All in Time Due ((Part 14))

An Update of the Preliminary Variety:

What am I even doing, man? I started writing this piece over a months ago. Then, I took a break from it for something like several more weeks. Then yet again, several MORE weeks. Now, I barely even remember what THIS POST is about. Still, I am ready and about to proof the thing. Of course, you may wish to know what has kept me from writing. And that makes sense. Well, I have been busking ALL OVER THE PLACE. Also, In case you don’t know it, busking is the art of performing art, usually music, in public, for donations/tips. As a matter of fact, I love busking. And so, as such, THAT will be the point of my next blog series. I have chosen, for now, and probably forever, to name the next series What the Busk? In that series, my plan is to provide a somewhat brief, and likely serial, glimpse into the performance of one’s own music, to strangers. This is how I have been spending my time, playing my music to friends and strangers, all over the Appalachian mountain range. And it’s been cool. THAT is what has me delayed. I have been living. Sometimes, we HAVE to become DELAYED in our telling of our stories, especially when new /other stories are in the wake. I am living. And happy. I am still annoyed, but I am living. And it is precisely all of this that makes one take a break from TELLING STORIES to LIVE THE STORIES. I would never be able to write if I lived all the time. And, similarly, I would lead such a hollow life if all I did was tell stories. So, to hell with ALL WASTED TIME. And for this, I mean :: EVERYONE.

UPFRONT PS: Thank you, dear and lovely Sandra, for reading through this ENTIRE SERIES. your kind words have compelled me to finish this thing, among many others dreams they tend to inspire. I guess this REALLY IS a memoir in the works. And, oh, what a concept. I had always wanted to write a memoir. Then, without even realizing it, I had done so. Worried about getting the structure JUST RIGHT, Sandra has assured me that it might be a better idea to just release the thing. Put it all in a book, with some pictures, notes and drawings. Maybe MY memoir could be illustrated? Oh, how weird. All of this to say, Sandra will be the reason I ever finish a memoir.

OK, so, back to finishing THIS PIECE. THE

SHIRT READS: STAPH

NO ONE LAUGHS

EVEN FEWER APPROACH

All, I REALLY want to talk about.now is busking. Because. And why. I have been playing and singing in public so much lately that something about me life feels right. But, I must continue this series to its expected terminus. That is, I MUST make my way to and through Parts 14 and 15. That double is // means, this piece, the third in the sub-series about my life as a musician. In Part 4, I spoke about my ACTUAL MUSICAL LIFE. There I detailed how I became the musician that I am, what my road to now may have looked like, based on its details. In THE follow-up to THAT piece, Part 9, I went on about the making of my first major musical work, Alien Pop. I also used that piece to speak about lyrics and music theory a bit more generally. Now, I will use this piece to round out any stories about how Alien Pop was actually made. You know, the WHO, WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHY. LOL. Here’s to poisoning ,,,,,,, the GREAT RIP-OFF ||| MACHINES!

Now, in case you don’t understand what I mean, let me be more specific. My intention, in making some of the random errors and other “mistakes” that I do in writing, is to make things harder. For those. Who wish to steal the work of creatives. We will always be creative. You,/however, will not be able to ri[p u$ off for too long. Eventually, the cat will eat its tail, the illusion will cease, and you will be belly up. That light in our minds, that certain light which pleasures the form of a song, that splatters painting so, will continue to burn. ISO: Bad economy, good economy, we still have ideas. So, yeah, I make some mistakes, dude. of course, there is actual mistakes too. When those happen, I’ll make a point to let you know.

A MISTAKE HAPPENING IN REAL TIME

THE SHORTS OF A DIVER

FALLING OFF

AND SO

PUBLICLY FALLING MONKEY

I have been thinking A LOT about monkeys lately. I mean, dude, seriously, yo:

VIRTUALLY ALL PUBLISHED MUSICAL WORKS IN EXISTENCE ARE

THE SOUNDS OF MONKEYS

And, dude, that’s a lot of sounds. That’s Regina Spektor’s HIP stuff with all the gutturals and shit. The stuff I still do. Well, stuff like it. Because, each monkey is different, and so makes different sounds. If a recording doesn’t exhibit this solid and simple fact, then it’s not real music. If the singer’s voice has been produced away to some archetype of industry, then the music has been lost. And what is left is a bag of music-seeming chips, engineered to keep your hands IN THE BAG. You know, just like regular chips. The good ones anyways. This history of monkeys also includes The Monkeys, The Beatles, and all of the other bands you’ve never heard that were essentially rip-offs of the more popular stuff. I guess certain things never change. I mean, WHAT of what you listen to now will be listened to in 10 years, 20, and more the same? Classic Rock MADE IT because classic rock is POP MUSIC. That’s why it’s here. This is why you know about it.

This is why you know, the stuff.

