audiotthoughts on music

good news y’all! well, actually that depends, I guess  :-)

before i start babbling around, let me just say:

BEHOLD

taping trouble by audiot.eu

since i’m barely able to keep my eyes open, here’s just a quick note: it’s done. i just finished my album for this year’s rpm-challenge about 5 minutes ago. it’s over 52 minutes long and it’s weird – really weird :-)
anyway, i’m doing the cover tomorrow and send it off on monday morning, the last possible day. not sure about the title yet…
good night y’all

Alright! February is almost over and that means this year’s rpm-challenge-album is almost done. It’s 06:45 am over here and I’m dead tired but here’s one song for you guys to let you know that………uhm……that I’m dead tired :-)

Anyway, I’ll write more as soon as this album is finished – it looks like I’m gonna need every single minute left to work on this thing, so once again, bear with me and listen to “Take It Back” in the meantime. The blue player in the upper left, remember?

It’s not a typical audiot-song, more like “normal”. I’ll tell you about this later. Enjoy….

WOW, has it already been one year? unbelievable!

i just received an email from the rpm-challenge folks asking me to sign up for 2010. and i gladly did right on the spot! for those of you who haven’t heard of it, the challenge is to record an album in 28 days – just because you can. that means you have to come up with ideas, write the whole stuff, record and mix it all within the month of february. there’s nothing to gain except self-respect and huge amounts of fun :-) and you could cheat of course by just recording stuff you already have etc. but you would only cheat yourself.

this thing really is a race against yourself, the real question is: are you able to get up and just do this? no excuses.

after writing and recording my own stuff for many years but never finishing anything because of never-being-satisfieditis, last year’s rpm-challenge changed this for me. as many of you know, that’s where my first album corner came from. so i can tell from my own experience, if you ever needed a kickstart – this is it!

once again, i have no idea what i’ll do this time. since the work on my 2nd album is already in progress – and one song’s already released (“wipe it clean”, in the blue player to the upper right…), i thought about doing something completely different. but that’s about all i’ve figured out so far. and i’ll try not to think about it for the next 14 days, so it’ll be completely fresh once february kicks off……not to mention that i’ll jump around in wild panic because i’ll have no idea whatsoever how to do this. FUN !!!

so go ahead and sign up right here and tell everyone about it! and, if you tell me, i’m gonna write about it – giving you the exposure you always wanted right here on this ridiculously famous site :-)

yay, finally a brandnew song. it’s called “Wipe It Clean” and you can find it in the blue player on the right of this very page. check it out!!!
now off to celebrate – happy new year y’all !!!

Hi there!

If you’re still there that is. Well, I am! Lurking in the shadows for a while planning the next steps on the way to world domination. This little (!) vacation gave me some new ideas, new things to check out and lots of inspiration. Stay tuned for that.

I’m finally continuing the work on the 2nd album, part of it will be released before the end of the year – and this time I mean it! Between family matters, water and heating installations and making a living as a teacher, creating new music has moved to the background, which is unfortunate, but was necessary nonetheless.

So here’s to new focuses, foci or whatever more than one focus is called. I hope you all are doing well and thank you for reading!

long time, no see…

i know there haven’t been many updates recently and this one is just a quick question to get you thinking. actually this is not just about music but can be applied to virtually anything.

yesterday, i read an entry in some german musicians forum about a guy who wasn’t really sure what to answer when someone asked him what instrument he was playing. he identified himself more with the band than his instrument, that sort of thing – this isn’t exactly what this post is about, but it got me thinking.

what exactly is it that you do? and more important, do you even know it – and know how to phrase it without sounding shy or silly? this is very important because it tells you something about yourself and the path you’ve chosen so far. are you a drummer? or a musician? or an artist? or all of it? or what?

this goes for any other profession as well. what exactly is it that you do? think about this, as will i, and try to put it into words – words that convince not only whoever’s asking, but yourself as well.

