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.

Exit World Christmas EP Available on CdBaby

Yesterday I released my Christmas EP and it was titled just that. It contains the four songs that I have recorded the last few years. My intention was to include a new recording or two but due to an overlook on my part when I was completing the submission I did not leave the option to include any extra tracks. Thus, I had the option of contacting cdbaby so that they could make the necessary changes and waiting on them to get back to me probably after Christmas, or going ahead and submitting the album with only the aforementioned four songs. Which would you choose? I didn't want to wait another twelve months to do this so I went ahead and submitted what I had. I had a fifth song all ready to go but it just didn't work out for this year. By the way, I had to make this excruciating decision late last night even after sending cdbaby an email. I'm glad I did not wait for a response from them since they neither have responded nor will they till after it's too late. I guess my fifth track will have to wait for next year. So once again it's been a learning experience and I now what to do for next time.

Speaking of next year, I have already decided that I will spend all of next year making Christmas & seasonal music. Yes, I'm going to take a break from making my non-holiday music. I really like Christmas music and I hate the feeling of getting into recording it so late in the game. I don't know about now but in the past most holiday albums were released in October. I'm not aiming for that early but definitely November or early December. And the plan is to release two albums--one of original songs and one of instrumental classics. I know it will be hard to stay focused on Christmas music in the summer. Heck, it may be hard in a month or two when the world is fully back to it's pre-Christmas sentiment and it seems as though there never had even been a Christmas. But I tend to keep the holiday music playing for quite some time even beyond New Year's Day. And I have winter around me so that should help, too. I may start working on some new stuff as soon as Christmas passes this year.

Here is the just released Christmas EP on cdbaby in case any of you good folks want to make a purchase:

Exit World Christmas EP

2016: Year End Goals

Around this time of year, I usually write about my end-of-year goals for Exit World music. This year is no different except that I don't really have any goals. Well, nothing crazy like the last few years. I would really love to get a Christmas album out there (read: a 10-song collection), but it's not going to happen in 2016. Technically there is enough time if I put together some simple covers. But I like to indulge in my music and doing things quickly is not how I like to work on it. Next year though is a very real possibility. Let's just say that things have fallen into place and I am more optimistic for the coming year than I was for the current one. And definitely more optimistic than the tone of some of my other posts this year.

Last year around this time I recorded a unique version of "We Three Kings." It didn't take me very long and I was pretty pleased with it. It was an instrumental and that has a lot to do with my having completed it rather quickly. Vocals are a weak spot for me and not having to record take after take of lines and phrases saves a ton of time. What I am considering for this year is recording another instrumental cover. I have not written any new holiday tunes nor do I anticipate being able to write and produce one in time. In all truth though the two original songs I did make the last few years were started around this time so I could still do it. I'm not going to place a lot of emphasis on that though and just focus on getting a cover done. I am leaning towards "O Little Town of Bethlehem," as it's a song I've been wanting to do for quite some time.

In my previous post I wrote that I was considering not renewing to have my music available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. At this point it looks like I will keep it up for at least another year. Recently I was with some people and I wanted to hear my music through a new piece of gear. Not having my iPod on me it was really really convenient to be able to have them find me on Spotify and play my music from there. That was pretty nice. It was also pretty cool to have my music playing there and most people around not knowing it was me. And then seeing how surprised they were to learn it was me. I took that as some small sign that I should continue on. So I'm going to keep my music up and available for streaming and purchase.

I did not do very much musically this year. I guess that's nothing really out of the ordinary for me. Just about two songs, possibly a third coming, and a half-minute rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" which has been played a lot. It's really hard to accomplish a lot when you're working this alone and you don't always have necessary time & space to do it. I could easily become an electronic musician and put out lots more music but I do not want to go that route.

One thing I did do recently was publish a new song on Soundcloud & YouTube called "If I Told You." I had been working on this song for several years. You can look back on some of my posts from some years ago when I first talked about it. Well, it's finally done and it's one of my favorite songs. The recording quality is so good IMHO and it shows how my production skills have really improved tenfold over the years. It is so good to see yourself grow, not old, but in ability, skill, knowledge and expertise.

