A Side Project

elloHay orldWay!
Today, I attended a somewhat last-minute-scheduled lesson with Malcolm. However, the song I've been working on with Clio, "It's Not You That I Want", was not the one worked on because she's off in some far-away state or something. Instead, I started recording a song I wrote a while back entitled "But We Don't Talk" (I'm considering leaving out the "But" in the title). I had shown it to Malcolm at a prior date, but we had dismissed it because of its descending A-minor chord progression and piano part. This may not seem like a reason to shun something to an outsider, but if one looks through my compositions, one will surely find numerous instances of this A-minor pattern. It is not my wish to be predictable or repetitive, but I needed something to record for today and I had been toying with the song for quite some time prior to this. As a sort of compromise, I decided to play it on ukulele instead of piano. I thought it lost depth, but Malcolm said it was "plaintive", so I kept it. I certainly hope he's right. In our hour together, we got the uke part down as well as a vocal track. The song also obtained a solo in that time along with a second chorus at the end. I found it much more exciting after that.

I've really had fun in the past few weeks coming to Malcolm's and simply getting stuff done. In the past there's been a lot of writing and brainstorming that goes on in the sessions, but recently it's been a lot more structured. The songs that we're doing are already almost fully developed. This definitely started with Clio and I coming in to do "It's Not You", as we had already written and performed it. Even with "But We Don't Talk" I made a demo on garageband so I know what I want it to sound like (although the demo was piano-based.)

On a completely different topic, I'm starting to think this blog would be more fun to read if it had pictures. I mean, we all know that picture books are far superior to those stuffy chapter books. The same seems like it would apply to blogs. I'll bring a camera to the next session if I remember. Gosh, I could also make videos of songs. That would be intense. The cool thing is that I have so much free time (I'm far to lazy to get a job) that I can probably do that.

Summer has definitely set in. All productivity is lost. I find myself going to bed way too late, watching lame movies, and swimming obsessively. I should start getting to bed earlier...

...he typed at 1:00 am.

Ah, well. Such is life.

Happy (somewhat late) solstice!

The Song is Coming Along

Howdy Y'all,
"It's Not You That I Want" has made leaps and bounds since the rough cut of last week. Even after the first two-hour session it was sounding like everything I do sounds after a few months. This time, Clio and I redid the vocals, rearranged a high piano part, added guitar (played by the virtuosic Malcolm himself), and put in high strings in the last verse. It was very productive.

"It's Not You" is cool because of how different it is from anything else I've ever heard. I guess this is the magic of working with Clio. The style is hard to put into any genre (soft rock/acoustic/tango/whatever?), the lyrics are a bit out of the ordinary (key line: "It's not you that I want, It's those feelings I got"), and the setup of sections is a bit unconventional (there is no final chorus!). This has been unlike anything I've ever done and it's just so fun to do. I can't wait to finish and release it! (although this won't be in the very near future, as Clio is gone next week. Oh well!)

This is really quite exciting. If you've been terribly bored with this post, here's something you may find cool: Still Frame Animation
I did this and a few others a while back when I was obscenely bored. Hope you enjoy them!
By the way, my YouTube account is wildmanpete9, and although it has nothing pertaining to music on it, it's still really cool. I guess. See for yourself :D

Oh... and by the way...
SUMMER'S HERE!!!!!!!
Just thought I'd get that out.

Peace, love, respect, forever.

Collaboration

Hello!
In an hour's time I will walk across the harbor to Malcolm's for a two-hour session with the most creative person I know, Clio B. We'll be recording/arranging a song we composed for a Watershed School coffeehouse, "It's Not You That I Want." Performing the song was a thrilling experience, with the small, packed room full of positive energy. I'm looking forward to recording it immensely. Hopefully we can capture that positive vibe and infuse it into the song.

Just an update, my apologies if I bored you. I'm currently sick, tired, sick and tired of being sick and tired, and tired of school. Hopefully this will all change when SCHOOL'S OUT IN A WEEK!!!! This is truly a joyful occasion.

Thanks for reading!