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 🧵
I managed a single, raspy vocal take on song #3 before my voice started breaking again. Impatience much? Worst comes to worst, it’ll do, but the danger of course is that I’ll just get so used to it that I won’t bother to try again if and when my voice recovers…
28/2 🧵
So I took a break (and made a music video), and came back to song #3. Managed a better and decent take, but I still can’t get the mix to work. The orchestration is sparse and I knew my approximate voice wouldn’t necessarily be able to carry the song. The proper thing to do would probably be to do take after take until I have something I can live with, but the problem may be deeper. So in the meantime what did I do? I added 5 tracks of synths instead 😂😭
29/2 🧵
Fresh listen, and I really like the synth tracks I added to song #3 yesterday. They were sorely needed independently of my singing woes. The song feels complete now. The vocal track isn’t as good as I’d like, but I’m not sure I can do much better. We’ll see if I decide to keep it or if I attempt to redo it (which implies a lot of post prod fiddling to remove various pops and clicks, etc.)
30/2 🧵
Been busy with other things (including exciting stuff for #NHAM and #TIBtv), but I did record test vocals for song #4 at some point earlier this week. That’s really when I find out if what I had in mind will more or less work. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, and this is kind of in-between. It works, but it needs something else/more. Doubling the vocal? Modulation effects? Vocal harmonies? All of the above?
31/2 🧵
Making slow but steady progress on song #4. I came up with a countermelody that liked (I know because it earwormed me pretty badly), so I tried singing it, and it worked fine, but then I decided to play it on an instrument instead. Right now, the leading candidate is…accordion!
Tried a lot of other different vocal harmonies as well, but I haven’t decided if I’ll use any yet.
Really enjoying this slow and easy approach to #musicMaking :)
32/2 🧵
Woke up from my afternoon nap with second thoughts about the accordion countermelody for song #4. So I played it note for note on electric guitar with a dark, dreamy, reverb-drenched tone an octave below the occordion version, and now I have two versions of the song with totally different vibes 😅. Not sure which one fits best with the theme and mood of the lyrics…
33/2 🧵
All right, guitar and no vocal harmonies it is. Did a final candidate mix of song #4 this morning. Need to let it rest now.
Now pondering greater questions about this #newAlbum:
- Call it done with these 4 songs?
- Include released Choo-Choo Train?
- Include my fall #bonkwave track (still under embargo) which started me on this theme?
- Flesh out other ideas that have resisted being fleshed out so far?
- Wait for more to come?
- Release as is and add stuff later?
😅
34/2 🧵
Adding songs to albums as I write them (and reshuffling albums) is my usual modus operandi, so that last option is tempting 👀
But I’m not going to rush a decision of such utmost importance! FOR ONCE 😄
35/2 🧵
Well wouldn’t you know it? One of the ideas that were going nowhere suddenly found some legs. Channeling a musical idol of my youth, quite unavoidably given the form of the lyrics (in French). Oh well, c’est la vie.
Anyway, song #5 is a real possibility.
Funny how I’ve written close to 200 songs, and *every single time*, I sincerely believe it was probably the last one I had in me.
36/2 🧵
Does lowering a single string (the lower E) on a guitar by a half step count as an alternate tuning? I would think so, but I wouldn’t want to offend the purists 😅
Anyway, I’ve stabilized the chords and melody and lyrics on song #5 (I had to painfully sacrifice several verses 😢) so now I’m starting to think about the arrangement. No idea where I’m going with it yet. Tempo is also uncertain…
Still, it’s a complete song \o/
37/2 🧵
Started to build an arrangement for song #5 this morning. Leaning into the nostalgia. The results are promising. But I received some $dayjob so I have to press pause for at least a couple of days unfortunately.
Yesterday, I listened to the mixes for songs #2 and #3 and wanted to tweak them. That’s the biggest downside to this take your time and make an album approach. Nothing’s stopping you from endlessly tweaking. Well, I’m stopping myself. For now 😅
38/2 🧵
Oops, I may have penned the lyrics to song #6, in bed after waking from a long nap. Sometimes all it takes is a title, and the rest flows out, one line at a time, and you end up with 8 verses and a chorus. Still a bit under the weather, so we’ll see if these lyrics hold up when I’m fully recovered.
