Strays

Happy February.  Man time flies.  It’s been over a year since I started working on the new CD.  I started trying to get songs together last January.  It’s been crazy.  I was looking through my little notebook where I keep lyric ideas and song ideas the other day.  I found about 5 pages titled “final list new CD”.  One was as recent as September.  Only 3 of the songs from any of those lists are still in the running for the final cut.  There have been times that I wanted to just scrap everything.  Others when I just wanted to stop and put out what was getting worked on.  Times when I KNEW I was truly insane and just filtering out songs for no reason.  

So to allay my fears, I went back to the rough mixes of a lot of those discarded songs and made a little i-pod mix.  They’re good songs.  Some would probably fit  right in with what’s happening with the other songs.  There’s nothing wrong with them.  Some are unfinished to an extent that they just aren’t going anywhere right now.  Some are similar to what I’m doing, but another song was a little better in one way or another and since the similarity was there, one got dropped.  A few just don’t fit the mood of the songs that have floated up to the top.  It’s interesting to do this for me because while I never ‘forget’ what I’ve been doing, once I get going in a certain direction, it’s easy to not be on top of what I’ve done.  Hearing all the discarded songs showed me how I’ve gotten to where I am though.  There has definitely been a movement towards the over all sound of the album.  Many of those songs also seem to be dry runs at what I really wanted.  They are like rough drafts.  Leading me to one song or another that I actually have chosen to be on the disc.  

There is really only one song that I’m upset that I’m leaving off.  It’s called “Coming Home”.  I really love it.  It’s been in the mix until about 3 weeks ago.  What happened is that every time I would listen back to the songs, I would get to this one and the mood would shift, or the song after it or before it would seem out of place.  Finally I realized it was this song.  Something about it doesn’t fit in with the rest.  I couldn’t tell you exactly what that is.  It just doesn’t.  And it’s one of my favorite songs.  Now I’m used to it not being grouped in, but when I was listening to all the strays, I was literally kicking myself–why am I leaving this off?  it’s GREAT!  

The nice thing is that I’ve decided I’m going to do another record this year as well.  Probably in about 6-8 months because–well, why not?  I’ve got the songs and they want to be out there.  Plus, it’s been 3 years since my last album was released, which is the longest I’ve gone between new material so this will help close the gap of time.  

As of now, I’m thinking the whole thing will be done and available by the beginning of April.  Give or take a week or two.  There will be some free downloads ahead of time for members of the webpage, and the whole album will be streaming in the weeks before it’s released.  Currently there are two demos up on the members page for you to listen to.  One is ‘Goodbye’ and the other is “Denver (spinning around)”.   (Yes, for those of you who read here regularly, I FINISHED that one!!!)   So check them out!!!

I will be releasing the first single to WEXT first, before the rest of the country gets the album.  I’ll let you know what and when that will be.

more soon

peace

Thinking back on before

I set up a new webpage. It takes a little while. Maybe part of this is because I’m retarded about computers outside of recording so I didn’t know how to transfer most of the info from my old site to the new one, so there was a lot of typing. Thank god I actually saved a lot of things like the bio, and press stuff. What took the longest though, was typing in the lyrics to the albums. You would think this would be easy–I wrote them so they should just pour out. Context is a weird thing. If I had a guitar in my hand, I could sing all of them to you no problem. Well, maybe a little bit because some songs are more familiar because they get played live more. Some songs NEVER have been played live.

It was interesting to do this. I’m currently finishing the lyrics for the new album. This is always the last component for me. It happens in three ways for me: It all comes out in one big blob and is 90% done right then. (wake up, pouring rain, shine, run to the river come to mind) I mumble a lot during the melody recording and there are syllables or words I key into that form the basis of the idea for the song or lyric (i’m awake, virginia, light) then there are the ones that I need to start totally from scratch and think. So anyway, I’m writing lyrics now. And here I was typing in the lyrics to the old songs. And I had to listen to them to remember. Funny. I think it’s kind of like how when you’ve lived somewhere for a long time, you don’t know street names anymore, but you know exactly how to get somewhere. At least that happens to me. I hope I’m not the only one!!!

