Tag: Song Writing

Self Motivation

I feel as though I am running out of steam on 50/90. 16 songs are finished and there are nine more in progress. That only totals to me being half way finished. I’m still committed, just maybe not as committed as I was a few weeks ago.

I need to self motivate. (I almost typed, “I need to self motivate myself.” hehe)

I’m not sure when I decided that 2014 would be The Year of Song Writing but at some point it happened. If I complete 50/90, and then continue to play the album-a-month game for the final three months of the year, then I will finish 2014 having written well over 100 songs. Granted they all sound exactly the same and not one of them is worth a damn to anyone but me, but they will exist. That’s all that matters.

As of right now the count for the whole year, starting in February, is up to 61. That’s a ton, for me.

I Did it Again

I did it again. I just added another song. It’s a vocal away from being finished. Why did I do that? Instead of having three vocals to record, I now have five. What a doofus.

It’s nothing but a goofy 12-bar. Aren’t there enough of those in the world already? Why did I suddenly have to add another one.

What a jerk.

Musical Baby Steps

Just like yesterday, I only had enough time for baby steps today. I wrote another song’s worth of lyrics and melody but I didn’t have time to record a proper take.

There are only five songs left needing work but I am doubtful I will get it all finished by June 1st.
One song is ready to mix.
One song still needs lead guitar.
Two songs have lyrics and melody but still need vocals and lead guitar.
One song still needs lyrics, melody, vocals, and lead guitar.

Considering that I will be on vacation next week and not in any sort of a recording mood, those five unfinished songs are starting to look like a mountain.

I’m not quite sure what I want to do in June. 50/90 starts in July but I don’t want to take the month off. I want to keep in the musical frame of mind, but I don’t want to run out of gas either. Maybe I’ll stick to songs that are already written. Maybe I’ll work on new songs but set the goal at five instead of 10. Maybe I’ll keep the goal at 10, but only work on one at a time instead of work on all 10 in bits and pieces.

I don’t know. We’ll see.

Sunday Morning Music

A new April song.

A song about cats.

No really. The lyrics are about cats. I am being 100% honest.

I need a lyricist, badly.

I wanted to keep this one simple but I ended up with all sorts of soupy sauce everywhere and I compressed the hell out of it. I also ended up duplicating tracks and splitting takes across multiple tracks to have effects on parts but not on others. I made a bit of a mess.

100% Fender

I recorded the rhythm guitar on this song on Sunday. I recorded the vocals and the lead guitars tonight.

Why is that important? Because I bought the Fender Strat on Saturday. All of the guitars you hear on this song are Fender. There isn’t even a single note played on a Gibson. That has never happened to me before. Also, I used the whammy bar near the end. I have never recorded myself using one of those ridiculous things before. There are firsts all around on this one!

What isn’t unique is that the lyrics are utterly meaningless. You can’t tell me what they mean because I was there and I know they mean nothing. The rhyming dictionary site I use more or less wrote this one for me.

A Song at Bedtime

I mixed a song tonight. A little gift to the universe (gift?) before hitting the sack for the night.

I was listening to the two Jack Bruce/Robin Trower records from 1981. I was sort of digging the whole aging-white-guys-making-a-show-of-being-funky vibe and decided to steal it. The result is this cheese ball of a 12-bar.

In GarageBand terms, I have been trying to keep the different projects kind of similar in that each month is using the same bass sound and drum sound (mostly, as March is using the Drummer function on 9 of the 10 songs). As I was mixing this one though I suddenly felt really, really bored with the sounds I’d picked for April. I switched the muted bass to an upright bass (which I used across the board back in November) and went for a little more of a smaller, more vintage drum sound. The results, again, aren’t that great. I don’t care.

The lyrics are another @floridaman story. This time the drunken fool made death threats to the arresting officers before sobering up a little and changing his tune to bribery in terms of offers to pressure wash their houses. Really. Check out @floridaman. You cannot make this shit up.

Two Songs

I mixed two songs last night. Let’s start with the bad news. This song is from April. You’d think it would be bad enough that after finishing the recording I realized that it’s awfully similar to a 2013 RPM song, but I had to go and put together this crap fest of a mix. I expect to be doing this one again.

http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/its-not-easy.mp3%20

On a slightly better note, I also mixed one from March. This is the first of the RPMarch songs, and one of the Christmas vacation things. All that’s left from the original iPad file is the bass, and even that is using a different sound. I like this one… sort of. The vocals were sung in the car while sitting in a parking lot waiting for the kids to get out of karate. The lyrics are about how weird it is that so many people get so wound up about RPM, and about how dumb the idea of doing a second RPM right away felt.

I’ll probably end up remixing this one too. I have no confidence in any of the mixing I’ve done. I’ve already redone two of these things. I have been using more plug in effects and some how I just get bogged down with the individual tracks and I lose the sense of the complete song. When I go back and listen a few days later, everything is swimming in reverb, or the bass is buried, or the lead is buried, or the drums are too loud. It’s always something. I might end up remixing everything.

http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/overkill-1.mp3%20