Either way, it’s all monkeys, dude. Seriously, the second I realized this, it blew my mind. There I was, singing BACK to birds, in FULL SUMMER WHISTLE and it hit me. Maybe it was exactly 111 of the exchanged tones? Who cares. But, it hit me. I realized that I was a monkey, and that all of my songs were those of a musical monkey. Then, it hit me harder. Virtually all published music is literally: MONKEY BUSINESS. Literally. And come to think of it, governments, actual businesses, all of it; monkey business. The work of clever monkey extensions. Maybe this is why the whole thing falls apart so often. I believe, and perhaps, monkeys are only capable of so much. We can only handle so much culture, so many hours on the phone, so much of what we call _SOCIETY_ All of this anyway is merely a way for the most clever monkeys to have to work less and therefore die less. Because, as I have said and will always say, work is stress is death. This is not to say that one shouldn’t work. It’s just to acknowledge that a decent amount of our stress, and therefore our deaths, in terms of timing, come from THAT WORK. This is just simple arithmetic, and the result of listening to the ramblings of so many different types of people.

When WILL I get to the fracking point>?

So, like I say in the liners for the EP itself, I was compelled by the kind words of my students to write, perform, record, and release an album. Seeing, as I was, at that time, a lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder, I set my sights on about an EP’s worth of material. I’m not sure how this works, but somehow, and quite naturally, music collects itself inherently as we write it. We get some sense of how this song plays next to that one, how this one might end an album, or begin it the same. We get, as a result, some sense of how much life each collection of songs may have. We envision how, in the absence of certain tracks, how we might embellish the work. And by this, I mean things like Dr. Outtro, which was written FOR THE RECORD. I certainly hadn’t gone around playing strange out of time beats while making cartoon noises before. But, come to think of it, I might-maybe should. I can picture it now. I’m busking, and then, out of nowhere, cartoon noises. The glances that had been as then positive transform, instantly, into concern and maybe even a will to pity me. And this, for some reason, seems like a good idea.

“DAD, WHAT

DID I DO

TO DESERVE ALL OF MY BEST IDEAS

BEING LEFT ALONG

THE DEEPEST PORTIONS OF EVERY RIVER?”

So, I set out to record something. One of the songs, existed, I Wanna Know. And, that’s NOT K-n-w. There’s an 0 in there, meaning that it existed only like I play it live, played it, acoustically. When it came time to record the song for the album, I had to completely redo it. I just could give enough life to the other form, though, when busing, there IS a lot of life in the song. People clap, stop as they pass by, and post it all to social media. So, there IS something to the original version, which is NOT R&B. However, when it comes to recording, the thing never goes how you imagine it to go. You get in there, tinkering away at synthetic bass lines and before you know it, the song is a SEX/dance number. What a weird process if you think about it. And this is just the nature of one track so far. As such, let me start at the first and make my way. Then, I’ll chat a little bit about the rest of it, the process and the release.

IMAGE OF A MAN, RECORDING AN ALBUM

THEY LOOK HAPPY, BUT HONESTLY THEY’RE JUST ADDICTED

AND TIRED ]]

STOPPED HERE. It IS an addiction, man. I can tell you this. So many times have I stayed up into THE WEE HOURS tinkering away at some Garage Band project, some thing that may or may not get released (see CONSTANT NEURAL FIRINGS). In this case, they get’d released, eventually. As mentioned, in Part 9, I wrote the lyrics for From On High, and gutted its included_chorus, BEFORE hearing anything but the tempo of the song, in my head. In general, this is probably not how the thing goes. To wit, I can easily imagine Busta Rhymes, and no I’m not comparing myself to this excellent dude, hearing a beat and growing excited and then busting rhymes on the track, to sound as fucking “white” as I can. And no, I do not actually think “white” has a sound. It has stereotypes, and THIS is what the comedian is going on about. They’re not speaking some official language. They’re focusing on a dialect. Either way, and so as to not get too bogged down in just about everything, let me move on. I wrote a beat. And, now that I think of it, I’m not even sure it was the first beat I wrote for the album. I DO outline, in the liners, which CAN be found on my BandCamp page, when each track was finished. Still, I’m not sure which beats I made in which order. At least, this is to say I cannot remember.

A WOMAN REMEMBERING

LOOKS A LOT LIKE THINKING

WHAT’s the DIFFERENCE,

THEN?

Now, beyond what I’ve mentioned about From On High before, there’s ‘he little stuff. I CHOSE to make the kick as punchy as possible, the horns-for-bass as outlandish and possibly Mexican ass could be. That WAS a typo, then I put it back. The chorus. You know what. I haven’t listened to this in a while. As such, I’m gonna go listen to the album. Before doing this, I’m gonna go start the first part of a new series, about busking. Like I said, at the beginning of this piece, I cannot get busking off my mind. So, I’m gonna make like Horse the Band and Pizza. What a sentence. When I come back to this, I will have listened to the album several times, will have taken notes, and will probably not be so damn inclined to move on to writing something else. MAN, look at the honesty, along, my writing.

