If you asked me 3 days ago when I'd be putting out a full length albulm... I might tell you that I'm not sure if I ever would, definitely not for at least a year. I’ve been thinking about smaller releases and playing live mostly.
Now here I am, 3 days later, with a concept for a 11-13 track album, and demos for 10 songs.
How did I do that!?!?
Well it's way easier than it sounds but still involved a very very intense process.
As I've mentioned I've been sifting through demo recordings from the past 3 years and trying to spot a theme for an EP.
After digging a few hours after work every day last week, I managed to identify 3 songs that fit together like a puzzle and gave me an idea for a 4-5 song EP. I don't want to release random songs that have nothing to do with each other, I want to tell a story.
Then 3 days ago I started outlining the concept of the overarching story and that of each song. Last night I stayed up til 4 AM developing the concept and organizing it into something that make sense.
I started to realize that while the songs fit together thematically, there were missing pieces to tie them together. I realized I could make interludes between each song, and so I started to think of what kind of melodies would fit.
I realized I could dig through the same collection for potential interludes, and also that a lot of my recent jams (both on livestreams and during my recent concert) would fit perfectly between some of these songs.
You can hear one of them right here:
Another comes from the first middle and last clip I shared on 3speak yesterday:
And one of the songs you can find as the intro to the later episode of my podcast Untangled Knots.
I realized I had been working on this album for years without ever realizing it. It just needed the overlying concept to tie it all together.
That doesn't mean this is anywhere near being complete. For me, writing riffs and song ideas is the easy part. That comes natural to me. Lyrics and Recording are a completely different story.
I think thanks to the concept being very clear in my mind, the lyrics will come easily enough if I just sit down and spend 3-5 hours with each song. It's very difficult to be that patient.
It reminds me of watching over a kid who doesn't want to do their homework. The lyrics are there, they want to be written but they also don't. You need to convince them to come out beautifully rather than half assed attempt at shutting you up.
From there I'll need to practice each song a few dozen times to make sure it all fits and I can play it well enough.
Then comes the real challenge.
I've never felt confident recording and my EP is proof that I'm still not particularly good at it 😛 I know how to write good songs. I am confident of that. I am still learning how to highlight the beauty of a vocal melody or enhance the orchestration with a clean mix of treble and bass.
First I'll likely make demo versions of each song. From there I'll need to listen and pick things apart and see what's missing.
I'd like to get some help on the final recording but that can cost a lot of money, probably a few thousand dollars that I don't have, and I'd need to sell a few hundred copies of an album to earn back, in a day in age where few people pay for music.
Whether or not I find someone to help will depend on whether or not I meet the right person at the right time for the job. There is a chance I will do it all myself, in which case I'll have to spend a few weeks studying the software to level up.
In any case, at a bare minimum, each song will need days upon days of work.
But still, I know I can do this.
I plan to finish the whole concept and lyrics by the middle of September, and start recording demos immediately.
By the end of October, I plan to have a rough version of the album finished, and then through November and December I'll have to figure out how to clean everything up and make it sound nicer.
If everything goes perfectly, I'll have my first album released by late December or Early January.
Let's see what happens.
I leave for a 10 day trip to Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka next Wednesday. Before that trip I'd like to finish the lyrics to 2-3 songs, and by the end of the trip another song or two. Not every song will have lyrics, so that would mean I'd be ready to start recording demos from Early September!
I hope to have a single or two ready by October 1st to give everyone a sense of just how awesome this is going to be!
And if you haven’t heard my EP, check it out on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or wherever you listen to music: “Sun Shone Blue” by I+Everything, and the two music videos from the EP:
