I write songs
I want to stress that this is a rough draft. I’ve been very busy writing, and haven’t put much thought into the production. This is one of 3 songs finished this past week. I’m so eager to share SOMETHING! I actually have a good recording of Pixels, but hesitate to share it online until the copyright is secure because of it’s a pop tune nature. READ ON FOR LYRICS >>
I’m sure you’re dying to know why I dug out my ancient cassette recorder. Well, the story goes something like this:
Continue reading “Blue Aisles”Found another old track on my XHD today. Recorded live at rehearsal on cassette tape by running instruments and mikes lined direct through a soundboard. I most invariably had “live performance” in mind when I wrote this. Because sometimes all female pop-punk bands have to play loud, scream loud and curse. I was about 29 years old.
Old, old song. Written because young women sometimes need to play with searing intention and curse like fucking truck drivers. Pardon the hot spots in the recording. it was in our basement rehearsal space.
Just wow. Treated myself to the Play It Loud instrument exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum the other day. Always the feminist sensitive to the exclusion of an entire gender, I do wish that they’d featured more female guitarists such as Bonnie Rait and the ladies of Sleater Kinney. Nevertheless, I was grateful for Joni, St. Vincent and Nancy and it didn’t take away from the wonder that was there. Jimmy Paige is by far my all time favorite guitarist, and it was surreal to stand next to his instruments and amps.
When I purchased the Steinberg-Yamaha UR12 interface, I only wanted it so I could occasionally use the Cubase software on my laptop. I did not anticipate my entire existence would improve this much.
If you followed a previous blog post, when I was staying on my friends luxury-bus-hotel-air b&b, using my laptop to record my new songs was a huge challenge. Almost a disaster. (You can hear Mas Caliente Que El Sol and If You Think You’re Going on earlier posts) Simply put computers do a lot of great things, but rigging a mike directly into them and recording quality sound is not one. I managed. But I sorely missed my interface, the one that you can plug guitars and mikes into. Why couldn’t I bring it on my artist retreat? Not only is it too big to travel with, it requires another equally large power amp. Even if I decided to pack fewer combat boots, the cord doesn’t connect to a laptop. My old Motu 828 connects via FIREWIRE.
I brought my laptop to a computer repair shop last week for an unrelated issue and asked the tech if he could put a firewire card in it. I think he may have been suppressing a laugh. No, firwire cards are too big for laptops. Besides, what do you need it for? They’re kind of obsolete.
Aha! Obsolete. Seems to be a recurring theme, being that I’m a woman in her 50’s learning to master music production using a bunch of old ass equipment. See back in the day, USB cables couldn’t handle all the data flow of analog music. Hence the necessary upgrade to Fire Wire, which never actually came with PC’s. I had to buy the Firewire card, open the tower, and install the damn thing myself.
Since I never had the need to travel and record, I never realized that my get up was outdated. A few googles later, and I bought an entry level USB interface with a….get this…BUILT IN POWER AMP. So I just need that one lil’ guy to do the same things as two or three big “racks”.
This essentially moved me from the bedroom to the living room. Now I never have to leave the couch! Of course, this new geogrpahy worked out brilliantly for mixing, but I’ve yet to sing or play guitar. We shall see how it goes. Maybe I can say goodbye to the cat box corner (and that glitchy desktop) for good.
Title taken from the chorus, “even dead birds fly when thrown”. Unfinished recording, however, I’m incredibly excited about this song, particularly the composition. I was stumped because the raw original drafts, when I was singing and playing into my one track DVR, had an energetic and cohesive feel that I couldn’t reproduce on Cubase. HOW does that happen? Well, for one, I was simply trying to play too many parts on one guitar. So in the spirit of Roger & Hammerstein (I saw Oklahoma on Broadway last night but I mostly watched the band) I dusted off my old bass guitar and broke those parts up. Again, I still have work to do with recording; Drums. Gel the bridge. Etc. However, the song is done and it’s been too long since I shared anything.