STOPPED HERE for a _really long_ time.

[

looks directly into camera

dies, then

comes back to life as the very same camera

staring at self

,

living still

]

Wow, so, dude, I’ve come back to this WITHOUT listening to the album. I chose, instead, to rent a cabin and relax in the rain, to sleep way too much. And it was good. Still, this puts me ill prepared yet having, you know, the will to write this thing. As such, I’m going to lie, retroactively, and write this, once again, WITHOUT having listened to my own album. I’ve heard it a million times, in a million partial forms, and so I’ll trust my gut on this one.

JELLO-BASED FAKE-LOOKING GUTS

THANKS,

CRONENBERG

So, where was I?

Oh yeah, so let me start with a story. Like. Either way. So, at the height of my madness, granted graciously by a certain socially-devoid Voldemort, and this is NOT to say Ralph Fiennes, like at all. If only for the lack of attractiveness, intentionally, there granted by the director, via hair, makeup, and an — the introduction of a decent story line. LOL. I’m all over the fucking place. get a grip, man. So, at the height of this madness, I was parked in the rather dark parking lot of a local theme park. Local, to where I was parked then. Go figure THAT _one_ %out. In this lot, in the middle of the night, and borne about by the — an extreme feeling that I — was being monitored by, well potentially by, government agents, I chose to dance, VERY WILDLY, to my own album. In the grass. I essentially pounced my way through the beats and such, probably in my underwear or something. Song by song, I sang along, in the dead of night, eventually waking the grounds people-person, who then drove an ATV to make sure I wasn’t out there stealing anything. What COULD I actually find useful among the wares of a shed tucked hiddenly on the lands of a closed (for the day) theme park. Not even the trains were running.

Eventually, I left. To sleep somewhere else for ‘he night. Landing, next, at a place where, I completely swear, I took pics of what, still to this day, looks like a sort of microwave implement, probably meant to FRY CERTAIN BRAINS, you know, into NOT BEING SO SMART. At least this is what it LOOKED LIKE to ME. On that night, in that mood. So, eventually and again, I left. I eventually, and somewhat ultimately, rested myself in the (unused) construction zone of a closed (for the season) ski area. Just me, the deer, and a _heavy need to heal my brain, up. BC: I really do meet the worst people. What a JOKE. But, it isn’t. This was ALL REAL.

Just like my, having made an album.

Which I will now, if only for the sake of too many pages, will get back to. Double will. LOTS of will.

By the way, I really DO meet the BEST people, too.

So, I mentioned a bit about From On High. In essence, I made some rap lyrics, expressly intent on making a RAP SONG for the album. Then, I wrote a beat, at some point ON the recording process. Finally, I recorded myself rapping, almost by the method(s) of the intentions of the song, which ,,, once again ,,, means a singular rapper in their first ever rap battle, ever, sans others p’sent. A, one-sided battle, to even get up, onto, the stage in the first place. FINALLY, after an attempt to mix-master this track to completion, at some time_point, along the semester, following my ACTUAL RECORDING of the album, I gave up on the prospect of doing LITERALLY EVERYTHING. I did get the songs to a point where they WERE THE SONGS, but still, things like listening fatigue and other issues were present. Overall, I do not consider myself a master of | dot at mastering. I CAN get the track pretty close, but there’s always some [insert industry jargon] that I’m not considering. More recently, I’ve done better at getting my tracks to go ALL THE WAY, but still, I’d like merely, to merely, write, compose, and record. Matter of fact, I often joke that my HIGHEST preference is on doing shows WITHOUT the guitar. I’d rather sing. I’d rather dance, Dude. Maybe play the piano. At some Very Least, sit at one. Let someone else do it, hold and play the guitar.

Pillow me to focus on that which Mary, temporarily, prevented :::

Singing.

And this brings me to the next track of the album. Elegant Wood.

When I’m busking, this track seems to get a lot of attention. As for the recording and the release process, I recorded this one different from the others. The vocals and _ guitar(s) of all tracks, once again, excepting Elegant Wood, were recorded in a stone room circa 19-0-SOMETHING. The acoustics, in that room, were so weird to me, and when I started recording vocals (with Elegant Wood, I now recall) I was still recording in the FLORIDA ROOM, where sound didn’t always work out so consistently. Still, this is where I started — recording the album. For Elegant Wood, this happened to mean my recording the ENTIRE TRACK in one sitting. I seriously sat down, for like take 1 or 2, and recorded the ENTIRE TRACK you hear on the record. Hence why I made a mistake in the lyrics of the third chorus, something about THE DEVOTIONS. This mistake came as the direct result of my having tried to get an ENTIRE TRACK right for like 3 minutes straight. I’m not sure how others do vocals, but getting the whole thing in one take is pretty wild to me, conceptually. That’s getting the choruses to sound the same, and everything else. Like I said:

WILD STUFF

.

