Word Processor

I once read that the members of the band The National all live in different cities, and that when they are writing music, the instrumentalists in the band record their own tracks to the basic song and then they send that to the lead singer, who listens to it over and over until he's got some lyrics to go with it.

For the last two songs that I have written, I adopted a similar process, except that I don't really drink wine. That is, I recorded the guitar, bass and drums as a whole song, anticipating where the chorus parts should come in, and then I listened to these recordings on repeat and wrote lyrics. Over the past week, this process has resulted in Rat Race and Dandelion Wine (If Only...). Not bad. 

And yes, I know that I just admitted not being a wine drinker, despite having recently written a song with that word in the title. The truth is that I've never actually had dandelion wine. It just seemed like a good metaphor for making the most of whatever you've got (which is how I tend to approach music-making). 

Enjoy. Share. Thank you for supporting independent art.

 

New Vocal Tracks

I revised some of the lyrics on Rat Race, and then I recorded new vocal tracks this morning. You can hear the newest version of it here:

You really can't get much fresher than that. Thanks for listening. 

On a (Rock and?) Roll

I wrote another song this weekend. I laid down the (baritone) bassline, drums and one of the guitar tracks yesterday, and then I wrote lyrics and recorded the other guitar tracks and the vocals today. I'm sure that I'll keep working on it, but I like what I've got so far. I hope you like it, too.

In case you're keeping score, that's six songs in less than four weeks. Also, the title for this one happens to be seven letters, too. I'm not sure what's up with that, other than to say that it probably has something to do with the fact that I used to play a lot of Scrabble.

In any case, here is version number one of Rat Race.   

If you dig what I'm doing, please share it. Thank you for supporting independent art. 

Mix-Master Z

I've spent much of the day remixing and remastering Plastic Flowers and Dandelion Wine (If Only...). You can hear the newest versions of them here:

Thanks for listening. 

Version Two

I recorded new vocal and guitar tracks on Dandelion Wine (If Only...). It's still a work-in-progress, but it's getting there. 

The link above will always take you to the latest version that I have uploaded. 

This song is about optimism. For now, I'll leave it at that.