Yeah, let's say that - recording and mixing is finished, mastering is underway, artwork is about to be created, and the route to getting it on sale has been programmed into the SatNav.
Talking of artwork, I've just been typing up the lyrics to see if any particular images leap at me screaming "Get Joe to draw me!" and I've noticed a bunch of references, quotes, and paraphrases that I'd either forgotten about or did entirely by accident (though let's all just pretend that I'm clever and worked them in on purpose yeah?).
These include, in no particular order;
Constantin Stanislavksi
Morrissey - Every Day Is Like Sunday
The Wire
The X-Files
My Dad
Django Reinhart
Home Alone 2
A song by Desaparecidos
Things that look like they might be referenced but aren't:
Star Wars (well, it's a reference of a reference - which isn't as pretentious as that sounds)
That mobile phone advert that uses a song by The Mae Shi
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Destroy It Yourself: 85% done?
After such a long time since doing any work on the album (19 days?) due to flu, work, and a stag trip to Amsterdam......I didn't think a tweet or two would really do as far as an update was concerned.
It's weird not having listened to it for all that time - the bipolar love/hate that I always feel for anything I'm working on gives way to a sinking dread that it might all be so totally awful that it's beyond rescue.......I keep wondering whether the constant little delays are actually some subconscious insecurities taking hold and putting it off for fear that, shock horror, anyone else should listen to it and realise it's all a pile of crap.
But then I load up the files, flick through, twiddle with some virtual nobs (hehe) and suddenly I start to remember why I thought it would be a good idea to record this in the first place: a riff triggers that little switch off in the back of my neck.......a refrain lodges itself in my brain........I feel my emotions swell in a way that's normally reserved for other people's music.................which makes me feel a whole lot better, if a little arrogant (I suppose Modesty isn't entirely Dead after all).
So back to that figure of 85% - I'm sure I've bandied such things around before, but I feel a lot more justified in putting that on now. I have a few overdubs to do, some vocal corrections here...a guitar improvement there....a mispronunciation to rectify, and then I really think it'll be ready. Gosh.
Just need to sort artwork and mastering, then it's onto the winding road of actually getting it released. Fun times.
Sneaky peaks? Soon, I promise.
It's weird not having listened to it for all that time - the bipolar love/hate that I always feel for anything I'm working on gives way to a sinking dread that it might all be so totally awful that it's beyond rescue.......I keep wondering whether the constant little delays are actually some subconscious insecurities taking hold and putting it off for fear that, shock horror, anyone else should listen to it and realise it's all a pile of crap.
But then I load up the files, flick through, twiddle with some virtual nobs (hehe) and suddenly I start to remember why I thought it would be a good idea to record this in the first place: a riff triggers that little switch off in the back of my neck.......a refrain lodges itself in my brain........I feel my emotions swell in a way that's normally reserved for other people's music.................which makes me feel a whole lot better, if a little arrogant (I suppose Modesty isn't entirely Dead after all).
So back to that figure of 85% - I'm sure I've bandied such things around before, but I feel a lot more justified in putting that on now. I have a few overdubs to do, some vocal corrections here...a guitar improvement there....a mispronunciation to rectify, and then I really think it'll be ready. Gosh.
Just need to sort artwork and mastering, then it's onto the winding road of actually getting it released. Fun times.
Sneaky peaks? Soon, I promise.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
"Please give me an album that I love straight away, that I don't have to grow into, after constant play"
"See I buy alot of records, but take most of them back, cause I feel they dissapoint me, after just one track"
So sang Jamie Lenman on "Crushed Under The Weight Of The Enormous Bullshit"*
I've been feeling somewhat similar over the past few years - though in not quite such jaded terms as there have been plenty of albums that I've become obsessed by recently* - but it's only really on downloading and listening to the reissued "Understanding Music" by AC Acoustics*** other day and giving it a proper solid listen in the sunshine, and putting it on again just now, that has made me realise why: digital music has made me impatient and fickle in my musical habits.
In the days when I listened to minidisks, or cassettes, I'd have 2 -5 albums on me at any one time, so when walking to uni, driving to work, catching a train, I would have a finite amount of music to listen to; I'd listen to the same album dozens of times in a week. Now I have 32Gb of storage space, and access to a subscription download service where I can legally pluck any album out of the ether at will, listen to it at, and then move onto the next one.
