So this is what I see when I blink, rub the bio-crust out of my eyes, and stop staring at my computer screen for a second:
The Looming Composers. Jody brought them in from God knows where - a dusty curio in Chinatown? An estate sale at a creepy Victorian mansion? Perhaps a gypsy pressed it into his hands as revenge for him hitting her with his car. I have no idea. But I'm cursed with them.
I actually like the sketches themselves. The frame matches the table well, and having something on the wall goes a long way toward classing up an otherwise crowded studio. It's just the composers. They LOOM. I mean, look at the puss on this Baroque badass:
That's Bach (or John Belushi in a wig). See that expression? He knows he's a better composer than you are.
Under the arrogant eyes of old J.S., the stern eyes of Wagner, and the prissy effeminate eyes of Mendelssohn, I have been working on my own orchestra piece, "American Terrorists." For one week of work, I'm pretty happy with it. If you've made it this far you deserve a preview:
It gets bigger! Expect drums, vocals, and bass before long.
As always, I hope you all are doing great! Have you checked out our bandcamp site? You can listen to two or three full-length songs, and some other works in-progress. Let us know what you think!
This tune is called "Three Strangers." It's the rough cut. The album version will feature live strings and a few more fresh coats of paint. Comments, ideas, and critiques are not just welcome, but really useful. Please keep 'em coming.
You will also notice the lush vocal stylings of Mr. Anthony D'Amato on this track. Anthony is considering moving here to Chicago some time between now and January. He has no idea, but his move is already a done deal. My tazer and chloroform just arrived in the mail.
Here also is a fresh mix of "The Fisher King."
I have always been fascinated by ancient mythology, since childhood. The Greek Gods were an early fave, like I think they still are for kids. One of my piano students dressed as Athena for Halloween last year, after all. But I enjoyed the Norse, Egyptian, Celtic, and African tales quite a bit too. They made an early impression.
So now I write music that is tinged with the religious, or at least, the mythic. This song is about the swift, unyielding passage of time, directly written as a complaint to the goddesses that govern it. Time goddesses are pretty common, even in cultures separated by a lot of space. In Greece, these were the Moirae; in Rome, the Parcae; Japan has a mother-maiden-crone equivalent; as does Norse mythology, the Norns. There are more. All of these civilizations represented time as three women, usually as future, present, and past. They are often depicted smiling, but equally often described as cruel.
In the past year or two, my life has changed dramatically. I've moved in with my true-love boyfriend, I grew a beard, left boystown; I have a shiny new home studio and a new band to use it for, I am jobless and searching in a very uncertain economy, yet I'm more certain than ever that music is my destiny. As much as I love my life and love what it (and I) have become, time moves mercilessly quick, changing my shape, my emotions, my work, my friendships, my flesh. Perhaps I won't be happy forever. It feels out of my control when I consider it, even though I never felt out of control any step along the way.
Do you ever look in the mirror, see the skull behind your face, and suddenly glimpse a person you've never seen before? Perhaps a spectre you'll look like at sixty, or a ghost of what you looked like at six? Or what you would look like if you had chosen everything differently? Did you ever have a choice? Is the person looking back at you from the mirror the person you were always meant to be? Or is the person looking back just a passing stranger, someone you will only be for an instant before the goddesses of Time put all your cards back in the deck and shuffle you up?
Do you ever look in the mirror and feel like a stranger to yourself?
We now graduate from having a Burgeoning Blog to the next stage of blog-evolution: the Neglected Blog. And in only one month! We are quite proud.
There is good reason for the neglect, though! Jody and I have seen the end of a major project, as our dear friend James Mitchell heads to sunny California. I've worked closely with James on a metric ton of music for 5 years now, and I'm really sad to see him go. He was just accepted to one of the nation's most competitive art schools, so we are sad to see him go, but thrilled for his success.
All of our work so for has pretty much taken place in James' apartment. Until last week, his attic was home to a world-class studio. Over the years James has let us camp out up there, sometimes for weeks. He's definitely going to Heaven. But since we knew that the studio wouldn't be in Chicago forever, we've been in there working as often as we could.
So... what blog-neglect excuses have I given so far? Job ending, tons of studio time... Right! Also, I moved. AND, we're going to try and set up a smaller, but similar studio setting to the one James had. Here's Jody chilling in the new studio:
Green! Specifically, Peppermint Leaf Green. So says the paint can.
After a couple weeks of moving and painting, we're finally ready to take a breath and work on whatever we can while we assemble our studio. Currently, we have everything but a computer. It's pretty sad: in 2010, a studio without a computer is like a shotgun without zombies. Fun, but pointless.
During the last rotation in James' studio Jody and I wrote songs at the rate of about one every three days. A few of these songs have lyrics and everything, all waiting for that magic vocalist to enter our lives. In the last two weeks, we created 5 distinct, semi-finished works. None got more than three days' work, so don't judge too harshly.
Please, as always, let us know what you think, of the music, the studio, anything! Thanks for stopping in to see what we're up to. What are you listening to right now?
We have a new toy. It records on 4 tracks seamlessly and quickly, for up to a day if we need it to. The H4N is just a handheld recorder, but it's been great for gathering audio and recording practices. Here's a sample of a new song we're working on, recorded, mixed and bounced out an hour or two ago. Easy as pie. More on this new song in a future post. The audio is pretty great! So great in fact, that you can hear my crummy little piano bench and Jody's bass make some squeaking sounds in there. It sounds a little like two mice having a knife-fight.
The H4N is about the size of one of those boxes that you get your checks in. I love living in the future.
Also, here's a rare picture of Jody, circa 1984, using the H4N to bust ghosts.
The first song we began our little adventure with is called “Catch Fire.” It’s a weird song. It starts off as stable, piano-driven rock. By the end, the song changes into something of a grand march, with horns blaring and cymbals crashing. The song is still a work-in-progress, and we’ll be posting videos and music clips as time goes on.
This clip is rated R for language. We beeped it, but you can totally tell.
The footage is all from the first week of January, when this project was just getting started. Hopefully the next time you hear the song, you’ll hear a longer passage of music and drums (maybe even vocals!). Let us know what you think!
This is a small sample of the stuff we've been working on. Our work on this piece took place between January 11-15. We'll be coming back to it when we get back into the studio for a lengthy phase.
The track has no vocals now, but it will in the end. This song features several marching band percussion pieces. We hope to recruit local high school students to play our shows. What do you think?