For Elegant Wood, I recorded the vocals and the guitar acoustically. Trying, quite hard, to get all of the timings right. This song is in Common Time, 4/4, so THIS shouldn’t be too hard. But, recording is a different beast from playing, composition too. One mistake in a beautiful guitar line and, to me, it’s utterly unusable. As such, you may easily note, in comparing the final version to MY VERSION, still available on MY SoundCloud account, you’ll see, or better: HEAR, that I did some twangy thing with the guitar line I REALLY WANTED TO USE. I then tried so many tricks to fix it. But, it was only with Simone’s help that WE truly got the thing to sound a little more acceptable. As mentioned, NO TRANSITION, in the last piece on this subject, namely Part 9 of this series, where I described the chords and keys, the chords are not too difficult to play. And this goes for MOST OF THE CHORDS ON THE ALBUM. once again, and still, it can be difficult to get everything JUST RIGHT. It is here, during this recording process, that I started to learn how to let little things go.

LETTING GO,

OF A BALLOON

LETTING GO,

OF AN HEIRLOOM

LETTING GO,

OF IT ALL

As for how-to, the thing was actually recorded, like physically, that would be a combination of an SM-57 mic (here’s to looking at THAT MJ album, recorded, vocally, with the very same) and the dual input mics of an 8-Concurrent-Track R-24. Outside of these two things, Garage Band and my guitar were about the only tools used to make the thing. And by this, I mean the parts I actually did. Not any of THAT complicated BUSINESS Simone conducted, in Track 4. So, in closing, on THIS particular song, Elegant Wood. It was recorded in :: an open FLORIDA ROOM, in COLORADO, a space with direct access to ROAD NOISE. As such, that stuff is probably in there somewhere. And that’s kind of cool. Much, and not so different, from an unintended time stamp, forced into a song, by sound, the very same thing comprising the song itself. Sounds ,,, infiltrating music ,,, infiltrating ,,, other sounds … .. … .. …

Remind me, at some point, to discuss, in actual closing, the release process.

TAKES | BREAK

SO | LONG

THAT | IT FEELS | LIKE

STARTING | OVER

Well, I’m back at this. Again, this morning. I had the cops called on me, yesterday, not for making any kind of scene, but simply for busking. As such, I no longer consider Boone as cool as it was. I thought the whole town was hip to music, and I didn’t sound bad, so yeah, I’m a bit miffed. I feel, given that I was likely on public space, and therefore shouldn’t have had to move anyway, that the business in question had overstepped their rights in calling the cops. Busking, especially when allowed in a given city/town and done in/on public spaces is a form of protected free speech, under the First Amendment. Either way, I’ll just consider Boone A place now. Just a place, no longer anything magical in the way of music. And all of this from one call to the cops? Yes.

Because you, sir, never had the decency to talk to me, to have a conversation, to ask, before sending an incriminating element to me. Not cool.

And moving on.

By the Way: Boone IS magical AND we shouldn’t let ROGUS ASS-HATTUS bother us too much. Boone’s musical nature is not entirely in its store. AND

MOVING ON!

The next song on the album is Under Your Covers. I would, and tf tf tf COULD, say this track was brought the furthest from it’s original recorded state. I HAD recorded so many takes for all its parts, very much unlike I did with that SINGLE TAKE on Elegant Wood. I just couldn’t get the energy of the verses right. The chorus, I believe, is mostly the same take, but the verses were TOUGH to get right, especially considering that I couldn’t get past some listening fatigue in the track. In general, if listening to a track brings you fatigue, then you’re probably not apt to listen to the whole , so much. As such, I am forever grateful to+for Simone’s help. Dude, he got the fatigue out of the track, and this blows my freaking mind, man. As mentioned before, the chords of this song are quite straight-forward, rather easy to play. But, when you hear all of the rhythmic percussive polyrhythmic work I put into the drum and bass segments, including claps at consistently odd times, you’ll see that the chords of a song are never always the whole story. Here, the drums of the chorus really sell the concept I was going for, and that’s WORLD MUSIC. The intention for this track was to make it sound both EMO and WORLD, which is a very strange aim, for a song. In the end, I feel like WE actually made it happen. This song, especially in it’s final recorded state, is quite the aim.

AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY BUILT ON EXTRACTING

THE MUSIC

FROM POP MUSIC

Certain parts of the track were a pain, for sure. For example, the line “that’ll be fine” is a single tone held for an entire riff, THE entire relevant sequence of chords. Well, THAT I recorded maybe a dozen times, paying close attention to the pitch and tone, and finally, I got it all to be almost perfect, with the exception of an eighth-note or something. I am quite proud of doing stuff like that. Generally speaking, I add harmonies mostly on the fly. I do have some idea of where in the sound space I want to put them, but I don’t go in saying “let’s go with a 3rd and/or a 5th.” As such, the harmonies are based on what sounds good/cool/odd to me. Here, and quite interestingly, I recorded a harmony ABOVE the primary line, one that Lauren recalls as the primary line. Now how funny is that? She hears the song and hears the higher-pitched part of the harmony as THE PRIMARY LINE. I guess you can never tell how your music will end up in their ears, what they will they take away from listening. What WILL they take away from THE LISTENING?

