songwriting

Theme from a Sitcom You Never Saw

Because I write in a wide variety of styles, I get a lot of “you should do a [$GENRE] song!” Sometimes these are intriguing challenges, and sometimes I have to politely say, “hey, yeah, maybe,” while internally knowing that it will never happen either because I don’t have any clue how to do it, or because I know that the end result probably isn’t going to be as satisfying as the person thinks it will be. This isn’t limited to my friends, though. The Song-A-Day folks will occasionally throw out a song prompt or challenge: Disco Monday; Write in Locrian … Continue reading

Small (Esme D Cover)

Cover day. Many Song-A-Day folks really enjoy this day. I normally find it to be a huge source of stress, and am normally disappointed in my results. The stress comes from trying to sift through the hundreds of tracks that have been posted and choosing one. I wrote about all of this in far more detail the last two years, so if you’re interested in that or my criteria for what a good cover song comprises, check out my entries on this day for 2021 and 2022. This year, it was a song by Esme D that ticked all of … Continue reading

Lapis

After finishing up Laska’s Dream in the early afternoon, I had both the time and motivation to get today’s track written and recorded before a reasonable bedtime. I’ve definitely been fading a bit with the reduced sleep schedule so far this month. I didn’t rush back into the studio, instead doing a bit of housework, watching a little TV, having a relaxed dinner. It was around 6:00 PM when I got started. This one only took about 90 minutes to get into near-final shape, and much of that was listening to specific bits to get the balance between the various … Continue reading

I’m Going to Candyland

Sitting down in the studio after an evening of socializing, I was in a pretty chill mood. I had two false, though promising, starts that ended up in the sketches folder, but the third time was the charm, as I landed almost immediately on the beat that sparked the rest of the track. I made some pattern edits and then duplicated the kick twice to get the additional notes I needed, then looped that for awhile and built up the various synths. There are pros and cons to being under the influence in the studio. On the plus side, I … Continue reading

I Can See What’s Coming

Almost immediately after posting Laika, I started a new project and got to work. My intent was to try an instrument or plugin that I hadn’t used yet. After scanning through the options, I decided that it sounded fun to do a chiptune track, and fired up Plogue Chipsounds. This plug models a bunch of sound chips from older computers and video games systems like the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and Nintendo Entertainment System. After playing around with sounds for 15 minutes or so, I found some fun, crunchy 8-bit drums. I set a tempo, hit record, and jammed for … Continue reading