2017 Is Almost Over!

Here we are in late 2017, two weeks before Christmas and I don't have much to say. This is the point--or rather even a few weeks earlier--where I would be writing about end of the year goals. This year I have none.

Yes, there is still that song "Something's Wrong" which is unfinished and I could probably easily finish up before the year is through. I really dislike going through a year and not having anything musically to show for it. So if I could get at least that done the year wouldn't be a total waste.

Also, two weeks is plenty time for me to do another Christmas cover, but in reality I don't have two full weeks as no one will be listening to holiday music beyond two exact weeks from today. Unlike me.

I had dedicated this year to working exclusively on holiday music but changed my mind along the way (again) and was caught up in other distractions, and believe me, this year there were plenty of distractions. Not too long ago I had even decided I was going to start writing--check this out--love songs!! Yes, love songs. I never really wanted to get into that genre but there are a great many benefits that come of it, some musical, some non-musical. Everybody loves a love song. And to tell you the truth, a lot of the best and most memorable songs are love songs. So yes, I will follow that road and see where it takes me.

In actuality I have about one week if I really want to do a Christmas cover. So I'd have to pick out a tune almost immediately and start coming up with an arrangement. I really hate not being able to choose from the entire pool of great holiday music that's out there. Nothing can stop me from making my own version of any song but once I publish it online is when potential problems can arise. Getting licenses and paying royalties is not my cup of tea. On the other hand, I did publish that version of "Hey Joe" I created a few years ago and never got a license or anything. The difference is that I never plan to include "Hey Joe" in any of my future albums, whereas if I do a Christmas cover you'd better believe I intend it to be part of a future official release. Thus, I guess I could record "Silver Bells" or "Winter Wonderland" and provide it as a free release on YouTube but it would never go any further than that.

Speaking of YouTube, for the first time ever I uploaded to my channel a video of me singing and playing "How Deep is Your Love" by the Bee Gees. Not the entire song of course. Surely no one wants to see me struggle through the whole thing. Just to do one verse/chorus required many takes and I'm quite surprised I played and sang rather decently. But it was in keeping with all my cover videos where I never do the entire song, with the exception of "Barney Miller."

But I will see what I can get done in the remaining nearly-three week period we have for 2017. And if I make any resolutions for the the new year of 2018 it will be that the year turns out to be my most productive in terms of recording and songwriting. While I didn't do much recording in 2017 I did get a lot of ideas for songs this year which, if I am diligent enough, will turn into a new album.

Something's Wrong (lyrics)

Something's Wrong


Something's wrong
I can feel it in the air
I can hear it in the silence
I can see it in the troubled faces

Something's wrong
I can feel it in the wind
I can see it in the angry sky
I can hear it in the rolling thunder

Something's wrong
I can see it in the eyes
I can hear it in the voices
I can feel it in the heavy tension

And I can't make it right
No matter how I try
I can't make it right
No matter how I try

No I can't make it right
No matter how I try
I can't make it right
No matter how I try

Something's wrong
I can see it in the flame
I can hear it in the crashing waves
I can feel it in the ground below me

Something's wrong
I can feel it in my soul
I can see it with my mind's eye
I can hear it in the desperation

And I can't make it right
No matter how I try
I can't make it right
No matter how I try

No I can't make it right
No matter how I try
I can't make it right
No matter how I try


©2017 Ren D, Exit World Music, all rights reserved

Handmade Guitar

Today I found some more of the early 'gear' I used in my beginning stages of recording music and sound. I want to share some photos of that equipment just to show the experimentation and creativity of those early days. There is a lot of stuff from my childhood days stored in my garage and I hope to get to them all this year. That is, provided they still exist. I have a large amount of drawings I used to do and I really long to find them.

My first guitar was one my father carved out of wood for me. It's a flat piece of wood with no sound box so it isn't really a playable guitar. It had fishing line on it as strings and I used it more for percussive effect than melodic. Also it's only eleven inches long so it was never really meant to be a 'just for fun' type of thing. Here are some photos of it:

I have many recordings that feature this little guitar. Back in those days my other 'instruments' included:

- a tiny Casio keyboard
- a 4 thick rubber band bass instrument
- a multiple rubber band electric guitar instrument
- coffee and candy cans for drums
- small jingle bells for a tambourine
- tree seed pods for maracas

Some of these things no longer exist. Others do and as I find my 'vintage gear' I will post it here. I do however still have most of the recordings I made from those days. But in connection with Father's Day today I wanted to show the first guitar I ever had, made by my father.

