I’ve never released an album. I write and publish individual songs that progressively outline and become part of albums, sometimes jumping around from one album to the next.
But collaborating on projects on the fedi has taught me something I usually lack : patience. Weeks or months often go by between the moment I finish a song and its release.
Which has probably put me in the necessary headspace to think of a whole album (or EP) before I’ve actually finished any of the songs.
1/2
I have one song that’s coming along nicely, and thinking about this possible album yesterday, I wrote bits of lyrics for several others, including complete lyrics for a song that doesn’t quite fit the concept (and that I should probably never release, for…reasons), but hey…
Anyway, we shall see if any of this goes anywhere :)
2/2
So since the last toot in this thread, I actually recorded and released the aforementioned song (Choo-Choo Train), and have written (but not recorded) two more songs in wildly different styles. Very unusual for me to have several songs going at once (and notes for a couple more). And it allows me to switch between earworms.
3/2
So one of these new songs is really synth-based and as unguitaristic as could possibly be (in B flat-ish), and yet I picked up the guitar tonight, capo’d it on the first fret and found a way to play the song in such a way that you’d swear it could only have been written on the guitar in the first place. Which makes me rethink the entire arrangement. Or maybe It’ll just be the unplugged version if I ever do a livestream again. We shall see… 🙃
4/2
Arrangements merged into something resembling a final mix. Still tempted to release the songs as I finish them, as I always have. Old habits die hard (especially when you’re old 😅). Not rushing the decision, but…
5/2
While the finished song is rather quirky and offbeat, the second one has a more traditional chord progression. Contrast is good. But yesterday, I was looking for a bass line for a bridge section and stumbled on a melody that instantly delighted me, and I’m now rethinking the whole song around it. This is what happens when *humans* make art. Accidents, serendipity, emotional response, rinse, repeat.
It’s that delight and emotional high that they’re after, and that they *want to share*.
6/2
And it reminds me of this thing I heard or read and that won’t leave my brain : Composing music is listening to music. That’s it.
https://mamot.fr/@sknob/114516206409310097
7/2
I have been somewhat obsessing over something I read or heard recently (and for the life of me I can’t remember where). Composing music is really just listening to music. That’s it, that’s the thing. You play or sing something, you listen to it, and it vibes with you or not.
I’m quite pleased with the arrangement of the second song, so I tried recording some vocals, but it just wasn’t working for some reason I couldn’t quite identify. The usual suspects are things like range, or a problem with the arrangement (too sparse, too dense). So I let it rest over the weekend, and yesterday, it suddenly dawned on me that the problem might be the tempo. So I lowered it from 100 to 96 bpm and I think that might do the trick. We’ll see…
8/2
(I enjoy reading about other people’s work in progress, so hopefully you’ll enjoy these toots)
Anyway, one advantage of releasing songs as soon as they’re done is that I don’t have time to second guess and potentially censor myself. The more I wait, the more the superego, which I manage to totally banish when I’m writing, creeps back in.
That being said, with one song down, one half recorded, and a third song now taking shape(!), it seems I’ll just have to grit my teeth and bear it 😬
9/2
I’d also like to take a moment to thank generative AI for robbing me of my day job and thus giving me even more time and headspace to create (no #GenAI is used in any way shape or form to write these songs of course. I do sometimes use a thesaurus though).
10/2
I spent most of today on that third song I mentioned in passing yesterday, starting before sunrise in bed sketching ideas in GarageBand on my iPad mini. A lot my tracks start that way, and bits often make it to the finished tracks in Logic Pro (which can import GB files).
I have stuff to do for #NHAM and #TIBtv (and I actually received a bit of day job work) so I need to find the willpower to interrupt my #musicMaking for a bit 😅.
11/2
Ooooops, another song poured out of me in bed this morning. First an idea, then a title, and then 7 long stanzas.
So I guess that’s #4 (and I had an idea for another one yesterday, but I have plenty of those that never pan out).
This is getting out of control 😅
I should probably finish recording songs 2 & 3 before going any further, but this is new and uncharted territory for me, so we’ll see what happens when.
And anyway, I have to $dayjob today.
12/2
Assembled and premixed the instrument tracks for song #3 this morning. So far, these songs are overwhelmingly synth-based, even though I wrote them on the guitar. Weird. And this one doesn’t even have drums or percussion. Could it be ambient-adjacent? 🙀
So now songs #2 and #3 are ready for recording vocals, by far the most frustrating part of any song, because no matter what, I’m never quite able to get them to where I’d like, although I’m used to it at this point.
13/2
#musicMaking #newAlbum
Although I do think my singing has somewhat improved over the last few years, mostly because I care more than I used to about interpretation, and have less of a utilitarian approach. Better late than never 😅.
