Been busy during the past two weeks with setting up Pro Tools aka my "studio" aka the adjacent space by my bed, writing songs, and a few things here and there with DGAJ. My bro and I are continuing work on the song he's calling, "Phoenix". Don't worry, that name's not gonna stick, it's just something he's tacking on for the sake of giving the song a name. I've just about got the whole bass line written out, so all that's left are vocals and a guitar solo, my favorite part.
I always dread writing solos because I'm not especially great with improv to begin with and my technical skills don't exactly match up with what I think of when I think of guitar solos. Perhaps that's the time to test out how high the gain on the distortion will go? Haha. Works for some people. I also dread writing vocals because even though I think I have good pitch, I'm not 100% on my actual voice. And when I say that, I don't mean I have a bad voice; I mean that it's like when you hear yourself on an answering machine and think, "do I really sound like that?!". Writing lyrics, to me, is kinda meh. The listener makes what they'll make of them. Even if they have a direction and an inherent meaning, they're still arbitrary and arguably the least important part of the song. That's not to say that they're not important, but when you look at how people from non-English speaking countries get into American and British music, it's probably not the lyrics that are selling them. Vis versa is true too. I think I like and agree with Frank Black's explanation for how lyrics are written. First and foremost, arbitrary. When you write the vocal melody, you sing certain syllables or sounds that stick after a while. Then, you write in words that fit with that.
Hopefully, this new song will be written and recorded soon. I write very slowly-hopefully that will change at some point. When I tell most people this, the feedback I get is, oh you should find someone to jam with. To this, I say no thank you. No matter how much I think my influences line up with another musician's, 9 times out of 10 (really 10 times out of 10 if you look at my track record), the influences are in no way reflective of the music the person makes. I realize that I'm not an expert on music, but I would expect musicians with good taste to write good music. More times than not, I find that whatever they've recorded on their myspace page isn't what I want to do at all, which then makes me wonder if there's anyone out there who isn't already in a band who wants to make good innovative music. This is by no means a post intended to be pompous and overblown; I still have a ways to go myself.
Moving on though before I go on a physics teacher/professor tangent! This week, I filled a new order at Parts and Labor as well as an out of state boutique (more details to come soon!). So, if you want to find DGAJ pieces that aren't on my Etsy site, you should stop by the shop! In other exciting news, I put in several orders this week for supplies and hope to start work soon on the Bioshock collection. Never fear! Pictures galore will soon be here. Speaking of pictures, I will soon be altering my light box and hope to show clearer high quality shots within the next two weeks...wish it was before then, but when you work, what can you do?
Also coming soon~pictures from We Make Stuff event from this past weekend and details about the Mexic-Arte Viva La Vida Fest (which will feature yours truly).
Action Jackson out!
the nights' raffles wen
t towards Art From the Streets. On a side note, for all you lovely people out there who love Austin's Rare magazine as much as I do, there's a great AFTS interview in this month's issue, so be sure to read (available in print or on Rare's website). All in all, it was a good night and I was lucky to have the company of fellow artists who I knew...and more importantly, liked. :) As always, the night featured a gander (yes, we're geese) of Etsy Austin's lovely ladies. Check out their shops cause these chicks seriously rock:
