It's been awhile

Haven't done anything much the past few days. Busy personal stuff going on. But one of the bands I play drums for went into the studio on Saturday. We recorded one song. It's going to turn out pretty good, I think. But it got my kick to record even more, especially after they made my Pearl Export sound so good. I just know, once I replace all the heads on my Pearl Masters RetroSpec that it's going to sound great under the mic.

My current plan is to find a day to reinstall everything on my laptop. Starting with the recording software. First I'll set up another computer for internet things that I need, but then I'm going full speed with this reinstallation. I need to record... SOON!

writing at work

Just messing around, I have a melody in my head, but don't know the chords... hopefully I'll be able to remember it later when I have a guitar in my hands. The lyrics will obviously be modified, but if I can get this down, I think I have finished a new song. That would be exciting!

I am running out of things to say
starting and stoping and then I throw it away
I want to start a music holiday
So I can find some time to spend this way

I'm just having fun.
I'm just having fun.

I am here to entertain you now
Don't care about lyrics or the technical
I just want to see you dance now
Get your ass on the dance floor and do what you will allow.

You're just having fun.
You're just having fun.

But, then, 1:30 comes and the ugly lights turn on
Everyone scatters to chug that last drink done
paying bar tabs we'd rather keep going on
sober drivers are our last bittersweet mission

We're just having fun.
We're just having fun.

So let us party the night away
Forget the day job and the bills we have to pay
By dawn we should all be getting laid
And the bartender says your bill is already paid

I'm just having fun
Your're just having fun
We're just having fun

New Song?

Last night I started my new class for the semester. I am taking one class a semester until I get a Master's degree. This means Monday nights for the next few months will not be musical at all. I woke up this morning and had an itch to play. So I played three songs in a place where no one could hear me. I still don't have my car back so practicing at lunch is still not very possible. I keep looking at my song list for this album and I really need another song. Of the songs I have Tonight and Pimps & Whores are my catchy, fun, pop songs. I need another one. I already have the indie/dark/about an exgirlfriend song in Lost You Faith which, don't get me wrong, could be a good, loud rock song if recorded right, but it's not the poppy/happy writing that I'd rather be known for. I also have the sentimental love song in I Want You Now which is very Irish drinking song/folksy, I think, so that is happy but not really poppy and danceable. It really is a love song for my baby. I do need to finish Uncontrollable Desire (and change it's name) because that will be a very good acoustic punk song that I want to give a MUSE style sound. So I guess that will be my third rock song, but I think I still need to write one more. But what is my subject? What is my "muse"? That is what I'll be thinking about today.

Recording... tried and failed...

So I had Saturday night to myself. I decided I would take off all of the recording software, move a lot of files to my external hard drive, and defrag my system to see if it would be more efficient. I even went so far as to disable certain start up menu items that might be eating away at my CPU while I tried to record. But it was all to no avail. I can't seem to get my computer sound to play through the MOTU 828. I get the Windows start up music, but no applications. I figure that once I get that working, I can probably record, but still nothing. Ponch recomended that I just reinstall Windows. I'm nearly there. Just wipe the system clean, re-install all the software, and see if that works out. I just don't have that kind of time right now tho. I just really want to start recording and do the little bits as often as possible. Ugh. Very Frustrating.

Lost your faith

Before I go home for the weekend, I thought maybe I'd go ahead and get this post out of the way. I wrote the chords and melody to this song a long time before the words were actually added. The music was inspired by the ending of a significant relationship. I knew in time I would be able to finish the words but couldn't because I was not ready for whatever reason. The ending of this relationship really hurt more than I thought most things could, it was really a great experience for me as I am such a "happy-g0-lucky" type personality, I am happy to have seen emotional misery in this form. For that I am grateful. Finally, I knew the time was here many many months later and I knew by actually finishing the lyrics to this song, I would officially close that chapter of my life and move on to greener pasteurs. Most people will probably look at these lyrics and think I'm not over her, but, in fact, it allowed me to voice how I felt during that dark period in my life right after the relationship ended. And now I write happy songs and love songs that are inspired more by my best friend and soon to be wife. So I know I've moved on, and I've found my greener pasteur. So here are the lyrics as I've finished. ... so I didn' post this before the weekend, so I finished it today, oh well. it's hard for me to remember the words with out the lyric sheet or music.

