Looks like we made it.
okay so now that we're on the other side of last weekend here's the skinny on saturday night.
the back story is that Drizzle is scheduled the second saturday every month at the Future. The drummer kinda bowed out back in January, the singer disappeared in July and the bassist doesn't come around much because he's got his hands full with family business. I feel bad for not showing up for scheduled appearances, especially at the Future because they have an ass kicking little setup so i've been working up the courage to just go up there and play solo. but i don't like being quiet. i like ROCKING! so i took some songs i recorded by myself in '06 and pulled out a guitar track and the vocal track and played along to it. It didn't sound bad to me but it felt like glorified karaoke. So it's taken me a few months to convince myself that not only was this doable but acceptable and maybe even good. After that it was simply a matter of setting my mind to it. Of challenging myself to at least do it once and see how it went.
MISLED
So i set everything and give it a shot. I'm absolutely petrified to the point i haven't advertised outright to any of my friends only telling them when they found out about it that "it could be awesome. It could be a train wreck.....or it could be an awesome train wreck." I pull through the first song, London Below, and it feels bad. this was a mistake. The next song is Hibernation Instinct and that feels better. I get to Misled and it feels like this might actually work....and then something happened to the CD near the end and it skipped, leaving me twisting in the wind. I recovered as gracefully as i could and forged ahead as there was no stopping the CD once it started.
ONE HALF OF THE DAY
the song starts before i'm ready and my guitar is so far out of tune i have to play it two frets higher than it's written. i forget the words to a line in the second verse. the awesome train wreck prophesy seems to be fulfilling itself. In my head i'm thinking about it and, in this day an age, with the technology available, this should be how touring works. set up your shit in a comfortable controlled environment that you can get people to come to, record it and distribute it digitally. If people want to see you in other cities and states they can let you know over the web and you can schedule gigs accordingly. Also; I like beer.
FOLLOW MY LEAD
I can't stop to tune the guitar until the cd runs out, but thankfully there's only one more song left and it's mostly soloing. Soloing is not my strong suit so i wrote this specifically to force me to work on it. also all the guitar solos are left to improvisation for two reasons. first of all up until recently i've always written songs like that because it just seemed like that was the way it was done. In this case though it leaves SOMETHING up to chance where most of the rest of the song is so programmed it's going to turn out the same every time it's played in this fashion.
SAINTS
With the tracked songs finished i move into the stuff that's just me and a guitar. i said before i don't like this kind of thing but that's not true. I do like it, just not by itself. you need the loud in order to appreciate the quiet and vice versa. If i went to see a band and they only played loud, well for one they'd get tired and also things might start to bleed together sonically. when you see someone only play quiet stuff it's a similar principle. You can't have just potatoes or just meat. you need both for a good full meal. anyways, it was either this song or Finches as they both are painfully similar in structure and i played this because i was less comfortable with it and hell, if i'm trying this to see if i like it and it sounds good i might as well make it as hard as possible on myself.
I love covers. If i have it my way everything i every do musically will have one cover in it. It's a way of forcing your listener to hear something you appreciate as well as an opportunity to put your own stamp on a song. I thought my voice sounded better than usual all night and probably at it's best on this song. When i came offstage someone told me "i always forget how fast you are." and i'm pretty sure they were talking about this song.
One Inch Throne
Something Jeremiah used to play all he time to warm up his fingers. I learned it by watching him. I think there were words to it once but i never knew them. I also figured i started with an instrumental, might as well end with one.
So that's how it went. My stomach didn't absolutely destroy me for attempting it, which is good. on the other hand watching one guy up on the stage isn't half as entertaining as watching a band of individuals play off each other. I said on the drive home that i've proven to myself i can do this, so now i never have to do it again. But ultimately that's my personal self image talking. I think i have a voice about as appealing as Billy Corgan or Wayne Coyne which is why i try to stay out from behind the mic unless it's to sing backup harmonies. and ultimately it's up to popular opinion to decide if you're any good or not. So what'd you think. Don't bullshit me because if i'm terrible i like affirmation of my own fears more than the nagging doubt in your sincerity. In any case some people asked how it went, this is how it went. thanks for reading, and listening, and watching.
