Another 3 days gone by and another song written, recorded and released. Time to write a little update on the blog.
The past few days have probably been the toughest yet. Creatively I still feel like I’m on fire but I feel like the mood has mellowed out and the initial hype of this challenge is wearing away a little.
We’re midway through though, I can see the horizon and I think part of the challenge now is maintaining momentum. It’s a bit like when you hit half way through in a race, there’s a sense of relief but you know the really hard work starts now.
Day 13
A Monday, I’ve said it a few times on this blog but Monday is one of my favourite days of the week. It’s a day that most people shy away from or dread, but I love the feeling a fresh new week. It’s an opportunity and you still have everything ahead of you, I love that this song’s inception occurred on a Monday.
So I’m definitely in a routine with the songwriting now. Day 1 – I write and demo, Day 2 – I amend and record properly and the Day 3 – I do all the admin bits like create the videos etc and upload it away. Day 13 was no exception to this routine and after my morning workout, a splendid breakfast courtesy of Laura and healthy dose of black coffee, I set up my recording equipment and got to getting some ideas down.
I don’t know why but that morning whilst doing some ‘intervals of death’ (1 minute sprints), I had been thinking about Estonia; when Laura and I visited Tallinn. We spoke about it over breakfast and it was fresh in my mind whilst I started writing. It was such a profound moment and a place that Laura and I hold dearly, it was early on in our relationship whilst we were still so carefree of anything but just being there. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still pretty good at being present these days but we now are building a future together which comes with all these adult decisions. Decisions that we were still too fresh to make back when we were wondering the streets of the old town in Estonia’s capital.
The chords and music came first, as always. I decided to use a few electronic songs that play on a ‘lounge playlist’ that I sometimes listen to. Playing the chords on guitar and meddling them around made for a pattern that gave the song a reflective feel. The lyrics came quite easy and before long I had a demo.
Day 14
Well, with the song written, the recording process then requires more thought and creativity into how and why. The stress of recording is more in the ‘does this sound good?’, ‘was that the best I could have played that’ and ‘how should that fit into the mix?’ kinda questions. I’m not the most accomplished producer but I know my way around Logic and as an artist I know how I want things to sound. I am also less of a perfectionist in terms of how something is played and like to feel how I played it. If the take felt good then I just go with it, even if it is slightly out of time. It’s all groove man.
Song recorded, mixed and complete. Easy day. The only problem with Day 14 is I’d run out of coffee… Oh man, I had withdrawals, I was thinking about it all day.
Day 15
Yesterday (today is day 16), easy day again. Admin bits came together easily as I’ve been using the same templates as all the other songs just to keep consistent. A new order of coffee arrived and I had a strong espresso which made me feel as though I was on another planet. Which was both exhilarating but also a little overwhelming to say the least. I was still wired right into the night.
Smooth day other than the fact that I’m actually starting to notice the toll that social media is taking on my brain. The constant Instagram updates that I am doing as part of this challenge obviously mean I have to be on the app a lot. It’s definitely affecting my brain because my mood keeps going up and down. I’ve noticed it particularly these past few days. Perhaps a few more screen breaks are in order.
Anyway, enjoy the song… I present song 5 – ‘Estonia’.
BG
benedict. 