I still want to remix the song and just tweak it a bit here and there, but I did make a video and uploaded it to YouTube:




This was my pièce de résistance for 2016. Surely this song (in slightly remixed format) will be on my next album of originals. 

In the meantime between now and the new year I will try to churn out a new recording of an old Christmas song. I know many of these tunes are tired and overdone but many people still love Christmas music as do I. I'll just come up with a unique take on it like I did with "We Three Kings."

The State of Exit World Music

I realize it's a bit early but I am strongly considering not keeping my "Milestone" album up for sale on iTunes, Amazon, etc. The annual fee I have to pay to Record Union in order to keep it available on these platforms is not much, but as I never really sold much to begin with it's turning more into an unnecessary expense. To keep it available without having anyone buying it or any songs from it is completely purposeless. Of course, this means it will be taken off Spotify as well but no one's listening to it there either. I don't know how this will work with CD Baby. Probably will come down from there as well.

I released an EP about 2 years before "Milestone" and at that time I paid a one-time fee and it remains up for sale and/or play on all these platforms (minus CD Baby). By late 2014 when I put out the full album Record Union changed their policies and required an annual fee to keep the music up for sale. I do not know when they made these changes but I wish I could have had an advance warning. Not that that would have led me to release the album any sooner but it would have been a good heads-up and something to keep in mind. And even though the EP is not costing me anything to maintain for sale I may end up taking it down as well.

Why am I doing this? Well, one reason is cost as I mentioned already. But another is just coming to terms with the fact that this is really going nowhere. Not that I am going to stop making music altogether, although there are those low points when I do entertain the idea of just selling everything with the exception of perhaps an acoustic guitar. I haven't been doing much with music lately. And it's really a circular, compounding ailment. Why make music that no one is going to listen to? This takes much too much time and effort to just do it for my own ears. If I were a painter would it make sense to paint portraits and then keep them under my bed or in the basement or attic? What good is it if no one else can experience your work, your art?

It's all just too frustrating. People don't want to hear new music unless it comes from an industry-established name. If you're willing to do a cover by an industry-established name then you may get some attention. Otherwise there's no appreciation for the dozens of hours put into writing, recording & producing an original song. Granted, I allow for the general possibility that my music is not good to some people. But there is plenty of stuff that is not good being played on the radio and on commercials and on TV shows and in movies. There is plenty of music on the charts that is not good.

Seriously, I haven't even been writing songs or playing guitar much at all lately. I've probably lost all my callouses. And the truth is I don't even really care. It's not fun anymore and it doesn't matter like it used to. I am still going to finish up what I've been working on and do some more trusty old Christmas songs. I'll put them up on YouTube and soundcloud at some low-quality level just to discourage downloading. I'll save the high quality recordings for the few people who do appreciate what I do.

I have a Twitter account which I set up for my music under the name of Exit World, of course. You couldn't imagine how many followers I've had who are trying to sell me something, whether it's remastering my songs, airtime for my music (sounds like payola), promotion, etc. Basically the majority of followers I've gotten only want something from me in one way or another. I'm sure they haven't even bothered to listen to anything I've made. They find out I make music and then naturally follow me. The worst thing is that many of them follow for a day or two and then unfollow. That really is a plague over on Twitter, isn't it? Following to get you to follow and once you do they unfollow. I don't even bother anymore. I am also considering taking down my twitter account. There is no point to it. It's nothing more than a huge waste of time.

But I still have to pursue creative avenues of self-expression. I'm going to eventually start some other things--things that don't take so much time to do. Things that don't require anyone to zone in for 3 or 4 minutes. This is a visually-stimulated era and there is no denying that attention spans have gone south and permanently at that. I don't know how these things will turn out but one thing is for sure--there are some very busy times ahead!