I like making lists. Occasionally, they keep me on track. So for the next recording session, I'd like to accomplish:

1. Reorganize and restructure either "4am", "acadia", and/or "violet" to prepare for vocals. Setting up chorus and verse and such.

2. Pick/start/finish lyrics for one or more of the above.

3. Continue work on the new file I started last weekend. Somewhat different than the stuff I have been writing. Whether it actually gets used or not is another story, but it's a fun track to work on.

Hues, Vol. 1
1. intro(no title yet)
2. all saints day (temporary title, started recording Nov. 1)
3. 4am
4. violet (will probably be renamed)
5. acadia (will probably be renamed)
6. enemy

1.

As for release date, it's still pretty up in the air. I'm looking at an early 2009 release date, probably in the 1st quarter.

I was about to make a new post detailing my "plans" for the upcoming months, where I stand with the new album, and where I want to be in a few months. Then I suddenly realized, that I never succeed when I plan ahead. So instead, I'll talk about what I have accomplished, which is not much.

1. I'm nearly back to step 1, and I'm starting to take a more analytical approach, instead of just opening up Live and shooting off random snippets that I'll probably never use.

2. I have written out short outlines of what I want certain sounds to sound or feel like on the upcoming record. Setting these foundations I believe will allow me to better grow and expand my ideas, it gives me something to work towards. I can say, "Hey myself, I think I'm going to work on Song A today", and I'll say "Okay me." And then they'll come to take me away HAHA! Annnyway, some of the outlines are below:

a. A mellow piano based track, very minimalistic.
b. A heavier rock based song
c. A funky, very electronic song with guitar. Reminiscent of some IAMX stuff.
d. A very drum and bass driven song.
e. A new intro, very epic(of course), will attempt to mesh it right into track 2 on the cd for a nice effect.
f. Reworking of Frozen.
g. Reworking of Enemy (rerecording the guitar)
h. Reworking of Violet (not sure any of you have ever heard this one, very hip-hop-ish, very fucking cool. It even gets thumbs up from my metal friends.)

ta ta for now

As you can see, I've got some things on my plate at the moment. I'm going to begin work on the Losing My Religion cover this week. After that will be the Depeche Mode cover. While I'm working on those I'm sure I'll be messing with my latest song. It only says "better balls" because that is the name of the file(don't ask). I am also working on drums and programming for a Synthetic Solace track, called "the tide". More on this stuff soon.

Sometimes it can feel good to get away from the studio. It's unfortunate that ideas will happen at these times. I do have a laptop, loaded up with my music software, but without a nice small portable controller, I don't have much desire to get the ideas down. The QWERTY keyboard MIDI driver is a neat idea, but too much of a pain to work with. But now it looks like Korg has answered my prayers:



The only one that I feel that I'll really need is the nanoKEY (the keyboard one, duh). If I'm on my laptop somewhere and need to get some drums down, the keyboard will work just fine for that, and no need to mess with the nanoKONTROL either(the mixer looking one). From what I hear, these are going to be reasonably priced as well. I saw some European prices on some other site, all around £49, which puts it at around $96 here now, at the current exchange rate...wow that's really sad. Still though I think it's worth it.

i'm getting a little sick of getting into a rut every so often when it comes to writing music. it really happens far too often, and takes far too long to get out of. Sometimes the constant weeding through samples, presets, synths to use in a song can take precedence, and can wear you out rather quickly.

so my experiment for today, is to start a new song. i'm going to leave my VSTs either all at their default setting, or do the entire song in piano tracks. For drums, just going to pick the first samples I see and get to work on concentrating on patterns.

i'm fighting to split apart the two parts of the musical process that have been going head to head in my...head. composition. then production.

we'll see how that goes.

"when the sky begins to fall"

we've been digging the hole
for far too many years
and it'll be time to say goodbye
when we all just disappear

C:
so is this how it ends
doesn't really matter at all
i'll be right beside you
when the sky begins to fall

the world grows silent
and time slows to a crawl
i'll be right beside you
when the sky begins to fall

what have we done
it's only begun

-----------------------------------

"reflection"

1st chorus:
the reflections that you see
are far too faded for me
i'm fighting to break free
you're not what I'll ever be

2nd chorus:
the reflections that you see
are far too faded for me
i'm fighting to break free
you're not what I'll ever fucking be
it's become so hard to believe
the reality that we perceive
oh how much you've been deceived
I think it's time for you to leave

is it just me?

now, I've not been to many "industrial" shows. pretty much Nails and 51 Peg and that's it. but as it seems, when you went to a show for industrial music, it really wasn't all that dissimilar from a rock 'n roll show. you had guitars(albeit likely heavily distorted), on occasion you had a real drummer, and most importantly, you had that same energy.

nowadays, it seems like fans in the "industrial scene*(vomit)" are only interested in "club nights" and seeing the frontman of one of today's terrible "industrial" acts play DJ for a couple hours instead of actually playing music. now it may be argued that energy on a dance floor could rival that of a rock or metal show. Probably true, but it's a different kind of energy. It's not even close to the same.

maybe those of us that are not trying to pander to this crowd should try to garner fans that aren't so diluted. you want to dance? go to a rave. when I start performing all I want from people is to just chill out and enjoy the show, have some drinks, and have a good time.