It’s hard to tell if what you make, or like, or try to write, will be liked by people. Essentially, music recording ends up being a random process whose terminal state is a thing that MIGHT, SOMEDAY make the radio. Then, EVERYONE can believe that the song is and has always been the song. No, it hasn’t. It is, once again, a random entity. Now, in closing in on Under Your Covers, I never felt quite right about how the final chorus goes. When I play this song live, I end up doing a nervous version of the chorus, at the end, consistent with the line “Your the kind of woman that makes me nervous inside.” Whether anyone gets that I am doing this ::: who knows. And, who cares.

AN UTTERLY POINTLESS BREAK

Personally, I like the way the album is both the same and different between tracks. In putting the tracks in order, I paid attention to things like the key of the song, the final/initial tones of each track, the overall FEELING of the whole album, as well as to what SHOULD work to make for a good album. In the end, this made for an EP that feels like it has themes and personality. Most people consider the album FUN and SOMETHING THAT PUTS ME RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, IDIOSYNCRASIES AND ALL. One listener even mentioned how much my personality shows in the music, and how it feels like I am in fact walking you through the whole thing. Me, and Simone. And I. This now puts us in discussions of the fourth track, I Wanna Knw. As mentioned elsewhere, the final version of this song, which ended up coming out VERY R&B, is DRASTIC different from the version I play a;ll the time. And, just like the held tone in Under Your Cover… STOPPED HERE. THIS IS LITERALLY BORING ME. I WANT TO DO SOMETHING ELSE RIGHT NOW.

HOW IS THINKING OUT LOUD

DIFFERENT FROM

WRITING ||| NOT SO OUT LOUD?

Well, I DID walk away from this. But, I took some time to reflect on why, and it’s not because I’m bored. It’s totally because I have so much to do all the time. As, as with anyone else these days who isn’t rich, I have to spread my work where I can find it. I HAVE to take part in what amounts to feudalism. And this makes situations in which I HAVE to become bored of writing, as that’s the only way for me to be able to move on and get everything done. Well, now that I’ve busked five days this week, CONSECUTIVELY, I feel OK about moving on with this piece, if only to get it out! I finally went back and listened to the album again. Recall, it is weird AF for a musician to sit around listening to their own music too often.

So, in listening, I remembered a few things. In listening to From On High, I noticed again just how different the bridge is from the whole. In general, I am a huge fan of this kind of thing/concept ,,, where an artist uses the bridge to break from the song, in some cases almost in the manner of another song altogether. In this case, the bridge is rather alternative and folk for something you may find in a rap song. And, once again, this to me is super| | interesting. Then, in Elegant Wood, I remember AND CAN STILL HEAR all of the the COOL ADDITIONS and edits Simone made. Usually, I would suggest something upon listening to one of said Simone’s updated/mastered/mixed tracks and Simone would be inclined to think me nuts. Then, he would try it, give or take, and it would work. Not like I had intended it but in some totally new and cooler way. For example, he added those little shaker sounds that pop songs use all the time, and while I hated this at first, it worked out. Seriously; Thanks, Simone.

THANK YOU.

Finally, and before getting back to I Wanna Knw, there IS that separation in recording style, almost completely,,, between the verses and the chorus of Under Your Covers. I am impressed, in listening to this track again, after so many busking sessions, that IT came out as weird as I was aiming IT to be. I don’t feel like the song fits neatly into ANY genre. And this is what makes 444 interesting tunes. For sure, certain parts of the rest of the album don’t fit in either, but those are at least closer to NORMAL MUSIC. This may be, maybe, the best place to mention that Benjamin Clementine, a fellow busking person, is one of my favorite artists. I look up, and downwind, to this guy. I let looser, because he makes a point to let loose, to allow the music to breathe. It also seems to me that he focuses on the lyrics in a manner similar to myself. I was a bit shocked to recall during listening that Track 4, I Wanna Knw, is so dark,, for an R&B song. And this reminds me that I once JOKINGLY referred to the album as HARDCORE R&B during recording. Of course, no one ever knows what I’m ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT. To wit, nothing else.

Kings of Leon starts playing.

I keep writing and barely notice.

Others notice.

