Pre-production and PC frustration

So pre-production for my solo EP continues. Much slower than anticipated, but that's unfortunately typical of me and my perfectionist ways. It's just a little stupid when this is just about the pre-production process and not recording quality. I think it's natural to want things to sound as good as possible. It's just that I'm usually trying to turn a redneck into a gentlemen by putting him into suit. He still has an accent no matter how hard I try. Furthermore, even the suit is poorly made. (Nice analogy, huh?)

I'm not being negative about myself here. I'm doing this recordings as quickly as I can, with home recording gear, and generally adverse recording circumstances. Plus I'm not an engineering genius. What I know I've only picked up from being in studios. Next to nothing has ever been shown to me.

I actually re-recorded the vocals on "Hey (I Am Here For Every Day)" but was too focused on just getting done and didn't save my tracking. Then my PC crashed. If Ed is reading this he'll be chuckling to himself as we used to dig at each other while recording The Stuns album about whether PC (my team) or Mac (his team) was better. In truth I've always known he was right but have been trying to convince myself that PC was better so I didn't feel bad for not having the money to buy a Mac. Time for me to start saving I think.

So piles of time is disappearing into the ether. Oh well. That's the way of the recording process. Besides, I needed the practice singing the track anyway.

My friend Arun has recorded the percussion for Here For You (time to start abbreviating it). I've done a basic mix and added some bass to see how that sounds. As I've already stated though, this is just a guide recording to work out what I want to do when I'm in the studio doing the actual recording and every second is costing me money. Please let me know your thoughts. Underneath this is one is the other track, Take A Holiday...

Hey (I Am Here For You Every Day)

No-one can be strong every day

You may want to lay down and make the world go away

But when these moments come to make you blue

You have to look around and know I am always here for you

Singing hey

I am here for you every day

Everyone has some troubled times

Life has a way of upsetting your rhymes

But it’s OK, this is just the way it is

Just let it all out, but never forget this

I’m singing hey

I am here for you every day

I want you to know

That you will never walk alone

I want you to know

That when the hard times come

And you’re feeling down

You can always count on some

To be singing hey

We are here for you every day

Here is the next guide track I've done for Arun to record percussion over. Just guitar and vocals now but I'll see about adding more vocals and bass when I get the percussion tracks from Arun. I'm looking forward to hearing this one with more instrumentation. In my mind I hear the intro riff played on steel drum, not guitar. It's nice to hear the songs gradually build into a full track. When you hear the end product all the endless hours of pre-production, tracking, mixing, re-tracking, re-mixing, mastering, etc... all just float away and it's all worth it.

Take A Holiday



Won’t you
Take a holiday
With me
You know we should get away
‘Cause lately
I’ve been missing you
There’s many
Things I would like to do
With you

We need some island sun
Clear waters blue
Surfing would be fun
I really think so, don’t you
We could dance all night
Then stay in bed til 2
What could be more right
Than spending every moment

With you
Come take a holiday
Swimming
And drinking big cocktails
Coz lately
I’ve been missing you
There isn’t
Anymore time to lose
So please

We need some island sun
Coconut juice
Baby won’t you come
I really want you to
I can hold you tight
Or walk an hour or two
And while we do I’d like
To be holding hands

With you
We’ll take a holiday
Hawaii
There’s no better place
To be
Than always next to you
Some things
You simply have to do

Like loving your lover
Kissing them all over
Making them know that you
Don’t want any other
Because if you know that
You love one another
There’s nothing more pressing
Than asking that question

Lover, won’t you
Take a holiday
With me
You know we should get away
‘Cause lately
I’ve been missing you
There’s many
Things I would like to do
With you
Take a holiday
With me
You know we should get away

Foto Fun With Flitting Fireflies

I can spell photo obviously. I just thought "Foto" was more fun...

Sam, George and myself went down to Orange County last night to see our friends Megan and Zach.

We had a whole lot of fun with them as always! One of the reasons we always have fun with Megan and Zach is that they have a great camera and we always get some really funny photos. Here's one from the first night I met Megan and Zach, at Zach's 30th last year. They set their camera on a tripod in Megan's art studio facing this pink background then people could choose clothes from the box of outfits, or just have a shot in their own costume as it was a "Rock Star" theme. It was great fun and a great way to capture the night and bring everyone out of their shell!

I didn't have to wear a costume for the "Rock Star" theme night - normal wardrobe was suffice... ;~D

Last night we took many funny photos, quite a few involving some 3D glasses with the lenses removed.

Sam on the left, Megan on the right - showing that 3D glasses can be very sexy indeed...

And here's one of me adding to the campfire vibe - just so you can all see how hard-core my beard is getting.



This is also a great chance to plug Megan's Pop Art. She does a lot of different art but this one style she has been commissioned to do on a number of occasions. The first one is of Sam and the others aren't people I know. But I really love these ones. Contact me - myfighttowrite@gmail.com - and I'll put you in touch with her if you're interested in having a painting like this done.







