One thing the teachers said at uni is document ones work. I do that quite well. It is supposed to help getting grants, I don’t know about that yet, I have not tried though may for his album. How many books does it take to make a work is a bit like how many lightbulbs…….
No wonder it is hard for me to keep tracks of stuff. I have diaries for my every day, diaries for Composition that I use to record ideas on the fly, instrument choices, all sorts of weird and wonderful things. I have compiled lyrics diaries full of notes and random ripped pieces of paper that has all my stuff in it and I just stuck the last page in. So now I need a new one of them, A4 size , I do have a possible replacement!
Something happens when you change the essence of a work, form the original piece of paper you wrote on to the revised one with neater writing and chord/ note choices etc ( cause you know memory is going to fail). Second and third hand copies are never the same. Anyway. It’s like wiping your memory, I do not like to do it, I like my original messyness, doctors shorthand gibberish to everyone else, “how on earth can you read that?”.
Then I have taken to having production diaries, listening notes, changes that need to be made, feedback I get from Gareth who masters, that I then scribble all over. I have to, to keep track of all that needs doing. I do not like keeping computer notes, how boring, I need pen on paper, a wee bit old fashioned there. I don’t always get what he asks me to do to revise ’cause it is technical jargon and I am still learning. So Dr Google is my friend and all that jazz. So today I thought I would share some of the revision of mixes for Contemplating Buddha, feels good to get mobile with more creative work then sending emails and organising album launch stuff which is what I should be doing. I do have some lists with a few dozen blogs to target, I promise to do that next week. But I have had some pleasantly surprising responses from the radio I have contacted thus far, and air play on 3RRR and 3PBS Thank you!
Lyrics, sessions files, production notes. Everyone’s different I hear it and follow my ear but I have to incessantly keep records about what I did so I know if I need to revisit. So I end up with things like “guitar light tube put on whole, ME Q5 in strings, compress 3-droned, kick is meant to be like subtle heart beat in this one, not sure haven’t used that before?”
Here is a screen shot, not that flash of Now and Then a mostly electronic piece with some vocal work, on Thor (my computer) , it shows some layers of automations, and voice waveforms, and some percussion waveforms, I do love my percussion with notes from Gareth and my handwritten tracking of changes.
Here is a selfie of me with a Gong Halo- I gone got my gong on last year, so love Gongs, they are one of the most profound and healing instruments on the planet. This is my big boy Wind Gong.
Ave Maria is a more electronic dance piece I did for Uni in 2012, (as close to dance as you will get from me as electronic is always JMJ me, Enigma Tangerine dream etc) features samples of a male opera singer and some other female vocal samples that are not mine, I actually have to pay for the rights to use these , off CC Mixter. In Contemplating Buddha I have really got into samples, five tracks feature samples from an oceanic seascape to thunder, sci fi sounds and other voices. All compossed in the same 2010-2013 period. Sometimes instrumentation is not enough. I like to create sound and virtual worlds, that you can literally just step into with your eyes closed and see them, you will arrive there by bilocation. For me making music is a synaesthesia type experience, (I actually considered doing my honours or beyond on Musical synaesthesia). I don’t need to go to the movies, I travel all around the universe at my computer, the sounds take me there, I get laden with visuals and very evocative felt sensing’s of place time etc.. So I have really come to appreciate how non traditional instruments can feature as critical voicing’s , essential to the identity of a sonic work. But such notions are not new all sonic experimentalists of the 20th century starting way back to turn of the century explored using other things to make sound and arrange soundscapes. It is after all hard wired into us, from them ole bone bangin days.
The other one of the three big books, is my songs lyrics book and my 2 books of production notes, but also sketches of album covers, and ideas for video, all that sort of thing, recording session information takes.
It really is many hundreds of hours of work to bring you an album. I have no idea how much time I have spent. But in the end you will like it. I have to do it because no one else will. I don’t have thousands of dollars for outside studios and engineers, thousands for mixers, Industry mentor-ship/ help etc, but can scrape together the money for consultation time and mastering and then production, there is a lot of things I go without to finish my music. But I have to, I just have to- I am like Melody from Jack and The Beanstalk, it’s my reason to be! They are my sonic babies and they are not screaming little devils, they are a beautiful chorus of strange and exotic creatures from all over the known universe. And I have one person to thank always for the inspiration to finish my work and just be me in this world S.K my biggest inspiration, I love you! My Uncle I also thank you for your encouraging words, they have been rain drops in the drought of my life.
Atmospherica will be with you before Christmas.
Contemplating Buddha I will aim for deadline of Winter Solstice next year, its just pending funds raising, a Crowdfunding campaign coming soon. I am seeking Video collaborators to produce video work with. Stay tuned.
All for now luv CM