And that’S %%% OK

Like giving no period to a sentence. Remember, your writing is YOURS and is meant only to be understood by others. As such, when it makes for decent reading, who gives a shit about the rules. The Kings care about the rules, but you don’t need to. Leave it out. Put it in. Make no sense. This too is OK. Now, let me find my way through this song. The rap, you hear, at the end of THIS TRACK, is actually a poem, my way of adding something TOTALLY WILD to an otherwise softer, more normal song. To add life to its elements. And when I play it live, this is what THAT poem does. I thought at first, that shouting into, via poetry, the faces of downtown patrons was a thing to be LAUGHED AT , perhaps STONED at. Dangle But, it isn’t. And while I HAVE been made fun of for some of the things I do singing, things that no one else can probably do anywhere, at least not within my CURRENT county of CHOICE, people DO SEEM to dig the poem, tremendously. And, In general, it HAS gotten me clapped at, for lack of a better sentence. Either way, I HAD recorded a “fake” bass line using a _ very deep _ set of tones. Well, at some point, Simone, matching said tones, GIVE or TAKE, recorded a LIVE, fretless bass ,, ,, ,, on the track. Fretless | because this happened to be the kind of bass that allowed for a B0. AKA, a B tone in the 0th octave. The very same I wrote- used in the recording. I CAN write a bass line, MAN, but SIMONE is whole ‘nother thing altogether. When I listen to what HE did, I hear SEX. And this too, maybe even three, is just fine with me. Something Something, Elliot Gould.

ALL NOIR FILMS, EVER

PLAYING ALONG, THE SAME SCREEN

WE CATCH A GLIMPSE OF:

ELLIOT GOULD

“It’s OK with me.”

Then, there was Dream Sequence, a song that, based on how I wrote it, never allows the vocalist any time to breathe. Kind of like my writing, I guess. %%% And think. In listening to this track again, more recently, I noticed/recalled that I built this all into the outro, of the same, where I go into a falsetto segment, one that I do about the same live (more recently with much higher pitches, something literally approaching the 7th octave of the piano). And, no, I’m not kidding. Once again, since I can pull off most of the notes in the 0th octave too, this gives me a vocal range of MOST IF NOT ALL OF THE PIANO, MAN. And that, is a fucking BLESSING. Thank you, God. I wrote home at birth, and you dialed me up a piano voice. Maybe this is how it works, life. Maybe there’s a sort of BALANCE, out there, for people who end up wit WORST PARENTING. Maybe God gets it. Still, I’m poor. So, whatever. Maybe money has nothing to do with God. And maybe too, it is precisely the same. Just look at WHO wants you to believe. Still again, and in spite of this, I had an ACTUAL PRIEST give me a few thumbs up the other day, so yeah, God and “his” pals CAN be cool.

GOD

But, Dream Sequence, yeah, now that to me is how you end an album, man. even a short one. The drums are so complicated that when I finally have to show someone else how to play it, we will likely experience a sort of mess. This is not to say I’M SO GOOD AT THE DRUMS (ONCE AGAIN ||| || MY FIRST INSTRUMENT). It’s to say : THE LAW OF GENERATIVITY IS A BITCH. AKA It’s easier to play something when you’ve made it up. Hence why you COULD technically venture upon something better than Van Halen’s guitar work on accident. But, given your skill level, this may or may not be close-closer to impossible. But, and as for the recording, the live portions of this track are the guitar, the beat boxing, and the vocals. The drums, while written on an actual kit, were NOT recorded live. In a way, I’m glad they weren’t, as this would have created a totally different song, and I’m proud of THIS ONE , , man. So far, I’ve mentioned the outro of the song and all of it’s reliance on the Mores of Prince, but what I haven’t mentioned is HOW EXACTLY I made it work. Outside of Simone’s editing and sprucing, I simply went full bore a bunch of times at the end of the song, in some cases fully running out of breath. Then, I put a bunch of these takes together and made it. Still, much of what you hear comes only from one or two attempts. And this is wild.

MOST WILDERNESS

least person

ANIMALS NEED NOT

LEAVE ME ALONE

I CAN recall recording Dream Sequence and how good it felt to get everything so right at the time. Now, I look at the recording like MAN, I CAN OUTDO THIS IN MY SLEEP. And this is good. And will always be good. Because it’s good to progress. In life, music, everything. All of it. But, In terms of the music itself, I’d be most excited playing LIVE, at HUGE VENUES or OTHERWISE, that would be ALL OF IT but also DREAM SEQUENCE. I can picture the thing polished &&live, the drummer (not me) ripping it and people full of excited emotions, and this warms so much more than my heart. As for the actual recording of ‘Sequence, I believe, having had the lyrics and chords and vocal melody done, I began by writing all of that crazy drum and bass business you hear. My intention was to make the thing as much like Constant Neural Firings as possible. Polyrhythmic this, odd normal that. When I listen to this track, now, it feels like the EXACT RIGHT move to end the musical portions of the album. The only thing to follow this track, on the record, is Dr. Outtro ;;;;;;; and I’ve already mentioned how this was recorded; I went in and made a RIDICULOUS drum line somewhat out of time and added to it some strange key work and chords, and lo and behold. Strange. Once those oddities were complete, all I had to do was record both characters in the dead of night, loud as FUDGE. SO FUDGING LOUD~~~!

