Song-A-Day 2022

Relativity

One month. Four weeks. 28 days. 40,320 minutes during which the 30-odd Song-A-Day participants that gather on any given year write music. A lot of music. More music than many of us might have thought we had in us in total, much less annually. And yet, here we are with thousands of songs and recordings behind us. A famous quotation about the theory of relativity, often attributed to Einstein, but probably just a good anecdotal joke by a reporter goes like this: When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when … Continue reading

Cobalt Dendrite

The last day, the last track. Looking back, it’s one of those “it seems like I’ve been doing this forever / where did the time go?” conundrums. This year has felt like more work than previous years, though spot-reading through past entries indicates that may not be accurate, just that I’ve forgotten the bad parts – only the music remains. While it wasn’t intentional, the last few tracks have definitely reflected my depleting energy and idea reserves. It’s tempting to look at each piece as a reflection of my emotional state at the moment of writing, but that’s not accurate … Continue reading

Adescential Biolith

While veering a bit into dark ambient territory, this track is pretty chill and downtempo. You would never think that it was the result of panic and desperation. With only one or two exceptions this month, I once again had no real ideas going into the studio, and I found myself in the same procrastination habits I was exhibiting in the first week. The composition session started in earnest around 11 pm, which hasn’t been an issue too many times, as my bedtime simply shifted for the month to somewhere in the 2 to 3 am range. But the cumulative … Continue reading

Zenith Quasar

After yesterday’s diversion into techno, which was a ton of fun, I’m definitely tapping into the bottom of my reserves. There’s nothing inside demanding to be let out, so I’m having to go searching for it instead. After picking Mary up at the airport, I asked her if she had any requests, and she decided on a solo piano piece. That obviously didn’t happen. I did try – I even have a saved project called “30 Minutes of Wrong” on my hard drive now. I started recording without a metronome going and just played whatever for 30 minutes. The same … Continue reading

You Betta

This is far and away the most complex and involved track I’ve done this month, and I doubt I’ll top it in the remaining three days. There are 20 tracks for the drums alone, and another 13 for the synths and samples. With all of the additional control faders, submasters, and effects sends, it would fill up a 48 channel SSL console. It is also another great example of music that I love, but never tried to write. I’ll leave it to the musicologists to classify, but it has elements of breakbeat, jungle, techno, house, rave, gabba, and trance. Had … Continue reading