Song-A-Day 2021

Posts from the 2021 Song-A-Day Challenge

Electric Swamp

Well, I suppose this is as good a time as any to talk about impaired writing. It’s nothing new: musicians have been writing while under the influence of something for thousands of years. I’ve certainly written a few things while having a beer or something a bit stronger, but I’m not normally in a state of impairment.  Cellin from 2017 is a good example… I remember coming home from the bar up the street, I remember going into the studio to write, and I sort of remember the actual composition and recording process, but not very well. It was almost … Continue reading

The Stinking Rose Waltz

Brian Eno is apparently my spirit animal this month. He has, of course, been a huge influence on my ambient compositions, but he has also been a source of inspiration and motivation in my musical and creative world in a much more general way. In 1975, Eno teamed up with Peter Schmidt and created a deck of cards, each with a single sentence crafted to inspire creativity and shake up the reader’s approach. They named the set Oblique Strategies and have done a few limited edition pressings over the years. I’ve never been able to get my hands on an … Continue reading

Mushroom Tea

In stark contrast to yesterday’s celebration of excess, today’s track is a good example of me knowing when to say “when.” It’s a simple track, focused more on emotion and vibe than melody or technical production. It’s muzak of a sort, I suppose, but still a style I enjoy writing and listening to. Things started off with me firing up some of the hardware synths to try and shake up my workflow a bit. It’s not so much that I feel like I’m in a rut, but I’m still trying to deal with the procrastination. I’ve started feeling more like … Continue reading

A Completely Successful Exercise in Planning and Self-Restraint

Sometimes my songs are mercurial and hard to pin down, even to me. Other times, I think I’m being more cagey and subtle than I actually am. And then there are times like this. The title of this song is about as plain as it gets, and completely accurate. This is a “Truth in Advertising” track! As has been par for the course so far this month, I started very late, and finished far later. Had that time been spent actually writing and recording, that would be one thing, but I would say that it took me at least as … Continue reading

A Tiny Thing

Clearly, my mood had shifted from yesterday’s production. Despite setting the project tempo at 132, thinking maybe I had another upbeat song in me, my initial exploration of sounds and drums had me quickly dropping into half-time mode. This is one of those weird times where I’ll open a project later and see that the tempo is double what I identify it as, but it ends up being six of one, a half-dozen of the other in terms of what comes out.  As I noodled around, I  found that I was feeling fairly introspective and contemplative. The origin of the … Continue reading