blog

Tuesday the 12th

I've finally reached the stage in making the album where I know for sure it's coming out. Won't be the best thing you've ever heard, but it hopefully won't be the worst. It's been a really busy summer, with difficult summer classes and trips filled with delyaed and cancelled flights, but we made it! Somehow! I'm aiming for a release in September, though when exactly that is depends on when I finish the album, who else is releasing when, and how far in advance I want to pitch a song to Spotify. This is all so unthinkable to..... think about. It's happening.

The tracklist had some unexpected cuts and additions, as well as a new song I wrote the other week to open the album with. I spent weeks on rewriting lyrics alone... If you couldn't tell from my probably-obsolete Demos page, writing lyrics is not my friend... Neither is recording music, I've discovered. But, back on the tracklist, it's ten songs. Most are just me and double-tracked guitars, with maybe another software instrument, but about three are more complicated. The beginning and end of the tracklist are solidified, but everything else is up in the air... I might even cut another song.

Here's how it is now:

1. We're Parallel Lines (new!)
2. The Numbers' Offer (formerly When You Talked About Me)
3. Better Far From Me
4. A Dream Down the Hall
5. Be What You Wanted (now with six more choruses!)
6. Another Girl Again (formerly From the Start. Not that I let anybody hear that one to begin with!)
7. When We Are Not the Same
8. Not Everybody's Easy to Love
9. Good Alderliefest
10. Looking Down on Sunday Morning (formerly Ready, Penny?. I'm so glad I changed that title. And also most of the other lyrics.)

I got the idea to film a little documentary of making the album, but most of what I'm doing is very uninteresting, and all the videos are just me talking in the basement with the camera pointing at my messy workstation. Maybe what the song looks like in GarageBand or Furnace Tracker if you're lucky. So I don't think I'll do anything with all that.

Anyway, things are going to have to change around here. Once I've finalized the album cover and aesthetic, I'll be changing the look of the site... My mismatched Kingdom Hearts theming has pleased me greatly over the past year, though I imagine it's made a lot of people wonder what exactly the purpose of this website is. "It's hard to let it go." Even so, I HAVE to keep the LINK page.........

I will, of course, have to expand my reign of terror beyond the confines of this measly website. I plan to terrorize the citizens of mainstream social media with lazily made clips and memes designed to melt people's brains out. This will undoubtedly lead to world domination. No one will criticize me. No one will be painfully aware that I have never used Instagram or TikTok before in my life. Everything will be good in the world.

Except it won't, because I'll already be worrying about making a second album. But that's my problem, not theirs!

Tuesday the 15th

I've been bitten by the random bug to make an album, but like, actually this time. It'd be a long time coming... I first set my sights on making an album four (!!!) years ago. I just need to accept that it's okay to release an album that kind of sucks. Lots of arists have made bad first albums. That's one half of the issue... The other half is that I need a mic and an audio interface. If I really wanted to be cheap, I could settle for just one or the other, but I'd like to have enough (CHEAP!) gear to do whatever I want in the future.

I'd also need a couple more surefire songs for a tracklist, especially since I can't adapt some of my acoustic songs to electric. I'm learning some more advanced music theory, so maybe that'll inspire me. I've also taken interest in a couple old songs I had half a chorus for and nothing else--if I can finish those two and write a final song, that should be enough.

Friday the 1st

Open mic was alright. I simultaneously bombed and did very well? As it turns out, when you practice things beforehand, you don't mess them up as much! Curious. I only did BWYW and WANTS. Messed up more than I thought I would on the former, messed up very little at all on the latter. One person in particular was very into it, but I think reception was lukewarm at best everywhere else, which kind of sucks, considering these are two of my best songs, and I performed them better than I did at previous mics.

In happier news, a cappella and choir are going pretty well! I'm not too sure about myself, but I know everyone else is going to do amazingly at Glow. And I love all the pieces we're doing in choir, even if I don't always love singing some of the high parts. Man, things have changed this semester.