The process made me think about the words to the songs in a whole new way. I actually listened to the songs in a different way. I know what I think the songs are about. I also don’t know if the words are any good. Listening to them and writing them down was a very different type of exercise and I realized I really love the lyrics. They’re pretty good. They say exactly what I wanted them to say, and I think the story gets across, but is still very open to the listener to interpret.

This reminded me of a conversation I had with my bass player. We were rehearsing one day and we were doing ‘Bombs’ which I really love. It was his favorite song. I started to talk about what the song meant for me, where I was coming from etc, and he said I was wrong. He then told me his version and what it meant to him. I had never thought of the song in the personal way he spoke about it and related to it. At that moment, I couldn’t really get my head around it because I had always thought that that particular song was about as blatant as I could be. He left and I listened to it again from his perspective and I saw it. Which was an amazing experience. I often write songs about people I observe, things that happened to me, stories I’ve heard and wrap them up into some type of story, or pictures or character. Even if I’m writing about me. But after I heard his story about my song, well, it meant a lot to me that he shared it.

So I was listening to the songs and writing down my own words which I couldn’t remember…(it’s not the drugs really!!)…and it was like ‘hearing’ them for the first time. This happens to me when I play with a band, because everyone eventually adds their own style into the song and they become different. It’s like seeing a movie, which is always the same, like a CD, then seeing the same story but in a theater where it’ll be a little different every night and every time it’s put on by a different company. This had never happened with the words, I’m speaking about the music.

But that’s what happened to me during this process. It probably affected be a lot more because they are my songs and I know what they are about. Especially the songs from ‘Reach’ and ‘Myself Again’. I went through a lot personally during those two album and it’s perfectly reflected, for me at least, in those songs. It made me well up with tears in some places, and I also realized that some of the songs I thought were uplifting or hopeful, didn’t seem that way. Maybe it’s the remove of time, thinking back on things, or maybe some of the songs really were a lot more personal than I had thought.

Or, maybe I just really had the chance for the first time to relate to my songs the way everyone else does. I heard them for the first time as someone listening to a song and thinking about how I related to it, or how it mirrored me and my life.

Which was way cool.

More to come…

peace

ps–there is a members page on the new site that has special content. There is a demo from the new CD as well as two live tracks that you can download up there now. Check it out.

Final list. New webpage

Happy new year!! I can’t believe it’s 2009. Where does the time go? Thinking back on the last year, which had a lot of weird stuff going on for me personally, it really seems like it took about 3 days. Part of this is the new songs and CD which has taken me longer than any of my others to complete. I was talking with someone about this recently and I figured out one of the reasons why. I’m really taking time to flesh out the arrangements in new ways. New instruments, the arrangements are better and I’m trying to do what’s best for the song. In the past I would kind of strum through the whole song and that would be that. This time around I’m really thinking about what needs to be where. Do I really need to strum the whole time? Do I need an arpeggio? Do I need backing vocals? Should the riff be doubled with another part? I come from a classical background and a lot of these songs are more ‘orchestral’ to me. Not that they all have strings, etc., but that there are more lines that interact verses strum-y parts with some riffs over them. Sure a few are more ‘traditional’ rock type songs, but overall there is a sparser feel, yet full. Does that make sense? What I mean is that it’s not just full of chorded parts, but there are more runs and licks whether on a piano, bass or organ part. There is more space in the songs for the lines to have room to play with eachother.

I think its cool.

So I’m finishing writing lyrics. Then I can sing the final parts. There are so many different styles of songs that it’s interesting to try to put them together. But they work and I’m sure there’s a theme musically and lyrically that will be the right thing. Thanks to everyone who has listened to the progress and given me feedback so far.

Here are the songs that will be on the CD (at least the ones with titles)

Actress, Everything, Look Around, Lifetime, Escape, Goodbye, Come with Me, Coming Home, Sunshine, Denver, Down to You. The other 3 are not yet named.

On another note, I have a brand new webpage for the new year. Check it out. The link is on the right. I’ve wanted to update it for over a year and finally found a place that had all the features I wanted. It’s cool and fun!
There are spaces to sign up as a member. Do this and there will be plenty of cool content in the members area that you cannot access unless you join. I’m hoping to have the member pages up by the weekend.

Lastly, just got my new version of Protools 8! So I will be throwing up some new demos soon as well (of course on the members page hint hint!)

peace

It’s snowing out and the music is done!

