Month: May 2008

So much music talk on my blog lately.  I guess it’s like something I do now.

One of my final assignments in my songwriting class at Folsom Lake is to compose a blues song.  This is not a task to which I am suited.  My musical background generally fits into electronic 4/4 boom-tish music, or loud guitar wrangling.  I must say I have no idea how to even approach writing the blues.  I mean, I know the whole 12-bar structure, I have a fair idea what a turnaround is, and I’m sure I can make up some words about hardships or trains or drinking or it being really hot outside or something, but anything I make is going to be either a complete knock-off of another song, or so far removed from blues ethos that it barely qualifies as a member of the genre.

On the other hand, maybe that second one is not so bad.  Though I should probably not use ReBirth on this one.

There was a Songwriter’s Showcase event, basically a recital, that happened at Folsom Lake College last Monday. Since I was in the songwriting class, I was performing. I played one of my newer songs, the same one I did for Inspiration Live, except with different instrumentation. This time, I had no guitarist, so it was me, my laptop, Reaper, and a BCR2000 hooked up to one of the electric pianos. The guitars and synths were prerecorded (save for the bridge section, where I did play one synth for about 20 seconds) and the drums were programmed in ReBirth, patterns triggered from the BCR. Despite my pedestrian singing voice, I think it went over really well, and the electronics were certainly a novelty to the Folsom crowd who have, as a group, generally never heard of any of this. So much, in fact, that the professor hosting the event introduced me as “a student who has incorporated electronic sounds and equipment into his playing” – as if it were something new and exotic instead of an entire genre.

While being introduced as The Electronic Music Ambassador to Folsom was pretty cool, one thing really stood out for me. Three members of The Cimorellis (an extremely talented group) were also performing that night, and I noticed that while I was performing, one of them was dancing in her seat, singing along during my chorus. Here’s one of the most talented groups of people I’ve met in recent years, and one of them knew the words to my song. She had heard them when I originally sang the song in class, and I guess liked it enough to remember it. My mind is blown.

Speaking of musicians who are not me, Josh Whelchel AKA TwiTerror, who I have known since the first Trax in Space site some nine years ago, was recently named Artist of the Month at the new site. He’s become a favorite on the site and has become very prolific, doing music for several freeware games as well as his own band, and I figured I’d known him longer than many of the site’s current members, I was in somewhat of a unique position and took the opportunity to roast him on their forums (my post is down near the bottom of that page). Huge congrats, Josh! You done good.

I am back from Japan.  My new nemesis is jet lag.  It’s never been a problem going East, but heading West it gets me every time.  I can adjust to the schedule change well enough, but the days are like staggering around the house in a sleepy haze – very like nursing a nice buzz – except that it lasts all day.  And I’m not always in the house.

There was far more that I did and want to talk about in Japan than I care to cram into one post, but I’ll mention things here and there, perhaps it will make for more interesting reading than my usual fare, which is ‘nothing.’  But it’s a blog, and a personal one at that.  Blogs are retarded.  What do you expect.

I am going to go stagger now.