I've taken a bit of an interest in Bruce Springsteen and his music as of late. It all began with hearing one of his newer songs, "Wrecking Ball," on a local public radio station. Though it's from 2012 I never heard it before. I was immediately impressed with the song as I caught the song just before the part where he sings, "Hard times come, hard times go," over and over again. That part was followed by an anthemic chanting set to a very fast tempo and the song ended in this fashion. I checked out the song in its entirety on YouTube and I also watched some of the live versions. Absolutely great song!
After that I starting checking out some of his older music and was doing some reading up on his career, songs and album. Today I watch an unauthorized biography on him and in spite of all the interesting history and detail of his pre-career and fame, there was one moment that I took away the most from. He was asked if there were any regrets and his answer was that he regretted not releasing more albums. He was so much of a perfectionist that it took so much time to record and release everything to his liking. As a result there were a lot of years where nothing was released. The reason I took so much from that is because I can fully relate to those sentiments. Needless to say, I am no Bruce Springsteen nor do I have a catalog of music anywhere near his, but I realize that my own sense of the need for musical perfection has led to a regret of not making and releasing more than I have up to this point. I know that it's a lot harder for me since I work alone and I face some unique challenges that he did not. But I should have done more. And that is why I have decided I'm releasing another album this year.
At the moment I'm nowhere near being close to having an album ready. But there's time, hopefully, and I am glad to say that I have started working on my first new song of the year. I have begun the recording process and I'm trying to get the hardest part done first--the main vocal. This is another one of my Bee Gees-inspired songs as was "Call On Me" from the Milestone album. I'm going to try to get this one completely recorded within a few weeks. The working title for this song is "If I Told You."
One of the things I love most about live music is how raw it is, and the "mistakes" often sound better than what the band actually planned to do. I feel the same way about albums. I've always liked the earlier releases of my favorite bands because they had that "raw" sound to them that the newer, more sanitized albums lose. That's probably why I don't listen to popular music these days. It's too.....perfect. The soul of the music and the artists gets lost in the production. Go for it, Ren! Let's hear a little RAW REN this year!!!
ReplyDeleteHahah, thanks Bootsy!
DeleteI know what you mean about popular music nowadays sounding too perfect. It's like the technology is available to make perfect-sounding music but there's a lack of soul and lack of a heartfelt quality in it all.
I'm very limited in the gear I have to use so in some sense it's a blessing because otherwise I would be spending even more time on getting the songs all right and proper. I pretty much have everything I need (except space!) so I'm still going to try to make the finest recordings I can since, after all, this will be my legacy. But I will get music out there with more frequency and of course you will be among the first to have access to it!