I find myself doing just that - endlessly gorging at an all-you-can-eat buffet, not noticing that I'm getting fat, unfit, and undernourished as I search for an ever greater quantity, and an ever newer flavour, not stopping to savour and thoroughly digest, suffering the ensuing heartburn that such behaviour inevitably incites.****
So I've come to a conclusion: though I will still download***** new albums by the dozen, I'll be more methodical in my listening habits...maybe choosing 3 or 4 albums that I'll listen to per week, repeating on a loop until I've really got something out of them other than the instant gratification from boredom that this musical snacking has provided.
In that spirit then, this week's listening will mainly feature:
AC Acoustics - Understanding Music
Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas
Oceansize - Everyone Into Position
Rock on
----------------
* ironically enough considering the reception that album received (especially from someone like me who sorta skim-listened to it, choosing my favourite songs and generally skipping through the rest without much more thought).
**Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up Til It Was Light, Future of the Left - Curses, Alestorm - Black Sails At Sunset (silly I know, but incredible), to name but a few.
***Sorry for all these bits - have been reading Stewart Lee's "How I Escaped My Certain Fate" which possibly contains more footnotes than actual text.
****Part of me wants to take the gastronomic metaphor further to include the other end of the process.......but it's nearly lunchtime and I don't want to put myself off my lunch with talk of the musical equivalent of excreting waste products. Damn, just did.
*****Legally, of course. Or is that taken as read now? It still feels slightly like stealing, even though it's all completely above board.
So sang Jamie Lenman on "Crushed Under The Weight Of The Enormous Bullshit"*
I've been feeling somewhat similar over the past few years - though in not quite such jaded terms as there have been plenty of albums that I've become obsessed by recently* - but it's only really on downloading and listening to the reissued "Understanding Music" by AC Acoustics*** other day and giving it a proper solid listen in the sunshine, and putting it on again just now, that has made me realise why: digital music has made me impatient and fickle in my musical habits.
In the days when I listened to minidisks, or cassettes, I'd have 2 -5 albums on me at any one time, so when walking to uni, driving to work, catching a train, I would have a finite amount of music to listen to; I'd listen to the same album dozens of times in a week. Now I have 32Gb of storage space, and access to a subscription download service where I can legally pluck any album out of the ether at will, listen to it at, and then move onto the next one.
I find myself doing just that - endlessly gorging at an all-you-can-eat buffet, not noticing that I'm getting fat, unfit, and undernourished as I search for an ever greater quantity, and an ever newer flavour, not stopping to savour and thoroughly digest, suffering the ensuing heartburn that such behaviour inevitably incites.****
So I've come to a conclusion: though I will still download***** new albums by the dozen, I'll be more methodical in my listening habits...maybe choosing 3 or 4 albums that I'll listen to per week, repeating on a loop until I've really got something out of them other than the instant gratification from boredom that this musical snacking has provided.
In that spirit then, this week's listening will mainly feature:
AC Acoustics - Understanding Music
Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas
Oceansize - Everyone Into Position
Rock on
----------------
* ironically enough considering the reception that album received (especially from someone like me who sorta skim-listened to it, choosing my favourite songs and generally skipping through the rest without much more thought).
**Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up Til It Was Light, Future of the Left - Curses, Alestorm - Black Sails At Sunset (silly I know, but incredible), to name but a few.
***Sorry for all these bits - have been reading Stewart Lee's "How I Escaped My Certain Fate" which possibly contains more footnotes than actual text.
****Part of me wants to take the gastronomic metaphor further to include the other end of the process.......but it's nearly lunchtime and I don't want to put myself off my lunch with talk of the musical equivalent of excreting waste products. Damn, just did.
*****Legally, of course. Or is that taken as read now? It still feels slightly like stealing, even though it's all completely above board.
Friday, 26 March 2010
Destroying It Yourself - album recording diary (of sorts)
So I've finally set to work getting my first proper album up together...its working title is "Destroy It Yourself" as those are literally the only words that my brain doesn't immediately reject when I think about naming the beast...plus it's quite apt for the way I do things; recording, engineering, producing (ish), it all on my own.