Something's Wrong

I've been working on recording a new song called "Something's Wrong" the last couple of weeks. It's all written out. I just have to make a few changes. I am going for a 60's garage rock sound on this song. The simplicity and lo-fi of some of those 60's recordings beat the over-production of many later recordings hands down.

This is going to be my shortest complete recording that features lyrics so far. Just under 3 minutes. There is no specific song that serves as an influence for this one. It's more of a sound thing that is the inspiration. As of right now I've got an arpeggio electric guitar track with tremolo and the electric bass track completed. Today I did a piano track just for effect and I may add another just to fill out the sound. Not quite sure yet. I am also looking to add an organ track and/or a minimoog one. Of course there will be vocal tracks--at least 2. And I will play real drums for this song.

Other than this song I have ideas for at least 3 other songs. I know musically what I want to do with them. I just have to write out the lyrics. At this point I am thinking they will all be relatively short songs at 3 minutes or less just to keep that 60's vibe going. Once I start to arrange the songs the times may change. I don't want to stray too much from that though because the longer the song the more time it takes to produce it. And if there's any chance I am to release another album this year I cannot spend a lot of time on long productions.

Ideally I think I can finish up this song in about another week or 2. There are 2 things which may not corroborate this. First, the vocals may take me a while to get right. Vocals are always a problem. Second, I'm not sure if I will record the drums as part of the sessions for this song or if I will wait until I have another song or 2 and then just record drums for all of them at the same time. I don't like keeping a song on the side that just needs one more component to it. If I could get a song done in a week or two then I wouldn't mind waiting to get drums recorded. But since I never have a certain timeline for getting a song done I could end up keeping an earlier one unreleased longer than I'd like.

Stayed tuned for updates.

Spring Update

So we're into the final third of April and I have not written any holiday or seasonal tunes! And to be honest, I don't really feel like it! I knew this would happen. I have not able to immerse myself into that genre of music as I had wanted to. But fear not--I have been working on other music. I have about four songs I am working on right now. One is lyrically complete and ready to start recording. The other three are more in the infant stages of writing. But I feel good that ideas are flowing. And at this time, I feel as though I'm going in the direction of shorter songs. The bulk of the music I love is pop & rock of the 1960's & early 1970's. If I had to sum it up into a range it would be 1964-1972. The majority of the hit songs of that era were all just about under three minutes long. So I'm probably going to keep them short and (hopefully) sweet. I'm also considering mixing all the songs in mono just to give the project that extra 60's sound. Some of my all-time favorite songs are in mono and only available in mono (as far as I know). Here are some of them:

Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds)

Gimme Some Lovin' (The Spencer Davis Group)

Can't Be Still (Booker T & The M.G.'s)

Ya Ya (Lee Dorsey)

Take a Heart (The Sorrows)

Down Home Girl (The Stones)

You Need Lovin' (The Small Faces)

Baby Don't Go (Sonny & Cher)

Barefootin' (Robert Parker)

Good Time Charlie (Bobby Bland)

I realize some of those may fall outside the specified range, but it's not an exclusive range. Anyway I'm not a huge fan of mono but it does give a recorded song more of a vintage, lo-fi feel. Plus, when comparing mono mixes to stereo ones of the thousands of songs I have in my library, the mono mixes usually sound louder and more balanced. Of course, that could have to do with mastering techniques as well. In the 60's most singles on 45 were punchy mono mixes made specifically to sound loud over the radio and on your home turntables. The Beatles released all their albums in both mono and stereo up through 1968. They involved themselves in the mono mixes and left the stereo mixing up to the studio staff.