But on to my own creativity for today. I took the following shots with Meg's digital SLR. I haven't used an SLR regularly since back when I used to do some wedding photography and worked at a Kodak store. It really got me longing for an SLR again, but a digital one. I simply L. O. V. E. the manual focus and exposure settings on an SLR, along with the warmth and clarity of a top quality lens and the instant nature of working with an SLR shutter. You can get exactly the shot you want. Furthermore, with digital you can shoot at will with no concern for cost, know exactly what you've captured, and don't have to have your eye stuck to the viewing window, freeing you up to get better angles for your composition.

Although I usually post photos with major edits done to them I've done none here as my creativity was not the editing but the shooting itself. You'll see where my blog title reference to "flitting fireflies" comes from in number 2 - using a 20 second shutter speed and 3.5 aperture. Let me know your favorites. This first one is mine. Sam is just so cute in this! (Well, she always is...and this shot captures that for me.) And I do sort of have a thing for girls wearing glasses...

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I Am Here For You Every Day

First week into recording my EP and I've only finished one guide track for the percussionist to use for recording his parts over. Recording is a slow and frustrating process. Particularly when you're anal and obsessive, but not always that capable, experiences or confident about what you want to do with a song. Every little mistake, normally inconsequential when playing live, becomes glaringly obvious and immortalized for endless repetition (and hence annoyance) if not dealt with. Four humble minutes of song can often take 10 times that number in hours, if not more.

I've tried a few things on this recording, mainly with vocal ideas, preparing the way for the actual recording, as when you get in the studio and are paying money you can't toy around like I have this week while just doing this guide track recording at home.I have to get very certain and confident about what I want to record.

Although I say this is a guide track that is under-selling it as I have tried to make it sound as good as I can, as I need better recordings to show people, as you well know if you've heard my recordings on this blog so far. Very average indeed...

I welcome any comments, and encourage brutal honesty. If you feel uncomfortable putting your honest, critical thoughts in a comment on this blog then e-mail me at myfighttowrite@gmail.com as this would be a big help to me moving forward with this recording. Anything that you find annoying, weird, distracting or negative in any way in the vocals I would like to know about.

One last thing - those who read the original post of this song you know the title was "Hey (I Am Here For You Every Day)" which I did like but am wondering whether I should remove the "Hey". What do you think?


I Am Here For You Every Day

No-one can be strong every day

You may want to lay down and make the world go away

But when these moments come to make you blue

You have to look around and know I am always here for you

Singing hey

I am here for you every day

Everyone has some troubled times

Life has a way of upsetting your rhymes

But it’s OK, this is just the way it is

Just let it all out, but never forget this

I’m singing hey

I am here for you every day

I want you to know

That you will never walk alone

I want you to know

That when the hard times come

And you’re feeling down

You can always count on some

To be singing hey

We are here for you every day

Brooke Shields and I went to a bar...

It was Sunday just gone. Trendy Brentwood Bar seemed like a good choice. She arrived 15 minutes later than me. She came and sat at the bar that I was at...

... ... ...

...having dinner and drinks with Sam.

So did you think I actually went to a bar with Brooke Shields? It was a nice try anyway. I was very glad to be there with Sam and I'm sure Brooke Shields was glad to be there with the guy she was with (a quick Google search showed him to be her husband, Chris Henchy.)

The point of my story is that this is Hollywood.

This is my biggest celebrity sighting so far. But it's not just about seeing celebs in LA. You may wind up the one being seen. On national TV even, just by casually heading down to a free gig. You can see my shaggy head and freshly-sculpted, idiotic looking smile in the crowd, just on the right of Jimmy Kimmel during the first 5 seconds of the below video, as he announces Brett Dennen as the guest performer on Monday night's filming. Also look for my huge nest of hair (and Sam's black beanie slightly hidden right in front of me - my back's to the camera) on the bottom left in front-on shots of the stage, such as at 2mins 57secs.



So is that Hollywood enough for you?

Well, as I mentioned I had some "teeth work" done this week. Not by Sam, as even though she's a qualified Doctor of Dentistry/Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, she doesn't have a set place of practice to do such procedures at the mates rates I require at the moment. So her friend Mike X-rayed my teeth, examined my teeth (no cavities and still no fillings despite not having been for a Dental checkup for 5 years) then he cleaned my teeth with some ultasonic, pain inflicting, annoyingly high-pitched-buzzing implement that spews out a lot of water, then he filed some small chipped spots flat in my front four top teeth, then he took impressions of my teeth to make whitening trays for future Californification sessions.

No - I didn't mean for this to look like I'm holding  my severed head in my hand. Stare at it and it will freak you out! Even more than staring at a picture of me normally would...

It's not completely Hollywood though. Hollywood would expect me to get porcelain veneers.

Say this 10 times fast...

"How much food would a Hollywood chick chuck if a Hollywood chick would chuck food." I was going to finish that with "eat food" but it's probably un-PC enough as it is without making the joke more blatantly about people with Bulimia in Hollywood. From what I see on the endless massive billboards here though, it seems I'm only making social comment. And seriously, you can always see at least 3 of these billboards at once while on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood/West Hollywood.