I’m happy to report that the music portion of the album is now complete! I have finished all the music tracks and now am on to finishing lyrics and final vocal takes.

I was listening to all the songs last night on my I-pod. I’ve talked before of needing some distance from the songs so they sound like songs to me. When I first write them, they never quite seem ‘real’ to me. Well I guess enough time has passed because as I was listening I was able to hear them as a record and not my songs for the first time. So this is kind of how this phase goes for me: listen to the songs A LOT. Screw around with vocal rhythms, notes, harmonies. Listen more. Pick out the phrases that will form the lyrics, tweak words. Listen more. Finally record the vocals. Then the last part starts. Mixing. Well, ok, almost the last part. Because then I need to put the songs into some kind of order for the CD that makes sense. This has a lot to do with what songs sound good next to eachother, the ’story’ being told and the flow of the album. Just like songs have sections and build or drops, intense moments and lighter times, the over all album should reflect this too. I’m already playing with this in my preliminary listening, but I can’t really finsh this part until I have all the lyrics.

So over the next couple days I’ll be posting up some demos on the webpage that may or may not have ‘lyrics’ to them. Check em out.

I’m gonna take the dogs out into the snow storm and let them run around while I listen to the songs. Have a great holiday!

peace
Mike

Tripping over a flat sidewalk

Sometimes things get a little weird when you didn’t think they would. Working on the final versions of songs. Some are perfect and need little added/polished/edited. Some have changed quite a bit. New ideas for the parts, new instruments added or subtracted. Overall I’m very happy with how it’s going. Every once in a while though, something doesn’t seem to work and I can’t figure it out.
There’s a song called ‘Denver’ which I’m working on. I sat down a few days ago to replay the acoustics, bass and electrics the same way I had them on the first demo I did. Which I REALLY liked. I played, put up a quick reference mix and didn’t get back to it till yesterday. It sounded empty and boring. I tried to play with the mix at first until I wanted to shoot my speakers out. Came back to it today. Still the same problem. Well that’s obvious you think, but sometimes you just get tired of listening to everything and the song/songs you’re working on can all start to sound pretty much like crap so if you give it a rest and come back, you can listen with new ears. This did not help.

The problem is sometimes that the first time I play something, even though it’s messy and poor playing, the performance will be really good feel wise, or the way it comes out has something to it that really captures me. Replaying ‘good’ parts (by this I mean with good mic placement, levels etc, which isn’t always the best thing…) means letting go of the ‘moment’ of creation. I know how it’s supposed to go and try to play it that way, but being picky about the whole thing. Mostly this isn’t a problem. However it can be. Getting too careful can rob the passion and any kind of life from the song. I think this is what’s happening here. There is very little difference between the new version and what I originally recorded other than the sounds are clearer. But now the song just bores me. and it seems to be missing something that wasn’t missing before. It feels stupid like when you trip on a perfectly flat sidewalk. Which I do. A lot.

ARRRGHGHFHFWER@#$#$%$%Y^%$!!!

Other than that, everything is coming along great. Every other song has become better so far. Maybe this is just an unfinished song right now and I didn’t realize it before I started doing the ‘final’ version. I guess I’ll find out.

I’ll be posting a few in the coming week so check back soon.

Happy holidays.
peace

Final Stretch

I’m in the final stretch.  Really. All I need to do is finish lyrics. The music is almost all done.  Once the words are finished, I can sing the actual parts and then mix and be done with it.  This CD has been very very different for me.  It’s taken a long time.  It’s been the most creative period I’ve ever experienced writing wise as well as how the songs are sounding.  There are a lot of different types of instrumentation on this one.  Which has changed the direction of a lot of the songs.  Which is cool.  I was working on one the other day which, since I have no words, is inventively called “New CGD”.  Guess what the chords are?  Anyway, it’s been kicking around for a while and had always been acoustic, bass, harmonica and a clean electric sound.  But it wasn’t going anywhere.  Just for fun I started playing around with some organ/piano sounds.  It’s like a whole new song now.  Which is really good.  Now though, I’m stuck on the original melody, because I don’t think it works anymore.  This has happened a few times.  Another song, ‘Everything’. had stayed the same for over 9 months.  A cool melody that was choppy and unusual, electric guitar, a piano and bass.  Very sparse and simple.  I really really liked it.  I fell asleep and dreamed about that song about 2 weeks ago.  I heard all these harmonies, and a horn part on it.  When I woke up, I couldn’t really remember the dream, but the song was going through my head all day.  Got home, played around with it and just like that, I have a NEW melody, harmony vocals, horns and it is really better than what I had before.

