I really want to finish this album already. Let's (quietly) get back to holding me accountable on the internet. I pledged to the Fleming & John third album Kickstarter probably four years ago and I still get studio updates from them, the album is probably nowhere near close to completion. Maybe I should do that too.

I have 16 songs that will comprise an album called SAND. Most of these songs were written in 2011 or 2012. I started recording them after I recorded my first little EP of songs played primarily on real instruments, especially pianos and organs that I snuck into my school's music building to record.

So there is a lot of that. I would stumble upon, say, a big marimba, and then I would coordinate times I could go in there to record. A lot of these things I didn't get to practice, I just start rolling as soon as I get in there and learn the whole thing on tape, because I've never gotten to be in front of a 5 octave marimba before in my life. My old band was on tour in Vermont once and there was a piano at the venue that I just sort of decided to record before the show. Stuff like that.

There were also songs that I had to learn instruments for, because I was bad at convincing friends to record stuff for me. I did learn to play woodwinds to record this album. There are a lot of woodwinds, and a lot of recorders too, which are woodwinds for babies. The vast majority of the instruments on this record were borrowed from friends or recorded guerilla style (renting a couple hours at a practice space so I can record their drums, for example).

So by now I have effectively recorded the same 16 songs over and over and over again, on different instruments, with different gear, and different levels of skill. I am finding myself redoing all my vocals, not even because I've gotten better at singing, but just because I've gotten better at micing myself, better at controlling my voice, better at setting up a signal chain.

It has felt like a grind for several years now. In 2017 I dropped everything and made a punk album of new songs, under a new name, partly because I was losing my entire mind. It felt good, I kind of want to do it again. But I feel like this record has been almost about to drop for SO LONG now, and it's time to buckle up. I asked a friend if I could hire him to like physically sit down with me and make some decisions, but he won't be free till like January and it's probably going to be quarantine for the next year anyway so I will do this myself to keep myself from going insane.

OCTOBER 4, 2020.

WHAT HAVE I DONE LATELY?

Yesterday I went to my space with the intent to write lyrics for the bridge of this song Countdown, which had been missing them for quite some time. But there were no appropriate vocal mics, we had taken them elsewhere for other purposes. I dug out a cheap condenser mic that I probably hadn't used since 2009, plugged it in, the thing sounds weird. It's fine for the bridge, which is kinda distant and distorted. I tracked the whole song on it, just for kicks. I've recorded vocals for Countdown so, SO many times and never been happy with them, both because it is not easy to sing (lots of long-held notes) and because I cannot get them to sit in the mix. This is the closest I've gotten so far.

It is difficult to resist the urge to rerecord everything constantly. This song has a glockenspiel that I dropped an octave for some reason, plus one at pitch. Everything sounds weird. The drums, which I did at a practice space in 2014 or 15, at the time sounded bigger than any drums I'd ever recorded, but now I feel like they're kind of dead. I think I can mix them to a point where I am happy with them. But it's been years, and this one song has been haunting me.

I did want trumpet for this but I got a trombone on it, mostly because I had access to a trombonist. It sounds great, but it's an octave lower. The trombone and my voice are in the same register. So maybe it helps that the vocal track is thin and distorty and the horn is relatively transparent.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

• The Ultimatum needs a little mix work on the guitars before I can go any further, the guitars are the backbone of the thing and I need to decide if I have to rerecord any of that before I can add hammered dulcimer, clarinets & flutes. I will probably have to rerecord the vocal too but it's okay for now.
• I kind of want to add a string line (or at least an accordion) at the very end of Christmas Car Bomb but that song is basically okay. Maybe some changes in the vocal mix.
• Something must be done about the accordion in Bagworm. I also have to figure out what happened with the pitch correction at the end.
• The Delano will need a whole mix, especially to include the trombone. If I am going to keep the xylophone solo doubled on guitar I will need to figure out how to play the triplets at the end at speed, or, uh, do something else. I am bad at picking.
• Ripcord I really want to say is fine but I will have to examine the midi demo to figure out how to get the banjo sounding more like the original.
• Hansom Cab is..... probably fine? I COULD redo the entire baritone ukulele just to fix one part I don't feel great about but it sounds okay in the mix already. Maybe I can do some creative copying and pasting instead.
• For Three Word Phrase I will need to figure out what I'm doing with the distorted vocals, the car alarm sequence, and how much sax is going to remain outside of the instrumental. If it's any, I will probably have to get better at sax. How the fuck did I record the sax in Karma Kamel? It sounds amazing compared to every other sax lead I've ever recorded. Oh well, Tom is buying some 421s, maybe I'll try that out. (Not to mention I have to get the psychedelic loop going with Hansom Cab.)
• You Oughta Know... I need to make up my mind about the title of that song. I also need to make up my mind about the guitar solo. The rest of the guitar sounds fine, why did I choose to do the solo separately? There seems to be no reason. But that guitar has taken many, many, many rerecords on so many different instruments, with different mics, pickups, etc, over so many years. I feel like it's so close. And I need to either sing the BGs myself or absolutely demand them from April already.
• Compound Eye has come a long way. The acoustic guitar in the bridge feels bad, but I don't think my original idea of an electric would be any better. The bass in the bridge is still not fantastic, because we recorded that song without a click. Maybe I should use my wack mic for this song too if I still feel bad about how the vocal sits in the mix.
• Something must be done about the accordion in Countdown. It's been over 6 months of quarantine and I still haven't tuned any of my accordion reeds. What is wrong with me?
• Target I frankly haven't listened to since I released a version of it in 2018 so I'm just going to assume that's fine.

WHAT ELSE?

The internet feels altogether too crowded and like it cannot possibly provide enough stimulation for my brain. Maybe if I start updating my Neocities more, it'll make me start browsing other people's Neocities again. I liked doing that, the month or two I did that last year.