I'm going to do this. And it's cool because I will still have access to make stereo mixes whenever the mood strikes or if need be. That's the difference between my recordings and the ones listed above. Many of those were recorded on two or three-track tape with the masters no longer available. Thus they are preserved for posterity in mono and nothing else. But it is fun to think about how they would have been mixed in stereo. I got used to a lot of The Beatles' earlier stereo output where most instruments would be panned to one side and the vocals on the other, with nothing much in the center. Those stereo recordings helped me better hear and figure out the different instrument parts so I could learn to play them. That's one of the reasons I prefer stereo overall--there is a lot more to be heard that mono mixes do not permit.

I think the four songs I'm working on will be interesting. If I can get really serious about finishing them up and doing a few more things I may actually have something to release this year.

2017 - The First Post

This is my first post of the new year. So far I've only been writing some lyrics. They're not all holiday or seasonal related however. I guess you really can't force certain ideas when there are so many other things going on around you. Thoughts start flowing about other subjects no matter how focused you try to stay on others. But it's not a bad thing. We'll just see what comes of it. If it turns out to be more incomplete lyrics and unfinished songs then it's a waste. I remember starting to write a song in 2008 after the election. Well, that went nowhere and it's going to stay there at this point. I'm not saying it is not worth finishing up, but it has lost some of its meaning and its relevance at this time.

What does help is that it's still winter and cold outside. I can work on my 'winter' songs. It is very difficult to work on winter & Christmas songs in the summer. Which reminds me--I must make the most of the first 5 or 6 months of this year before it gets summery hot in my recording studio and then I cannot do anything there. The period from about June to September is generally a wash for me when it comes to recording. It is a huge loss of precious time. I wish I had a private, climate-controlled facility where I could leave everything set up and ready to be played and recorded. I would get so much more done. This is seriously something that has stunted my recorded output.

I listened to the "Tubular Bells" album by Mike Oldfield recently. If you don't already know it is a two-song album. Just one 20+ minute song on each side of the record. I liked some of it, but I didn't care for a lot of it. It did plant an idea in my mind to do something similar. Not exactly the same. But I like the idea of some long, drawn-out jams. Not that those two tracks were exactly jams in the traditional sense of the word. There were hardly any drums at all on this album. And there were plenty of unnatural sounding instruments, such as sped-up guitars and mandolins and basses that didn't sound like basses. And some very strange vocals on part two. I think Oldfield had a good idea with the album. It started off strong but then strayed and became weak. By the time of the second side I was longing for its conclusion. It was a pretty long album for its time as well. At 48 or 49 minutes it was rather lengthy for 1973.

So the seed was planted. Maybe just come up with two long jams that would produce some really nice clips. Maybe have some instruments come in at certain times and others fade out. Perhaps some vocals but no real words. I like the experimental music era of the early 1970's. A lot of the progressive rock, psychedelic & R&B bands took full advantage of that time and produced some really cool pieces. Pink Floyd and Yes come to mind; the ultra-long instrumental section of "Do Your Thing" by Isaac Hayes; "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" by the Temptations; "Imagine" by The Happenings; "Dorian Benediction" by The Free Design. I read that early Genesis was another in this category. I will have to check them out.

So this is a bit of a problem with me. I find it hard to commit to any type of musical style or genre. When I listen to Christmas music, I want to make Christmas music. When I listen to Coldplay, I want to make songs like Coldplay's. When I listen to Gordon Lightfoot or Jim Croce, I want to make music like theirs. When I listen to Pink Floyd I want to make music like theirs. Or the Moody Blues. Or countless otherse. Problem is, I don't sound like any of them. No one will ever listen to any of my songs and say, "Hey! This sounds like Coldplay!" While I would certainly be flattered I would think there is definitely something wrong with their hearing.

I guess I'm talking about vocal styles here. I could probably make music that sound like theirs but when it comes to singing I would not even be close. I don't have the vocal prowess of any of those singers. Christmas music is Christmas music. As far as I know there is no one known as a "Christmas music recording artist." There is no defined sound of a Christmas music singer's vocal. It's an open field. And it's still the best method of breaking into the music industry. But it is very hard to remain focused on Christmas music when the world around you is long done with the holiday's festivities.

Like all the years before, I have no idea what this year will produce musically for me. Things never seem to be where you want them to be. I honestly believed 2017 would be more of a breeze compared to the past few years. Not looking that way. Getting less and less studio time. Can't accomplish anything at this rate. We'll see what happens.