And I haven't even yet mentioned that Sam worked on the, as of today, late Elizabeth Taylor's teeth last year. I'm presuming I can say that without breaking patient-doctor confidentiality now that she's dead. Right Sam? Hmmmmm...this might get edited out later...

So what's the moral of the story?

You're never too far from stardom in LA? True but not my point.

This world is going to choke on it's own saliva if it keeps drooling over fame, fortune and stick-figures the way it does? Well, it's quite possible.

I guess my point is this - how am I going to ever make a living from music without becoming a part of this fake-fest?

It seems to me that many try harder to create waves than create music? Worse still, it seems to work in many cases.

Well - I don't think I'm much good at making waves, but with a whole lot more work I just might be good at making music. So right now that's what I'm doing. I'll be gradually posting new, decent quality recordings of my recent songs over the next week or so. Release-quality recordings will hopefully be available in just a few months when I hope to release my first solo EP.

Here's a new guitar idea that captures the deflated, overwhelmed mood that I've had recently while contemplating the massive, exponential-curve-of-a-mountain that I must continue to try and climb if I'm ever going to make money from writing music.



...hey, did you ever notice the donate link in the top right...? ;)

We go to the snow...

I think the biggest enemy to creativity is money. The need for it, the desire for it, the worrying about it. I'm nowhere near as bad as I once was but I can still see it affecting my decisions in the short term. Don't take from this that I've not been being creative daily. But obviously from my lack of posting this week it means that my blog posting hasn't been high enough on my priority list to get done. This is why I mention the money. I can't not think about it but the fact is I'm earning very little and am still spending all I earn and more so I have to worry about it to some degree. I find that with a better perspective I always see that the earning the money isn't making me happier, just allaying a perpetual but avoidable worry.

It also stands to reason that posting about my creativity on this blog is lower on my priorities than doing the creativity itself, so sometimes I only have time for the creativity and not the blogging. When posting photos, and more-so video, is involved posting my blog can be quite time consuming. 

Anyway, you'll be hearing from me much more regularly again in the coming week. New songs/recordings and more mixes I've been working on mostly.

But for now, I said I would show you some photos and videos from my skiing weekend just passed.

Here is Sam and I grabbing a photo while grabbing a drink.

This is (right to left) Sam, Luke, George and I at the top of the mountain. We found the bears but they weren't so big...




Here is the view over Big Bear Lake from the top of one of the peaks.




This is everyone who came on the skiing trip. From left to right - George, Me, Sam, Tamar, PJ, Luke, Michelle and Tessa (the dog).




This is Georgie limbering up on the slopes. Well, actually he was just being funny. It should be noted that George is a seriously bad-ass skier and I got some great footage of him doing some cool jumps but I stupidly took the footage with my camera on its side so I could get a portrait view, but the result is the videos are sideways. So you'll have to suffice with the other videos below.

We took a few minutes out at the top of one of the peaks to appreciate the view. I found the view slightly down and to my left the most breath-taking...but the snowy mountains were also spectacular...

Holding your ski poles under one arm and a camera in the other hand while going down the slopes is probably not advisable on your 4th day ever on skis (and only your second day since 2 years ago) but that's just me I guess. This is my younger brother Luke only a few hours into learning to ski.

But then snowboarding and filming while going down a descent about 3 times as steep as that is probably more crazy, although not so much when you're as experienced on the snow as Sam is.

This is Sam carving some white powder...well it wasn't quite powder...(and that wasn't meant to be a drug reference...he he...)

Anyway, so I should post something creative, huh? So here's a quick poem...

Pure
And bright
Like none before

White
All around
Gleaming in the light

Found
New heights
Yet on the ground

Hearts
Beat fast
This moment starts

Cast
From mind
Troubles future and past

Bind
Not above
But what right now is mine

Love
And snow
Are what I'm speaking of

Glow
With smiles
For our hearts already know

It's time for something new...

I spent the weekend skiing at Big Bear Mountain and had a fantastic time. Most importantly I survived without serious injury.

I don't have a lot of time today so I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. I will also mention though, on matters more relevant to this blog, that my recording gear arrived on Friday. So I can finally do better recordings and try some new ideas I've been wanting to explore for a while. Layer vocals and guitar ideas.

So there'll be some new and interesting things being posted soon.

Not to mention I'll be starting recording on my solo LP/EP (not sure which yet) which will initially involve some better quality demo recordings of what I've already, so I'll be posting them soon also.

For now though here is my old standard, computer recorded idea from today. Keep checking in for some new and interesting things.

How does a dozen sound...

...as in a dozen strings on one guitar? I'm sure you've heard a 12-string guitar at some point but maybe didn't realise that was what you were hearing.

Well, my shipping from the UK has finally gotten through US customs and is in my possession, safe and sound. So I have my acoustic back, and also my 12-string acoustic, plus my other guitars and recording gear. I'm extremely excited to have all my gear again as in the past 9 months I've only had it with me for about 6 weeks, and that was last June. I had some of it when I was back in London in Nov '10 but a lot it was packed in storage, in anticipation of being shipped.

So I've been playing around with ideas on my 12-string tonight. Here is a couple of them.