It's official, my new album will be called 'Crave' and most of the songs have been agreed now, plus I managed to do the artwork and agree on the best image after some great feedback from you my lovely friends and fans! I have taken an age to record the title track and it has changed from a ballad to being a semi-dance rhythm. I am more influenced by dance and hip hop on this album and there are a lot more keyboards than on 'Valid'.
Speaking of which I am having piano lessons and really loving the new perspective it gives me to my songwriting. I have to be careful though because the finger numbering is different to guitar and I find myself forgetting that my thumb is Number 1, and not T as it is in guitar notation!
I also had a message from a Hip Hop Instrumentalist who wanted to use some of my vocals in a collabartion (ala a '.feat Marcie Mycroft' type thing), and I was up last night recording 7 tracks/samples for him to use. I chose song ideas that may not be on 'Crave', although one or two of them sounded better when I sang them so I may put them on the album, nothing is decided until the last moment with me! I wrote one melody in the car yesterday, but it is so strong as a chorus I am thinking about going straight in and recording it today above others I have in line for the album. That is how I worked on 'Valid' but I found that if I had such a strong vibe about a song and was humming it all day then it just had to be included.
I am itching to put something out there for you but have decided to wait until the whole album project is complete and I have 14 or 15 songs to choose from so I have thought it through fully. I have recorded 7 songs so far but not the vocals, I am doing all the vocals together in the final week. I will then spend at least a week on mixing because that was a big lesson I learned from recording 'Valid', to play the album to death on all kinds of equipment until it sounds as perfect technically as I can get it with my low cost simple means! :) Things like reverb and compression can make a big difference to the quality, particularly on vocals, and I wish I knew more about panning left and right channels, but that's why sound engineers are so brilliant. It's a real art and I have spent weeks on it and learned a lot through trial and error but I still know I would prefer some professional help too as the late nights kill me. I want to get back to a normal persons sleep pattern soon and enjoy the summer, and I need energy so I can walk miles again, sitting in a chair mixing music at 2am is not good! Listen out for some new stuff soon and thanks for following me and sticking with me on this, I promise myself (and you) that 'Crave' will be worth the scars!
Speaking of which I am having piano lessons and really loving the new perspective it gives me to my songwriting. I have to be careful though because the finger numbering is different to guitar and I find myself forgetting that my thumb is Number 1, and not T as it is in guitar notation!
I also had a message from a Hip Hop Instrumentalist who wanted to use some of my vocals in a collabartion (ala a '.feat Marcie Mycroft' type thing), and I was up last night recording 7 tracks/samples for him to use. I chose song ideas that may not be on 'Crave', although one or two of them sounded better when I sang them so I may put them on the album, nothing is decided until the last moment with me! I wrote one melody in the car yesterday, but it is so strong as a chorus I am thinking about going straight in and recording it today above others I have in line for the album. That is how I worked on 'Valid' but I found that if I had such a strong vibe about a song and was humming it all day then it just had to be included.
I am itching to put something out there for you but have decided to wait until the whole album project is complete and I have 14 or 15 songs to choose from so I have thought it through fully. I have recorded 7 songs so far but not the vocals, I am doing all the vocals together in the final week. I will then spend at least a week on mixing because that was a big lesson I learned from recording 'Valid', to play the album to death on all kinds of equipment until it sounds as perfect technically as I can get it with my low cost simple means! :) Things like reverb and compression can make a big difference to the quality, particularly on vocals, and I wish I knew more about panning left and right channels, but that's why sound engineers are so brilliant. It's a real art and I have spent weeks on it and learned a lot through trial and error but I still know I would prefer some professional help too as the late nights kill me. I want to get back to a normal persons sleep pattern soon and enjoy the summer, and I need energy so I can walk miles again, sitting in a chair mixing music at 2am is not good! Listen out for some new stuff soon and thanks for following me and sticking with me on this, I promise myself (and you) that 'Crave' will be worth the scars!