Bye bye band?
I was just leafing through some of my old blog posts, and came across an entry from last October, which contained the following assertion:
I'd really like to have at least a live drummer and bass player on this CD project, even if they don't appear on all the songs.
Funny how one's intentions can change, even over four months. I realised when I read that entry, that without thinking about it, I was no longer thinking the same way—it's partly because the "CD project" I was referring to there, is a somewhat different concept from the one which I am currently aiming towards. Back then, I was planning to re-record a selection of the better songs I'd written in recent years, with the aid of a live rhythm section to get more of a 'band' feel (a sort of "best of", really).
Now, I've changed to this "concept album" idea, which will probably contain a few of my older songs worked into the format, but with a considerably larger proportion of newer compositions written especially for the project. For some reason, I've found I'm not thinking so much of having other musicians working on it, at least not at the outset. This may be partly because my drumming has improved to the point that I might be able to "get by" with it (especially if I record my electronic kit into a MIDI sequencer and tidy up the timing later!); alternatively, it may be a simple change of emphasis, where I record as much as possible myself and then call for help if I think the recording needs it.
Yet another approach I've considered, is to record all the songs for the project entirely solo (so I can claim that I've made that solo "one-man band" album I always wanted to do!), and then treat those sessions as the demos for the "real album", which I can then either build on with other musicians, or even re-record totally with a band.
Or perhaps I should just stop theorising and percolating on how I should produce this album, and just get on with it and see what happens? After all, I've only got ten months left... :-)
Labels: conceptalbum, recording
Getting there
Rejoice, o people—at last, I've managed to dash down a basic demo of the "lamppost song" (the one I've been mentioning over the last week or two). It seems that these days, I can only record stuff for the new album project in-between ongoing tracking for songs for Joy's children's musical activity sessions—I slotted this demo after laying down part of a backing track for "Hop, Skip and Jump".
I say the new demo is "basic", but it's currently vocal, electric guitar, bass and drums, and if Joy can find the time, I'm hoping she can play some "harpsichord" (sampled, naturally). On the other hand, I realised partway through that I'd missed out the 'instrumental break', so I may re-record the song for the album at a later date, and keep this song for reference.
In my view, the demo isn't quite ready for others to hear, mainly because to my ears, the pitching on the vocal is way out (it's a weakness of mine, but I can, and have to, do better than I did this time). However, at some point soon I'll upload the demo to the Internet Archive so you can have your first taste of the direction the album will probably take.
Labels: conceptalbum, demos, music, recording
Maps and movement (or lack of it)
Nope, still haven't committed a demo of the new song to disk, but I'm really going to try hard over the weekend, honest! (I mean, it's just going to be guitar and vocal at first, so how long can it take, anyway...?)
I also had an idea for yet another song, that I started "brainstorming" when I arrived home from work this evening. Sometimes, I use "mind maps" (or a mutated version thereof) to help me organise related thoughts, and I find they can work pretty well for songwriting, at least when you're at the stage of collecting ideas, concepts, phrases and so on for your new creation.
Anyway, I jotted down a few thoughts as a mind map, and will leave them to percolate for a bit, as seems to be my usual habit. I won't mention much about the song yet, except to say it's another element of my "concept album" idea, about two young lovers who like to meet on the old stone bridge over the stream on the edge of the village.
And anyone who's thinking that this sounds like a rural retelling of Terry and Julie's end-of-day romantic meetings in the English capital... well, if you listen to enough of Ray and the boys' oeuvre, as I seem to be doing a fair bit at present, one can't easily help the odd influence creeping in here and there, can one...? ;-)
Labels: conceptalbum, music, songwriting
Song update (but no demo yet)
A quick post dashed off from my mobile (in case you were wondering, I didn't enter all this on the phone keypad, as I have a Bluetooth keyboard), because... well, just because I can :-)
Thought I'd update you on the song which I said in the last post that I was writing. I'm hoping to find some time this week to record a first demo of it, which will hopefully show me if/where I need to work on it a bit more. I have an arrangement idea already: I'm going to play Spanish (nylon-strung) guitar on the song, and hope Joy will try playing harpsichord (at least, a sampled one). I'll probably add drums and upright bass (MIDI guitar for the latter), and possibly a "string quartet" arrangement (yup, sampled again), but at the start, I'll keep it to guitar and vocal only.
If I can find the time, I'll try and lay down one or two other demos, such as the "title" track of the "concept" album and maybe even something else I've got queued up. Then again, I have enough other calls on my time to risk not being able to record much this week; come back in a few days to see what (if anything) I managed to fit in.
Labels: conceptalbum, music
