2019 Update

I didn't realize I haven't updated here since last summer! How time flies!!

Well, this is what's been going on since last June. I did not complete the Christmas song (Christmas in the City [reprise]) I was working on. I'd say I'm probably 75-80% done. I still need to finish some small synth parts, guitar parts and the drum track. But since I'm making this song a reprise I have to have the counterpart it's based on. I need a full song called "Christmas in the City." That I have not written yet. So if I plan to release at the very least a single for the holiday season, I feel I should have two songs to do so. It's not necessary, I know. Nowadays you only need to release a single track. But it may be strange to release a reprise song without having the original non-reprise song. Make sense?

The last several months I have been working on an instrumental version of "Stormy" by Dennis Yost & The Classics IV. It's a song I have always loved and I even did a guitar cover of it on YouTube some years ago. I came into a really cool Hammond organ late last year and it's a fabulous instrument. I started getting all these thoughts of doing some organ versions of my favorite songs. I started with "Stormy" and it's not quite done yet either. I really want to finish it before moving onto something else. Otherwise, I will end up with a bunch of unfinished projects. A few other covers I am excited at the thought of doing include "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'll Be Your Shelter". This organ is so cool that I have tons of songs I would like to do but I need to also stay focused on doing my own original material.

It is now April as I write this. What will I be able to get done this year? Will I get an original Christmas album ready? Or one of holiday covers? Or one of non-holiday music? Maybe an EP or a couple of singles. Perhaps a holiday single and a non-holiday single. That might be the most likely thing. Not ideal but that may be what I have to settle for. This is the era of the single. Oh, I should mention that I did officially release my song "If I Told You" late in 2018 through CD Baby, so it can be found there, on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and other places. I did embellish the song a bit with a few extra things so it is not the same version that I uploaded to YouTube a while ago. This song has become one of my personal favorites.

What I really want to do is get back to my own music. As much as I may get excited about doing covers the truth is that most no one else would be interested and of course there can be no expectations of earning any money from it. It's almost like a TAXI type thing--you custom make music based on their listings and submit to them but they don't accept it. That's a lot of time and effort to spend that could otherwise be used towards making original music that you own the rights to. Problem is, I have not written much at all since the last post. A matter of distraction and discipline.

I am going to try to crank out something before it gets too hot in the studio. But even if it does get hot I will work through it. I remember the hot July recording sessions for "Tomorrow" that I toiled through. If necessary I'll do that again.

I have lots of ideas for things to record. Another consideration for this year is to release an album of instrumental recordings. I was entertaining the thought of calling it "The Soundtrack". There are some unreleased tracks would definitely fit in well on this. And I could easily make some more. Also there is still the possibility of recording a minimoog album. Had some ideas for some shoegazing or spaced out music that could make for something interesting. Or I may just merge this project with "the soundtrack" project if I start to lack in ideas or get pressed for time.

Holiday Music and Electronic Music

So three months after my last post and I am still working on that same one Christmas song. It's been rough. Too much stuff going on. (Although I must admit I also did waste some time unnecessarily). Am I ready to throw in the towel on my plan to have a holiday album out this year? No, not quite yet. But it isn't looking good. I may have to settle on another EP. At worst, I may have to settle on this one song, but that seems far-fetched. The good news is I have to do just a little more recording on this song and then put it all together. The bad news is I'm not sure how I will handle the drum track. Will I play actual drums or will I go with my Yamaha synth drum sounds? I do want to actually play but we'll see.

Sometime in April I took a break from the Xmas song to record something using my Minimoog. This is a pretty amazing instrument in that it is a whole band in itself. Couple some of the melodic tones with a delay pedal and you get some very out-there electronic sounds.

I put together about a 5 or 6 track piece of different Moog sounds and made up a little electronic song. After doing this for a few days I felt the inspiration to do a whole album of songs made only (or almost entirely) on the Minomoog. I'm not saying I've done that already but it is another project that will be in the works.

What I came up with is a type of music that I have been searching for but could not find. I realize there are tons of music out there that I have not yet heard and never will. But based on my searches I have not found what I've been looking for. It all started with a Chernobyl disaster I saw online a few years ago. It had stock footage of Soviet nuclear power films and some very Moog-ish music playing along. The song was undoubtedly electronic and was most likely created on keyboards exclusively. What I don't know is whether the music was part of the film or if it was newly created for the documentary. The film's era is very hard to tell but I would guess it to be somewhere from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. The music fits in perfectly with that era and makes me skeptical that it was newly made for the program. But I cannot find any info about it and there is nothing in the credits.