to be continued…

and wondering where it’ll take me. i guess it’s about time for an update on the new audiot projects. as you guys already know, there’s music in the making which was supposed to end up on an album called “traitor”. this became more of a working title and then ideas came up like crazy  – so here’s what’s happening right now:

i’m up to 19 songs so far, 7 of them are awaiting vocals. it seems there won’t be any instrumentals this time, but one never knows. those 19 will have my voice on them. so i’m gonna do some vocal-recording and then 5 of the above mentioned 7 can be mixed and thrown out into the world. the other 2 will need maybe a solo and maybe some fills. i’ll do that after the vocals.

and it seems there will really be two albums, one in the style of “corner” and one with more “regular band stuff”. and once again there’s a lot of experimenting involved, lots of flaws left in there and again it kind of scares me what my mind comes up with. so if for me “corner” was like standing in a forest at sundown, peeking through some trees at a scary little cabin – this next one will be like stepping through the door and have a look at what’s inside. and i really don’t know if i’ll like what’s in there – but at least i’ll find out soon. fortune favors the bold, right?

before the albums are actually released i might put out some sneak peeks to let you know what’s coming. i thought about this a lot but am still not sure how to do this without spoiling the surprise – we’ll see about that. and still no making of video i’m afraid – getting into video-stuff would delay this whole thing even more….

so now you’re up to date and thanx for staying tuned. and even if i don’t know how this new stuff will sound once it’s finished, i can already say: if you liked “corner”, then you’ll love what’s coming. but if you didn’t like it, then you’ll love what’s coming. how’s that for a slogan? :-)

now here’s what i call a good press. and i have to post this right now before there will be any reviews by the guest judges. so this is about the song i sent to the people’s music awards – which won week 10 as the best off-the-beaten-track-song and therefore is in the next round now.

so here’s what the guys over there wrote about it:

“If Tom Waits fell off the wagon and went on a three month bender before recording his next album it would probably sound like audiot!

Welding the classic rock of Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath and art school sensibilities, audiot has come up with a top notch track that is certainly way off the beaten track!”

how cool is that?

by the way, the guest-judges-round should start soon. i really wonder what they’ll say about it… and after that, if i got it right, the people (that’s you) can vote again.

gosh, i really hope i can finish the new album soon – it’s gonna be even more weird and sick…

this is filed under reviews but it’s really an order. in fact, it says ‘BUY THIS RECORD !!!’, well with a few more words, but basically that’s the message.

this is about the new Bill Champlin record called “No Place Left To Fall”. you may have already heard or read about it, depending on where you live i guess. here in germany, Bill Champlin is not as big as he should be. but anyway, you can find all sorts of information about this new album anywhere on the net. what i’d like to say about it, since i’ve had the chance to fully listen to it yesterday, is quite simple. this album is outstanding. it’s a great piece of songwriting, arrangement, craftsmanship and let’s not forget a lot of fun to listen to. but since this blog is for people who are somewhat more into music than the average listen-to-some-radio-while-driving-to-work-in-the-morning-kind-of-guy i’d like to give you some good advice you might not find in another review. this album simply is one awesome lesson for every musician. you’ll find songwriting with some edges and corners you wouldn’t expect and still it all runs smoothly like a bar of soap covered in babyoil on an airhockey-table…….ermmm, oh well, you get the idea.

and then there’s of course the playing itself – and wow! you can learn so much by closely listening to this masterpiece. there’s nice voiceworks by Bill and his mates and even if Bill’s voice is not really my favorite, soundwise, he’s just doing a great job. there’s outstanding performances by all of the musicians, topped by the ridiculously awesome creative greatness of Billy Ward, who’s simply drumming this album to the all-time-must-haves. sorry for this, but it would seem i’m kind of short on superlatives :-)

this record is a perfect example for ‘being in the moment’, which is (or at least should be) every musicians priority. you’ll find the right thing played at every single moment. and that’s a great lesson in itself…

so before i write myself into tears of joy, i’ll say it again. go and buy this album. if you do, naked women will have sex in your backyard – or men, whatever floats your boat…