Well, I certainly can't allow James to be the only band member who updates his blog, so I thought I'd post.
I moved out of the apartment and into the new pad w/ Nicholena & Gus. And, it's kinda rough. The living situation is just difficult because we took over the house in very bad condition and we have to sorta repair it and shit, but it's sort of a painfully slow process. We were without a fridge, stove, oven, or internet for awhile.
But, over teh weekendz we got a fridge and dem innernettes!
Still no oven or stove, but...in due time, right?
Anyway, we finally got the PS2 hooked up and the SNES too. I was in the middle of Final Fantasy VIII (James and I are beating all the Final Fantasys in numerical order - I'm on 8, he's on 5! Teehee!) & Grandia II (a jRPG a girl from work is letting me borrow), when we moved. But, living in this house... I just feel very unsettled. And I feel like it's too stressful to play two 40 hrs. RPGs living in an unsettled environment. So to fill the void for now, I've been playing NBA 2K7. "LOL," I know. But, I've been getting back into basketball really hard recently (both NBA & NCAA...March Madness anyone???) and so I went through and updated all the rosters to their current lineups (which took, like, seven fucking hours) and even created about 20 rookies from this year that aren't in that game that I thought were important. So, yeah, that's been fun.
I painted w/ my blood. I have two canvases with my blood sprayed all over them. It's pretty bad art (I can't paint), but the important thing is that I PAINTED WITH MY BLOOD. Guess I thought it was pretty hard. Wish I could say it was from my wrists or something. Nope. Just my nose. Really fucking horrible nosebleed.
Damn Sailzorz have been writing some new stuff. We finished one song (minus lyrics), and it sounds really great. Real heavy, real dreamy. I think the biggest differences between the songs on The Infinity Gate and the songs that we wrote afterward is that the newer stuff is:
a.) A lot more dissonant, but also,
b.) A lot more jagged. I would say angular, but then I'd feel like I was comparing us to Bloc Party or something.
I really like our new stuff a lot, but some of the songs (most of the songs) are kinda long. Now, I have absolutely no problems w/ long songs, but a part of me is very in love with pop music. A very large part of me, in fact. So I have this super strong desire to create really great pop songs, and I think that the rest of the band kind of does too (particularly Gus). But, I dunno... Like, we've gotten very into metal lately (Mastodon, Amon Amarth, Rhapsody, etc.) & video game music, which is almost always instrumental (Final Fantasy XI soundtrack), and those "genres" don't make particularly good influences on pop music. So, when we were working on this song I wrote a while back, at practice the other day (a very straightforward verse/bridge/chorus kinda song)... I dunno... It just didn't come together very well. Which is frustrating, because I really do think it's a good song, but I sort of get the feeling that it's not a good song for The Sailing.
Which brings me to my final point: I have a lot of songs written at this point that are unused. I believe a lot of them to be good, but I feel sort of awkward about using them for The Sailing. I mean, by no means do I doubt my bandmates' ability to enhance the songs. But, I feel like they would enhance them in a way in which I did not intend them to be. Like, they would make it sound good, but just not the way I want them to sound. So does that make me selfish? I really don't like trying to direct the band to make one of my songs sound a certain way because:
a.) it makes me feel like I'm a controlling jerk,
b.) I feel like it makes them disinteresed in writing the song, which in turn makes me feel embarassed that I even brought the song to the table to begin with, and
c.) I don't know how to write bass lines and drum parts and shit as well as they do. So while I want to give them creative freedom because I know they'll do better than I can do, I fear they'll write something that conflicts with the way I actually want the song to sound.
So I have a musical outlet for selfish purposes that I call Starmap (James' is HCMJ). I think it's healthy for me to have this because it allows me to "vent" my control issues. But, I get confused as to what I should keep for Starmap and what I should reserve for The Sailing. I mean, we have a rule in the band that anything written for a side project is up for grabs for The Sailing too, but I have almost three albums worth the songs that I have all figured out in my head (one's a concept album/rock opera about having multiple personalities, one's like a soundtrack to a Super Nintendo game that I made up, and the other is a straightforward pop album), and I feel like I wanna reserve some of that material only for Starmap. But, I feel like that's a bad thing, a selfish thing. And I also feel like some of the songs are actually good enough to be The Sailing songs, I'm just afraid they'll come out sounding different than I want them to. I don't like feeling like this.
If you read all that, thank you.
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3 comments:
Every band I've been in has had the dilemma of solo material vs band material, and also everyone I know who has faced showing band their own songs has struggled with the songs evolution in everyone elses hands.
I know in Yakuza I made it a point to never reject a fully formed idea because it contradicted how I felt my song should sound. Once Matt put a harmony over one of my riffs that I found awkward, but I said nothing about it. After we played the song a few times it became my favorite part. So lesson learned.
If anything, your rule for having solo material up for grabs by the Sailing should work both ways. Just cause a song is done with the Sailing, why not do it solo too... one thing I love is discovering how songs really arent definitive. As in, when we hear a recording we tend to think of whatever is there as a FINAL version. The definitive version. But I think music is more non linear than that, its really just a collection of ideas or formulas, and if there is still life or inspiration left within those ideas, then they should be milked for all theyre worth. Its why I've used the "kamikaze" riff a million times, and other themes too, I just feel that ideas linger, or still excite a part of me, so why not keep applying them until the excitement is gone. If anyone is paying enough attention to get annoyed with the Sailing and Starmap sharing a few songs, then... at least someone is into it enough to give a fuck.
I think you NEED to have the solo outlet. The compromise and collaboration that comes with being in a band can be real rewarding, but being able to let your ideas roam free is something different. In a way its intimidating, because there are no set boundaries to what you can do. It can be harder to work in that space, and the result can actually be less exciting or more stripped down, but if you become comfortable with your own head and really take advantage of just how much space there is for you to go crazy within while recording... its incredible. It literally feels like anything is possible, which is the sentiment that excites me in music. The feeling of "oh shit... im so glad this is happening" "im so glad he took it there" etc. I'm sure you could 'take it there'.
you have my G4 tech - i think it's about time you put it to use.
I have a very easy solution to your problem bring in someone from the outside let them hear two or three different versions of the song(s) and they can pick out two of the best sounding versions one that sounds best for (the sailing) and on that sounds best for (star map) wouldn't hurt to try that would it?
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