How do I describe this music? It's outer spacey. It's futuristic in a retro sort of way. It's unsettling. It's early shoe-gazing music. It's sparse. It makes everything seem slow motion. It sounds like it was recorded in wide open spaces, like the glaciers of Iceland. It's atmospheric. It's ambient. It has that lo-fi feel. It gives warning. It can be ominous.

That's what I want to make. I don't have all the synth sounds I would like to have in order to do this. In particular there is a vintage sound which resembles voices singing "ohs" or "ahs" and it sounds really great.

I've listened to artists such as Suzanne Ciani and Klaus Schulze but their electronic art tends to not be very musical. I have no problem with long, drawn-out pieces even if they're not in a static rhythm. But it has to have a feel of musicality and a pulse to drive it. The "I Robot" album by The Alan Parsons Project has a lot of aspects of what I'm looking for, particularly the instrumental passages. I thought Kraftwerk may have been a source but their music sounds too gleeful.

I would like to find some of what I'm looking for from the period of 1969-1977. It has to be out there. But I haven't found it so I will try to make my own. I uploaded a super lo-fi version to my phone from my monitors of the song I made has unofficial working titles of "Moog Song" and "The Day Will Come." Here it is from soundcloud:




That's rather a short piece but I plan to make it a lot longer. I'm envisioning about 4-5 songs for a 40-minute album. And this is a project I believe I can get done before the year is up even if I start a few months from now.

But I really do want to work on the Christmas music. It has not been difficult as I thought it would be. The song I've been working on is rather funky and it keeps me in the spirit of working on it. I don't think it's strange to work on holiday music throughout the year, and it doesn't feel weird telling others that's what I'm doing. So onward I go!

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.

Christmas Recording Progress

If you're a regular reader of this blog you already know that I've been working on a cover of a Christmas song. I'm pleased to say that it has been coming along well and I've been experimenting with some new things. But I have now arrived at the dreaded 'recording the drums' portion of the song. After initially being convinced that I would go with my trusty Yamaha synth's drum sounds, I have now decided that I need to play a real drum set for this song. The hard part will be, as always, getting a good snare drum sound.

I was experimenting a bit with the snare drum this evening and doing some test recordings with it. I achieved a very nice sound--still not perfect but it might just be the best sound I have ever recorded. What did it for me was three key things:

1. Tightening the top and bottom heads of the drum
2. Placing a mic near & just above the drum (and away from the hi hat)
3. Turning down the input recording level.

Tightening the heads gave me a higher pitched sound and one that cut through the mix with all the other instruments. The mic near the snare gives it extra volume and lets you hear its nuances from up close. Additionally, with the mic that close I don't have to hit the drum all that hard. Also, the mic is away from the hi hat which means it does not pick up all that hi hat noise and ended up giving me a very balanced sound. Finally, turning down the record input level got rid of the distorted drum sound that unfortunately has plagued many of my other recordings. It pays to try different things out! If it weren't so late in the evening when I was doing all this I would have recorded the whole drum set track tonight.

But as I mentioned it wasn't completely perfect. On the recording I was hearing a lot of the snare drum's overtones. I will try recording again with a drum ring on the head. But the problem with rings is that they tend to completely deaden the drum sound. I may try some other things if the desired sound is not achieved.

So when I do record the drum set part my plan is to use that one mic on the snare; an overhead to capture the toms & cymbals; and 2 for the kick drum, one on each end. I used to in the past mic the toms individually but I have found that the single overhead picks them up very well and I have even received  professional praise on their recorded sound using that technique. That's good enough for me. Ideally, if I had the space and additional mic stands I would go with mic'ing each tom and running each one through a separate channel of a mixer. But you make do with what you have because it beats getting into unnecessary debt.

The song I'm working on is "We Three Kings." This is a great, minor-key, public domain Christmas song. It's in 3/8 time and originally I was going to record it that way. But I had some other ideas for this song and I changed it to 4/4. Obviously I have not heard every version of this song ever recorded, but I believe I have come up with a unique arrangement and interpretation. I was going for a late 60's/early 70's sound on this, and in particular a vintage R&B feel. It is an instrumental with a minimoog voice taking the lead melody. This is the very first recording of mine to feature a cello. And I added a 4 piece horn section because, hey, it won't sound like some vintage, funky R&B without horns! I recorded trumpet, trombone, tenor sax & baritone sax. This is not the first time I have experimented with horns on a recording of mine. You might remember some horn action on my song "The Rain." Now, mind you, I do not have a cello or all those different horns nor would I be able to play them well enough at this time. But my Yamaha synth opens up worlds of sound for me. And these sounds are realistic-enough that I can use them and pass them off as the real deal on recordings. I will surely be using horn sounds a lot more in my future songs.

