Today wraps up Infinite Love and Crystals completely.  I’m so sick of hearing my own voice!!  Gotta take a break from recording for a bit.  I’ll continue mixing the songs at random…  I ended up writing a new song today.  It was divine inspiration, so I swear it’s gonna rock.  Also, this instrumental I made?  I created the demo for it today and added some drums… holy balls it’s going to be amazing.  It’s like… This Will Destroy You meets uber coolness.  I dunno, I just want to REST.  I’ve already invested so much of myself into these songs and can’t remember the last time I just stared at a ceiling.  I swear you miss being able to do it after a while…

Recording technique: make use of proximity effect when you need bass in your vox.  Yes… makes perfect sense.

I’ve got three songs I can definitely work on at any time I see fit.

Until then… lataz.

Today was a HUGE day for recording.  I managed to trailblaze through Infinite Love.  It’s a bit uncanny how much I did… let’s try and re-cap!  Wrote lyrics.  Recorded vocals.  Wrote bridge guitars/drums and recorded them.  Recorded secondary bridge guitars.  Mixed everything.  EQd everything.  Hmm… written down it doesn’t seem like much, but there was a good 4 hours invested into IL today and I thought about it every minute I wasn’t working on it.  I got it almost to completion.  Just need to recorded that acoustic interlude… add some balls to the ending plus overdubs on outro vocals.  So that’s almost two songs in the can!  We’re making some great headway.  I’ve got three songs to definitely work on- Wait On Me needs to be finished + these two new songs I got.  One is going to be very acoustic and indie, almost like poppy Sigur Ros and the other one is going to be a crazy cool instrumental reeking of awesome.  I’m very excited for the latter.  I’ll probably title that one the infamous, “Some Kind of Bullshit” I’ve been talking about for ages.  I’m excited- if this album were a proper release, it’d obtain a PARENTAL ADVISORY label.  Hoohah.

I’m probably going to take a break from actual recording after I finish IL.  I can’t get burned out.

Ta ta!

Hello!  I am back and in big action.  Over the weekend I listened to Crystals extensively and knew exactly all the changes I needed to make.  Today I re-recorded two new sets of vocals for the entire song and picked the takes that sounded best.  Crystals is officially finished minus the bass… sadly.  Then afterwards I went to work on Infinite Love.  Got the drums down and I’m having difficulties with the guitar parts… hoping to still get them done at some point tonight.  For some reason IL is giving me issues.  Some technical difficulties I ran into made me approach the song a bit differently and now it’s kind of a different monster.  I’m not entirely sold on this new version I just stumbled upon… but we’ll see.  I may have to scrap the entire song after pumping in so many hours into creating it.  That would suck.  Here are some photos for you.

Admittedly, there’s nothing to report today!  Going away for the weekend.  Thought of some new rhythm/strumming ideas for Infinite Love.  Playing around with song ideas for Sar Chasm.  Thinking of revisiting old riffs I never used.  Will continue with updates again when I return!

Here’s a super quick update because I need to go to class and when I come home I have to relax, workout, and study for tomorrow’s “Origins” quiz!  But anyways, today was super awesome- recorded ALL guitars to Crystals, recorded ALL vocals, and decided that when it’s time to track bass for ALL songs, I’ll bring my jazzy baby up to Dwight to record them!  Don’t like Erik’s bass’s tone one bit.  So Crystals is FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!  All’s that’s left is some casual mixing from now until the album’s release!  I love recording vocals here.  The natural reverb I can put on my voice is so nice and the freedom to yell and sing as loudly as I want is a plus.  I made some harmonies on the last chorus of Crystals that I never would have come up with had I not obtained the vocal freedom I desired.  My Washburn is also the BEST.  I love him.  Yes, it’s a male.  It would be nasty if a girl pumped out the power that he did.  He’s like a scholarly gentleman packing a super sexy punch when called upon.

Anyways, GOTTA GO!  That’s day four!

Today was a lot more productive than I’d imagined.  I was able to get drums down for Crystals and Wait On Me and even got the basic guitar parts completed on Crystals.  It’s hard to appreciate Crystals right now only because it’s a song I’ve been playing for over two years now.  Only the finished product will really wow me.  I feel a weird emptyness today.  Something’s missing.  Something’s not right.  For whatever reason I wish I could just break down and have a good cry.  Guess I’m holding in a lot more emotional baggage than I care to admit.

Sorry I didn’t do this on time- not that anyone’s listening anyways.  Yesterday didn’t go as planned… A rather bad phase of my sickness made me retire to my bed when I should have been drumming.  However, in the early morning hours while noodling with Alex, I did come up with a pretty sick song.  It’s very bare right now- needs a lot more work… but I see it evolving very quickly.  Just gotta keep jamming on it, gotta keep listening for things.  Right now my workload for this album is huge- should probably keep the progress to a minimum as far as the writing process goes.  Time to start recording!!!  Maybe I’ll get drums to Crystals done today?  Maybe wait on me, too?  Need to practice Infinite Love more.  For anyone who thinks they know that song, think againnnn.

