Well That Was Quick

So I just talked with Grammy-nominated producer Charley Hubbs (who most of us know as Chubbz) and he as shown a great interest in taking over production, mixing, and mastering of this project. Thank God. Ok - now is the time for positive thinking, good vibes, and productivity.

Progress Up 'Til Now

This whole disc, titled "To Sit On the Sun and Eat Stars", initially came from the simple idea of escapism. The CD will be a loosely constructed concept album that will embrace that feeling of just wanting to leave everything behind when it becomes to much. The general story will be based around me - I get fed up with life, build myself a little spaceship and leave. I will elaborate more later on how I plan to execute the whole premise but for now that should suffice. And when I do pull it off, it won't appear to be as hokey as that brief synopsis makes it sound.

Anyways...

Overall I have probably created 25 to 30 full songs in the process of making this CD. I have also written rhyming storybook-ish semi-skits to work as story-clarifying pieces between some songs. I have whittled down from this bulk of stuff a remaining song base of between 15 and 18 songs with 8 semi-skits (with roughly 4 of those being a minute to a minute and a half in length and the other 4 being more like 15 to 30 seconds). At the moment (without the skits) the track list looks like this:


1. Make It Work**
2. We Are Not the Same**
3. Steve Nashville
4. The Fly*
5. Storm Warning
6. Get Away
7. G'Luck Heart
8. Believe in Me
9. Everything I Can
10. Jealous, Hardly
11. Meredith's Song
12. Heal the Wounds *
13. Heaven
14. Thank You
15. Rise Up

Possible:
Fuck the World
Shark in the Water**
H*

* = some part unfinished
** = unrecorded


One of the big problems that I am currently facing is that while I have created all the music (save for "Storm Warning" and the guitar parts on "Heaven") on my own using MIDI instruments, I am not fully satisfied with the final musical product. The key reason for this is one of the big problems with using MIDI instruments - they just sound too...MIDI. I don't really know who to talk to or try to recruit to help me take the next step into resolving this although perhaps I haven't been as proactive about this as I should. I just fear losing artistic control but I feel that at this point maybe giving a bit of that up will be worth finally finishing this disc that I have loved and been haunted by for so long.

So if anybody out there has any advise, suggestions, or other comments on how I should deal with this I'd love to hear your thoughts. Maybe I'm just talking to nobody out there at all and I'm just trying to focus my thoughts but I would like to think someone would respond...

I Must Complete

This exists because I have been struggling to complete my most recent CD for some time now - roughly 2 years if I were to put a number on it.

To me spending that long on a CD is, although perhaps necessary, too long. When you spend that much time on a project is it even possible for it to become what you initially envisioned? Is the evolution away from that first idea positive? Or perhaps it is harmful on the final product?

I need to get this shit finished. It's game time. I must put those cliche black face-paint lines under my eyes and snap the ball back to myself and throw the touchdown. I have to make this happen. I've spent too long and worked too hard.

This blog is almost a journal that I will only share with people that I know have a vested interest in this project. It is mostly a selfish blog because I will write almost solely about myself and will use it to simply gather encouragement. I'm putting this here so I can bitch about how much (or little) I may be working on this project and I would love for everyone to tell me how good of a job I'm doing and to keep doing it.