Nubivagant

Over the course of the day, several ideas came and went for my penultimate track of the month. I get these little snippets of melody all the time, most of them are enjoyed for a few moments and then lost to the dark corners of my memory. Occasionally they resurface, but most of the time, I suppose they just hang out together smoking clove cigarettes, bitching about the system, and wondering what could have been … Continue reading

Troll (Jonathan Aronson Cover)

Every year, February 22 is designated as “Cover Day.” People choose one of the other participant’s tracks to cover. In 2016, I didn’t know about Cover Day until it showed up, and was too timid to make the attempt. In 2017, I covered a song by Chris Greacen (the instigator of all this madness) and was pretty happy with my effort. My 2018 cover was a learning experience. I learned that I have no business … Continue reading

What If Everything You Know Is Wrong

Another journey through the valley of production hell. I started late on this one, but couldn’t put it away, and ended up not only violating my 2:00 AM stop time rule (I think I finished around 3:00), but calling a mulligan the next morning. The opening pad sound got looped while I wrote the lyrics, but I didn’t have any melody in mind while writing. That’s not typical, and it came back to bite me … Continue reading

Not a Minute to Spare

Back to the normal studio, huzzah! But also a travel day. I’m normally a bit drained mentally when I get home. Then there are all of the small things that follow a trip: unpack, empty the dishwasher, decide if you actually need to eat or if that airport dinner in St. Louis is going to be enough…. Mary and I sat and chatted for a bit, and before I knew it, it was “late.” It … Continue reading

He’s So Hot Right Now

Another day with the mobile rig, but I was feeling a little more confident with the setup, and had a more time than the night before. As a result, I ended up experimenting a bit with Reason’s granular synthesis module. They’ve added a decent amount of functionality to the most recent upgrade. I don’t know if that had anything to do with the change of ownership or management at Propellerhead, but the surprise was a … Continue reading