amplifier simulator for all of the electric guitars. Not this one. This one is my actual, real life, physically there Marshall amp. Somehow that little fact made this one seem 100 times more fun.
Here it is:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/drift-away.mp3%20
Inside the Red Head's Head 