audiot

sorry, folks – but i’m in a ranting mood right now.

this is one of those days i regret it a little to do everything on my own, when it comes to recording, songwriting etc.

don’t get me wrong, this is the best freaking thing in the world and i’ve had very good reasons to make this decision. one of them being people who just talk and talk and never get something done. i remember this guitarplayer who wanted to record a few takes at home, taking the daw (digital audio workstation) with him – so nobody else could record anything. he kept talking about how this will be happening, how cool this is and so forth and that we shouldn’t do rehearsals for the time being because it’s best to fully concentrate on the recording. after six months (!) i asked him about some status-report an the answer was “i’m still working on the right sound” – he hadn’t recorded a single note. that’s when i decided to do things on my own. and regarding the creative process (including recording, mixing etc.) i’m happy with this, never had any second thoughts – i love it!

what i don’t love is the whole statistics stuff. there are dozens if not hundreds of sites you need to be on, there are lots and lots of tools you need to use, things you need to do – this never ends and eats up tremendous amounts of time.

i just found out yesterday, that “bankjob” the first song on “corner” (you know, the blue player, top of sidebar…) currently is no.16 of the ReverbNation rock charts for germany (hmm, since i upgraded to wordpress 2.8, some features are missing – including links for instance…). and that’s awesome! on the other hand, obtaining this tiny piece of information took longer than actually writing the song. and i haven’t even got to the whole social-networking-thing yet. that’s where a band has a huge advantage – you can pick one guy who does this, probably the one least involved in recording or songwriting activities. a whole band can certainly be much more efficient than a single person, but let’s not forget, most bands aren’t. there’s still one guy who basically does it all – which again is good for lone warriors like me…

anyway, i just wanted to write a little frustration off my chest regarding that neverending statistics war- ugh. now i’m getting back to work on “traitor” – time to do something of substance…

i just finished recording rhythm-guitar for the first song of “traitor”, i played ten tracks, threw two of them away and kept the other eight – not sure if i’ll use them all, though. there are lots of bits and pieces for this new album i already recorded, but until now i wasn’t sure what this album would sound like. during the last few weeks i was messing around with all kinds of ideas but now it became quite obvious where this will go. this little tracking-session today made it very clear that this will be a straightforward, lowdown and dirty hardrock album.

the funny thing about this is, i stopped being a rock-musician years ago. and since then i’m listening to everything with the same amount of interest, i’m playing everything with the same amount of ‘being into it’. but beyond all that there’s some unfinished business i suppose. songs i wrote during my rock-phase for instance, like 15 years ago… i don’t even like those songs anymore, but i still love the feel of some of them or some parts, riffs, licks or whatever. and since that time, whenever i’ve picked up a guitar, some of those old ideas snuck up on me. so now i’m making peace with myself by finally doing a record with all that stuff – hoping those ghosts from the past will leave me alone at last :-)

nah, don’t gimme that “so, now you’re trying to palm off old and rotten stuff on me?” because that’s not what this is. there won’t be a single one of those old songs on the record, as i said before, i don’t like them anymore. i will, though, write new material with some of those riffs, ideas etc. included. what will mostly remain of the old stuff is the feel. suffice it to say i was quite an angry young loon back then. but don’t panic! i’m already thinking about the third album which will be completely different – again. this second one is basically about getting something off my chest and be done with it. on the other hand – recording this dirty stuff was kind of fun……………..

when i heard about the rpm challenge 09 it was only 4 days away but i thought ‘ah, just for the heck of it…’ blue-eyed one might say, naive maybe, but it turned out really cool in the end.

i have recorded lots of stuff over the years but this was completely different – and new for i’m not really a hotshot when it comes to recording. i like to plan things, figure it all out before pushing the red button, know exactly where this will go……..until now. the big challenge wasn’t to record an album in 28 days, it was to get rid of all the worries and doubts and the whole detail-panic. it was to allow embrace the flaw, welcome it as an essential part of the whole – which it certainly is, as i know now.

i’ve always been good at jumping over my own shadow but this was a tough one because there’s always the ‘what if’. what if it just sucks, what if i’m not one of those creative people who can make something up on the spot which does, well, not suck? what if i just don’t have it in me? ok, this was no question of life and death because i could always return to planning things. but still it kind of nagged…

so, the solution seemed easy: i’d do what i always did – planning, only faster :-) it’s only 35 minutes of material in 4 weeks! come on, you can do that! that’s less than 9 minutes a week, about 1:20 a day – ridiculous! bring it on! then it hit me, i misunderstood the rpm-guide and thought the cd had to arrive there before march, so i’d have one week less – ah! week, schmeek – still no problem! but what about mixing? mastering? artwork? and most of all: what about writing the whole stuff? and what about the busy days, the ones that won’t leave me any time to work on it at all? EEEEEEEEEEK !!!

after a decent panic-attack i still decided i could do this the old-fashioned way. the hell i could!

to be continued…

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ok, i’m opening a new category for the album “corner” i made as part of the rpm-challenge 09. there will be detailed descriptions of all the songs as well as technical info on how i did this etc., so make sure you check this section out for fresh content.

i’m gonna start tomorrow with an overview of the album, what i planned to do, how i failed with that and what came out in the end…

once again here’s the link to listen and download it or you can check out the freakingly cool player thingy in the entry below…

have fun