One of the hardest things sometimes for me as a songwriter is letting go of the initial version or idea of what a song should be.  For whatever reason, it’s been necessary this time to change arrangements. melodies, instruments as I’ve gone along. I don’t think it’s because what I came up with at first was not good, it’s just that after living in the songs for a while, new parts have revealed themselves to me and have consistently made the songs better.  It’s a weird idea to try to explain:  ’listening’ to the song tell you what it should be when it only exists because I made it up.  But then the song kind of takes over and shows you what it is.  Yes, I know, I’m in control of it because I’m creating it.  But it doesn’t feel that way.  It’s more like hearing another song.  One I already know.  Even though I don’t because I’m making it up….

Last night I began work on a new song.  All I had was an acoustic part.  I hadn’t even tried to think up any melody, additional chord changes, or even what the overall feel or sound would be.  Honestly, I started working on it because I was avoiding working on other songs.  I thought it would be a good distraction.  Sang with the acoustic.  Quickly added another acoustic.  Listened to it.  Kinda nice.  Added a bass.  Some strings.  An electric.  WOW it kicks my ass.  It’s really really pretty, majestic, soaring. I have found my album closer!  Also, it’s very different from anything else on the CD.  Remember that song from sesame street? the ‘which one of these things is not like the other…”  I feel like that describes what’s going on with these songs.  They are all very distinct.  I’m sure someone from the outside would be able to show me a common thread, but outside of maybe 3-4 of them, I can’t believe they all came from me.  Or maybe even belong together in a group.  Yet they DO.  I don’t know.  I hate trying to define a ’sound’.  I get asked this a lot-”What do you sound like”.  Now in the music ‘business’ there is always conflicting advice:  Tell people other groups you sound like, so it they’re fans of those groups, they will like you, and, never pigeonhole your self like that because you will alienate anyone who doesn’t like your influences/who you say you sound like.  Another one is ‘tell people who you are NOT like and gleefully exclude them from your fan base.’  Gotta love how helpful those all are…  :  )

Forget that though, because I can’t really even tell you what my ’sound’ is.  I have real rock songs, poppy songs, folk songs. country-ish songs, alternative songs, island-y songs, some latin songs, world music like songs, arty noise rock songs, songs with great hooks, some songs without choruses, songs that are less than a minute long, some that are over 6.  Songs that are very much direct personal experience, some observational songs.  Songs about the world, songs about mountains.  Some are acoustic.  Some have vocals run through a distortion pedal.  Some have guitar solos.  Most do not. What do I call it?  beats me.  It’s rock.  It’s folk.  It’s rootsy.  It’s alternative.  It’s singer-songwriter stuff.  It’s band music.  Hopefully it’s more good than bad.  

But it is me.  And it’s what I do.  And I love it.  I hope you do to.  

So, I’m going to hide away for a couple weeks and finish up these songs so I can give them to you.  Then you can decide what the sound is.  Or you can come re read some of these entries about the process of the CD and maybe they’ll make more sense.  Or less.  Or none at all.  Who knows?  I do know that these songs really move me in lots of different ways.  Some with power, some with the feel of the music, some with beauty, some because they make me do stupid dances.  It’s been a weird long year, and I can’t wait to get this out and hear the finished disc for the first time.  

peace

Find it in the spaces

Listening back to what I’ve been working on.  Thinking about where it comes from.  The final songs sometimes are very far removed from what I originally thought.  Even if I was going for a certain ‘mood’ or ‘feel’, how I get there still remains a mystery even to me.

I posted a version of ‘Goodbye’.  This is among the first of the songs I came up with for this album.  I always loved it.  It’s really emotional, big, there is passion and tension, a longing and pulling away in it.  The words came very quickly, there are actually very few lyrics, and the chords were there right away.  Getting to the version you can hear now though, well, it HAS been 9 months.  

