I will not be going to Barcelona this weekend after all, which means that I have 3 more days than I had expected to work on the album. There’s still hope! I will be missing 4 probably great concerts, but who cares? I can’t stop now.
Bring it on.
February is coming to an end and so is the RPM challenge, so I’m going to borrow FNoise‘s last post and draw some premature conclusions.
First thing is, I don’t think I’m going to make it. As of today I’ve only got 4 finished songs, and although I have 3 more in a very raw state, even if I finished them I wouldn’t have the time to do another 3 in order to complete the 10 required tracks. Maybe if I was in Madrid this weekend I’d have a chance, but I’m going to Barcelona to see Nurse With Wound, Andrew Liles, Baby Dee and Marc Almond, so there goes my last opportunity to give this thing a final kick in the ass.
That, of course, doesn’t imply that I’m going to throw everything away, it just means that the album will take a little longer than expected; but I want to finish it anyway, even if it’s just a crappy lo-fi demo.
I have to admit that I had set myself an excessively tough goal. As if recording an album in one month wasn’t enough of a challenge in normal conditions, I also wanted to try some styles that I hadn’t played in like 10 years and some styles I hadn’t played ever, besides wanting to learn to play 2 or 3 new instruments in a month and, of course, singing. But what the hell, here’s what I’ve got right now:
1 – Intro, still untitled, will probably be “Step right up (Ladies and gentlemen)“. A weird carnival-cabaret-circus waltz with strange noises, maniacal laughter and, of course, the typical “step right up, ladies and gentlemen” ranting. Still not finished. Instruments: drums, tuba, piano, organ.
2 – There’s a train in my head (and I don’t know when it’s a-stoppin’). One of my favourite tracks, a stompin’ drivin’ acoustic blues with a tight yet dirty sound. Makes me snap my fingers when I listen to it, which is definitively a good thing. Instruments: drums, tuba, flatpicked banjo, slide guitar, cross harp.
3 – Señor Fuma Mucho (cough). This one is little more than a sketch, but it’s trying to be a swingin’ jazzy blues of sorts, a bit like some of the Flying Neutrinos’ or the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ sleazier tracks. This one is making me sweat blood, I tell you! Instruments: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo (can’t decide whether to flatpick or frail), drums, who knows.
4 – Too many worries (on my mind). This one has a certain “country ballad” feel to it, if only because of the open G chord it’s based on. The lyrics talk about regret and mending one’s ways for the woman you love, but it’s also a bit tongue-in-cheek, as everything in the album. Instruments: flatpicked acoustic guitar, clawhammer banjo, straight harp, whistling.
5 – When the song cometh (baby). The result of listening to too much Hugo Race and the True Spirit: a dense, desertic, slide-driven atmospheric track with deep vocals and a lot of reverb. Instruments: slide acoustic guitar, synth pad, some drums, maybe musical saw or cross harp.
6 – Untitled. Just a sketch of a three-finger roll banjo track.
7 – Under the trees (with the Drunk Midnight Choir). A REALLY drunken hobo ballad in the vein of Tom Waits’ “Innocent when you dream” but much worse. Instruments: fingerpicked acoustic guitar and a lot of drunkards attempting to keep in key. Maybe piano.
Oh, and as for the title of the album, I thought of “Snake Oil“, but maybe I’ll end up going with “Fake it till you make it“, which also seems quite appropriate :)
So this is it for the moment, … I’ve surely learned a lot from this, and among those things I now know is the fact that I can’t work well if rushed. Having a deadline has helped me a lot to get off my ass and stop procrastinating, but I am and always will be a perfectionist, and I simply can’t release all the crap I’ve created during this month. If I had kept every riff and song I’ve written in these days I would have met the challenge, but the album would suck. A lot. Even if I’m doing a demo I need to know that the songs are good, that they are worth working on after this month.
So the conclusion is, like so many things in life, bittersweet: I’ve failed to meet the challenge (well, still some days left, but let’s start getting used to the idea) but I’ve learnt a lot of things about myself as a musician, I’ve pushed my limits hard and that has produced a bunch of kick-ass songs. Not bad for a month’s work. Not bad at all.
Now, back to work. I still have a few dayjob hours available for writing lyrics and humming melodies in my head before I get home. Cheers!
