Talking about regeneration

I”ve got 48 hours left to finish the album and tomorrow is committed to a journey to my brother’s house (to pick up 1000 CDs… but that’s another story)… and Sunday is Ben’s school Christmas Fair.

This has been a fascinating experience. I didn’t think I had this in me and I realise that I’ve been lazy about ‘finishing’ songs when I write them. I’ll polish them later… just write them and get them down into a demo

I’ll post a link to the ‘album’ when it’s done (on Monday December 1st)

Each song was written and recorded in 2 hours (well… a couple were 2.5 hours). If I was to use any of these for a proper album project I’d do a bit of re-writing but possibly not that much.

So far this is what I’ve got :

One By One.
This gave me the album title. It’s about facing your inner demons one-by one. (I can only say that now that I’ve looked at the lyrics haha ).
Just me and my Epiphone dot. Simple guitar and vocal. Listening to it in the car I think I could do something further with this on my real album. I’d work it up into a full band arrangement though.

Empty Nest.
This is a sappy rip off of what might be a Howard Jones song but not a million miles from a Genesis b-side.
I will make no apologies for sappy songs. There’s room for everything.
I tried to imagine the parent saying goodbye to their child when they left home. I think there’s a bit of regret around how I left home – I couldn’t wait to get out and probably should have been a bit better to mum about it all.

Fly In The Ointment.
Cod White Reggae. I never never never thought I’d do this. But I have to admit I ENJOYED it and that’s the point. (isn’t it?)
Now that it’s written I realise it’s my statement on the media and how the sky is falling on a weekly basis.
Of course when the sky does fall I’m going to look pretty fucking stupid…

Art Sake.
After attending the Arts Council conference this week I wondered if anything would come out of it.
This is what came out of it. I think it’s like a Royksopp type thing but probably not as slick.
“…between you and me I would rather be free…”

Don’t Push Your Luck.
On the home stretch now. This is a throwback to early 1980s synth pop Heaven 17 meets Human League (yes I know) meets Fad Gadget.
Somebody needs to kill these celberities and put us out of our misery.

I’m going to try and do another song on Sunday and who knows what will come from that ? I’m going to use my acoustic guitar and a harmonica. Bobby Dylan ? You bet your ass

Quote

So sleep and dream of love because it’s the closest you will get to love.

 

NaSoAlMo ::: National Solo Album Month

Make An Album This November National Solo Album Month is a fun, free annual competition in which musicians write and record an entire album during the month of November – all by themselves. It was inspired by NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, in which writers attempt to write a novel during the same thirty days. NaSoAlMo favors enthusiasm and perseverance rather than perfectionism. It’s meant to encourage musicians and would-be songwriters to silence their internal critic for thirty days in order to inspire and maximize productivity. The albums are likely to be hastily written, off-time, and out of tune; the main objective is to just do it.

 

I signed up to this on Monday night. I had had a bad evening and needed something to distract me.

I’ve decided to try and complete an album before the end of November.

The production values will be low, the songs won’t be polished, some of the singing will be out of tune, the instrumentation will be minimal.

But it will be done. The album will be called “One By One” because that’s how I’m approaching it : one song at a time.
Each song will be written and recorded as it will appear on the album. I’ll write about whatever comes into my head [this could be dangerous!]

My rules: album must be minimum 29 minutes long, it must be finished by the end of November, compose and record each song in a 2-hour session alone in my studio.

I’ll post the whole thing online on December 1st

This’ll be challenging because I’ve got a lot on between now and the end of the month.

In December I’m doing a trip to London and will be playing a radio session for NEAR FM on December 11th. Of course we’ve got the inevitable Christmas parties to attend – something I’m looking forward to – we need a bit of cheer.

Last night (Tuesday) I wrote & recorded the first song “One By One”.