What comes next?

This week I've been dusting off some songs for Invertebrate Waltz and thinking a little more seriously about that project as a whole. I've also been making some sketches for another collection of songs I wrote a few months ago that feel like could be a larger project someday, too. I was having a conversation about some of my future projects/albums this with a friend recently, and they reminded me how lucky I am to be in a situation where I feel like I have *too much* work, rather than too little. I'm grateful that I haven't really ever struggled with Writers Block or anything- but maybe that's just because I'm not actually being forced to make work? I find it a lot easier to sift through your ideas and figure out whats good while nobody is actually asking you to deliver anything. At this point, I feel confident enough in the concepts behind the projects I have in the works that I wouldn't have trouble developing them much faster if my situation changed and I had to suddenly get them done on a timeline. To be honest, I should probably be getting my head back into The Queen of Time. That project is quickly approaching release (after a *very* long time in development...) and if people actually enjoy it- they might expect me to be able to talk about it and play the songs on it! 😅 One of my goals for that project is to play the album live... somewhere... at least once, lol. In all honesty, *that* is probably what comes next for me.

Speaking of which, I updated the pre-release of the album on this website to include the preliminary master of the new mix for All Along the Western Side- so check it out! 😁 (We're still on track to release in August! <3 )

Full Steam Ahead!

I'm so glad I decided to delay the album and revisit All Along the Western Side. Working with my production assistant on a 1x1 call last week was incredibly valuable and we knocked it out over Zoom in like 2 hours! We discussed the old mix, and why it sounded the way it did, and what we wanted to revise in a new mix. I've updated the pre-release on this website too

Early on in this process, I interviewed about a half dozen producers to do some mix editing for the album. All Along the Western Side was the sample song I got everyone to mix as part of that process. I was trying to gauge how they would interpret my mix/song and what the process of working with them would looked like. John Caviness' sample-mix stood out to me because he took initiative and added elements that showed he understood the flow/energy of the song, and was willing to engage with it in way that was constructive, intelligent, empathetic, and creative. (what more could you want from a producer?) Once the rest of the album had taken shape, it became clear that the overall balance of All Along the Western Side was simply very different. A number of the more 'pop' elements that we added felt a bit out of place in the context of the album as a whole, and the way certain elements were mixed was different from the way similar elements were mixed in other songs later. Those additional 'pop' elements that showed so much promise early-on, simply didn't materialize on the other songs- and honestly I think that's for the best. Over the course of the project, we learned to work together much more efficiently and effectively, and we established a workflow in which new elements were added in a way that was more honest to the characteristics of my recording and mixing process. I learned a lot from doing that first mix. That was my first real experience letting someone else meddle in my mixes, and I definitely made some naive mistakes in the exporting and production process. After that mix, I learned that I should address certain things *before* I send him the stems, rather than making him guess. I had also made things a difficult for him by deciding to add elements of my own, revise/re-record parts, and tweak this and that, and ask him to remove this whole track and replace it with this other idea... and yikes... I got a lot more disciplined with my editing and stem preparation after that. As we went on, I developed a much better idea what to expect from his end, and what I should try to tweak from my end.

Overall I'm very happy with the new mix, and I think it restores my confidence in the album as a whole, cohesive, thing. I definitely would have regretted it if I let the old mix be the official release... Again- there was nothing *wrong* with the old mix- it just didn't sound right based on the way everything else came together.

Just waiting on masters now! 👀 The album should be ready sometime in mid- August! ❤️

Recording New Stuff!

I've been pushing myself to use new tools and techniques in my recording lately. I think it's healthy for an artist to always feel like they're being tested by their medium. Everything you do is a little bit like a negotiation- you're constantly in a state of knowing vaguely what you want, and trying to reconcile it with what you see/hear, and the capabilities of the tools in front of you. This "negotiation" can be a fun and creatively-lucrative process.

As a listener I want to be delighted and surprised by what I'm experiencing. As the artist, I have to be the *first listener* and part of that means following the things that surprise and delight me in the recording and mixing process. A song with too rigid a plan/execution that does nothing new, will never be as genuinely interesting and cool as something you discovered as you were working. Dan Harmon said in an interview once, "If you want to make something creative that people will actually like, you have to be its first fan."

Putting yourself in a position to make discoveries and be fascinated by your tools encourages you to make something *fun*. That doesn't mean I don't have a plan before I go into recording. I start with a very solid foundation that I've worked on for days, or weeks (or sometimes months...). I know already where I think the energy should build and wane- and what musical moments I think I want to bring out. Then I set off to create a cast of voices and characters with my instruments. I sometimes think of the new parts like creatures that will roam and play and be free to wander in and out of the songs structure. Who is listening to who? Who wants to be in charge? Who has something interesting to say at this moment?

The Moog Grandmother (and more recently, also the Moog DFAM) is an amazing tool for this. It's very much designed around the ethos of discovery and playful experimentation. Other, more articulate people have already written at length about that synth (and why it is so lovely), so I shall refrain from gushing too much here.