39/2 🧵
After a heavy work week, I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things, but…
Instead of recording vocals for song #5, I’m playing with musical ideas for song #6, and I’m quite unsettled by the fact that I have strayed extremely far from what I had initially imagined. It works, and it would be exceedingly hard to un-earworm myself at this point, but I haven’t made my peace with it yet…
40/2 🧵
Recorded some vocals for song #5. Had to change earworms.
My voice is a bit raspier than usual today, but I think it might work for this one. As usual, time will tell. Need to let it sit and to rest my ears, etc.
On paper, this one is probably my favorite song of the bunch right now. Subject to change, of course. I might hate it later (but I doubt it ^^)
41/2 🧵
I guess it was bound to happen at some point: listening to the 6 songs I have and feeling underwhelmed, seeing the glass half empty, having doubts, second guessing things, which doesn’t have time to happen when I release new songs on the fly and get them out of my system…
Trying not to worry about it, and I still have to record vocals on song #6. 😅
42/2 🧵
Took a break from the project to make a rather special music video for my 2024 track “Driven by Desire” about making art in the age of slop machines (it’s a #TIBtv exclusive for now).
Instead of recording vocals for song #6, I’ve been playing with a couple of *very* old songs (2004 and…1986!) that would be a good thematic fit. I could try to record new versions, or #remix them creatively (if I knew how to do that 😅).
43/2 🧵
I doubt the super talented #remix wizards here would be inspired to try. One song is in 6/8, has a lot of chord changes and is backed by a string quartet, while the other was recorded way back when on a portastudio and is all Casio auto-accompaniment, sped up vocals, with a real bamboo flute solo in the middle 😅
« But hey, you never know », he posted courageously while everyone was asleep.
44/2 🧵
When I hatched the concept for this #newAlbum, I wrote down a whole bunch of song ideas, many of which didn’t pan out, as I mentioned before. I wrote several versions and hundreds of lines for one of these ideas but gave up every time.
This morning, I woke up with a silly tune in my head, kind of a country waltz maybe, and my mind went back to that original, rather dumb idea, and an hour later, I had written lyrics I didn’t hate…
So there might be a song #7 after all…
45/2 🧵
Fine-tuned the words, fleshed out the music and recorded a quick arrangement this morning. Went all in on the country waltz thing, and I’m quite happy with the result.
If I include the unreleased fall bonkwave track that started it all, I have 8 songs, which is a proper number for a (short) album.
I honestly never thought I would/could write that many oO
46/2 🧵
With my new video done and released, I went back to song #6 of #newAlbum to try to record the vocals. A first attempt had failed to excite me. First thing I did this time, was to totally remove a four voice brass section that I had written. Then, not only did I get into the zone, but I also improvised a whole section of background vocals that I’m quite delighted with. Mixing is going to be a PITA as usual, but that’s the price that has to be paid.
47/2 🧵
Forgot to mention that song #6 features… #ukulele. Was this a crass marketing move after my #ukuleleBonk video kinda sorta went viral on here? You have no proof 😇
48/2 🧵
Usually, mixing is hard or easy for me, depending on the song. Song #6 was easy, i.e. I got a decent mix fast, but then I started noticing all sorts of niggly little problems, and it took me forever, maybe a dozen tries, to get mostly rid of them. Unusual.
Anyway, I’m calling Song #6 done \o/
Next job is recording vocals for song #7, pollen count permitting.
49/2 🧵
Recorded vocals for song #7 yesterday. Got a full take that is probably as good as I can hope for on my second try.
I then added a whole bunch of instruments to the accompaniment that is very basic, and then removed them all except for one discrete bar of tuned percussion.
And today I cleaned the vocals and mixed the song, and despite a few mouth clicks that I still need to remove or attenuate, I’m happy with the result \o/
50/2 🧵
Well, song #7 is done. Which probably means the #newAlbum is done!
- I’m still not sure it should include my (still unreleased) fall #bonkwave track which started it all. Maybe a remixed version? 👀
- Since I’ve gone to all this trouble, I’d like the tracks to be properly mastered, and I’ve asked someone I trust to do so.
- So release is probably still weeks away, after the next bonkwave album release.
More waiting, i.e. more time to second guess everything 😅
51/2 🧵
@bazkie well it will be released on the next bonkwave album.
So my silly brain is telling me that it doesn’t belong in this one. Also not sure where it would fit in the track listing 😅
Also the track listing is chronological, and I don’t like the bonkwave track as track 1. Just my rigid thinking about such things giving me grief ^^
sknob
bazkie 👩🏼💻 bitplanes 🎵