I'm really excited about finishing the recording process for this song. There are still some things to tweak and plenty of tracks to bounce in order to free up space. I anticipate completing this song in its entirety and releasing it during the coming weekend. At that time I will submit it to ChristmasSongsRadio.com where it will be in rotation with my three other holiday recordings. I will also send it to "The Basement Tapes with Nick & Bootsy."

Before I close out this post I want to give you an idea of the snare drum sound I'm looking to get for this recording. Such a great sound and cuts clearly through the mix. And there appears to be only an overhead mic. I'm pretty confident there are no other mics on those drums as that was back in the day when drum sets were not given mic'ing priority. By the way, this is also a great song by a great performer:

Getting In the Christmas Mood

Today I was at a Lowe's hardware store. They already have their Christmas trees and decorations display up and running and immediately I got the urge to make Christmas music. That's all it took for me. I'm definitely not ready for Christmas but this is surely the time to start working on some Christmas songs. The music industry usually gets their new holiday albums recorded in the summer and begin releasing them now or shortly. Me, well, I guess I do things my own way which is not always the most efficient. But it's still a great time to record perhaps a couple of new tunes and maybe even a few covers.

Seeing all those decorated trees and lights and everything just brought the Christmas mood onto me. Christmas music is so timeless and all those classic recordings from the 50's, 60's & 70's started coming into my head. I became very excited at the thought of creating some new Christmas songs. And it's not only because I really love Christmas music but also because I still believe that holiday music is a great way to get into the music business. Yes, that is still ultimately my goal because I cannot see any fulfillment in doing anything else. Of course, I will continue to make music regardless as long as I am able.

So from this point forward I'm going to buckle down and start trying to reach some year-end goals. These include at least one new holiday tune, a holiday cover tune and another song I started working on months ago but have not finished. This song in particular is my longest song yet at ten minutes. My plan for this tune was to make it a 2-part song. The first part would feature lyrics and the second would be instrumental. I envisioned it as bookends for my next album, with the first part opening the album and the second half closing it out. I'm not terribly concerned about the instrument tracks. I already have the main guitar track laid down. My main concern is that I have had some writer's block on the lyrics and I need to get it written soon. This will be a mainly acoustic guitar song with a good amount of minimoog sounds.

New Life For Some Old Songs

Last evening I took one of my old recordings that I never officially released and used a minimoog to play the melody part over the backing tracks. I had this song up on myspace.com eons ago and here and there over the years. This song is so old in fact that I no longer have the electric guitars or bass that was used on it. It's from 2006. But I never recorded a vocal track I was satisfied with. Last year I even considered re-writing the lyrics with a complete new melody. That didn't pan out either. So I went back to the original melody and played it with a minimoog sound. I have some harmony parts which I need to add as well. Just for the heck of it, I may try mixing in the new melody I came up with also, just to keep things interesting. The original song was called "All For You." The rewrite was called "Going Back." If I decide to use parts from Going Back I'll call the finished song "All For You/Going Back." Strange titles always make for interesting conversation pieces.

For my next project I may continue on this route with "Long For Heaven." This is a track I officially released in 2011 as part of an EP. I regret having released this EP as I included incorrect versions of some songs and also songs that I have since improved.Long For Heaven is a tune I really like the music to but not the vocals. Not too long ago I tried to rewrite this one also albeit unsuccessfully. So I may minimoog this one too and use parts from both melodies.

I'm also ready to start recording a new song. It will be my first one in 6/8 time. It will also be another dark, moody song--the kind I gravitate towards. I want to get the guitar track recorded because it basically repeats throughout the song. I don't have lyrics for this one yet but they'll come. This song will be in the vein of "Tomorrow" with sparse instrumentation and a haunting atmosphere. Tomorrow remains one of my favorite songs sonic-wise in that all parts can be clearly heard. That is a goal I want to continue to achieve. My earliest recordings feature a lot of distortion from levels being too high and too much instrumentation competing for the same frequency space.

If I ever release an album of instrumental only music these older songs I'm fiddling around with will mostly likely land on it. I'll have to do as much as I can while the cold weather lasts. It's really comfortable to work in my studio during this time. When the heat of summer arrives it will be very difficult to do anything in there without shorting out some piece of electronic equipment. Well, off I go to a more productive year.