Tuesday the 17th

My voice has been funky for the past few weeks--since getting here, honestly--and I don't know if I keep getting sick or if it's just living in Potomac South! Anyway, it hasn't stopped me from joining two music ensembles, so it can't be that bad... Just sucks having everything gummed up 24/7. Finally started allergy meds for the PoSo funk yesterday. I know they dry out your vocals, but I can't deal with this anymore...

Anyway, I made this post just to say I'm fairly confident Take Note has the BEST Glow setlist. We decided on two new songs yesterday and kept one old one. Not going into specifics, but two of our three songs are VERY popular and also ours to keep forever. The only song I'm a fan of personally is too difficult for me to sing as a solo, but I'm still happy we get to perform it! I'll try and audition for a solo or two, but I imagine I'm heavily outclassed, so I don't expect to get any.

I've been fiddling around with the Sega Genesis FM synths in Furnace. The sampling you had to do for everything in the SNES really ticked me off eventually. Making synth instruments is a bit tricky, but loads of fun! So much customization compared to the NES, which is what I'm used to making chiptune/tracker music in. I'm not too into doing crazy stuff with the Genesis for now, just making simple stuff well. My big inspiration here is the Phantasy Star II soundtrack. Time Trax is also great, but I don't see myself doing anything that wild.

I just need to finish this song I started forever ago. I won't have much work this week beyond today, so hopefully soon... I think this one would really shine with the Genesis synths. They'd be minimal in most other songs, but I think this one is best done "poppier", so the synths would have more power than the guitar by a lot. My demo will probably be guitar-only, so it won't exactly fit the vision, but someday I might finish it... Someday.

Monday the 9th

More incredible music news--as of yesterday, I am oficially in Take Note, an outstanding a cappella group here at CNU! It was a miracle I even auditioned this year, and I'm so happy I made this group. I'm stoked to sing songs in less of a choral style, and I can't wait to perform and compete!!! I will need to spice up my wardrobe a bit, though; everyone in Take Note has super cute clothes!

I'm so excited to get to know everyone in the group at our first rehearsal! I still haven't really processed the fact that I'm actually in... It's so crazy to me. I was walking back from callbacks and already thinking of audition songs for next year. I can't believe I'm in!

Anyway, if anyone is reading these who goes to CNU, feel free to come to any performances with Take Note! Once I'm done with my Chorale concert this weekend, I should be performing unless I'm sick or something! I'm pretty sure that's how this will work! And DEFINITELY come to Glow (in the Darcapella, I am NOT a fan of that spelling) where all the groups as well as some dancers will be performing this November!

One fear I had is that I'd have less time for songwriting if I got in, but I think it's much better to practice singing popular songs. That way, I should be able to sing my own songs a lot better, and make new ones more naturally by singing melodies that come to me! I think this experience will enrich me a lot as a musician and as a person. Huzzah!

Tuesday the 27th

This doesn't have much to do with my music projects on the side, but I'm in the University Chorale now! I didn't know it would add another credit hour, so that's six or seven hundred dollars... Oops. Still, I'm really happy to be able to make music with other people again. It's been a while.

Because of this, if you count choir (which I will), I have six classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays now. My lab's all I have on Wednesday, and I have a four-day weekend. Did you know you can only have eighteen credit hours? Isn't that so incredibly cruel? Some people were born to take eight classes a semester and have no social life. But I suppose college wasn't made for us.

I'm really glad there's somewhere I can sing a couple times a week, and maybe meet some other people who are studying music, even if they're doing it in a more academic fashion than I am. I'm super excited to learn the new pieces... But I'm not so excited to find and wear a black dress.

I've been reading Harmonic Experience and practicing when I can. It's great! I anticipate I won't be done until the semester's over, though; I don't have the room to myself often. Once we have our suite meetings, I'll suggest practicing scales in the common room when no one else is using it. I'll assure them I'm pretty quiet.

I don't know the proper name for these modes, but here are some cool ones the book has taught me, mostly from tetrachords: Major over phrygian, mixolydian over lydian, and Hungarian minor. Hungarian minor is what (I recall) some people online say Blue Jay Way is in. I don't think they're right. It feels more major than that. Maybe I'm remembering the wrong mode.

Here's to hoping I get enough alone time tomorrow to make headway on a song that's been in the back of my mind for a couple weeks!