*I really hate this fucking word.

p.s. I am now 1/4 century old.

works in progress.
------------------------------

i am my own obstruction
breeding self-destruction
digging a deeper hole
failure i can't control

i've got too much ambition
yet i lack inspiration
this repeating pattern
and it just keeps on turning

i'm backed up to the wall
and there's nowhere to run
can't seem to fight myself
when i've become undone

-------------------------------------

even after all
i'm still stronger than you
you may see a wall
but I just push right through

your greed is a virtue
that i will never share

It occurs to me that a growing number of independent artists I have met on Myspace and other such sites(some I would even call friends) are seriously considering giving up on music. Their reasoning? Money(as if it should come as any surprise). More bitching about piracy. More bitching about it not being worth it. Sorry fellas, but if that's the way you see things, then your heart was never in it to begin with. Electronic musicians today sicken me. One for example, has completely given up on industrial. He now fronts a band that plays a style that is very popular on the radio. To me, that is the absolute definition of sell out. Well best of luck buddy.

The real problem with industrial music(or any type of electronic music) today is simple. Complete and blatant lack of originality or substance. Everyone is just out to emulate their favorite "industrial" band(9 out of 10 it's Combichrist). The "scene" or whatever the fuck you pricks want to call it, is so overpopulated with total garbage, that it is hard for something interesting and new to shine through it all.

So, what do people in this situation do? Give up or press on it seems. Honestly, it's going to be nice to separate the true musicians, the ones who are mind, body and soul 100% into what they do, from those out there who just picked up an Access Virus just because it was "cool" and "all my favorite bands use it".

I'm releasing my next album as a FREE, high-quality mp3 download. Probably distributed by torrent.

What side of the fence do you think I'm on?

Fuck off.

Firstly, I'm disappointed in you, Pennsylvania. You can probably guess why (hint: it's about politics).

Down to business.

1. The move was successful and I am very comfortable in my new recording space:

2. I'm no longer using Reason as my primary musical program. I'm moving on to Ableton Live and VSTs, and loving it. I feel renewed inspiration now and am really digging in. I absolutely adore the Tension plug-in that came with Live, since I'm a sucker for a plucked string sound, and putting all sorts of effects on it.

3. I've been really messing around with the Ebow lately, and getting some crazy feedback sounds out of it when held a certain way, it's really cool and I need to just record myself fucking around for later use.

4. I'm going to work on a cover soon. It's a well known song, or at least it should be. The band is still recognizable today, and the song is from the early 90's. I can't really think of anyone else covering it, honestly. Everyone can send me a guess. Or just wait.

5. More and more lyrical ideas are coming to me. I may finally be settling into having to be a lyricist. I just hope they sound as good sung as they do on paper, or on the computer screen in this case.

6. I'm going to stop being social soon and really concentrate on the work ahead.

It appears that the latest Nine Inch Nails release, "Ghosts I-IV", is going to be a HUGE success for Mr. Reznor. I couldn't be happier that this type of business model finally seems to be working well for someone. Sorry Trent, I only bought the $10 version, because I don't have a Blu-ray player and honestly, we both know that the multi-tracks will hit the torrent sites the day it reaches someones hand. That said, the printed book would have been very cool to have.

Onto my point, and why I'm posting this in a blog that solely pertains to my own musical endeavors. Just a couple weeks ago I was pondering over good ways for an independent artist to release music today. One of the ideas I posed was selling a pre-order of your physical CD along with an immediate download of the mp3s. Oddly enough, I was thinking around $10 as a fair price for this, CDs are too expensive nowadays. Now I'm not saying that my idea was stolen or anything, anyone could have thought of it, but it is nice to see that it can work. It just remains to be seen if it will work for someone who isn't as well known as Trent Reznor.

Unfortunately, it's looking more and more likely that I will have to stick with digital release only for now. Now if my fanbase starts to drastically grow when I start revealing vocal tracks, then maybe I can go back to this original plan. I figure as long as I were to sell at least 100 preorders, I could still do the physical release.

More music on the way, for now enjoy a demo version of "Enemy" on my Myspace or Vampirefreaks page.

Saturday I went over to my friend Hunter's garage studio. I am collaborating with him a lot on my next release, since he is far better at writing guitar than I will probably ever be. He and I have both actually been in quite a rut lately, struck with a case of severe writers block. It's looking like I might actually be breaking free from that a bit. While I was waiting for him to come down, I had opened up one of my songs and just hit play. Minutes later I was beginning to structure the song, which I had been sitting on for months now. Maybe the change of scenery was all I needed to jumpstart my creative drive. There is a part in the song where I had wanted guitar added, and Hunter wrote the perfect part for it. Since his studio is undergoing some changes and is not quite set up to record, I simply translated it to MIDI and saved it to bring home with me.

