:: anne in the attic ::

Create Your Own Countdown

:: Monday, March 26, 2007 ::

If anybody's interested in listening to the cover I recorded this week of Paul Simon's "The Only Living Boy in New York," click here. It really does take a high speed connection; dial-up will just hack it all to pieces.

:: Anne 12:53 AM [smartass remarks] ::
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It's late. I'm tired. But I just wanted to note that I'm really working hard on getting some music released. Also, as of April 1st, I'll be back on the overtime list for a little while, so I may be a bit hard to reach. Keep trying. Leave messages. Don't give up on me. I'm still here. For those who are actually wondering, I thank you.

Song of the day: "Transatlanticism" by Death Cab for Cutie.

:: Anne 3:40 AM [smartass remarks] ::
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Incubation is key.

:: Anne 7:38 PM [smartass remarks] ::
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This evening, I finally laid down what might become the final rhythm track for "Lighter." And it was work. After slogging through the basic structure of the song once, I stuck it on "loop" and recorded a couple more ornamental guitar tracks in succession to fill it out. The result was a nice layering effect kind of like what I did with the banjo on "Take My Life." I liked it more than I thought I would. So I'll have to touch up some mistakes, but I think that part will stand (I'm really tired of having this song hanging over my head; it's been so long). And though it's tempting to put in some piano, I think it's wrong to do it just because I can. I don't want it to sound too generic. But I do want to add a few dynamics to it, because it is a long song (a little over 5 minutes), and because the lyrics sort of require a build to the story. I don't know-- we'll see, I guess.

It would be great to try the live cello-- the synth cello sounds so canned, even when I record it audio, not midi, and tweak it with some physical effects that bring it into 3-D. I'm torn. I like the way it sounds with all of the guitar texture, and I don't want to overdo it and bury that. The next thing is to try some vocals and see what's best in this case. But I need to wait for a day when my voice feels "on." Sometimes after being immersed in this process for a while, it's necessary to stick my head up and get a second opinion on what I think I hear going on with a song. It's like having someone check your book for inconsistencies, errors, non sequiturs, etc., before it's published. That can be hard, because sometimes people think I just want them to tell me it's good when that's not the case. Not a lot of people want to tell someone their music is crap when it really is crap. On the flip side, there are also those who would deliberately throw a wrench into things to trip me up. There are people whose opinions would be based on cutting me down out of competitiveness (the same people who've always done it never seem to disappoint me...), probably more so if they thought the music was good. Sometimes, it's best to ask complete strangers, who aren't vested in your friendship enough to sway their honesty about it. That's what I use MySpace for, mostly.

I'm still feeling the effects of the early daylight savings time change this year-- I think everyone is. People have their heads down in their work and have gone a bit into survival mode (which I feel I've been in all winter...), just for a little while longer, until the weather warms up more and it really feels like Spring. Sleep is key. And though I feel all I do lately is sleep, I still feel I haven't had enough rest.

:: Anne 11:00 PM [smartass remarks] ::
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*Whew* All right, I began work on another new song today, called "Wishing Well." I put up a rough clip on my MySpace page, if anyone is interested in the gist of it. All I can say is I hate my voice, especially today. Some days a person should just record instrumentals.

:: Anne 8:29 PM [smartass remarks] ::
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This morning, I engaged in a little therapeutic "art," using some vector brushes I scored recently from the badass real artists at DeviantArt. Very Virgoish-- precise, easy to manipulate in a gazillion different ways. So I drank my coffee and created this, in the spirit of exploration of possible CD covers, just for fun. I had to shrink it for web purposes, so my text at the bottom is hardly readable-- it says, "PREPARE to fall through your expectations." Click on it to see more detail.


This has been a studio weekend; yet, I haven't recorded a thing. Typical. I hope to today, at some point. I restrung Red (the '65 Gibson sunburst) yesterday with some nice Martin SP acoustics and already I like the feel (mellower than the marquis, but not dead). I worked out some kinks lyrically. So why am I putting off recording? Oh, for the usual reasons, I guess (underlying fear that it will sound like shit and general feelings of unworthiness). But today I have resolved that, after my second cup of French press brew (rediscovery of this method has been delightful), I'll forge ahead.

So last night I had the strangest dream. It involved a friend developing a love relationship with someone in Russia. It felt odd, and the circumstances weren't entirely clear. I can't remember actually seeing this person in the dream, only receiving a letter explaining somewhat and asking for supplies to be sent. It was a somewhat political situation, akin to Iraq. The funny thing was, in real life, this person is a lesbian-- but in the dream, the relationship was with a man. It was clear that this person wasn't coming back, to the surprise and chagrin of the friends who remained behind. There's a lot of speculation on my part about what this was really about, but perhaps later.

:: Anne 10:27 AM [smartass remarks] ::
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This says it all.

:: Anne 4:05 PM [smartass remarks] ::
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Awesome video about how much of popular music comes back to just one song....




The music recording process for the EP has hit a roadblock (or perhaps "headblock" is a more appropriate term). There are some forks in the road that I haven't had the time to research, so am holding off on decisions just yet. And by "time," I mean good, uninterrupted 4-hour (minimum!) blocks of time in which to become immersed in the process. I've found that you really should record a song all in one sitting, if you can. Doesn't mean you can't add textures later, but really I mean the basic rhythm and melody from start to finish-- and recording all vocals on the same day is crucial.

So, decisions.

One major decision involves titles. I hate that part. As if you can wrap meaning up into a neat little packet like that. So I've got a few I'm tossing around (for the album-- I don't have ANY good leads on the film, but that will come), but each one changes the feel of the album so much that I'm loathe to commit at this point.

Another is the artwork. For a while, I thought a pic of Sam amidst recording gear with some retouching would suffice for a cover. That would have been pretty simple, with a very straightforward title. But last Saturday, I flashed on an idea that stayed with me all day, and when I got home, I pencilled some simple drawings for a composite of an idea suggesting things that might be buried in the ground, for whatever reason. I can't decide on the title for that one, but it lends itself better to aligning itself with more than one of the song titles and some of the themes. I took the pencil drawings and scanned them so I could play with their attributes. Here are some of them, in a quickie square composite:

I eventually want more of a layering effect, and better scale. There are more images, as well. I did several color schemes of each image, so this is just a small taste of the idea.

If only the music were as easy as the design.

Perhaps this weekend I'll make some headway, but as it stands, I think I'm now looking at a summer release date.

Today I remembered a joke from my school daze. It was for German class, so it goes:

Q:
Was heissen Sie einen 'Boomerang,' das nicht zuruck kommt?
A:
Ein Stuck.

It's so late that I must be blogging in my dreams....

:: Anne 11:55 PM [smartass remarks] ::
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