the back story is that Drizzle is scheduled the second saturday every month at the Future. The drummer kinda bowed out back in January, the singer disappeared in July and the bassist doesn't come around much because he's got his hands full with family business. I feel bad for not showing up for scheduled appearances, especially at the Future because they have an ass kicking little setup so i've been working up the courage to just go up there and play solo. but i don't like being quiet. i like ROCKING! so i took some songs i recorded by myself in '06 and pulled out a guitar track and the vocal track and played along to it. It didn't sound bad to me but it felt like glorified karaoke. So it's taken me a few months to convince myself that not only was this doable but acceptable and maybe even good. After that it was simply a matter of setting my mind to it. Of challenging myself to at least do it once and see how it went.
MISLED
Click to viewSo i set everything and give it a shot. I'm absolutely petrified to the point i haven't advertised outright to any of my friends only telling them when they found out about it that "it could be awesome. It could be a train wreck.....or it could be an awesome train wreck." I pull through the first song, London Below, and it feels bad. this was a mistake. The next song is Hibernation Instinct and that feels better. I get to Misled and it feels like this might actually work....and then something happened to the CD near the end and it skipped, leaving me twisting in the wind. I recovered as gracefully as i could and forged ahead as there was no stopping the CD once it started.
ONE HALF OF THE DAY
the song starts before i'm ready and my guitar is so far out of tune i have to play it two frets higher than it's written. i forget the words to a line in the second verse. the awesome train wreck prophesy seems to be fulfilling itself. In my head i'm thinking about it and, in this day an age, with the technology available, this should be how touring works. set up your shit in a comfortable controlled environment that you can get people to come to, record it and distribute it digitally. If people want to see you in other cities and states they can let you know over the web and you can schedule gigs accordingly. Also; I like beer.
FOLLOW MY LEAD
I can't stop to tune the guitar until the cd runs out, but thankfully there's only one more song left and it's mostly soloing. Soloing is not my strong suit so i wrote this specifically to force me to work on it. also all the guitar solos are left to improvisation for two reasons. first of all up until recently i've always written songs like that because it just seemed like that was the way it was done. In this case though it leaves SOMETHING up to chance where most of the rest of the song is so programmed it's going to turn out the same every time it's played in this fashion.
SAINTS
With the tracked songs finished i move into the stuff that's just me and a guitar. i said before i don't like this kind of thing but that's not true. I do like it, just not by itself. you need the loud in order to appreciate the quiet and vice versa. If i went to see a band and they only played loud, well for one they'd get tired and also things might start to bleed together sonically. when you see someone only play quiet stuff it's a similar principle. You can't have just potatoes or just meat. you need both for a good full meal. anyways, it was either this song or Finches as they both are painfully similar in structure and i played this because i was less comfortable with it and hell, if i'm trying this to see if i like it and it sounds good i might as well make it as hard as possible on myself.
I love covers. If i have it my way everything i every do musically will have one cover in it. It's a way of forcing your listener to hear something you appreciate as well as an opportunity to put your own stamp on a song. I thought my voice sounded better than usual all night and probably at it's best on this song. When i came offstage someone told me "i always forget how fast you are." and i'm pretty sure they were talking about this song.
One Inch Throne
Something Jeremiah used to play all he time to warm up his fingers. I learned it by watching him. I think there were words to it once but i never knew them. I also figured i started with an instrumental, might as well end with one.
So that's how it went. My stomach didn't absolutely destroy me for attempting it, which is good. on the other hand watching one guy up on the stage isn't half as entertaining as watching a band of individuals play off each other. I said on the drive home that i've proven to myself i can do this, so now i never have to do it again. But ultimately that's my personal self image talking. I think i have a voice about as appealing as Billy Corgan or Wayne Coyne which is why i try to stay out from behind the mic unless it's to sing backup harmonies. and ultimately it's up to popular opinion to decide if you're any good or not. So what'd you think. Don't bullshit me because if i'm terrible i like affirmation of my own fears more than the nagging doubt in your sincerity. In any case some people asked how it went, this is how it went. thanks for reading, and listening, and watching.