Guitar for the song (the file is titled "Enemy", but the final song title will probably be no where near that) will likely be recorded tonight or later this week. I have been looking through my lyrics for something for this song as well. The structure of the song isn't the usual verse-chorus-verse and so on, but I should be able to find something in my mess of lyrics.

This song is probably going to be the last track for the CD. It just has that feel.

My new computer is a beast. I won't be able to fully make use of it until after the move, but I was able to test one of my Reason files. A song that makes the CPU meter jump to around 50% on my AMD machine didn't even budge the CPU meter on my new Core 2 Duo machine. I'm in heaven.

Unfortunately, not even a half hour after I had installed Windows, the IDE connection died. At least my hard drives are SATA. Rather than dismantle the machine to send the motherboard back, I just put the DVD burner into my AMD machine (it works there btw) and ordered a SATA burner instead. I should be fully in business once that arrives.

I suppose my days as an AMD man are over.

take off the fucking gas masks.

fuck your fashion.
fuck your accessories.
fuck your fake hair extensions.

I finally ordered the parts for my new studio machine. The new beautiful widescreen monitor will arrive today, as well as the case. Another box should be arriving Friday with all of the other parts. This thing is just going to blow my current setup out of the water, CPU load-wise:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 Ghz (Currently AMD Athlon X2 2.4 Ghz)
2GB RAM (Currently 1GB)
80GB Drive for the OS and Programs
250GB Drive for audio/reason refills/samples

I'm also not intending to let this machine touch the internet. Not going to let any nasties from the web slow this baby down.


Also waiting on the porch when I get off work is an Ebow. I've just been in love with the audio samples I've heard of what this thing can do, and I'm itching to run it through some wild effects. I plan on jamming with it later tonight, if anything interesting gets recorded maybe I'll put up a sound sample.

toodles.

A couple weeks ago I posted some descriptions of tracks I'm working on. That list has now grown from 7 to 8. I should feel like I'm getting close to reaching some sort of milestone for the record, but I really don't. With the exception of the two complete instrumentals on my Myspace/VF pages, the rest of the songs are all simply a collection of ideas right now. They are in serious need of structure and finishing, but the problem is, before I get motivated enough to finish one, I get an idea for the next.

It's hard to say what's going to happen to some of these tracks. I like them all so I will hope that I will get around to finishing some of them soon. Perhaps moving into my new studio space will spark something.

I really want to get some vocals down so you I can give you guys at least a small taste of what's to come. I am still rather new to the whole writing thing as far as lyrics go, and I'm finding it more difficult than I thought it would be.

This sort of expands on my post about what avenues independent artists can take to sell their music. Trent Reznor recently revealed the sales figures of Saul Williams' last album. A whopping 1 out of every 5 people decided it was worth $5 to download. I have absolutely nothing against piracy, but when an artist puts something out there at such a low price for you, and you still would rather just download the free version or find a torrent, that's just sad. If people didn't like it that's fine (i love the album), but I know there are people out there that just plain feel that music should be completely free, and the artist is entitled to nothing. Ridiculous. Still, there were 28,322 purchases at $5 each. That's $141,610 in sales. Saul's last album sold about that much, but it was on a label, and I can guarantee he didn't see that kind of money. There's certain expenses I'm sure, but that's almost 4 times my annual salary, I could more than live comfortably on that. Obviously you have to have the kind of fanbase that Trent and Saul have to pull those kind of sales, but I'm not looking to quit my day job any time soon anyway.

Music is very different today because of the internet, because of piracy. I don't believe that it has to be a turn for the worse though. We as artists just need to adapt. Stop selling your CDs for record label prices for one, you do not need to be as greedy as they are. $15? Give me a break. The information is out there on the net for anyone to see, and they all know that you only had to pay a couple bucks, maybe $3, to get that CD pressed. This would be fine on a label, considering you'd only get a few bucks or something kicked back to you per sale, probably less. But if you're independent, and getting the discs pressed yourself, that much profit, while nice, is too much. $10? Okay. But you could even go as low as $8 or $6 and still make double your money, which could then go into supporting a tour, or pressing more discs.

I still believe that a physical disc is not dead just yet. Here's a new thought I have had.

1. Sell pre-orders of the album at your designated price(probably $6-$8 by the time I'm ready).

2. As reward for preordering, give them a digital copy of the CD.

3. Offer incentive that if you reach a certain number of preorders (100 maybe), that you'll get the discs pressed and send them out when you get them back, free shipping in the US, or wherevever you're from. (Will probably have to sell for closer to $8 to offset that cost though, but that's still a great deal).

Think about it, you sell at least 100 preorders, giving you at least $800. That's the majority of the CD Duplication cost. I think this model could work out well for the independent artist and his/her/their fans.