Still Beat Matching the Old School Way
As the child of two professional musicians, it was inevitable that music would be an integral part of my life. These are all of my posts related to music: my own, other artists, production and studio technique, synthesizers and music tech, and more.
As with previous years, don’t expect this post, or any of the ones that follow for the rest of the month, to deal with what the song is about. That’s up to you to decide. In many cases, even what I think they’re about changes over time. That said, this song does an excellent job of capturing my overall state of mind these days. Melodically, sonically, lyrically, it landed pretty squarely on target. It’s vaguely … Continue reading
Well, it’s February again, and that means Song-A-Day. After 2020’s sadly abbreviated participation, I’m not sure how things will go this year. On the one hand, I may have a large backlog of music in me, and there is certainly no topical shortage after the dumpster-fire of a year we’ve had. I’ve become far less comfortable directly saying what’s on my mind, though, as the world has become aggressively intolerant of anything that doesn’t reinforce … Continue reading
In stark contrast to the chaos swirling around me the previous day, this song was written in one of the most devastating silences imaginable: an empty house that’s empty because of a death. If you’ve had the sad occasion to be involved in the immediate aftermath of the death of a loved one, you know that it’s filled, perhaps mercifully, with an amazing amount of work to be done. Funeral arrangements, obituaries, family decisions and … Continue reading
I’m not entirely sure how to approach entries for 2020. With only two songs written for Song-A-Day, and the circumstances surrounding the reasons why, it seems impossible to take my normal approach of not discussing meaning or direct inspiration. What you’re reading is actually the second time I’ve written this entry. I had provided a more detailed account of everything that went on prior to leading up to the day I wrote this, but that … Continue reading
I can’t overstate how influential Neil Peart has been on my life. He and his two cronies were with me for hours and hours of D&D, thousands of bus rides and car trips, hundreds of notebook doodles, and many deep discussions of life, politics, philosophy, religion, and what it means to be a free and independent human being. He lived an amazing yet often tragic life. Watching how he dealt with some of these things … Continue reading