And probably the result of forcing myself to write stuff that l’m able to sing and play live on the guitar (might come in handy in these apocalyptic times…)
14/2
Appropriately enough, song #3 is in 3/4 time, at least it started out that way. Except I then found this simple repeating 8th note arpeggio that I liked and I built the whole arrangement around it. So more like 6/8. But when I started singing the words, I kept changing the feel, from 3/4 to 6/8 to 4/4 (dotted quarter notes), sometimes using a lot of half-note triplets. Until I kind of settled on a shuffle/triplet feel (for now at least). So, more like 12/4? 😅
15/2
Then again, everybody knows that 12/8 is quite objectively and without question and with absolute certainty the very best time signature 😄
16/2
Reintroduced some guitar in song #2, which is essentially a blues progression so I guess it was inevitable.
It’s quite nice having several songs in progress, again, a new experience for me. I get to pick what I feel like working on, depending on my mood or energy or whatever thinking or imagining I’ve done since the last session.
17/2
Song #2 is coming along nicely. Laid down some lead vocals late last week and have been layering background vocals in various spots (10 vocal tracks in all which is a lot for me!)
I tend to write too many parts and then (more or less reluctantly) remove some (same when I’m writing lyrics, I often write way too much and have to cut a lot of stuff out).
Downside is there’s going to be a lot of cleaning up to do (mouth clicks and smacks and pops).
18/2
When I write songs, I usually start with the lyrics, which suggest a melody (+rhythm) which I’ll hum to myself, which implies harmony, which inspires an arrangement/orchestration.
So the music is where I spend most of my creative energy, and I’ll usually end up with an arrangement I’m happy with and…which I know will be mostly ignored as soon as I add the vocals, because that’s how most brains are wired. But every single time, it’s kind of a heartbreak 😂
19/2 🧵
But the lyrics are what sets the whole thing in motion, and I do spend time and energy getting them right (often tweaking them once the music is fleshed out, so there are feedback loops), so I can’t claim that they’re secondary either.
That being said, I can easily love a song with indigent (or incomprehensible) lyrics if I love the music, whereas I can’t think of a single example where the opposite is true.
20/2 🧵
Finished cleaning up of all the vocals tracks of song #2 yesterday (I’m sure I’ll tweak them at tad more. Reverb and delay can sometimes exaggerate mouth noises). It’s a very tedious process, but I’ve gotten pretty fast and efficient at it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Things are sounding pretty good as is (i.e. nothing makes me cringe too much 😄) even though I’ve only done a rough mix.
The finish line for song #2 is in sight.
21/2 🧵
Did a bit of mixing on song #2, essentially tweaking the levels and doing some simple EQing, mostly carving out a few db around 200 Hz on some vocals and instruments, because that’s where things tend to get boomy and/or muddy with my (dynamic) mike and voice, and high- and low-passing stuff where there nothing much happening. I may have lowered the bass track too much. I’ll let it rest and listen tomorrow on various devices…
Nap time \o/
22/2 🧵
Fixed a couple of niggly things, but I’m calling song #2 done (for now) 🥳.
Recording vocals on song #3 is next presumably, but not today. While the melody has stabilized, I still can’t seem to settle on a groove (see toot 15/2 above). When I play it on the guitar, the groove seems more consistent, so maybe I’ll add a guitar track to my synth arrangement as a crutch or guide for singing, which I’ll remove afterwards.
23/2 🧵
A lot of chimney smoke in the village this year. My lungs are stinging and my voice is even raspier than usual. I’d like it to be a bit clearer to record song #3.
So instead, I started toying with musical ideas for song #4 and came up with something that straddles 2 musical styles that I tend to hate, so I decided to go all in 😅
We’ll see if I water them down over time or not. Either way, it’s pushing me outside my comfort zone which is the main thing :)
24/2 🧵
Song #4 has 4 chords and a repeating melody that is quite intoxicating and fun to sing and to play.
Severely earwormed myself.
I tried to switch earworms by fixing a couple of small details that still bothered me in the final mix of song #2.
Didn’t work, earworm #4 is indestructible 😂😭
25/2 🧵
Built an arrangement for song #4 combining 2 different sources I made yesterday, a quick thing I did in bed in GarageBand on the iPad mini, and a quick thing I recorded on the guitar in Logic.
It might need more stuff, it might need less. I’ll let it rest for a bit (as if the #earworm was going to go away 😅)
My voice is still unusable due to the smoke in the air so I think I’m stuck recording-wise for the time being.
26/2 🧵
Nothing to report. Voice still breaking like I just started puberty. I’m going to have to be patient (not my forte, see the first post in this thread 😅).
Then again, still on cloud nine after the crazy launch of @TIBtv on Sunday ☺️
27/2 🧵
sknob
Ozzelot 
Deborah Pickett
akash
⏚ Antoine Chambert-Loir
Andy Incarnate (He / Him)
Mux2000 (exfoliating)
David McMullin
Pilum::🌞
Chris Mills
Jenica Lake เหล็ถเลถ
Rob