As I lay here in the middle of the night
Wondering why we just got in a fight
Words were said and things were thrown
But I just want you back in the morn

Because you walked out on me

I used to drive for hours
Knowing the weekend would be ours
We spent the time making love all afternoon
Not knowing it would all be over so soon

Because you walked out on me
Because you lost your faith in me

Now I feel so alone
Why won't you just pick up the telephone
And call me here, you won't be scared
And we can reconcile all the love that we shared

Before you walked out on me
Because you lost your faith in me

I wish I could go back in time
And fix the things you thought were crimes
Then you wouldn't have to know...
know...
know...
NO!!!...

I grew so cold from the lies you told
I had to drink the pain away
I broke just once as it rained for months
But now I'm healed most all the way

Because you walked out on me
Because you lost your faith in me

Problems

I am having problems recording. I bought a MOTU 828 mkII so it could act as my mixing board and soundcard for multiple instruments at once. I also got some recording software including Sonar. But now when ever I get it all hooked up and start recording, the recording just stops working. Ponch, a friend of mine, thinks I probably just don’t have enough RAM on my system or I need to reformat. Personally, I do need to clean off a bunch of files, and I think I need to remove all recording software and then just install one of them. I get some time to myself tomorrow evening; hopefully I can do all that then.

Whiskey & Wine

The song that is titling this album I just finished a few days ago. The music for it was written a couple years ago and I never had the muse to sit down and complete the lyrics. The only lyrics I ever wrote for it were "Whiskey & Wine." This is a rare instrumental piece mostly. I say it is rare because normally I focus on vocal melodies when I write and back it up with simple chord progressions. But this song was specifically written instrumentally. There is still not a lot of finger picking or even advanced guitar ability, but I like the sound I make with it. It really has two very distinct on different sections, a kind of mini-epic, if you will. And while I think the first part is more of the Wine section and the second part is more of the whiskey section, I call it Whiskey & Wine because it flows better when said I think. Ok here are the words I've settled on:

I want it so badly
I can't kill is slowly
I need it to survive

This time, I've come back to play and not rewind
To write the songs that are mine
I know it's time to put the past behind
With Whiskey and Wine...
Put me right back in the middle of....

I basically repeat this twice, with the last verse technically being the chorus and repeat it once more before ending.

Also, if anyone ever happens to actually read this post, I've been indecisive about one lyric. In the second line of the chorus I write "To write the songs that are mine" But I've been considering changing it too "To play the songs that are mine" It's a pretty small thing, but some people look at even the smallest details sometimes. So if you have any thoughts, feel free to send them.

Songs

Ok, for now, I only have a few songs ready. When I was writing with Jeffro we were under the Bring Mommy the Scotch name so I'm not sure if I want to include those songs on this album They included Pimps & Whores and Insomniac. You can find Pimps & Whores at www.myspace.com/bmsrecords

Otherwise, the songs that will definitely go on this album are Tonight, Whiskey & Wine, I Want You Now, Lost Your Faith, Stay, and Sunday Afternoon.

Songs I've written many years ago that I'm considering include Religion (which is about questioning all religion), I Never (about a exgirlfriend), Insecure (loosely about a friend but not sure it's very appealing to anyone but me), Fall Leaves (I think I stole the melody), Uncontrollable Desire (I need a new title), Song for Mom (which I think I may rewrite the whole thing) and a couple others.

I'm also considering some covers including my versions of Waste by Phish, Lucky One by Alyson Kraus, and Hallelujiah by Jeff Buckley (or Leonard Cohen).

The begining

Whiskey & Wine is the start of my first album. I am a musician who has been playing drums for over a decade and dabbling with guitar for at least that long. I have written many songs in my time, most of them not so good. But I have decided it's time I put together an album. I have the software and the hardware and the instruments to record this at home. So here I will try and give myself the motivation to keep pursuing this goal despite working full time, school part time, planning a wedding, and playing gigs and practices with side-project bands.