I've tried doing recording blogs before, but whereas bands in studios tend to have lots of interesting things and adventures to write about the studio/city/country they're in, or can have one member writing/editing and uploading video whilst the others work hard...it's kinda difficult to do that when you are sat in your home studio* doing endless takes, on the fly mixing, and hoping that your fingernail doesn't completely disintegrate / 9 month old kitten doesn't spack out and ruin all the guitar takes by meowing outside my door / computer doesn't fall in half and lose everything..........that's more or less the beginning and end of my adventures.
Oh and the occasional stroppy "THIS ALL SOUNDS LIKE FUCKING SHIT" impulse that makes you want to burn down the entire neighbourhood just so that you can have a valid excuse for not recording anymore & not letting anyone hear what you have done so far.
But a few technical issues, broken strings, and the gradually disappearing right index fingernail aside I think things are going pretty well - I have 8 songs (out of about 15...11 of which will end up on the album) guitar-ready, and waiting for my voice to feel like it's ready to roar, as opposed to the croaking it seems to be fond of at the moment.
I did have to rerecord everything I'd done at one point mind.......not due to stroppiness, but because I changed my miking technique from L-R stereo miking, to near/far (wherever you are) which sounded an absolute fuckload better. As well as the mics, there's also a DI going from my guitar pickup, which is adding a nice (ie: nasty) edge to it as well. Couple that with the fact that each song has two guitar takes, with the far mic and DI hard panned left and right for each take, and the near mic panned to 50%, and it's sounding pretty ace when turned up loud at the moment.
It doesn't sound quite as good turned down quiet...but then again who wants to listen to music quietly? Especially my sort of stuff.
So yeah, that's probably all there is to say from the last 3 weeks of work (and one week of sickness, bleurgh). If you want more up to date stuff then I'm hashtagging my tweets with #destroyityourself before/during/after each recording session, so you can see what I'm thinking there.
Looking forward to sharing this when it's all done.
*read: spare bedroom.
I've tried doing recording blogs before, but whereas bands in studios tend to have lots of interesting things and adventures to write about the studio/city/country they're in, or can have one member writing/editing and uploading video whilst the others work hard...it's kinda difficult to do that when you are sat in your home studio* doing endless takes, on the fly mixing, and hoping that your fingernail doesn't completely disintegrate / 9 month old kitten doesn't spack out and ruin all the guitar takes by meowing outside my door / computer doesn't fall in half and lose everything..........that's more or less the beginning and end of my adventures.
Oh and the occasional stroppy "THIS ALL SOUNDS LIKE FUCKING SHIT" impulse that makes you want to burn down the entire neighbourhood just so that you can have a valid excuse for not recording anymore & not letting anyone hear what you have done so far.
But a few technical issues, broken strings, and the gradually disappearing right index fingernail aside I think things are going pretty well - I have 8 songs (out of about 15...11 of which will end up on the album) guitar-ready, and waiting for my voice to feel like it's ready to roar, as opposed to the croaking it seems to be fond of at the moment.
I did have to rerecord everything I'd done at one point mind.......not due to stroppiness, but because I changed my miking technique from L-R stereo miking, to near/far (wherever you are) which sounded an absolute fuckload better. As well as the mics, there's also a DI going from my guitar pickup, which is adding a nice (ie: nasty) edge to it as well. Couple that with the fact that each song has two guitar takes, with the far mic and DI hard panned left and right for each take, and the near mic panned to 50%, and it's sounding pretty ace when turned up loud at the moment.
It doesn't sound quite as good turned down quiet...but then again who wants to listen to music quietly? Especially my sort of stuff.
So yeah, that's probably all there is to say from the last 3 weeks of work (and one week of sickness, bleurgh). If you want more up to date stuff then I'm hashtagging my tweets with #destroyityourself before/during/after each recording session, so you can see what I'm thinking there.
Looking forward to sharing this when it's all done.
*read: spare bedroom.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Testing something out
Yeah, nothing to see here. Stop reading.
What are you doing, just go somewhere else ok? For fuck's sake, just leave me alone....
What are you doing, just go somewhere else ok? For fuck's sake, just leave me alone....
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