As I sit and type here now, I remember that I have forgotten a lot of what went on during the recording process. I can barely remember all of the frustration I experienced in trying to master and mix the thing myself. And just when I thought I had mixed it, Simone would remind me that I hadn’t, in fact, done so. He should know. He’s the one who fixed the cat!

STOPPED HERE.

Well, I’m back, again, after some 10 straight days of busking. What a feeling, man. It’s good to feel good, and busking makes me (and so many others too) feel SO GOOD. I focused, during this time, on the very same songs I’ve been chatting about here. About how differently I play Elegant Wood live. And all because songs tend to evolve over time, even recorded ones. And about this, I don’t care. I like it when I realize a new way to sing a part, or a new way to accent the guitar work. It all gets better over time. And, arguably, closer to ideal, further away from what’s been recorded. Still, if I were to play it with a band, it would probably end up being almost exactly the recording, minus a few new vocal quirks. When I play Under Your Covers live, I tend to lighten up some of the extravagance of the vocals. Why? Because I usually busk my set two times in a row, SO many songs, and so, a bunch of overly-operatic stuff for three hours would probably blow my voice. As such, I sometimes lighten up parts for live performances. Even then, barely so. Now, I Wanna Knw. It’s popular when I play it live. It’s not R&B, but it’s definitely popular. People stop dead in their tracks, lower their glasses, and do DOUBLE-sometimes-TRIPLE takes at me for making such sounds. Finally, there’s Dream Sequence, which judging from the looks on other’s faces, is quite a thing to hear live. I play this one almost note for note, according to how’s it’s done on the record. The end, of the song, ends up different each time, because that’s how random falsetto works. In terms of differences, I tend to falsetto higher tones live than I did on the record. At this point, I believe that I’m singing close to the 6th or 7th octave. At times, I’ll just keep going up. not until pain, but to a point of challenge that may someday become part of my ACTUAL VOCAL RANGE.

WATER DRIPPING FROM A FAUCET

THERE’S MUSIC IN THERE

LISTEN CLOSELY ||| MAN

THERE’S MUSIC IN THERE

This IS the record. These are its songs. The first and the last track were made specifically for the record and so have not really been played much, if ever. If someone were to come up to me while busking and ask me to do From On High, and they were kind enough to beat box the thing, correctly enough, I would definitely do IT. In general, and so otherwise, I haven’t played From On High or Dr. Outtro much. As for the others, man, do I love my songs. To wit, I have been told that this shows, that my passion is obvious. And this has been from everyone, musicians, and everyone else. How, cool. Now, let me talk about the other stuff, briefly. Lest I never get to proofing,releasing this thing.

GOD

,

.

AGAIN

The mixing and mastering was done by Simone Sylvestroni (of Minutes to Midnight), a dude with a really cool Italian-sounding name. Because, he’s an Actual Italian, man. HE was kind enough to take on the project for mixing-mastering credit. I ended up with the song-writer, performer, recorder credits, and he got the rest. In other words, he did it for FREE. What a f’nGENTLEMAN. Seriously. I don’t have much money in the first place AND have spent most of my life poor. he sees this, gets it. And so, he helped. And for this he is WELL BEYOND AMAZING. he had so much going on. I was teaching and so was spending most of my time working. Reminder: jobs expect you to live the job, which is absurd, no matter which job we mean. When I get tired of playing the guitar, I take a break. I don’t go and pick up another box. Well, with all of these things going on, and me prematurely promising the album’s release, to my students and, like, everyone I could tell, I had become quite a mess. I was stressed from things both related and unrelated to teaching. I wanted to move on from the album, release it and get back to work, which would have meant, invariably, the construction, eventually, of a full-length LP. I HAVE started working on a full-length, but that’s gonna have to take a break. As, I had the unfortunate circumstance of meeting one of the worst people of all time, and so spent MONTHS derailed, as evil had expected. But, this was all AFTER the release. Either way, I had a stressful semester, and the album didn’t end up coming out, until September, quickly, a full Summers and a month AFTER I wanted to release it. Actually, I was aiming, originally, for January.

If I were to do this all again, I would allow for more time. As with everything, anything, and all, we ever do.

