Last updated September 4, 2022
I thought I would share a bit of what’s going on with the recording of my music. This will be laid out in a few parts, so that I can link to various sections more easily from other parts of the blog, instead of needing to repost the same information multiple times.
- Album Concept
- Issues I’ve been having, and how I’ve resolved them
- Thoughts on the future and how I’ll keep moving
Album Concept
Since I haven’t shared this anywhere yet, here’s what the album is. It’s a concept album in a style I’m calling “piano-driven progressive pop” and tells the fictional sci-fi/fantasy-esque story of a shipwrecked man who is held prisoner on a mystical island which heralds a dark prophecy. It uses many of the concepts I was writing about in my novel years ago (which will never be finished in that format) and some of the same characters, but has evolved to fit the musical medium better.
Story-wise, that’s all you get for now.
Music-wise, here’s the gist. It is progressive rock without the metal. It is pop in the same sense that Billy Joel, Ben Folds, Dave Matthews, and even new Leprous is “pop” – I mean this to be approachable music that (hopefully) anyone can enjoy. It is progressive in the sense that I am using a lot of the methods and stylings of the heavier progressive rock genres – odd time signatures mixed throughout the songs; fused styles of classical, jazz, fusion, punk, and rock; cool synths and organs; and long instrumental jams. Note, those items aren’t specific to or exclusively constrained within prog rock, but they are often found in the genre.
Issues I’ve been having and how I’ve resolved them
I’ve had quite a few issues with artifacts, buzzings, bad overtones, etc showing up in my music.
There were some really bad overtones and certain frequencies coming through my stereo overheads on my drumset, particularly when the hats were being played, and in louder snare parts. Working with my friend Harold (who will be doing a lot of the post-production for me), I tried multiple new mic placements and positions and finally settled on an X-Y stereo setup, about 4 feet away from the kit, which I’d never tried before. After weeks of repositioning mics, recording, and trying again, this appears to have fixed these bad overtones. Not only that, but now my high hats also sound much better (which I hadn’t known was an issue until I heard the new mixes). This situation had put my drum recording on hold for almost a month, but I’m back on track with it now.
I was also having a lot of unfortunate artifacts showing up in my kick drum recordings and finally tracked them down to a bad cable. While this seems easy and obvious now, when you have dozens of points from which an issue can arise (cables, inputs, outputs, preamps, audio interfaces, computers, microphones themselves, etc), it can take awhile to track them down. It is a huge relief to only spend cable money (instead of preamp or computer money) to fix this issue.
On a less technological side, I’ve been dealing quite a bit with writer’s block. I completed (lyrically) the first five songs for the album over a year ago, and wrote the basic musical concepts and song layouts for those songs, but when it came time to continue, I started having a lot of problems. My songwriting slowed down considerably, until I stopped having any new or fresh ideas about music or lyrics. I’m not entirely sure where this comes from – it could be an issue of not being very inspired or motivated by my space, it could be a lack of time, it could just be some of the high-functioning depression (self diagnosed) with which I often find myself dealing. Either way, this is an issue I have not yet resolved, and am still working on. However, I’ve at least put a metaphorical bandaid on that for now (explained below).
Thoughts on the future and how I’ll keep moving
I will be releasing my album in two parts. The first part will be a five song E.P. that introduces the story of the album, the main character, the themes, etc. Then the second will be a full-length L.P. This gives me several important opportunities. First, it allows me to put the initial work out in a shorter amount of time (five songs takes significantly less time to record, produce, and release than 10-to-12 songs). Second, it lowers the level of my burden for breaking through my lyrical writer’s block – the first five songs are already almost completely written lyric-wise, it is the remaining songs with which I’m having issues completing. So I can allow myself to focus completely on finishing the work I already have a decent grasp on, and then settle down later to start focusing on the new portions. And I would be lying if I didn’t include a third, which is that after releasing the E.P. first, it gives me a chance to see if there is enough interest from people to possibly help crowdfund the L.P. (which will be more expansive in orchestration and included musicians).
That’s it for now. This page will be updated (and noted if updated) occasionally.