DAY 4

Okay so it’s not really the fourth day. I took days off to recover. Of course, what this has now resulted in is I have to work WAY harder, since I’m meeting a friend on Saturday/Sunday, going to class Monday and Wednesday, and seeing Brian Wilson in concert on Thursday. The deadline is Friday. This will be rough.

I’m currently considering replacing “Of Empathy As A Male Trait.” It’s overtly bitter and hostile, and, I don’t have a song written with it. I do have one in the can ready to go, but I’m still considering it’s potential as a replacement, at least thematically. In all honesty, all I have of “Of Empathy” is the chorus. I’m going to try repurposing it during my free time today, but I’m skeptical as to how that’ll go.

Still no lung capacity, so still no singing.

Still working on Speak Lightly. Very unhappy about how long this is taking. Bassline is secure, drone is as well. One of the more interesting things I worked on while I was sick was trying to replicate the drone part in the Korg DS-10, in case this ever spirals out of control to the point where I need to perform it with other people.

The bridge came to me while I was writing this, so I should have a complete song by now. We’ll go find out.

UPDATE 2

Man, today is busy. I have to clean my house, edit my podcast, and get this recording done. If I have any hope of staying ahead of the stuff, I have to get Speak Lightly 90% done (still can’t sing because I can’t hold a note thanks to the final stages of this disease) and same for Right Hand Drive, but Right Hand Drive is going to be super easy.

For inspiration, I’m listening to a lot of straight forward stuff recently. I’ve discovered Be Your Own Pet, and how massively awesome they are, and it’s given me confidence in my own song structure. They write their songs similarly, punchy and bridge proofed. Of course, there’s a huge difference in tone: I have an album about nightmares to work on, and they have one about fun and being insane. I’m also still buried in my post punk fetishism, with stuff like Pop Group (I am in love with their rhythm section), Joy Division, Black Flag, and Velvet Underground (I heard “VU&N” for the first time recently). I maybe should consider more electronic stuff, since my album has a large electronic component, or playing guitars like synths.

That’s the other thing. The recording process is doing very strange things to the way I play. It’s come to my attention that it’s very… mechanical, very unfeeling, in contrast to the emotions I have for the music itself. It does feel often like I could just set up an arpeggiator and accomplish the same things, but I enjoy the feel of a guitar too much. My bass style is a little better, but right now, for ease of use, I’m just matching roots of chords since more of my songwriting effort is invested in the guitar lines. Maybe if I had more time, I would write out detailed basslines.

I’ve lost patience with Speak Lightly for now, since I’m still having trouble with what I want to do for the chorus, so I’m just going to move on to Right Hand Drive and slam that out.

UPDATE 3

Right Hand Drive is almost done, minus vocals. It is maybe a minute long. It took about an hour for the guitar take, and will probably take that long for the bass take. Drums are so simple that I imagine it wont take long at all.

Man, I love punk rock.

UPDATE 4

Right Hand Drive is done. 1:20. Probably the fastest/most rock and roll song on the album.

It was formed after watching a documentary about conspiracy theories, called Zeitgeist. I was incensed by the segment of the documentary on the Federal Reserve, and it was bouncing in my head all the while. The day after, on the walk home from class, I saw a car at a stoplight that looked like no one was inside it but the passenger. And the imagery in the song suddenly hit me. I went home, wrote it, and let it sit until I stumbled upon the chords on accident. Everything came together fascinatingly quickly.

UPDATE 5

After a large room cleaning break which netted moderate progress, and a bit of time reading “Venus in Furs”, I went back to my musical tasks for quite a while. I had a lot of thinking to do and I have made an important decision.

 I feel that “Of Empathy As A Male Trait” is the weakest song on the album, thematically and tonally, and there are quite a few songs like it on the album in its current state. So, I’m announcing that I’m replacing it on the track list.

The song replacing it is currently untitled, and incomplete, but it will be more accessible and active, as far as rhythm is concerned. The production will be on track regardless of this change. It’s closer to stability and completion than Of Empathy ever was.

Currently, my plans for songwriting are to knock out easy parts of all the songs within the next three days, and spend the last five days singing. I came to the decision that because my songs do not have percussion as part of the songwriting, they will not have percussion as part of the whole. After all, a guitar is a percussion instrument with tones. Vocal melodies, guitar harmonies. Only the first and last tracks, and “Right Hand Drive” will have obvious, driving percussion.