IN A WAY

WE’RE ALWAYS

AIMING FOR JANUARY

Once I HAD the songs, once I had waited for the beautiful work of Simone, I was ready to release. I believe I got the songs shortly/right before the release, perhaps by a month or several weeks. This too I might change: I would allow more time between getting the tracks and setting up the release. Because: releasing music is HARD STUFF. Especially if you’re the one doing all of the release work, give or take. Well, me and Sandra. And Simone for information, as he had actually released music before and had worked in music recording for quite some time. I got the tracks. Then, I only had a few things left to do:

1. Take the songs to KGNU in Boulder to try and get them to play the music
2. Get ISRC codes for each track
3. Begin the copyright process, for the songs themselves
4. Assign royalties
5. Set up the streaming release
6. Set up the Bandcamp release
7. Make and place flyers up all over town
8. Blast the internet with notices of the release, all while being exhausted
9. Move out of a giant house into a basement torture room
10. Deal with the worst fucking person I’ve ever met

And this is just what I can remember, here, as I type REALLY, REALLY FAST. There’s so much that goes into music on the other side, once the music is done. Oh, and I also had to work with Sandra to get CDs made. I still can’t believe that I did all of this, that two other people helped me to do it, too, 2, mostly for credit. Seeing as I haven’t personally made almost anything on the album, I’m pretty far in the whole. Meaning: Simone and Sandra, so far, have made off better than me in this. LOL.

WHOLE != HOLE

DUH

By the third week, following the release, I had worked night and day to make the most of it. I was living music for the first time, in about the most professional manner I could muster. I did literally EVERYTHING I could, with my time, to DO MY BEST. I feel that, in spite of concurrently having my stuff ruined by a landlord who had used my stuff as a proxy for my persons, and overall in the prevention of therapy, in response to mere rejection, and honesty, I guess and who cares, I did quite well. This made me VERY HAPPY, and happy is NO GOOD for the antagonist. Still, I don’t want to talk about Voldemort anymore. Something, something: Milkshake Duck.

“NEVER SEEK REVENGE;

ROTTEN FRUIT WILL FALL BY ITSELF.”

Now, more recently, now that everything has been done for almost a year. Now that I have sold a few physical copies, this is merely something that I did. I released an album, and eventually, I will need to release another. If I wish to retain my musician status. Haha. Whatever that means. I’ll find a way to swim, even if the pool is too expensive. So no worries. And speaking of a lack of worries, let me tell you about a recent album-related experience. This should be a good way to end this messy collection of words, I think. So, I was busking, not even three days ago now, and two people approach me. THE GUY reminds me that he’s someone who bought my album. I recognized him. Once this was all done, he mentions that he had listened to the album 6 times. I joked, immediately, that this was 5 more times than me. Then, he goes on about how his girlfriend has heard it (she’s standing there like she’s in front of an ACTUAL CELEBRITY) as well as some of their friends. Apparently, the album is making its rounds in the cars around here. And this is amazing. As we joked and talked and recalled, when everything was about to END SCENE, the girlfriend (whose name was nice and beautiful, but one I cannot recall among that certain sea of others names I “learn” every day) says:

IT’S AN HONOR TO MEET YOU

I was shocked. She was literally treating me like I was a famous person, and this warmed my heart. I was speechless. In the literal sense. I lacked the-ANY speak for a moment’s few. I actually lacked speech. Then, I said: “Honored? Well, thank you. Seriously. I appreciate you.”

EGO, AS A DOG’S TAIL

STILL VERY MUCH _ ON THE DOG

WHAT?

So, outside of that teen-aged girl who asked to take a picture with me, this is about the most famous I have ever felt. And all it took was everything it took to make the album. As such, I feel that her response was well-deserved. I may be biased, especially considering that I’m me and so MUST end up being partial to my own. Either way, it felt good to make something. To release it, to finally let people in on how my mind works, kind of like I’m doing with this blog. And while this seems to be destroying my ability to find work, it DOES work to make me feel better. And this matters THE ALL. Now, I get to do the work of MORE than myself. In passing around my album to their friends, they are helping me to grow, in my musicianship. And this without my own efforts, at present, which are currently relentless (i.e., 10 DAYS, MAN!). This is kind of like how EVERYONE working at Tesla helps to make a single person richer than they’ll ever need to be. In general, The Indecent should never make it past a million, dude. And, If we ARE to allow billionaires and market-inflated trillionaires, they should at least be the kind of people who actually WANT to participate in society. Not dark takers who EXPECT the entire world to work for them. NARCISSISM.

But, I digress. If only to, finish this thing.

Still, I have just chosen NOT to add “trillionaires” to my dictionary.

I just don’t feel like it.

I’ve got better things to do.

Like thinking about my next album and about how amazing it will be.

I sincerely hope you have a good day, find the time to do the things you love, and are able to MAKE whenever you can. Cheers.

PS — Seeing as I haven’t been writing, or proofing, this was an absolute nightmare to proof. But, it’s done now. I can finally press PUBLISH and get back to busking, and everything else. BTW, there’s only one piece left in this series. Then, like I said, my plan is to make the next one about busking.

Double Up, Baby Boy Plus: I am VERY determined to NOT proof Part 15. I may, in the name of Hunter S. Thompson, give no effort, whatsoever, to proofing. “Never apologize, never explain.” And never have ANY friends, I guess. // s