DATE: 17 Feb 2007, 10:15 pm / MOOD: Feels like the first time

At the rather insistent behest of a few friends, over the coming months, I’ll be writing an occasional article here on Sonicjive.  The topics will vary depending on the angle and velocity of the muse’s rather chaotic descent, but I’ll try to cover a decent range of material, from some cursory commentary on the state of the universe in general to the occasional musical pondering, and even perhaps to a brief glance into the idiosyncrasies of some of the more bizarre course selections that Harvard University has to offer (think Conceptions of Self and Other in the Japanese Surreal Fantastic Literary Dialectic).  If there is even a remote resemblance of interest in any of the upcoming articles, perhaps I’ll even start a blog.  So far I’ve been too terminally lazy to do so. 

 

To kick things off, I have a little anecdote to share.  It all began last weekend with a set of lyrics and a melody that I made the mistake of singing for La Gringa (you may already be familiar with where this is going from her lamentations of the resultant sleep deprivation).  As I’m sure is the case for most of my fellow musicians here on sonicjive, your albums take time.  And money.  And some fair degree of hair-wrenching over obtuse production details that no one else is ever going to notice.  I for one spent about 3 years writing, recording, mixing, producing and mastering my debut album (which, God willing, will be up here on Sonicjive for perusal and possible purchase within a month  The tracks on my profile are a little taste).  Hopefully the process becomes less arduous with repetition.  But I digress: so La Gringa hears this song.  And proceeds hence to drag me by the arm to the keyboard.  48 hours later we’ve got a recording, and I’m thinking about how I can release it as a single.  But the real kicker is, when I first finished writing the melody, I was in despair.  I thought it had thoroughly prosaic changes and hackneyed lyrics: in short, it was an apparent harbinger of the demise of my short-lived fount of musical creativity.  That is until it got run through the Outpost.  Now…well, you can see La Gringa’s post for what it sounds like now.  And it ignited a creative tsunami that I'm still riding the sparks from.  

 

I had a friend and fellow artist once who used to refuse to listen anyone but Bob Dylan.  He was afraid that other artists would change his sound, divert his musical direction.  He had a huge amount of talent, and his lyrics were killer.  He accomplished his mission perfectly.  His sound never changed, his tunes all sounded the same (and not surprisingly, a lot like the work of Bob Dylan).  I had a song that was going nowhere fast.  Then it got diverted by WOXII.  Now it’s killing (if I do say so myself).  In short, Viva La Collaboration!

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