This song came to me after something I went through back in February.  I already had the music and the words just came out in a rush.  Every once in a while that happens:  you have an experience, it brings up a feeling and the music is already there.  I had come up with the chords about 3 weeks prior to this event.  Afterwards, I was feeling the way I was feeling and revisited the chords and click! It fell into place.  Now I just needed to get the right feel and mood in the music.  I would love to sit here and say it was my genius with sounds and knowledge of music that helped me.  Maybe it is and it’s just really invisible to me.  But here’s what really happened.

For months I was set on this being a big huge guitar song.  Moody little bassline, some piano.  Layered screaming distortion guitars because damn it, this is a song with PAIN in it!!  I recorded about 7 versions with different takes on that theme.  They all sounded alright.  But I’m not going for alright.  Especially with this song.  Over the years I’ve become pretty good at the self-editing process and knowing when an idea isn’t working, or when it’s really going well. This was always one of the latter.  My huge powerful electric guitar passion gut busting emotional song.  Yet it wasn’t right. 

So I tried speeding it up.  Surely that was the problem, it was too plodding.  Then I tried to edit the length.  then I thought about maybe going in a more acoustic direction with a long build to the end.  I tried to add some staggered harmony vocals. Finally I just left it alone for a month.  About that time I met up with a musician friend of mine and played him a lot of the new tracks.  When one of the versions of ‘Goodbye’ came on, I was trying to explain what I was going for.  He looked at me and said that ‘this is the new Mike. It’s like this doesn’t belong on the same disc as the other songs.’  Which made me think.  In the last post I mentioned trying to talk about your own sound.  It’s hard.  They’re my songs, so I’m not sure I really even have a perspective on this.  But he was right-there was something new about this song.  Which in a way is weird to me because it’s really a fairly straight forward song–a basic 3 chord song.  No real fancy rhythms, no layered harmonies.  The song had something in it, just in it of itself that screamed for the right idea, treatment, to bring it out.  I like to call it a ‘huge’ song.  In my head it’s always been sort of anthem like, not in a U2 stadium sing along with your lighter way, but more in the way that the arrangement would reflect the feeling and that would give the song the power that was in it.  I began to think of what the ‘new mike’ part was.

I pulled up this song a few days ago and listened to what I had.  Not happy.  So I let myself just let go of the song.  I tried to not think about what I wanted,  and just let the song be what it was.  How do I do that?  Now what?  The first thing I did was mute all the guitar work I had done and that left me with my bass and drum track.  I pulled up a synth patch and played around until I found a funky sound.  I totally thought it would ruin everything and I would definitely delete it and move on.  It sounded cool.  I played this back and immediately went to my piano track.  Suddenly I was playing a totally different kind of piano part.  This was getting fun.  Now, will guitars still work?  Part one played.  Part two played.  Not even close to how I had played them before. Wow.  I like it.  I sing.  I sing differently then I did on any of the other versions I’ve tried.  I can feel the song.  I can feel the feeling.  I mix it down quickly to CD and listen to it and go to sleep.

Wake up.  Listen to the mix in the car.  Go over the parts in my mind.  What’s missing?  Home.  Turn the mics on.  Needs to drop out to an acoustic right here!  New mix.  I like it.

That’s the version that’s up on the web page.  Check it out.  I think it’s very different from anything I’ve done before, and I think it nails the mood I wanted. 

It’s cool to find things where you don’t expect them. Sometimes letting go of your expectations lets you really get to what is there.  That’s what happened to me on this song.  I hope you like it.

Goodbye–DEMO

Peace

Ahhh–new sounds

So as I’ve been saying, after the pain in the ass of loading all the new software, everything is finally working correctly.  I have been working like a crazy man for the last few days on finishing up songs.  I just did an interview where the guy asked me to define my sound.  Listening to all the past albums, and what’s coming out now, I have no freaking clue.  It’s hard to define your own sound.  I never get the luxury of hearing something I create for the ‘first time’.  I always carry with me every version of the song from scratching out the first chords to the final version.  It’s weird.  Anyway, I think the new songs definitely have a new sound and direction.