Okay.  Saving the rest for Day Three blog.

Haha, p.s., the King on Katamari Forever definitely yells, “Ah! Blogworthy!” when you do something great.

Along with making this new album and attempting to find inspiration, it’s time I went back to the place where inspiration grows the most abundantly for me.  I need to start listening to Angels & Airwaves incessantly.  It’s not because I want to make AVA-esque music, but it’s because Tom’s music makes me want to do fucking great, cool things with myself.  And it’s that personal drive that gets revved up inside of me that I love harboring and running to the greatest lengths with.  He doesn’t necessarily push me to be a better musician or anything, but he challenges me to think outside the box and make sure I’m doing something noteworthy and spellbinding.  Like with my last two songs, Spring and Amber Glow.  Sure, they’re phenomenal songs- I love them.  But did I do anything cool?  Eh.  They’re just great songs.  They’re not pushing boundaries like Surrender Your Love, Tveil, Tripwire, or Submerge. And granted, it’s not all about pushing boundaries- look at One More Time.  Fucking love that song!  But the harmonies are so unique that Tim spent about 6 months trying to figure them out and never could- so it’s shit like that which I need to do and always bring to the musical table.

Anyways.  Just wanted to share that.  Expect my Album Diary soon.  Gonna try and write drums today- nothing else is really on the list…

Today I started recording a new Romancing the Angels album.  I decided I want to document it as much as possible as a way to remember this slice of my life during such a tumultuous time.  Plus, sitting down and writing about what I did each day for the album will help keep thoughts of the creative process always running through my head.  The more I talk and think about this album, it is my belief the better it will be.  I want to eat, sleep, drink, and live this new project.  Steal the Sky was the first step towards greatness- this will be my leap into such heights.

So far I’ve already got confirmed tracks:
Crystals.
Infinite Love.
Amber Glow.
Spring.
Tremolo To You.
Wait For Me.
Sar Chasm.
Some Kind of Bullshit.
I’m Not Yours (I’m Somebody Else’s).
Race for the Moon (maybe?).

Today I tracked guitar demos for Infinite Love and Crystals so I can write bad-ass drum beats.  Then as soon as possible it’s gonna be recording drums for those two songs and getting everything done.  I might add drums to Wait For Me.  I’m also going to definitely be trying to play more shows… possibly enlisting Erik as my drummer.  I wanna do smaller acoustic shows, but I want to do shows nonetheless.  I’m ready to finally make RTA a working product.

That’s day one for ya.

I’m one of… probably none, who didn’t like the album X&Y.  It was good… definitely above average when stacked against other mainstream artists… but against the other Coldplay albums?  I did not like X&Y.  It was far too layered and deep for its own good.  Tons of instruments didn’t sound like tons of instruments- it all felt like one pad.  While the cd definitely was amazing in its own right… I just about never listen to it anymore.  And I haven’t for awhile.  However, my love of Coldplay has been rightly rekindled with their latest release, “Viva La Vida”.  Coldplay is one of the best mainstream bands out there- and with good reason.

The cd opens up with Life In Technicolour.  It’s probably one of the biggest disappointments in music history because it seriously sounds like it could be the greatest song on the planet… yet it doesn’t push 3 minutes and its potential is never fully met and its pretty much just a short instrumental.  It makes me wanna cry, really.  Then we’re lead into Cemetaries of London.  While musically it’s not very impressive, lyrically we see Chris Martin at the top of his game.  On Lost! we’re now given the great music.  When track 4, “42″ comes in, we see the latest Coldplay music come full circle: amazing lyrics meet amazing music.  From there its a wonderful ride you pretty much never want to end.  My only beef with this latest album is how short it is.  Uhm… at 45 minutes I still find it short.  I want certain instrumental parts to last forever and various vocal melodies to go so much longer.  I suppose it’s cool to see that I’m always craving more… but it also pisses me off!

Another thing I can’t stand about Viva La Vida is how a bunch of the songs have some of the most wonderful beats I’ve ever heard in my whole life… but they never really go anywhere.  The same beat goes on for four minutes and you’re just wishing something new might happen.  Well, no, no you don’t.  You’re completely content with the fact it doesn’t go anywhere… it’s still incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring… but a part of you knows that this album will never reach perfection because of it.  Viva La Vida is an incredible album… but so far from perfect… and sadly, I have to criticize it so harshly because it really could have been the greatest album ever made…  Shit I’m tired.  This is going nowhere either!

Basically, Viva La Vida could have been the greatest album ever made.  But repetition and a lack of expansion keep it from reaching its highest potential.  Nevertheless, it’s an album you need to own… featuring tunes you need to experience.  I have not a clue what Chris is saying on “Reign of Love” but it’s still one of the most soothing songs I’ve ever heard.  And tunes like, Yes, Lovers In Japan, and Death & All His Friends are jaw-dropping.

8/10.