 

You can read the interview here:  Saratoga Today Interview

AND you can listen to demos of 2 songs, ‘Goodbye, and Come With Me here:  Demos

Until later…

 

peace

Don’t miss what you didn’t miss

I can’t believe it’s the end of October already.  It’s been a strange year.  It rained a lot in NY this summer, so it seemed like I missed it.  Then fall showed up and I just noticed that the leaves are pretty much past the peak of their colors and browning and falling off the trees.  I missed that too somehow.  Things change quickly.

So I haven’t gotten a lot of work done in the past couple weeks because I was updating all my recording hardware and software.  This is not as easy as it sounds. There are all kinds of ‘copy preventing’ steps that the music programs have now.  You need a usb key that has your codes on it to ‘unlock’ the programs.  Then there are all these passwords, registration codes etc that you have to enter into your installer, THEN go to to software manufacuters website to get a code, THEN re-start everything, THEN open that application, THEN enter your new code, THEN get another approval code.  That’s it.  Ready to go.  So what happened to me is I got my new programs, loaded them and started typing in all those #’s.  I started at 11am.  Finished at 9:30pm.  Whew!  Ready to go. I turned on the computer the next day to start work, and NONE of the instrument programs worked with my keyboard.  3 days down the drain later, I have fixed the problem.  Actually, they just kinda started working.  I’m not sure what I did.  Now I hope they don’t stop working, because I don’t know what, if anything, I did to fix them. 

Anyway, everything is working now. The only good thing about the delay is that I’ve written another new song that is good and will make the CD!  

I just got home from doing an interview for a local paper.  It was fun, and the questions were good. Actually it was really good because he asked a lot about songwriting, recording etc, and since I’m right in the middle of that part of the process, it made me realize a few things as I was answering the questions.  Sometimes you don’t really know how much you know about something until you have to explain it to someone else. So it was a great time for me to be thinking about the answers to his questions because they directly applied to what I’m doing right now.  Well, not typing this, but the recording.

The other reason I can’t believe that it’s October, is because I began working towards this album in January.  As I’ve written before, I thought that I would have the CD out by June.  Ooops.  The delay no longer bothers me since I’ve been able to stay productive on the writing side of things and have actually come up with a getter batch of songs due to that. Also, I have fleshed out many many of the song ideas so there has been a lot of work done in total.  I looked at all the songs after I finished setting up the new software.  73.  73 new songs/song ideas since January.  That’s more songs then I had previously written BEFORE January.  Crazy.

I guess it’s been a nice lesson in patience.  I was so attached to the idea of releasing something before September, that I got really down for awhile.  That’s not good because then it colored how I was looking at everything.  Nothing sounded good, I got bored with what I had done and tried to resist the new things coming out so I wouldn’t have more unfinished songs.  Yeah, about the end of August I was ready to just stop and go work at Burger King.  

Once I let it be ok to be where I was and not try to force it anymore, it got lighter.  More songs came. The work on the songs got easier.  The album came into focus.  Now I’m armed with totally update stuff, and all I have to do is finish.  

It’s been raining all day and about 48 degrees here.  Yuck.  But I just looked out my window and the sun is poking through and the tree right outside my window is bright gold and full of leaves.  I guess I didn’t miss too much after all.

more to come

peace

Titles

I now have 2 new favorites.  I LOVE them.  No, like really.  I LOVE them.  One I already mentioned, the David Gray-ish one, although I don’t really think it sounds like him anymore, and a new new new one.  It’s going to be called ‘Actress’.  I LOVE it.

Things are moving nicely now.  Here are some titles for the songs:

Sunshine

Come With Me

Actress

Goodbye

Escape

Denver (this one may change when I finish the chorus)

Song for You

Coming Home

The rest you’ll have to wait for because I am.  

So my drummer is coming soon.  I’m happy.  He’s an old friend of mine who I haven’t seen in about 3 years and I ran into him on the street about 3 weeks ago walking his dog.  His name is Grey LeGere and we used to play in an acoustic trio about 7 years ago with our friend Jim McArdle.  We all sang and Grey played percussion.  Since then he’s toured with all sorts of different people and is getting ready to do a stint with a band from Peru.  He’s a real good guy and a great drummer and I can’t wait to see what he can add to the songs.

short today.  Til next time

peace

mike

 

ps Happy Bday to Marcia my lil sis!!